The Wisdom of Resignation

"The Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic; and sinful." Claretian Father Paulson V. Veliyannoor, CMF, PhD, in Bible Diary 2013, reflection  for February 26, 2013

I have not been a great admirer of Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger / Pope Benedict XVI. Throughout my adult life, he has represented many negative aspects of Catholic theology and practice. My image of the man shifted a few years ago, when I came across a passionate defense of individual conscience written by Joseph Ratzinger in 1967, after the close of the Second Vatican Council. In it he said:

“Over the Pope as expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority, there stands one’s own conscience which must be obeyed before all else, even if necessary against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority. This emphasis on the individual, whose conscience confronts him with a supreme and ultimate tribunal, and one which in the last resort is beyond the claim of external social groups, even the official Church, also establishes a principle in opposition to increasing totalitarianism.”

To my knowledge, Ratzinger/Pope Benedict never altered or renounced that definitive statement. I and countless other conscientious Catholics have quoted him repeatedly and held him to ownership of that theological position.

Why Benedict has decided to do on February 28, 2013, what no pope for seven centuries has done, is open to speculation (and runaway imagination). Whether it be for health and stamina reasons, as he publicly claims, or because an intransigent Vatican bureaucracy led him to throw in the towel (or both), I do admire this pope for handing over the office to a new and (somewhat) younger leader. That's not easy for power-for-lifers to do.

We Catholics who must watch from the sidelines are witnessing the beginning of the end of an  irrelevant structure of church leadership and governance. That system has allowed an all-male, celibate, and elite class of senior citizens to lay spiritual and moral burdens on their fellow religionists that they themselves have never borne. Rather than lament the passing of this archaic and,  in many ways, unjust system, Catholics who hold fast to the core beliefs of our faith find in this evolution the movement of the Holy Spirit. The truth of the Good News of Christ resides in the entire people of God. It is in that Body of Christ on earth that we find hope in the present turmoil surrounding the election of Benedict XVI's successor.

The Holy Spirit has forever been the people of God's "ace in the hole" and source of sure hope; "she" is the antithesis of the Vatican power structure that repeatedly mars the Roman Catholic "brand." 

I hope for, but do not expect, a saintly revolutionary leader in the mold of John XXIII to arise from this conclave. What I pray for is a leader who will begin the process of inner conversion in Rome, one who will take seriously his title as "servant of the servants of God." 

Our Catholic Church, like all other Christian churches and all other-than-Christian faith traditions is burdened with the millstone of fallible human nature. We Catholics will never get this "church thing" completely right. What we pray for is that we just won't keep getting it so terribly wrong. Yes, we're going to mess up the mission of Christ; but let's do it less and less, and in a spirit of humility and ongoing repentance.

Come, O Holy Spirit! 

Alfred J. Garrotto is the author of 
|The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story

saintoflorenville.com 

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(c) 2013 by Alfred J. Garrotto

A Model for 21st c. Catholic Bishops

I matured as a Catholic in the years following the Second Vatican Council and listed among my formative heroes many American bishops and their peers in France, Belgium, Germany, Brazil, and, yes, even Italy. Towering above these forward-looking prelates was my all-time papal hero, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, Pope John XXIII.

Fast-forwarding to the present, I am challenged to identify more than a handful of bishops at home or abroad as models of Spirit-filled, gospel-driven leadership. I and others who share my Catholic history grieve the lacuna.

The recent Year of the Priest turned a spotlight in America on an aging and embattled clergy. These men, especially parish priests, are the remnant in the trenches of a no-longer flourishing clerical caste. With their breakfast they have had to swallow a bitter chronicle of abuse accusations and episcopal cover-ups, each one creeping higher up the ladder of ecclesiastical responsibility. One thing 21st century priests still have going for them is a model of exemplary ministry in St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney (1786-1859), the Curé of Ars. One of their own, he served his parishioners with selfless love and inspiring dedication to the Body of Christ on earth.

It is hard to imagine who might serve as living models and heroes for today’s bishops. As a lay minister in a vibrant parish community, I pray and listen with aching hope for voices of gospel-inspired sanity and humanity among the American and world hierarchies. Instead, there is faith-deadening silence. In this wasteland, the only voices belong to the few whose righteous pronouncements serve as fodder for nightly sound bites and morning stomach turners. There have to be bishops and cardinals alive who cringe along with the rest of us. The few bishops I personally know who might be capable of sparking a Spirit-led revival cower in silence.

Let me propose an international, time-tested model for today’s bishops: Charles Francois Bienvenu Myriel, Bishop of Digne, France. Myriel is, of course, the fictional prelate who serves as the catalyst character of Victor Hugo’s classic and eminently Catholic novel, Les Miserables. What could a non-historical, backwater bishop possibly have to say to today’s real-world hierarchy? Plenty! 

Every bishop would do well to reflect on the true meaning of episcopal servanthood as found in the book’s opening one-hundred pages. Bishop Myriel provides a spiritual and moral compass for bishops whose ministry has devolved into fending off abuse victims (and their attorneys), while presiding over shrinking human and financial assets.

Hugo was no saint himself, but he knew what one should look like. We can speculate about the possibility of the author’s admiration of his contemporary and fellow countryman, the Curé of Ars. In his protagonist Jean Valjean, Hugo created the ideal Christian man—a lay saint. It might not be farfetched to call Valjean the principled, virtuous man that Hugo wished he could be. In Bishop Myriel, he brought to life the kind of post-Revolution bishop France needed, but rarely found. Portraying Myriel’s character and the quality of his ministry, the author revealed a deep understanding of true episcopal ministry and priestly spirituality.

Bishop Myriel is a man of prayer, whose holiness is rooted in Sacred Scripture. He takes seriously the call of St. Paul to be like Christ in every possible way: “As most beloved children of God, strive to imitate him. Follow the way of love, the example of Christ who loved you” (Ephesians 5:1-2). His hands-on ministerial style epitomizes the radical option for the poor. The pastoral “buck” stops at this bishop's door, as demonstrated when a priest of his diocese refuses to accompany a condemned man to his death. Myriel claims it as his solemn episcopal duty to spend the night in prayer with the poor man and accompany him along the dreaded final steps to the guillotine.

This is a wise bishop who sees possibilities that others do not in fallible human beings. On a night when no other citizen of Digne will offer shelter to specter-like parolee Jean Valjean, Myriel welcomes the stranger to his table and lodging (only to be robbed of heirloom silver by his ungrateful guest). 

Having no further contact with Valjean after forgiving the man’s misdeed, Myriel never learns that his generosity has produced a Damascus-like effect, setting in motion a lifetime of virtue and good works.

I studied philosophy and theology in the 1950s with many seminarians who went on to become bishops and cardinals, both in the United States and the Vatican. How I wish one of them were writing this post, instead of me! Today’s Catholics crave the kind of bishop that Victor Hugo presented as a model of the sacrament of Holy Orders. We, the lay baptized priests of the Church, pray that our Myriels-in-hiding will soon step forward with courage to catalyze the Spirit-led renewal destined to occur in this century.

______________________

Alfred J. Garrotto is the author of the suspense novel,

The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story.

A Prayer for Renewal of the Roman Catholic Church

Lord Jesus, I lift my saddened spirit to you in humility and faith—also in great hope and trust that your Spirit is guiding my beloved Roman Catholic Church. I believe this, even as the fires of the sex abuse scandal lick around the feet of Pope Benedict XVI.

Lord, bring the triumphalism of our pope and hierarchy to its knees. Let the secrecy and protectionism that shroud your Good News and saving mission in the world end. Give light to our Holiness, Eminences, and Excellencies who have lost their way. Turn their inevitable humiliation into a grace that will purify our defective Church and heal it of its sins. May your gospel no longer be muddied by holy, but empty, words that coddle scandalous behavior in preference to virtue and fidelity. For only by acknowledging their current blindness can our leaders return to their apostolic roots and restore the Body of Christ to full health and vigor.

Lord, inspire our Holy Father to take responsibility for the current rebuke and ridicule that has fallen on our heads. Let him declare a period of “Universal Repentance,” as the King of Nineveh did, when the humbled prophet Jonah called for confession and reparation. And from the sackcloth of this top-down admission of guilt, raise up a newly baptized and cleansed Church to bask in the glory of your divine Light.

Finally, let the renewal for which I pray begin in me. I make this earnest prayer with confidence in the guiding presence of your most Holy Spirit. Amen.