Bishop Doherty's Columns

 

 

The Catholic Moment, September 17, 2023

Confusion or Indigestion?

     Confusion or Indigestion? The Catholic Church appeared to centralize authority during the time of Pope Pius IX (reigned 1846-1878). This was not all by internal design.

     The kingdoms of Italy joined as a country in 1870. The pope lost his governance over the Papal States. Pius retreated into the Vatican Palace, and that 108 acre property became its own state in 1929.

     A less obvious centralizing force was the invention of the electrical telegraph that would speed messages. The first transatlantic cable was laid in 1858. The signal and equipment system by Samuel Morse became standard in Europe in 1865. When two-way communication could transpire in minutes, not weeks or months via ships, it changed the way governance functioned. This affected the Church in terms of oversight, teachings, and forging bonds among the like-minded. At the same time, disagreement and rumor could propagate via the same technologies. Marconi’s wireless radio invention was functioning by the 1890s. International Telephone & Telegraph donated a phone system to the Vatican in 1930.

     Moving to the 1970s and forward, the internet, personal computers and portable devices have multiplied voices and advocacies almost beyond measuring.

     Why this admittedly amateur history? Because more information comes at us than we can digest. Specifically, I am trying to make sense of the books and blogs that assert that “the Church is confused.” These find someone to blame: popes, presidents (pick a country), the bishops, the clergy, the secularists. In January, I received a 514-page jeremiad, a shelf mate to a recent 402 pager, and some briefer companions. Word processers have made production of lengthy texts too easy. These machine products don’t need to rest, eat, pray, or exercise. But I do.

     When some people assert that the Church is confused, I have to ask if it isn’t they who are confused. The last I looked, we were praying through Christ our Lord, professing the Trinity, the effectiveness of the Sacraments, the validity of the Ten Commandments, the sacred dignity of human life from conception to natural death, the universal call to holiness. We prize our knowledge about the marriage of one man and one woman, the virtuous life, truth telling. The works of mercy are faith in action. We aspire to live with integrity and long for eternal life and the Beatific Vision.

     Today vast technologies are competing for our attention. Some years ago, a psychologist named Simon identified a thing called “the attention economy.” Individuals have only so much to give, and others invent businesses that grab as much as they can. Many people line up international and regional religious reports, and they become distressed to learn that there is unevenness. They think there is confusion because they cannot make it all ‘fit.’ There is not a single power able to control all the global puzzle pieces to their satisfaction. Jesus and the apostles could not do it this side of the Second Coming, so how can we expect it of our contemporaries?

     Recall the story of Abraham in Genesis 18 when God did not destroy a city because ten good people who lived there. To listen to some critics of the Church, it is thought to be falling apart because there are ten bad people (the lists vary widely). In reality, with the exceptions of Jesus and his Mother, we are 99% sinners.

     The key is this: we have to take hold of our own discipleship and be most responsible for our own personal call to integrity and holiness. Most of our energy goes to keeping one’s own house in order, one’s life in Christ, one’s vocation and one’s relationships. When we attempt the “God project” which measures the Church and world by our own expectations, we suffer less from confusion than indigestion.

     There is still room to be complimentary or critical of our leaders. But the world and its institutions will continue to be imperfect. The louder we rail at those with whom we disagree, the more our children will sense that they never want to take on a role that invites withering critique – justified or not! They will not want to take a risk and enter ministry or public service or run for elective office where critics take a scorched earth approach.

     We live in an era when many seem to have less personal time while having more people, products and causes clamoring for our attention. (Have you checked your smart phone while reading this?) We cannot digest all the expectations coming our way. If indigestion rather than confusion is really what defines our present spiritual state, yours or mine, it’s time for a diet. As Lent approaches, I can ask what sort of fasting will allow me to better pray and worship. And make me a more hope-filled conversation companion or homilist.

     May we accept the graces that God is holding out to us.