Inside
NCR
Catholics need a place to call
home.
It has become fashionable to dismiss the institution
or institutional religion, particularly when it becomes the public
embarrassment weve witnessed in the ongoing sex abuse scandal.
Sometimes I feel as if people -- friends and unknowns alike --
want to make sure Ive internalized the fact that our children seem to be
able to get along just fine ignoring all those hierarchical issues.
I know well the mantra, Im spiritual but not
religious, or Im into spirituality but not organized
religion. I say I know them, not that I fully understand them.
I dont understand, either, how one can segment a life of
faith into a part that is of the institution and another part that is not.
In the end, we are not angels. We need real places and people with
whom to gather. We need our communities. We need some place to call home, an
anchor in a tradition and history, no matter how inclusive and understanding we
might be of other denominations and other faiths. And if we are gathering in
that way, institutions are inevitable. Humans cant organize without
them.
That perhaps is why I care so deeply about what is going on with
the church in this awful period of scandal. I need to get together with other
people of like mind to pray, to plan, to work. I want to be a member of an
institution that is healthy and credible.
Catholics, I really believe, want their leaders to have a strong
voice inside the institution and out in the wider culture. Right now they
dont. If this paper is critical of the leadership it is because we know,
with lots of others in the church, what is at stake.
If a bright side has begun to emerge
from this dark period, it is a new openness to discussion that is occurring out
of necessity. Our stories in this issue mention some of the brief comments made
by two high-profile leaders about opening up the discussion on ordination of
married men and of women. We carry a commentary by one priest and a homily by
another. The two pieces are representative of much of the sentiment that has
come my way in recent weeks through e-mails, phone calls and anecdotes. Priests
who would never have broached such subjects from the altar a month ago are now
openly discussing the need to revamp the clergy culture, to allow questioning
of the all-male celibate clergy, to question the way authority is exercised in
the church. I wish we could run all the commentary we receive -- we just
dont have the space.
It is too bad it took this degree of scandal to loosen the
restraints. I feel sympathy for the U.S. bishops. They are caught between a
bureaucracy in Rome that says such discussion cannot go on and increasing
numbers of priests and laypeople who see such open discussion now as essential.
I would bet a lot that many of the bishops would have opened the discussion
months ago, if not years ago, but for fear of retribution from Rome.
I dont know how they are going to get beyond that divide,
but they have to find a way if they are ever to reclaim their positions as
credible and trustworthy pastors. I hope they begin by not only encouraging the
discussions to continue but also by listening.
-- Tom Roberts
My e-mail address is troberts@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, April 5,
2002
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