Column
Voice of Faithful goes after biggest issue of all:
authority
By JOAN CHITTISTER
I’m never sure about how to
respond when people ask me what I think about Voice of the Faithful. The fact
is that I admire this group. But they confuse me. They have shown courage,
integrity and control in the midst of great upheaval, deep pain and an
incredible amount of shock.
When people were shocked at the rising tide of adult survivors of
clerical sex abuse in childhood, even inclined to be disbelieving of the
survivors, Voice of the Faithful stayed faithful and insisted that the
survivors be seen, heard and attended to.
When people were shocked at the legal maneuverings of a church
whose record for social compassion and public ministry to the oppressed stands
with the best of them, Voice of the Faithful continued to pledge support for
those ministries even while withholding funds they feared would be used for
hush money.
When people were shocked at Vatican statements about the whole
hoary mess being nothing but a media attack on the Catholic church, Voice of
the Faithful held firm, demanded accountability from church officials, claimed
a place for the faithful in the process and determined not to mix particular
issues with their overall political purposes. They will not, they say, espouse
any particular change in church policy: not the ordination of married men, not
the ordination of women, not the question of liturgical norms. Not anything
particular.
They are neither conservative nor liberal, they say. They are
simply looking for a way for both conservatives and liberals to take their
proper places in the experience that is church. Which translated means, it
seems, to be consulted, to be included, to be part of the decision-making
process of a church in process in a world in flux. While I myself try to avoid
terms like conservative and liberal because of their power to
label, stereotype, divide and categorize, I nevertheless get the point: We
should all be heard.
We should all count in the process of determining what the Holy
Spirit is really doing in the church. We should all be part of the discernment
of the “particular” spirits, which Voice of the Faithful as a group
is not espousing one way or the other.
But, admire them as I do, that’s exactly where they confuse
me. Do they really believe that they are agenda-free? Do they really think that
they are independent of issues? Or is such a statement simply a kind of
ecclesiastical guarantee of quality: We don’t stand for any particular
issue -- like those other people do -- so you don’t need to be afraid that
joining us will compromise your faith.
I can’t help asking myself if these people are this
disingenuous or this holy? How can anyone possibly think that what Voice of the
Faithful asserts they are about to do -- give a voice to the faithful in the
machinations of the Roman Catholic church -- is not the single major
determining issue in the church today?
Bigger than Luther’s commitment to the use of the vernacular
in the reading of scripture, greater than Bartolomé de las Casas’
commitment to the full humanity of Indians, bigger even on a daily basis than
the implications of Galileo’s commitment to the notion that the sun, not
the Earth, was the center of the universe, shocking as that was to the
sensibilities of “man, God’s highest creature.”
The truth is that to aspire to give lay people a “voice”
in the ongoing development and direction of the church stands for the biggest
issue of them all: It stands for declericalization. And declericalization is
the foundation for the renewal of the church. If the church is declericalized
-- if the laity really begins to be included in the theological debates, the
canonical processes, the synodal decisions of the Roman Catholic church --
every issue on the planet will become grist for its mill. The gospel of
Jesus’ walk from Galilee to Jerusalem, curing lepers, healing paralytics,
raising women from the dead, will live again.
Do they not realize that by concentrating on lay participation
rather than on specific theological issues, they are really striking at the
core of church development and power? They are targeting the biggest issue of
them all, authority.
Clearly, whether they know it or not, Voice of the Faithful is
definitely not issue-free. And, whether they realize it or not, their audacity
is shaking the foundations of an imperial church that, until this time, has
seldom felt the need to explain anything, let alone ask questions of anyone
other than those in their own inner circles. Sensus fidelium or no
sensus fidelium.
Before this is over, thanks to Voice of the Faithful, issues like
a married priesthood, the ordination of women, the use of inclusive pronouns in
scripture and the choice of postures during the canon of the Mass will seem to
be exactly what they are -- very, very minor. That’s why I admire them:
They are into the biggest issue of them all.
Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister, author and lecturer, lives in
Erie, Pa.
National Catholic Reporter, January 31,
2003
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