On Friendship and Politics

 
Dear friends,

Over the last few days, watching events in the Middle East, I've been wondering if this blog is turning into a bit of unholy smoke that distracts us from the events we should really be reflecting on and praying about. Toby observed yesterday in a separate message that "A problem with blogs is that it can make you focus on difference, when nobody would be reading a Catholic blog if they didn't have so much more in common". I really like to believe that's true.

One of the points that most divides us is between the so-called liberals who want to make the Church look a bit like the Coalition Government at its most bland and boring (only with more women in the top jobs), and the so-called conservatives who would seem to want Gadaffi for pope. But I do think that we Catholics increasingly share a sense that, whatever our politics or ecclesial convictions, there are issues of non-violence and human solidarity that unite us. If we can't gather together undivided around Humanae Vitae, can we do so around Pacem in Terris and Caritas in Veritate?

I ask these questions because of the krisis through which we are living. The Greek word krisis is far less negative than our English word 'crisis', for it implies a time of radical and unexpected change which is about opportunities and new beginnings as well as about lost hopes and endings. In that sense, the biblical concept of kairos, which suggests an opening in chronological time to a new configuration of time which is pregnant with urgency and promise, may also be related to krisis.


As the people of the Middle East rise up in the name of freedom, risking their lives for some human possibility that they have briefly glimpsed in the promises of democracy, I wonder why we are so complacent. The loss of British democracy has been compared to the gradual heating of a lobster. Plunge it into boiling water and it screams. Heat it gently and it will fall asleep and die more quietly. (I've never tried this, so don't know if it's true). As Samantha Cameron promotes London fashion week, her husband is off in the Middle East peddling arms. This government is introducing policies that were not in either manifesto, which are clearly aimed at the dismantling of public services and the welfare state, handing over control to the neo-liberal ideologues who got us into this mess in the first place. Both Augustine and Thomas Aquinas agreed with Cicero that 'pestilential statutes ... no more deserve to be called laws than the rules a band of robbers might pass in their assembly'. Augustine referred to the unjust state as 'a band of robbers', and Aquinas argued that 'a law that is not just, seems to be no law at all.' When will we realize that we are now governed by a band of robbers?


The West's friends in the Middle East are being toppled one by one as true democracy struggles to emerge, exposing the fact that far from being the friends of worldwide democracy, we are its most subtle and dangerous enemies. And where is our globe-trotting Middle East peacekeeper, Tony Blair, in all this? Perhaps we should be thankful for one small mercy - that he is nowhere to be seen or heard. (Perhaps nobody was willing to pay enough for his opinion).


I have a genuine question: what should Christians do in a time like this? How can our prayers translate into an active presence for freedom and truth in our shattered country and our troubled world? How can we use this krisis and recognise that it is also kairos time?


In the meantime, here is part of today's reading from the Book of Sirach. I recommend it to Colonel Gadaffi,
former President Hosni Mubarak, and Sheikh Nasser of Kuwait, and I dedicate it to Tony Blair and David Cameron:

When you gain a friend, first test him,

and be not too ready to trust him.
For one sort is a friend when it suits him,
but he will not be with you in time of distress.

Another is a friend who becomes an enemy,

and tells of the quarrel to your shame.

Another is a friend, a boon companion,

who will not be with you when sorrow comes.

When things go well, he is your other self,

and lords it over your servants;

But if you are brought low, he turns against you

and avoids meeting you.

Keep away from your enemies;

be on your guard with your friends.

A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter;

he who finds one finds a treasure.

A faithful friend is beyond price,

no sum can balance his worth.

A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy,

such as he who fears God finds;

For he who fears God behaves accordingly,

and his friend will be like himself.

A priest reflects

I'm posting a link to this reflection by an Australian priest, Fr. Eric Hodgens, on the occasion of the golden anniversary of his ordination. (It dates back to late last year, but I've only just discovered it). Undoubtedly some followers of this blog will condemn it out of hand, but it must have taken great courage to write it. It's further evidence that, for a growing number of faithful Catholics, there is a need to speak out even at the risk of being abused and attacked. After all, Christ did warn us that this might be the cost of faithfulness to him.

Many, indeed the majority of Catholics today, choose to leave the Church rather than deplete themselves in the struggle for acceptance and change. But love asks something different of us - a sustained and loyal commitment inspired by our faith in the fundamental goodness of the Catholic faith and all that it means, but an intelligent recognition that that does not mean passive and uncritical acceptance of all that is done in its name. The Christian faith has always valued freedom above all else. 'If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed.' Of course, our understanding of freedom and our ability to use it wisely needs to be matured and reflected upon, but it is also part of the expression of freedom that we must risk being wrong. Is it really free if we only express our freedom when we are sure that it is both safe and right to do so? As we see so many people today rising up against dictatorial regimes, often risking their lives for freedom, we should ask ourselves why, of all people, Catholic priests and bishops have become the least willing to stand up and defend the freedom that our faith offers us.

Pacifism is not passivity. To long for peace in the Church is not to be complacent in the face of abuse, nor is it to remain indifferent or even hostile to those who are driven away by a yoke that is too heavy to bear.

Fr. Eric Hodgens is an example of loyal criticism and visionary faith. Let's pray for him on his golden anniversary, and thank God for priests like him - priests who affirm the joy and meaning of their vocations, but who still have the courage to speak out when called upon to do so. Happy anniversary, Fr. Hodgens!

(P.S. The petition initiated by German-speaking theologians now has over 23,000 signatories. I realize from recent comments on my last blog that there's some question about the legitimacy of online petitions, but sometimes they have great symbolic power even if they have no legal status. You can sign the petition here.)

The Church and Poverty

Pressure of work means I haven't been able to write anything for the blog recently. However, two recent news items about the Church and poverty caught my attention - one interesting and hope-inspiring, the other deeply depressing. So, first for the good news.

I've said several times in the past that the Ordinariate will enrich Catholic life if it brings with it some of the beauty and breadth of the Anglican communion. Rather than narrowing down our understanding of what it means to be Catholic, it could introduce new perspectives and insights. Here is evidence that this might indeed be the case:

The first Ordinary of the recently-established Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, Father Keith Newton, has a strong belief in the importance of working for social justice, insisting that you cannot be a Christian without working for Kingdom values while on earth.

Speaking from his home in Woodford Green, East London this week,  Father Newton  said  he believes the Anglican and Catholic Churches have a lot of common ground in their approach to issues like abortion. But he was also keen to stress the importance of interpreting pro-life in its broadest sense of from cradle to grave. “Third world debt is equally as important as abortion,” said Fr Newton, who sees confronting poverty in the world as key priority for Christians.

(To read more, go to this link).

And now for the bad news - this is from this week's Tablet:

Vatican blocks re-election of Caritas Internationalis chief

Robert Mickens19 February 2011

The global Catholic development agency Caritas Internationalis (CI) is reeling after the Vatican took the highly unusual step of officially blocking Lesley-Anne Knight from running for a second four-year term as CI secretary general. 

The Tablet has learned that three weeks ago the Vatican’s Secretariat of State refused to grant Dr Knight the necessary nihil obstat required for all candidates for the key position. The CI bureau – which includes the inter­national president, secretary general, treasurer and seven regional presidents – has asked the Vatican to “reconsider the decision”. Elections for the 2011-2015 posts of secretary general and international president – currently held respectively by Dr Knight and Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga SDB of Honduras – are to take place during the CI general ­assembly in late May in Rome.

Cardinal Rodríguez wrote to all directors of the 165-member international confederation on 5 February to inform them of the Vatican’s decision. The letter, which was seen by The Tablet, notes that Secretariat of State officials met a CI delegation on that same day and gave only a verbal account of why the Vatican refused to approve Dr Knight’s candidacy. The cardinal does not mention those reasons in his letter, but does say that the CI bureau, in an extraordinary meeting, “expressed their incomprehension at the reasons provided” and “reaffirmed their positive view of Lesley-Anne Knight’s work for Caritas and the Church”. 

An official at a national Caritas member agency who spoke on condition of anonymity opined that Dr Knight may have been rejected because she been “critical of the Vatican machine, has made no secret of it and has failed to be discreet”. But the official praised her for “professionalising” the Rome headquarters, tackling debt and reforming financial operations. Another Caritas source said there is a sense among some Vatican officials that Dr Knight has not done enough to instil a specifically Catholic identity and sense of evangelisation into the confederation’s mission and activities.

“It is true that she is yet to receive the nihil obstat,” Caritas Internationalis said in an ­official statement given to The Tablet on Wednesday. The statement confirmed that, nonetheless, “Lesley-Anne Knight has submitted her candidacy for secretary general.”
Caritas Internationalis has had periodic difficulties with some Vatican officials, especially at the pontifical human development council Cor Unum, during the past several decades. But last year tensions came to a head after Cor Unum’s president, Cardinal Paul Cordes, designated a CI confederation member to coordinate the Catholic Church’s relief efforts in Haiti (see The Tablet, 30 January 2010). He never consulted with Dr Knight or her office over the move and the CI secretary general made no secret of her displeasure.

Cardinal Cordes, a German close to Pope Benedict, retired as Cor Unum president last October. But before doing so he gave Vatican backing to a new organisation called “Caritas in Veritatis Internationalis”, which looks uncannily like a group specifically designed to replicate the Caritas confederation.

Read about the work of Caritas here.

Some who claim to love the Church will welcome this example of strong leadership crushing the opposition. I also love the Church, and I think the present leaders should look to the Middle East to see what happens when authoritarian regimes seek to retain power by silencing and bullying their most loyal critics. Authoritarianism takes over when genuine authority is lacking, and genuine authority has to be earned through a process of trust, transparency and respect.

Scandal comes in many forms. It seems that certain members of the Catholic hierarchy have mastered most of them.

Saint Scholastica's Feast Day

Today (10th February) is the Feast Day of Saint Scholastica (c.480-c.543), twin sister of Saint Benedict. Nearly everything we know about her comes from the writings of Saint Gregory, who gives an account of what was to be the last meeting between Scholastica and Benedict. Here is a summary of Gregory's account. Follow the link to read the full account in Gregory's Dialogues and for more information about St. Scholastica.

Saint Gregory tells the charming story of the last meeting of the two saints on earth. Scholastica and Benedict had spent the day in the 'mutual comfort of heavenly talk' and with nightfall approaching, Benedict prepared to leave. Scholastica, having a presentiment that it would be their last opportunity to see each other alive, asked him to spend the evening in conversation. Benedict sternly refused because he did not wish to break his own rule by spending a night away from Monte Cassino. Thereupon, Scholastica cried openly, laid her head upon the table, and prayed that God would intercede for her. As she did so, a sudden storm arose. The violent rain and hail came in such a torrential downpour that Benedict and his companions were unable to depart.

'May Almighty God forgive you, sister' said Benedict, 'for what you have done.' 

'I asked a favor of you,' Scholastica replied simply, 'and you refused it. I asked it of God, and He has granted it!' 

Just after his return to Monte Cassino, Benedict saw a vision of Scholastica's soul departing her body, ascending to heaven in the form of a dove. She died three days after their last meeting. He placed her body in the tomb he had prepared for himself, and arranged for his own to be placed there after his death.

Dear friends, there is nothing new about women's prayers and God's love conspiring to thwart men's rules.

Saint Scholastica, pray for us.

European Theologians' statement: 'The Church in 2011 - a necessary departure'

 

Dispute over the Immaculate Conception – Disputation of the Doctors
Giovanni Antonio Sogliani (c. 1530), Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence

(This painting reminds us that there is nothing new about theological controversy).

On 3rd February, 'Toby' posted a number of questions about Catholic formation and the context in which one studies and teaches theology. By way of a response, I'm sharing a link to a translation of a statement titled 'The Church in 2011 - a necessary departure', published in German and signed by 143 European theologians (more signatories are being added daily). This is a moderate and reasoned plea for a more open and participatory Church. My reason for linking to it here is not only because I think it's worth reading but because, taken alongside 'Toby's' quite different understanding of Catholic formation and theology, it is evidence of considerable debate and diversity among Roman Catholic theologians today, including those who are licensed - as many of these signatories are.

I've cut and pasted the opening paragraphs of the statement here:

It is over a year since cases of sexual abuse of children and youth by priests and religious at the Canisius School in Berlin were made public. Thereupon followed a year that plunged the Catholic Church in Germany into an unequaled crisis. Today, a split image is projected. Much has been undertaken to do justice to the victims, to come to terms with the wrong done, and to search out the causes of abuse, cover-up, and double standards within the Church’s own ranks. Many responsible Christians, women and men, in office and unofficially, have come to realize, after their initial disgust, that deep-reaching reforms are necessary. The appeal for an open dialogue on structures of power and communication, the form of official church offices, and the participation of the faithful in taking responsibility for morality and sexuality have aroused expectations, but also fears. This might be the last chance for departure from paralysis and resignation. Will this chance be missed by sitting out or minimizing the crisis? Not everyone is threatened by the unrest of an open dialogue without taboos – especially since the papal visit [to Germany] will soon take place. The alternative simply cannot be accepted: the “rest of the dead” because the last hopes have been destroyed.

The deep crisis of our Church demands that we address even those problems which, at first glance, do not have anything directly to do with the abuse scandal and its decades-long cover-up. As theology professors, women and men, we can keep silence no longer. We consider ourselves responsible for contributing to a true new beginning: 2011 must be a Year of Departure for the Church. In the past year, more Christians than ever before have withdrawn from the Catholic Church. They have officially terminated their legal membership, or they have privatized their spiritual life in order to protect it from the institution. The Church must understand these signs and pull itself from ossified structures in order to recover new vitality and credibility.

The renewal of church structures will succeed, not with anxious withdrawal from society, but only with the courage for self-criticism and the acceptance of critical impulses – including those from the outside. This is one of the lessons of the last year: the abuse crisis would not have been dealt with so decisively without the critical accompaniment of the larger public. Only through open communication can the Church win back trust. The Church will become credible when only its image of itself is not removed so far from the image others have of the Church. We turn to all those who have not yet given up hope for a new beginning in the Church and who work for this. We build upon the signals of departure and dialogue which some bishops have given in recent months in speeches, homilies, and interviews.

The Church does not exist for its own sake. The church has the mission to announce the liberating and loving God of Jesus Christ to all people. The Church can do this only when it is itself a place and a credible witness of the good news of the Gospel. The Church’s speaking and acting, its rules and structures – its entire engagement with people within and outside the Church – is under the standard of acknowledging and promoting the freedom of people as God’s creation. Absolute respect for every person, regard for freedom of conscience, commitment to justice and rights, solidarity with the poor and oppressed: these are the theological foundational standards which arise from the Church’s obligation to the Gospel. Through these, love of God and neighbor become tangible.

Finding our orientation in the biblical Good News implies a differentiated relationship to modern society. When it comes to acknowledgement of each person’s freedom, maturity, and responsibility, modern society surpasses the Church in many respects. As the Second Vatican Council emphasized, the Church can learn from this. In other respects, critique of modern society from the spirit of the Gospel is indispensable, as when people are judged only by their productivity, when mutual solidarity disintegrates, or when the dignity of the person is violated.

This holds true in every case: the Good News of the Gospel is the standard for a credible Church, for its action and its presence in society. The concrete demands which the Church must face are by no means new. And yet, we see hardly any trace of reform-oriented reforms. Open dialogue on these questions must take place in the following spheres of action.

Heresy, Heaven and Hope - a few thoughts

This may be more of a rambling than a musing, but let me try to gather a few random thoughts.

It's interesting, and not a little unsettling, to be called a heretic, but at least blogging has taken the place of burning at the stake as a way for orthodoxy to assert itself - for that I am more than a little thankful.

I'd rather come before the seat of judgement and mercy as an honest heretic than as a dishonest conformist, and only then will we know who the heretics are, for only then will the goats be separated from the sheep. I ask myself in what ways might I be a heretic, given that I believe in all the core doctrines of the Catholic faith. Is one a heretic for criticising the Pope? Then I am happy to be in the good company of Catherine of Siena. In fact, I can think of few happier fates than to share a corner of heaven in the company of erstwhile heretics. Imagine an eternal conversation at the heavenly banquet with confirmed heretics Origen, Tertullian, Meister Eckhart, Peter Abelard, Joan of Arc, Galileo, Marguerite Porete and Martin Luther (the Church changed its mind about some of these, eventually), and with those who have at various times been suspected if not accused of heresy (John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Karl Rahner, John Sobrino .... an unfinished list).

Absolute faith is not something I can lay claim to, but this I will say: I have absolute faith that, if the Kingdom of God exists, it is more forgiving, compassionate and wise than the Catholic blogosphere, so one way or the other, I'm happy to take my chances.

I have said all I intend to say about the Ordinariate (for now). I believe it's right to create space for a variety of views, concerns and hopes to emerge at the beginning of the process, but now we must allow ourselves time to adjust and get to know one another. I'm sure we're all in for some surprises.

So here's a change of perspective. Yesterday evening, I stopped to take a photograph of the sunset over the Thames at Richmond. From a distance, this is a scene of perfect tranquillity - it seemed like a moment when the windows of heaven were flung open and the light of God's glory streamed through. But this is earth, not heaven, and that glorious sunset in all its serenity expresses a seething ebullience of life: every atom and cell, every creature and life-form, is caught up in a jostling, exuberant expression of being in which to live is to struggle and to give up is to die.

From a distance, the earth is a jewelled orb suspended in the glitter of space - beautiful, serene and timeless. But zoom in, and today especially zoom in on Egypt, and one sees that this beauty is home to such urgency of hope, such inspiration and vision, such fragility and vulnerability. Thomas Aquinas says that all of creation participates in God and bears a trinitarian likeness. The sunset, the earth, the Church - ultimately, the struggle, the beauty and life itself are inseparable.

God's creation, like the new creation of the Church, is struggling in birth pangs to bring the future into being. We don't know the fullness of truth, and when we do it will astonish and overwhelm us in its unexpected and unimaginable possibilities. But until then, we can be truthful, we can be honest, we can be penitent, we can be prayerful, and we can keep our sense of humour and solidarity. We're all in this together. Look again at what a small and wondrous planet we share with all those other jostling life forms. Last night, a pair of swans folded in their necks and slept outside the window of my houseboat, and this morning the geese and the ducks squawked and quacked their greetings to the dawn. How amazing this world is, and our human squawking and quacking is part of that wonder.

Let me give the last word to Cardinal Newman. This is from his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. Perhaps it's a fitting comment on which to close my own contribution to the debate about the Ordinariate, for the time being:

But whatever be the risk of corruption from intercourse with the world around, such a risk must be encountered if a great idea is duly to be understood, and much more if it is to be fully exhibited. It is elicited and expanded by trial, and battles into perfection and supremacy. Nor does it escape the collision of opinion even in its earlier years, nor does it remain truer to itself, and with a better claim to be considered one and the same, though externally protected from vicissitude and change. It is indeed sometimes said that the stream is clearest near the spring. Whatever use may fairly be made of this image, it does not apply to the history of a philosophy or belief, which on the contrary is more equable, and purer, and stronger, when its bed has become deep, and broad, and full. It necessarily rises out of an existing state of things, and for a time savours of the soil. Its vital element needs disengaging from what is foreign and temporary, and is employed in efforts after freedom which become wore vigorous and hopeful as its years increase. Its beginnings are no measure of its capabilities, nor of its scope. At first no one knows what it is, or what it is worth. It remains perhaps for a time quiescent; it tries, as it were, its limbs, and proves the ground under it, and feels its way. From time to time it makes essays which fail, and are in consequence abandoned. It seems in suspense which way to go; it wavers, and at length strikes out in one definite direction. In time it enters upon strange territory; points of controversy alter their bearing; parties rise and around it; dangers and hopes appear in new relations; and old principles reappear under new forms. It changes with them in order to remain the same. In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.