Article advocates focus away from the personality of the Popes
I have never posted in this Group before, possibly have never looked here before, hope I'm not intruding. Further disclaimer, I'm a Lapsed Catholic for over 40 years, consider myself something of a secular humanist, but have piously Catholic family and retain the masterful indoctrination of guilt and have spiritual stirrings, but also am trivial about lighting the occasional candle and invoking saints for things. My branch of the family has been more political and has incurred the wrath of hardline friends who follow priests who preach Anti-Choice from the pulpit. Bottom line, I retain an interest in what directions the Church takes.
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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/03/pope_francis_at_one_year_why_intense_focus_on_the_papacy_is_bad_for_the.html
[font size=5]The Public Pope[/font]
Why the intense fascination paid to Pope Francis—or any pope—isn’t good for the Catholic Church.
By Paul Baumann (an editor of Commonweal)
.... [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]The fixation on the papacy trivializes[/FONT] the faith of Catholics, the vast majority of whom throughout history have had little knowledge of, and no contact with, any pope. Traditionally, [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]the papacy was[/FONT] the court of [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]last resort[/FONT] in adjudicating disagreements among the faithful. [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]But[/FONT] in the last century or so it [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]has[/FONT] increasingly [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]become[/FONT] the avenue of [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]first resort[/FONT], determined to meddle in every theological or ecclesiological dispute. If American nuns are flirting with novel styles of ministry, the Vatican intercedes. If translations of liturgical texts incorporate a bit of inclusive language, Rome takes out its red pencil. This meddling Vatican infantilizes the church’s bishops, who seem to change their tune (as well as their dress) in response to every new papal fashion. Bishops in turn demand deference from the clergy and laity. The consequences have been all too clear: As in any [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]heavily top-down organization[/FONT], local initiatives fail to gain a foothold, or fizzle out for lack of dynamic leadership, and [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]apathy prevails[/FONT] in the pews. [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]Institutional gridlock and paralysis have become the norm[/FONT]. Seminaries are empty, and clerical talent is thin on the ground.
Theologically the pope is supposed to symbolize the church’s unity, but in recent decades he has symbolized mostly the clashing hopes and apprehensions of Catholics on [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]opposing sides of the church’s cultural and religious divide[/FONT]. John Paul and Benedict tried to discipline unruly troops in the seminaries, rectories, universities, and parishes. Catholic liberals managed to lie low and hang on—and today, weary of the [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]scoldings dished out by self-proclaimed “orthodox” Catholics[/FONT] for decades, they are springing back, emboldened by Francis and by what seems like a shift in attitude (if not policy) in Rome. But Francis, despite his evident charm and passionate pastoral style, won’t have much more luck than his more theologically anxious predecessors in ameliorating the church’s ideological conflicts. As his admirers will discover, even the most winsome [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]papal leadership[/FONT]—and winsomeness is very much in the eye of the beholder—[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]cannot mend Catholicism’s divisions[/FONT].
[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]Catholics on both sides of every issue claim to be the true heirs of the Second Vatican Council[/FONT]. All agree that Vatican II promulgated the most authoritative understanding of the church’s teachings. Yet they read the council’s documents in diametrically opposed ways.
How is that possible? The answer lies with the documents themselves. On the one hand, the proclamations of [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]Vatican II opened[/FONT] startling [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]new possibilities[/FONT] for how Catholics might engage both one another and those outside the church: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties, of the followers of Christ,” the bishops insisted at Vatican II, in an unprecedented spirit of ecumenism. [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]At the same time[/FONT], however, the council effectively [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]reaffirmed the Catholic absolutism of the past[/FONT]. The distinguished Lutheran theologian George Lindbeck, an official Protestant observer at Vatican II, described the resulting dilemma as one in which “radical and fundamental ambiguities in the most authoritative” statements promulgated by the council—including those on papal infallibility, relations with other Christians, and the challenge of reconciling Catholic tradition with the Bible—enabled those on different sides of every neuralgic issue to find ample textual support for their interpretations. “When the supreme law of the land directly authorizes rival, perhaps contradictory, positions and provides no way of settling the disputes,” Lindbeck concluded with genuine regret, “conflict becomes inevitable and, unless changes are made in the supreme law, irresolvable.” ....
[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]The persistent nature of[/FONT] such [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]divisions[/FONT] reminds us that [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]Catholics must find a way[/FONT] to live with and through their ongoing disputes and, most important, [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]to live with one another[/FONT]. Perhaps this is precisely what Pope Francis is trying to tell Catholics in his efforts to shift the [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]focus: away from Rome[/FONT] and back to the poor and afflicted, away from the question of who is living in the papal apartments to who is breaking bread with whom in more modest surroundings, and away—most winningly—from the popemobile to a used Renault.
Lex orandi, lex credendi is one of the church’s most venerable teachings. Roughly translated, it means that the church’s worship determines its theology, or as the catechism puts it: “The law of prayer is the law of faith: The Church believes as she prays.” Whatever their ideological disagreements, Catholics will find unity, and a less anachronistic relationship with the papacy, in practicing their faith together—or they will not find unity at all. That may mean that the same-sex couple in the pew next to you will provide a more faithful example of Christian witness than you might now imagine possible. Or perhaps the ardent piety of a Latin Mass enthusiast will lead you to reconsider parts of the church’s tradition you have long dismissed as irrelevant and sterile. In any event, the church’s unity and renewed vitality will be—must be—a gift that [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]the faithful bring to the pope[/FONT], and [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]not the other way around[/FONT].
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It can be a rough and tumble place, but rarely boring.
So glad you decided to join in and bring in an article.
Let me know if you need anything from the drinks cabinets. Hors d'ouerves will be served at 5:30 PM on the dot.
