Church in
Crisis
College launches project to respond to crisis
By CHUCK COLBERT
Chestnut Hill, Mass.
The U.S bishops sometimes ask, what is the Catholic identity of
our colleges and universities? They should have been here the evening of Sept.
18. That identity was on full display as Boston College inaugurated its
“Church in the 21st Century Project,” a multi-year series of public
lectures, workshops, panel discussions, and scholarly conferences, all designed
in response to the crisis in the church.
The crisis -- prolonged here by a steady stream of allegations of
sexual misconduct by priests -- has roiled no other diocese as much as the
Boston archdiocese. Feelings range from shock, horror and disgust, to anger,
outrage, betrayal and confusion.
Still, more than 4,000 people turned out at the Conte Forum on the
Boston College campus for the opening event, “From Crisis to Renewal: The
Task Ahead,” featuring a keynote address by a nationally recognized
religion editor, as well as responses to his speech from two professors of
theology and a prominent local Catholic businessman.
If the kickoff event is any measure of Boston College’s
seriousness of purpose, school officials left little doubt that scholarly, as
well as pastoral resources, can assist the church in the process of healing,
restoring trust, and renewal.
The opening event positioned Boston College, which has always had
a strong presence in the region, not simply as a think tank. Rather, the
university demonstrated its intention to engage the church in all its
fullness.
Other Catholic colleges and universities, both locally and
nationally, have held symposia and colloquia, but no other school has
established a formal and sustained program in response to the crisis.
Just across the street
Located across the street from archdiocesan offices and Boston
Cardinal Bernard Law’s residence -- often focal points of the crisis here
-- Boston College stands poised to make an important, if not unique,
contribution.
Jesuit Fr. William P. Leahy, the school’s president, promises
an open and freewheeling discussion on a variety of topics, including
controversial ones, for example, the church’s hierarchical and power
structure and the restriction of the priesthood to celibate men.
Broadly defined, the Boston College initiative has three focal
points: the role and relationships of laymen and women, priests and bishops;
sexuality in Catholic teaching and contemporary culture; and the challenge of
passing along to succeeding generations a vibrant and living faith.
During his keynote remarks Kenneth L. Woodward, a contributing
editor of Newsweek, touched upon all three focal points. “It is
shocking to realize how much institutional self-delusion prevails in the
American church, even more shocking to realize that the bishops -- and the
Vatican -- have been so unwilling to examine, or even to acknowledge, the many
disconnects between what is taught and what is believed,” he said.
In addressing the relationship between the laity and hierarchy,
Woodward said: “It is simply not true to say that the laity is uninvolved
in the life of the church. But it is true that the laity has no real voice in
making important decisions, and none at all in the decision-making processes of
the Holy See. Clericalism of this form is wrong.”
To right this wrong, Woodward suggests viewing the crisis as an
opportunity. “It is within church tradition to give a voice to the clergy
in the selection of bishops, and I see no reason why such a voice --or at least
a taking of the pulse -- could not be given to the laity as well,” he
said.
Woodward also waded into the stormy waters of gender and
sexuality. “Most Catholics, I would argue, experience the institutional
church as feminine: Holy Mother the Church,” he said. “I have argued
elsewhere, the Catholic church was ‘feminized’ long before there was
a feminist movement.”
On matters of sexuality, while holding as normative a Catholic
understanding of marriage, “possible only between male and female,”
Woodward, nevertheless, raised the question: “We must ask whether and how
we also ought to encourage monogamy among homosexuals.”
Woodward’s final perspectives concerned passing along the
faith, which, he said, “goes to the heart of what it means to be the
church.” He said, “I wonder would Boston College, or any other
Catholic university, be willing to withhold a diploma from any Catholic student
who did not pass a sophisticated, mandatory test designed to measure a
student’s grasp of the forms and content of faith?”
Thoughtful responses
Responses from two theologians and a businessman were equally
thoughtful and provocative. Roberto S. Goizueta, professor of theology at
Boston College, for instance, agreed with Woodward’s observation: The
Catholic church is the “most culturally and racially diverse religious
organization in the world,” Goizueta said.
Yet, “the church is often perceived as a Western, European
institution,” while “most Catholics live in the so-called Third
World, where one finds the fastest-growing segment of the global Catholic
population,” he said. By this decade’s end, however, most U.S.
Catholics will be Hispanic.
“It is significant that response of many Latino Catholics --
particularly immigrant and poor Latinos -- to the present crisis has been
noticeably different from that of middle-class white Catholics,” Goizueta
said. Moreover, “Since the scandal broke in January, the Latino community
has held rallies, marches and vigils in support of the church,” he said,
referring to a Los Angeles Times article several months ago.
Moreover, Goizueta said: “The church structure that so often
marginalizes Hispanics, the structure that facilitates the coddling of
criminals and the cover-up of sexual abuse, may be the same structure that
facilitates the defense of poor immigrants when the vast majority of Americans,
Catholics or otherwise, couldn’t care less.”
Yet, he said, “To Euro-American Catholics hungering for a
faith that will move them ahead and a community that will inspire them, Latino
Catholics bring a deeply felt, vibrant faith and, as Ken Woodward noted, a more
organic sense of church.”
Boston College professor of theology Lisa Sowle Cahill, who also
responded to the keynote address, said the crisis “is not ultimately about
sex but about trust, not only about the morality of sex with minors -- which we
all agree is wrong -- but about the morality of the institutional response that
allowed the abuse to go on for so long,” she said.
Cahill agreed with Woodward, too, that “sex should be part of
a committed relationship, and that both sex and marriage are meant for
nurturing the next generation,” she said.
“There are, however, complications,” she added,
referring to unions of gay and lesbian couples and those marriages where
“the love once present ends or is violated.” She also asked:
“What about the many couples, otherwise good Catholics, who live together
while intending eventual marriage and parenthood?”
On the matters of gender and sexuality, Cahill offered a different
perspective from that of Woodward. “He refers to the church as a grand
phallic pyramid inhabited by a lot of womblike circles,” she said.
“He defends the all-male celibate priesthood on so-called
‘sociological’ evidence that people, especially men, prefer sexist
churches; but finally, he vouches for the ultimately feminine character of
religion.”
Still, Cahill said: “I don’t know where to go with this.
But gender obviously has a lot to do with whether the inclusion of women in the
Catholic ‘inner sanctum’ would or would not create a healthier and
more Christian atmosphere, enabling, among other things, better formation of
men committed to celibacy.”
To live an inspired life
Cahill’s final comments concerned the faith life of young
Catholics. “I think Catholic college students and young adults hunger for
some way to live a challenging, inspired life in a culture of materialism,
transience, cynicism and superficiality,” she said.
“Today’s young adults don’t need
‘permission’ to disobey rigid sexual norms of the past -- nor will
their hearts be won over by abstract, dogmatic or technical defenses of sexual
rules that never connect with their experiences.
“They want concrete ways to envision their own lives as
different from what passes for sexual sophistication in the culture, while
still maintaining bonds with their peers.”
Perhaps the most pointed response to the keynote address came from
Jack Connors Jr., a 1963 Boston College graduate and trustee.
“Those church leaders who have made a series of bad judgments
may continue to hold onto their titles, but they will be leaders in title
only,” said Connors, a founding partner and chief executive officer of
Hill, Holliday, Connors and Cosmopulos, an advertising firm. “A majority
of Catholics are moving forward without them. Witness this crowd.”
Yet, “I’m very uncomfortable with those who have decided
they’re going to stop supporting the activities of the church,”
Connors said. “But one part of the temple of power is money, and
that’s an important asset that needs to be redirected where it’s
going to do the most good, and for the moment that may be at the local
level,” Connors said.
Still, he said, “When theologians are silenced, when innocent
priests are ousted without an opportunity to defend themselves, when the laity
is kept from substantive participation, the church fails to pursue the
truth,” he said. “We need to open the windows. We need to let in some
fresh air and we need to stop sweeping our secrets under the
Orientals.”
“The church must change,” Connors declared. That line
drew a standing ovation.
Freelance journalist Chuck Colbert writes from Cambridge,
Mass.
Related Web sites
Church in the 21st Century
Project
www.bc.edu/church21
Archdiocese of Baltimore
Child/Youth
Protection
www.archbalt.org/content.asp?id=328
Survivors
Network of those Abused by
Priests
www.survivorsnetwork.org
National Catholic Reporter, October 11,
2002
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