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| This is taken from Catholica. AU. Australia is another Western country where the laity may have had enough. Tom McMahon is an American married priest whose essays in Catholica.Au are well worth reading. |
This is a solid, powerful statement from someone who is tired of the way things are progressing in the Church. I wish I had written it, but brothers and sisters, it sure does give voice to my own insight and anger. And yes, some of that anger is self directed. The entire NCR article is here.
..........The St. Patrick’s saga is but one example of the fascinating fear that many Catholics seem to have of calling church leaders to accountability the way they would elected officials, educators, and other non-clerical folk. This double standard that Catholics have in dealing with the clergy, I believe, is a result of the internalized clericalism that the laity inherited as part of their Catholic inculcation. (especially us cradle Catholics.)
Critics of the institutional church frequently point to the corrosive arrogance of the Catholic clergy as the root cause of so much abuse of power. It is important, however, to consider the extent to which the clericalism of the laity enables these abuses to take place, and to reflect on the multitude of ways this phenomenon affects a spectrum of Catholics, including some of our most progressive voices.
I have seen the effects of lay clericalism among professors at Catholic colleges and universities, who fret about discussing controversial issues about gender and sexuality in an academic forum. Tenured scholars, who are exponentially more educated than most Roman Catholic priests, can quickly become terrified of the reactions of bishops to their academic programs. (It broke my heart and almost my spirit, to see what Morlino's mandatum and Focus students did to one of my most cherished priest professors.)
I have seen lay clericalism in parishes considered “prophetic” because of their commitment to social justice, service to the poor, and welcoming of marginalized Catholics. And, yet, in many cases these progressive voices will not challenge the parish priest, even when he makes decisions that compromise a parish’s legacy of advocacy.
I know many lay women and men who have labored on parish staffs and have suffered the fruits of lay clericalism. Regardless of a lay minister’s education level, years of experience, and ministerial gifts, parishioners almost always have a submissive “preferential option” for the priest -- even if they disagree strongly with his policies and practices. A lay person’s degrees and pastoral presence are no match against the power of simply being “Father.” (Or your Eminence.)
So often it is the clericalism of the laity, rather than the clericalism of the clergy, that undermines the power of the laity in our church.
No one knows what the future holds. People are waiting to see how the ordinariate in England progresses, and what the Church of England does next. But what remains with me is the joyful relief and commitment of these newcomers. At last, they feel, they are understood and wanted.
Though many have rejected the paternalism of church teachings, especially on issues of sexual morality, so many Catholics have not been able to wipe away the residue of experiencing the Catholic clergy as a disapproving parent, capable of banishing us from the love of God. (The same attitude is extended to "the Church."
In the comments section of one of the NCR reports on the Ratigan case, several readers noted that Hess would surely be fired eventually for exposing both a predator priest and the mishandling of the case by a bishop who is a favorite of traditionalists.
Responding to this claim, an anonymous commentator, seemingly connected with St. Patrick’s, responded emphatically: “If this principal catches any grief over this[,] a full riot will occur at St. Pat's[.] I will help incite it. We will not let mis-conduct by the diocese punish our excellent school and its stellar leader.”
I pray that this person’s convictions will find support within St. Patrick’s lay community.
By risking their relationship with the institutional church in order to uphold a layperson of integrity, the laity of St. Patrick’s have the opportunity to join the growing ranks of Catholic communities that refuse to collude in the hierarchy’s abuse of power, like the administration of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, Ariz.
As the tales of the institutional church’s deception and negligence continue to mount, lay Catholics must stop making themselves subservient to their imagined notions of the power of the hierarchy, and must instead allow themselves to be channels of the power of God that is made manifest through sacrifice, courage, and truthfulness.
They must recognize how their internalized clericalism may be impeding their prophetic participation in the Spirit’s unfolding work in our church.
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I have just a few things to add to what Jamie has written. I told a friend of mine that the Finn fiasco in Kansas City seems to have ignited real honest anger in a lot of people. I don't know why that would be, except that Finn sort of proves even the most devout and pious and traditionally conservative of bishops is not any different than the most liberal and secular. When it comes to the priesthood, for almost all of our bishops, there is no bridge too far when it comes to valuing priests over the laity. But in point of fact it might just be Finn's unbelievable comment about not having enough priests that was the spark that brought out all this anger. There is no rational reason Catholicism has a priest shortage. None. This one idiotic statement of Finn's, used to justify his failure to act in the case of a real problem priest, may just actually be the bridge too far.
I now really strongly believe the Church has lost the laity in the West. It's not a question of when the Church will fold it's tent, but rather, when the laity will recognize the vast vast majority of us have already had enough, we just couldn't admit it, but now are getting ready to act. The new question is what happens now? Well, there is a gathering of laity in Detroit over Pentecost weekend, June 10-12. I suspect the Spirit will be blowing pretty strongly in Detroit that weekend. I wish I could go, but the Spirit is sort of suggesting I stay where I'm at and honor some other commitments. I will be thinking, praying, and following it very closely. There's an anger rising through out the Catholic West, and it's not against secularism. It's against clericalism. It just has to change and permanently.
For me personally there was another NCR article that had even more impact. It's this one on the Anglican Ordinariate. It was this paragraph at the end of the article:
No one knows what the future holds. People are waiting to see how the ordinariate in England progresses, and what the Church of England does next. But what remains with me is the joyful relief and commitment of these newcomers. At last, they feel, they are understood and wanted.
I just couldn't compute that one thousand Anglican's are made to feel 'understood and wanted' at the expense of tens of millions of Catholics, both men and women, who don't feel either understood or wanted. In my book that's abusive. That's clericalism protecting clericalism.
