“This Hapless Bench”

Last month I commented on the not very secret “secret meeting” between some bishops and a largeish group of progressive laity, including some notable doctrinal dissenters, to discuss the future of the Church. The protest over that meeting resulted in another in early September, this time between the executive committee of the bishops conference and about forty notable champions of Catholic fidelity, of her apostolic structure, teaching, and mission. Participants I’ve talked with say the meeting may have done some good, but I confess that I thought and think it was a dubious undertaking. It reinforces the line of the “Common Ground Initiative” that there is what might be called an ecclesial symmetry between those who do and those who do not accept the Church’s teaching.

The Church is a holy mother and is very patient with those who have difficulties with her teaching, but as Avery Cardinal Dulles put it in “True and False Reform” (FT, August/September): “The only kind of reform that the Church should consider is one based on authentically Christian and Catholic principles. Holy Scripture and Catholic tradition give the necessary parameters. All who propose ecclesial reform should make it clear at the outset that they sincerely embrace these principles. Otherwise they should not be invited to participate in the process.” By meeting with “the left” and then with “the right,” with “liberals” and then with “conservatives,” bishops put themselves in the position of brokering the difference between those who reject and those who embrace the principles to which Dulles refers. Worse, bishops look very much like politicians pandering to their several constituencies.

Of course, that is apparently what some bishops mean when they say they are “pastoral” and view their office as a “symbol of unity.” Being pastoral, one might suggest, means bearing witness to the fullness of the truth and patiently persuading others to enter into the fullness of the communio established by the truth. The Common Ground approach is a convenient way for bishops to evade their responsibility. More than once I’ve heard a bishop say that he must be doing something right since he is criticized by both the Wanderer (on the right) and the National Catholic Reporter (on the left). That is self-serving nonsense. Maybe both the Wanderer and NCR recognize that he is doing something wrong.

Bishops are ordained “to teach, sanctify, and govern.” Faithful Catholics earnestly want them to do that, and to do it effectively. To be sure, bishops should listen to everybody. More important, they should clearly speak the mind of the Church. To which a bishop responds that dissenters also reflect the mind of the Church, thus indicating that he either does not understand or does not accept what the Magisterium of the Catholic Church means by the mind of the Church. The crisis in which we are embroiled is, in largest part, attributable to bishops who seem not to understand their responsibilities.

In the September meeting, several participants pressed the bishops on why they do not address the scandal of prominent Catholics, notably politicians, who publicly and persistently oppose the Church’s teaching on abortion and yet, to all appearances, remain in untroubled communion with the Church. A bishop responded by citing an instance in which another bishop publicly criticized such a politician, thus winning sympathy for him and he won the election. A prominent business leader who was at the meeting and is active in politics told me, “My heart sank as I listened to him. Here was a bishop telling us that speaking the truth is politically counterproductive, so he will not speak the truth. His job is to be a teacher and shepherd of the flock, damn it, not to be a political tactician. Let him do his job and we’ll take care of the politics. That’s our job as lay people.” He might have cited, although he didn’t, the Second Vatican Council on precisely that point.

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska”who, for his candor, some of his colleagues think unclubbable”has spoken about “this hapless bench of bishops.” That is putting it pretty strongly, and there are admirable exceptions, but it is embarrassingly close to the mark. I do not think that most bishops begin to appreciate how many devout Catholics are embarrassed by them, and embarrassed for them.