EDITORIAL Worlds top Catholics caught displaying Christian
panache
Someone should look into it -- the two top Catholics are showing
surprising Christian panache. Like, radical.
One cant, of course, be sure what is authentic Christian
panache. No one knows how Jesus Christ, had he waited to be incarnated in our
time, would comport himself, but we all have ideas about it. He would never
appear in the pinstriped, gold-plated elegance of, say, Wall Street, we think
-- unless, that is, we ourselves are Wall Street types. Ultimately, we all
envision Jesus looking and acting just like us. What else would a sensible
savior do?
The challenge is greater if youre a leader of Jesus
own church. You dont want the memory of a too radical Jesus getting you
into trouble or maybe making you look silly in todays buttoned-down
world.
Yet here are his two top representatives acting, to say the least,
interesting. Being, by recent standards, unpredictable.
First, there is Pope John Paul hanging out at a big rock concert
in Bologna where legendary iconoclast Bob Dylan was the main attraction. True,
this was in connection with a eucharistic congress, but when did the Vatican
last risk sharing charisma with such a crowd-pleasing superstar?
Dylan sang his famous Blowin in the Wind and the
pope did the exegesis: The answer thats blowing is the message of Jesus.
John Paul went on to say that Christianity was basically anticonformist,
inspiring people to reach for something better than the easy life, which can be
spiritually suffocating -- a beguiling brand of Christianity, not prohibitive
and dour but graceful and welcoming.
Dylan also sang Knockin on Heavens Door,
and later A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall, a ballad warning against
injustice in the world. Then the singer removed his cowboy hat and walked to
the front row for a hearty old handshake with the pope. The crowd, not
surprisingly, roared.
Then there was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, long noted for his repressive and punitive
approach to theology, talking about a church transcendent and shimmering as we
believe Jesus first envisioned it.
The church is not a business, she produces nothing, she has
no desire for power, Ratzinger said at a conference. She has the
simple duty to proclaim the truth according to the will of Christ and to
represent the face of God.
The German prelate was just warming up. He went on to condemn the
Inquisition for torturing and killing alleged heretics in centuries past:
I consider this a sin that should make us reflect and lead us to
repentance. He referred to the popes earlier call to repentance for
errant church behavior during the first two millennia. The church must
always be tolerant, Ratzinger now said. Therefore, we ask the Lord
for forgiveness ... that we not fall into these errors again. ... The church
must not make martyrs, but be a church of martyrs.
This is the same Ratzinger who made a career of purging the church
of theologians with whom he disagreed. Perhaps its something in the water
or a whiff of the new millennium already blowing in the wind, but it certainly
is refreshing. Its news. Unless were missing something, its
good news.
I dont know if I am the right person to ask
forgiveness, Ratzinger said, but I am convinced that we always need
to be aware of the temptation for the church, as an institution, to transform
itself into a state that persecutes its enemies.
Ratzingers words are sweet music. However Jesus on a return
visit might behave, we have reason to believe he would go easy on his enemies.
And his friends. Though sometimes he has asked a lot of his friends.
It could be an interesting millennium.
National Catholic Reporter, October 10,
1997
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