Viewpoint
The holiness of democracy
By TED SCHMIDT and ROSEMARY
GANLEY
Did somebody say democracy? Other
than to utter the automatic response that the Catholic church isn’t
one?
Begging to differ, evidence is mounting that lots of Catholics
today are uttering the word, even in good company. They are thinking, speaking,
writing and publishing ideas about the democratization of the church. They are
exploring the idea that democracy conforms much more closely to Jesus’ own
discipleship of equals; that it serves the modern mind, which has become
accustomed for decades in the West to participating in society. They are saying
that it would have prevented the worst excesses of today’s sex abuse
behaviors by clergy and cover-up by unaccountable bishops.
Can anyone imagine, asks one Catholic newspaper, a diocesan
decision-making board that included women and had responsibility for money,
ever approving secret payments to priest offenders to defend themselves in
court, as happened recently in an Ontario diocese, or to authorizing payouts to
victims in exchange for their silence?
Scholars and theologians, teenagers and prayer group members,
feminists and lawyers, the fellow in the corner store, all are talking about
deep reforms in structure and governance in the Catholic church.
Winston Churchill famously said, “Democracy is the worst form
of government except for all the others.” It’s past time the leaders
of the church acknowledge and welcome this reality and begin moving to
implement, even if it takes decades, a democratic form of governance in this
church of ours.
If it can be dreamed, it can be done. The people of God want a
commitment, a timeline, the introduction of forms of real inclusion and
influence. Acute critics of the present form of church governance, like
Harvard’s Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, put it bluntly. To the Vatican
delegation at the United Nations in 1995, she wrote, “If your delegation
represents the Vatican state, an antiquated and decorative monarchy in Italy,
you are entitled to your quaint worldview on motherhood and women’s
complementarity. But you do not dare to speak for Catholic women worldwide, and
your legitimacy must be challenged. We have neither elected nor commissioned
you to represent us.”
James Carroll’s new book, Toward a New Catholic
Church, celebrates the “holiness of democracy.” “All who
exist participate in the existence of God,” he writes, quoting Vaclav
Havel of Czechoslovakia who said in 1990, “Democratic traditions slumber
in the subconscious of all nations.”
Democracy is a value of the highest order. Christians believe that
the Holy Spirit resides in the church through all of us, not just through the
hierarchy. Thus, not to use this lived wisdom in more inclusive ways is
damaging to the church and an affront to the justice it claims to embody. The
institution has been and continues to be rife with examples of imperious
pastors operating on whim and arbitrarily overriding consensual decisions.
And just when we thought things were improving, we find the John
Paul II brigade of new ordinands coming over the horizon with their
anti-democratic notions of church. Let us be clear about this: Authority
belongs with the people through which the Spirit breathes.
The Catholic church has had a genius for emulating the form of
government in which it has found itself: in the monarchical, the feudal, and
now the democratic ages. It is running behind the current age and must move
forward with vigor and good faith.
As James Carroll suggests, “Bishops now should be chosen by
the people they serve. The clerical caste, a vestige of the medieval court,
should be eliminated. Vatican III should establish equal rights for women in
every sphere. The church must institute a system of checks and balances, due
process, legislative norms designed for equality for all.” The freedom and
dignity of the friends of God are best served by such a form of our living
together.
Ted Schmidt and Rosemary Ganley are editors of Catholic New
Times, a biweekly national Catholic newspaper in Canada.
National Catholic Reporter, November 08,
2002
|
