What do Hans Kung, Geoffrey Robinson, and Pat Power have in common?
They have all commented recently on the crisis in the Catholic church, both locally and universally.
This is a crisis that emanates from the pain and suffering of the hundreds if not thousands of victims of church personnel in the sex abuse cases that we already know about, and those which remain private. However, the other aspect of the crisis, that these three eminent churchmen have broken ranks to highlight, is the dwindling confidence of the diminishing faithful in the leadership offered by their bishops, including the Bishop of Rome.
This apparent lack of awareness by many of the bishops of the world, and even in Australia, was highlighted again for me by the recently released pastoral letter from the Catholic Bishops of Australia for the Feast of St Joseph the Worker. It makes for interesting reading. The subheading is 'A time to set new rules'.
For the bishops to speak publicly on the social justice issues surrounding the economy and the plight of low paid workers is right and proper. However, in the current climate one wonders whether anyone will listen, and whether the bishops can see any irony in their words.
The challenges the bishops set before 'decision-makers in government and business' in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis could just as easily be turned towards themselves and the universal church as a result of the continuing sexual abuse cases and the way they are and have been grossly mishandled in many instances.
Their instructions include the following, and I have taken the liberty of substituting in square brackets the words that could be used to assist the bishops to reflect on their own behavior:
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We must restore trust in the structures of our society by reducing disparity in wealth [read 'power'] and ensure the market [read 'church'] is not 'the place where the strong subdue the weak'
- Equity and justice must be built into the very operation of the market [read 'church'] and be respected.
- Industry [read 'church leaders'] must be accountable not only to shareholders but also to workers, clients, suppliers and the community
- Respecting the God-given dignity of each person and the needs of the most vulnerable, we must move beyond simply ensuring commutative justice (giving in order to receive) and even distributive justice (the duty to give the minimum owed according to basic needs). We must now consider a higher level of justice based on social solidarity, generosity and compassion.
Imagine what changes could be effected if this advice were taken on board by our bishops.
The Pastoral Letter concludes with a quotation from Pope Benedict himself, that could not be more apt for the current crisis in the church if it were written for this purpose and not in relation to the GFC:
The current crisis obliges us to re-plan our journey, to set ourselves new rules and to discover new forms of commitment, to build on positive experiences and to reject negative ones. The crisis thus becomes an opportunity for discernment, in which to shape a new vision for the future.
The bishops and the church should be grateful to Bishop Robinson for his work on setting up structures to deal with and prevent cases of sexual abuse within the church. They also owe him a public apology for the way they treated him after the publication of his book. The analysis he provided was timely and thorough; the warnings he gave have come to pass; the measures he advocated have not been taken up, and so the mess will continue.
As they did with Bishop John Heaps years before, Robinson's brother bishops cut him adrift and attempted to publicly humiliate him. This only gave him more publicity. He has never been more free to do the good work he began years ago than he is now, freed from his episcopal responsibilities. The Australian bishops need to eat humble pie before they are discredited altogether.
Robinson will end up being vindicated.
Clearly and thankfully, Bishop Power has also decided he will not be restricted by some misguided notion of club solidarity and loyalty, and speaks the truth as he sees it. He will probably be the next to receive some sanction from his brother bishops.
Recently, Fr Kung addressed an open letter to the bishops of the world. It contained recommendations for change within the structures of the Church, and encouraged the bishops of local conferences to 'act in a collegial way ... work for regional solutions ... [and] use the episcopal authority that was reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council' to address the real needs of the faithful under their care.
The letter has received much publicity. For this not to be an agenda item on the next meeting of the Australian Bishops Conference would be to ignore the 'elephant in the room'. To address the issues he raises, many, if not all, of which are relevant to the faithful in this nation, seems to be of the utmost importance.
This view has been reinforced by Power's recent comments in Eureka Street. It seems to me that facing these issues with humility, honesty and courage, with a pledge to seek guidance from the 'ordinary' faithful would, as Kung suggests, provide 'signs of hope and encouragement and give our church a perspective for the future'.
The child sex abuse cases are not part of history. The cases are ongoing. The hurt experienced by victims continues. The causes are by and large unaddressed. The ramifications for the whole church are significant.
Along with many who have expressed their thoughts and feelings on these matters, I desperately hope these pleas from at home and abroad, summed up by Kung, Robinson and Power, will not fall on deaf ears, but be genuinely considered as a matter of the utmost urgency when the Australian Bishops next meet.
–Shane J. Wood cfc
The Absence of 'Faith' in a Bishop's essay
When a Catholic bishop writes in a public forum proposing a solution for a serious Church problem without reference to faith, holiness and grace, it gives cause for concern. Indeed, Bishop Pat Power's paper in the Canberra Times and Eureka Street fails to recognise that the clerical abuse crisis is ultimately a crisis of faith, the inability to see and treat others as the images and children of God.
By failing to recall a main focus of Vatican II teaching that all in the Church, whether they belong to the hierarchy or not, are called to holiness, his paper stands in marked contrast with Archbishop Philip Wilson's 'Letter to Women from the Catholic Bishops of Australia' issued in February 2010. In this letter, writing in his capacity as President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Wilson declares that 'holiness of life is the greatest service any of us can give our Church and our world'.
Power's paper also does not highlight the primacy of prayer and the Eucharist in this Year for Priests, ideas that Pope Benedict XVI emphasises in his recent letter to the Church in Ireland. It is worthwhile to recall Georges Bernanos' Diary of a Country Priest and Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory, both of which treat the theme of God's grace in a powerful and moving manner, an idea that did not rate a mention in Bishop Power's article.
Another concern is that by arguing for 'a total systemic reform of Church structures' without discussing in detail the strategies that should precede this reform Power did not pay sufficient attention to one of the most basic management principles, that 'structure follows strategy'; that is, strategy determines structure, not vice versa.
Here strategy has to do not only with vision and mission, but also with people (how to recruit, train and retain) and with organisational culture.
My final observation is that it is not beneficial to simplify the complex issues relating to Vatican II reforms in a couple of sentences crafted mainly for public consumption. Power's message gives a clear impression of sincerity, urgency, and also frustration.
My wish is that Bishop Power will use his ready access to the media to address other critical issues facing the Church, namely, atheism (does God exist?), interfaith dialogue (who is God?), and social justice or the dialogue with the poor (where is God?).
–Peter Hai
Shane Wood cfc lectures on the Broome Campus of the University of Notre Dame
Australia. He has previously worked in the Office of Justice, Ecology & Peace and as Professional Standards Coordinator for the Diocese of Broome.
Peter Hai holds a doctorate in theology from the Australian Catholic University and the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in the PhD Thesis for his dissertation on the role of lay people in the documents of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences.