|
Church crisis is an opportunity for reform
Kevin Maher '04
 On
Feb. 3 in the St. Thomas of Villanova Church, George Weigel delivered
the second lecture in the "Being Catholic in the U.S." series sponsored
by the Office for Mission Effectiveness. A Roman Catholic theologian,
Weigel is a Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington,
DC. The author of The
Courage To Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church,
he is one of America's leading commentators on issues of
religion and public life.
Describing the current situation in the
Church as the greatest crisis the Church has had to face in America, Weigel
insisted the crisis is not only of greater magnitude than others, such
as that of land ownership and Catholic bigotry, but it is also much different.
This predicament, he explained, is a self-inflicted one, rooted in infidelity,
which shakes the very foundations upon which the Church is built and forms
a major obstacle in the teachings of public good.
To fully understand the implications of
the dilemma, Weigel defined crisis by its use in the Bible where the word
has a twofold meaning: cataclysmic upheaval and opportunity. He views
the Church's current state as just that, an opportunity to complete the
revival of the Church and a chance for deeper conversion. A time for a
genuine reform of Catholic belief and practice so that the Church can
become what it has to be in the 21st century. He spoke
of an evangelical movement that would create a new Catholic spirit and
construct a united Catholic Church.
Weigel classified the dilemma as one of
priestly identity and Episcopal leadership. In failing to live the fullness
of the Catholic faith, a crisis in discipleship has emerged. Acknowledging
the "understandable, righteous anger" of Catholics, he described the experience
of Peter being able to walk on water so long as his eyes were fixed on
Jesus, adding, "We too can do the impossible if we keep our gaze on Christ."
Weigel asserted that the critical situation is not over priestly celibacy,
the Church's sexual ethic, or its alleged "authoritarian-ness," as some
try to argue, and even praised the media for bringing the scandal to light.
In detailing what went wrong, Weigel pointed
toward a schism birthed by, what he described as, a culture of dissent.
He distinguished between a struggle of faith and this culture of dissent
by explaining that questioning for clarity is much different than casting
off Church teachings as falsehoods. Elaborating further, he claimed that
this culture of dissent has turned Catholic truth into something from
which people choose what to believe. However, Weigel maintains that the
men who committed the scandalous actions made their own choices and that
the time did not decide for them.
Laying out what needs to be done, Weigel
supported two main claims. First, he called for reforms in the seminary
and in theological education. He spoke of wholly developed priests training
wholly developed priests in a blend of tradition and modern thought as
well as of issues of truth supplanting issues of power. Second, he envisions
expanded and sharpened criteria for new Bishops. This included a
personal conversion, an ability to preach with conviction, strength to
make decisions that may be unpopular and a capacity to translate the Scripture
to reach the people.
Though pointing out that we all fail in
some way, Weigel insisted that there is no reason to lower the bar of
expectation, adding, "It is permitted to no one to be mediocre." |
|
