Perspective
A looming clash between priests and lay ministers
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
The most radicalized Catholics in
Europe today are in German-speaking countries. It is there petition drives
demanding change have garnered millions of signatures, there reformers are
fixtures in the media, there that the pope cant hit an airport tarmac
without drawing protests.
In part, the tumult is attributable to a series of controversial
episcopal appointments and clerical scandals; in part, its traditional
resentment by German-speaking Catholics of Vatican hegemony (reaching back to
the away from Rome movement in the 19th century).
But theres another, deeper factor. The church in these areas
is supported by a state-collected tax, which funds a sprawling network of
ministries, charitable organizations and educational ventures. These church
operations are staffed by tens of thousands of lay people, most of whom are
fairly well-paid and quite well-educated. It is, in effect, a Catholic civil
service.
It is these lay professionals -- the so-called ecclesial
nomenklatura -- who are the avant-garde of reform efforts. The Austrian
We Are Church movement, for example, was launched in 1995 by a high
school religion teacher and a parish worker. Such lay professionals work for
the church full-time, so they have an enormous stake in its policies.
Clericalism grates on them in a special way because theyre in the
trenches with it 9-to-5. Since most of them have graduate training in theology,
they have the intellectual wherewithal to critique the system.
Some naturally fear reprisals for speaking out -- theyre
afraid of losing their jobs, or not getting promotions or raises. While only a
minority therefore go public, many others lend behind-the-scenes support.
I bring this up in light of ongoing discussion about the new breed
of American Catholic seminarians, who on the whole appear to be remarkably
conservative. Dean Hoge of The Catholic University has published research
showing that while younger Catholics resemble their Baby Boomer parents --
meaning they think the church needs to be more flexible on issues such as
married priests and birth control -- younger clergy take a much more
traditional stance. Hoge has suggested, apropos these findings, that we can
expect increased tension between priests and people in the pews in the years to
come.
But theres a twist to this scenario, and that is the surging
number of professional lay ministers in America taking over jobs formerly held
by clerics, such as hospital chaplaincies, youth ministries and religious
education programs. Today there are approximately 27,000 lay people employed in
some ministerial role for at least 20 hours a week in the U.S. church with more
than 30,000 in training -- a solid majority of them women. That dwarfs the
number of new clergy moving through the pipeline; in 1998 there were 3,386
graduate seminarians in the United States.
The U.S. church is thus generating its own lay
nomenklatura, analogous in some ways to the European scene. I phoned the
experts -- Hoge, Msgr. Philip Murnion of the National Pastoral Life Center and
Zeni Fox of Immaculate Conception Seminary -- all of whom said theyre not
aware of any hard data about the attitudes of lay ministers on church issues.
All said, however, that anecdotal evidence suggests lay ministers are
progressive theologically. They have an egalitarian ecclesiology and could be
expected to support change across a wide range of issues.
As they fan out into parishes and schools, these lay ministers are
likely to butt heads with younger, more traditionalist priests. The American
Catholic church is, in other words, currently educating two sets of ministers
whose belief systems are worlds apart.
On one level, its possible to find this prospect
encouraging. It means that conservative forces cant eradicate the vision
of Vatican II simply by ordaining priests who act like it never happened.
Instead, the legacy of the council is being picked up by a new generation of
lay leaders -- perhaps its logical bearers in any event.
Its hard not to look with pride at the lay reformers
overseas and wish the American church had more of their spunk.
On the other hand, no one wants to see more American parishes and
schools torn apart by ideological conflict. If you talk to reform leaders in
Germany or Austria, most say theyre sick of the fighting -- they wish
their groups could act in partnership with church leaders instead of shouting
at one another across barricades. In some places that has happened and
remarkable results have been achieved, but it remains the exception.
The American church right now is blessed with foresight; we can
see this conflict coming. Whether we are able to find common ground where our
new priests and our new lay professionals -- and the vastly differing visions
of church they embody -- can work out a modus vivendi remains to be seen.
Its time to start the conversation.
John L. Allen Jr. is NCR opinion editor. His e-mail
address is jallen@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, May 14,
1999
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