In anxious times, the free exchange of ideas is an early casualty. Lines spun at parties contract to the Party Line.
In some English-speaking Catholic Churches, the last decade has been notable for the sporadic restriction of free speech. Some bishops have excluded from their churches speakers who enjoy good standing in their own diocese. Others have forbidden priests and religious to address meetings of which they disapprove. It is not uncommon to exclude from adult education programs and bookshops material that does not reflect a narrow theological perspective. Diocesan newspapers are often discouraged from treating difficult issues, like sexual abuse by clergy, and sometimes may not carry letters critical of the policy or practices of the local church. In a restrictive climate, it is also common for church groups to restrict the topics they discuss and the speakers they invite.
Critics of the Catholic Church are not surprised by this. They see in it an expression of the totalitarian mind. I see it as a more complex and interesting set of responses to a changing Catholic world. These are some of its salient features.
The Catholic Church today is generally declining in numbers, and the priests and religious who have sustained it are ageing. There are few places in which it forms a sub-culture that shapes its adherents’ imaginative world. Those to whom the Catholic Church remains of central importance often have sharply opposed images of what church should be.
In this world of loose association, few Catholics look to Catholic media in order to find an agreed understanding of Catholic faith and life. They more often derive their information about the Catholic Church and its policies from the secular media, and form their judgments on the strength of the reports they find there. These reports naturally emphasise conflict and scandal and offer an outsider’s view.
In the face of diminishment and diffusion, one of the strongest resources of the Catholic Church is Pope John Paul II, a recognisable and strong leader. He commends an active, united and renewed church, confident in its faith. Local churches often co-opt his vision, describing their life and pastoral strategies in abstract and idealised terms that do not touch day-to- day realities. Against the touchstone of this enthusiastic rhetoric, questioning and disagreement can be read as signs of mediocrity and infidelity.
Over the last 40 years, the central issue touching the Catholic Church has been