What's Going On?

Too often these days people ask me, “What’s going on, deacon? The Church seems to be self-destructing.” I suppose they ask me this and similar questions because I’m a deacon and they assume I must understand everything that’s happening in and to the Church. Of course, I don’t. My thoughts and my opinions on these and most other subjects are just that, my thoughts, my opinions. I am not a prophet, and I’m certainly not infallible. I do, however, accept and try to teach the truth as it has been revealed to us through Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition. But I also try not to be tendentious, and struggle to identify what are simply my opinions and not declare them as revealed truth. What follows, then, are the opinions of a man who happens to be a deacon who loves his God and His Church, nothing more.

Too many Catholics, and almost all non-Catholics, when they think and speak of the Catholic Church, see only the hierarchy: the pope, bishops, priests, and maybe even the deacons. But the hierarchy is not the Church. The Church is the "People of God," the community of all the baptized faithful, coming together in faith to worship, to evangelize, and to love God and neighbor by living the lives that God desires of us. The Catechism of the Catholic Church also reminds us that...

"The Church draws her life from the Word and the Body of Christ, and so herself becomes Christ's Body" [CCC, p. 871].

Yes, we are the Body of Christ, one Body with Christ as its head. And it is from Jesus Christ that the Church was given its mission – “the Great Commission" -- when He instructed the apostles:

"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age" [Mt 28:18-20].

In the beginning [Acts 1:15], the Church consisted of little more than a hundred people, and yet it already had a hierarchy. This hierarchy, instituted by Jesus Himself, is a necessary element of the Church. It provides the structure and the avenues of sacramental grace necessary to accomplish the Church's mission in a spirit of unity. Although a divinely created institution, one guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church is made up of human beings who are subject to all human failings and sinfulness. We see vivid evidence of this among the apostles themselves, men who didn't hesitate to reveal their own sinfulness [Lk 5:8]. 

This applies as well to those who, through apostolic succession, make up the Church’s hierarchy today, men who sometimes reject or ignore the guidance of the Spirit. So don’t expect popes, bishops, priests, and deacons to be sinless. They aren’t. Not only aren’t they sinless, they also make mistakes and will proclaim or teach things that simply aren’t true. As do I, they occasionally confuse opinion with truth. St. Paul said it best when he declared:

"There is no one righteous, not even one..." [Rom 3:10]

...and that -- gasp! -- includes even the pope himself. And, trust me, Pope Francis would be the first to agree.

But what about papal infallibility, doesn't that come into play? Isn't the pope infallible? Isn't the Church infallible? The quick answer: Yes, but there are conditions. Once again, we turn to the Catechism, which quotes Lumen Gentium, Vatican II's Dogmatic Constitution of the Church:

"The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys the infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful -- who confirms his brethren in the faith -- he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals...The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter's successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium," above all in Ecumenical Council [CCC: 891; cf. Lumen Gentium 25].

The pope, therefore, is infallible only when "he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith and morals." He must, then, make that proclamation from the Chair of Peter, clearly stating that he speaks infallibly, a rare occurrence indeed. Less rare, however, is the infallibility of the Magisterium -- the pope, together with his bishops -- exercising “the supreme Magisterium.” The 21 ecumenical councils of the Church are the best examples of this form of infallibility, the result of Jesus’ promise to the Apostles:

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of Truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you…The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name – He will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you” [Jn 14:16-17,26].

This is really wonderful, isn’t it? The Holy Spirit cannot be constrained by men. He can speak to the world through the Church despite the sinfulness of those He calls. In the same way the Holy Spirit showers us with His divine grace through the sacraments, despite the unworthiness of His minister, the state of his soul. No, He cannot be constrained, something of which we should be mindful as we move into what could be a darker time, for He will be with us “until the end of the age.”

Popes, bishops, priests, and deacons can teach error and preach nonsense simply because they are men, very fallible men, who like other men are often driven by personal agendas and not by God's will and the needs of the Church, the People of God.

Many issues that seem to occupy the time and thoughts of some members of the hierarchy – for example, climate change, economic systems, national sovereignty, migration, etc. – are actually for more complex than they seem to believe, and remain open to legitimate debate. One cannot, for example, state with any assurance that it is morally evil for a nation to protect its borders. Such issues are very different from an inherently evil act such as abortion.

How should the faithful respond to the pope or to a bishop who makes what seem to be definitive pronouncements on such issues? First, we should listen. Don’t accept the secular media’s reporting but go to the original words or document and read it. Second-hand reports often focus on the headline-grabbers and miss the truth as well as all the subtle nuances of the teaching. (Note: The secular media is almost always inaccurate or biased in their reporting on the Catholic Church.) Realize, too, that many of these issues are exceedingly complex and generate significant disagreement among recognized experts. We must pay heed to what Church leaders say on such issues, but also understand that they are not speaking infallibly. Your own knowledge, combined with a well-formed conscience, can be a good guide when it comes to issues that fall outside the deposit of faith and definitive Catholic moral teaching.

I’ve encountered Catholics who are considering leaving the Church (or have already left) because they are disgusted by the sins of a bishop or priest, or disagree with something a member of the clergy has taught. At the risk of insulting them, let me say only that this is the height of foolishness. We don’t leave Jesus Christ because of what men have said or done. And that’s what is done when one leaves the Catholic Church: he or she leaves the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council weren’t kidding when they stated that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” Jesus confirmed this with His words to the doubters in Capernaum:

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” [Jn 6:53-57].

Yes, members of the clergy, from deacons to cardinals, have committed horrendous sins. Sexual abuse of children, blatant homosexual relationships and not just between “consenting adults,” greed and theft, and so much more.

But there are also spiritual sins, including teachings that lead God’s people astray. One that’s’ near and dear to my heart involves some modern biblical scholarship. Far too many biblical scholars do not accept the Gospels as true descriptions of Jesus’s life and teachings. To be blunt, they assume the evangelists did not tell the truth, but that the Gospels were rewritten, edited…whatever by later redactors to fit the evolving beliefs of the Christian community. In other words, the Gospels as we have them do not really reflect the reality of Jesus’s life and teaching. Of course, by taking such an approach they undermine our belief of everything in Sacred Scripture. If the Gospels aren’t true, well, then, what is? As you might guess, some of these same scholars reject Christ’s divinity, His bodily Resurrection, and many other tenets of the Faith.

But, again, these are the sins of men, not the sins of the Church. Let’s assume, then, that you’re not planning on leaving the Church, and return to our original question: Is the Church self-destructing?

No, it’s not. But there are people in the Church, even some in its hierarchy, who think not of the Church, but of themselves. I've known more than a few. They want the Church to change its foundational beliefs, its immutable deposit of faith, or to loosen its firm grasp of morality, so it will conform to their beliefs or support their sinful lifestyle. They will, of course, fail. They will fail as all previous heresies have failed to change that which makes the Church what it is: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.

Believe me when I say the Church has encountered many serious challenges in the past. For example, probably half of the Church rejected the truth and accepted the false teachings of the Arian heresy, and this lasted for centuries. I expect we will encounter similar, probably greater challenges in the future, perhaps the near future. The Church, however, will survive, although I expect it will look very different. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote back when he was a young priest:

“The Church will be a more spiritual Church, not presuming upon a political mandate, flirting as little with the Left as with the Right. It will be hard going for the Church, for the process of crystallization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy, It will make her poor and cause her to be the Church of the meek” [Faith and Future, p. 116-118].

St. Paul, writing to Timothy, is a bit more explicit as he relates what we will face in these last days:

“But understand this: there will be terrifying times in the last days. People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power. Reject them” [2 Tim 3 1-5].

Are we in the “end times”? I don’t know. But we must all live as though we are, so we will be ready to greet the Lord, either when He returns or when He calls us.

As one writer (I’ve forgotten who) once wrote: “We will not be able to live in the time that is to come.” That might well be true for those days of tribulation will certainly be worse than anything humanity has suffered so far. But take faith in the fact that the Church, the Body of Christ, will survive until Jesus Christ brings all of Creation to completion.