John Kavanaugh, SJ has an excellent essay in the current issue of America titled, How Will They Know?
In his encyclical “Deus Caritas Est,” Pope Benedict XVI joins “the ministry of charity” in proclaiming the word of God and celebrating the sacraments as the expression of the church’s “deepest nature.” What is more, charity, which Benedict equates with love, is called the “indispensable expression” of the church’s very being."But there is a problem," writes Kavanaugh, "the words are often not matched by reality."These are inspiring words addressed to everyone in the Catholic Church. But there is a problem: the words are often not matched by reality. To be sure, there are armies of known and nameless Catholics who powerfully witness to love. There are many devoted clerics and vibrant parishes and spiritual movements. Most of us, we can hope, have even had our own high moments, expressive of charity.
The encyclical's inspiring words are often not matched by the reality.But we should be honest with ourselves, especially when considering the church as institution and how it is perceived in the world. Are we known by our love?
In his own sober and compelling style, Kavanaugh points to how the Church is perceived by many and its responsibility to attend to those perceptions, especially when what is perceived is the reality.
Read the complete article here.
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Thanks for posting this article that succinctly states the subtle confusions that we, the laity, experience in our attempts to understand recent actions of our hierarchy and our relationship to them.
ReplyDeleteHow will they (the hierarchy) know us (the laity)? I pray that it will be by our charity, our concern for "the Church of all," and our loving actions.
Pat
We are the Church. All of us. The hierarchy is a tiny part of the whole. Sure, large parts of the laity is suffering at this time, with important sections leaving the Church, possibly forever.
ReplyDeleteBut God is with us whether Rome makes us feel welcome or not. God is becoming more and more important. Rome less and less relevant.
It must be difficult for parish priests to find a path that is congruent with their conscience.
The happy times in the Church have been rare really. A few years for those who loved John XXIII...
Today many of us do not feel welcome. I even heard that the more conservative sections of the Catholic Church hope for our exodus toward the Episcopalian Church.
But leaving would mean deserting a God-given task to welcome everyone who longs for God indiscriminately.
Thanks for linking to this one. It helps me not to feel foolish on the days when more bad news comes.
ReplyDeleteI'm staying with the Catholic church because I can't imagine being anywhere else, raising my kids in another practice of faith, because it is what is familiar and home and ritual. But I do worry about whether your successor at HFP will lead the parish with as gentle and careful a hand as you have, or with such obvious love for and attention to the liturgy. (Don't quite know how to word that in precise terms -- I'm afraid we'll get someone whose attention is to the form of the liturgy more than the function.)