THE DEADLY VIRUS OF COMPLACENCY

With great interest and enthusiasm, I read a posting on the Catholic News Agency.  The article referenced an Archbhishop in Nigeria who spoke of a clear and certain sense of complacency on the part of his Pastors and Priests which “end up damaging the Church”.

Archbishop Matthew Man’ Oso Ndagoso of Kaduna, during his homily delivered at the episicopal consecration of Philip Davou Dung as Bishop of Shendam, said: “I have observed among us Priests and Religious a lack of proper sense of mission, a lack of serious missionary commitment and a lack of missionary creativity.”

The Archbishop further observed that he has witnessed an attitude which takes for granted the pews of the Church being filled because of what he refers to as “an established Catholic identity”.  This, the Archbishop commented, results in a presumptive and lethargic attitude, a “deadly virus of complacency”.

“We like to bask in the euphoria of our being the first and well established Roman Catholic Church founded on Peter the Rock with no sense of urgency to proclaim the gospel,” said Archbishop Ndagoso, adding that parishioners are being devoured by wolves “without any serious concern except that of assuring and reassuring ourselves that when some leave, others will come in on their own”

Archbishop Ndagoso emphasized that the time for waiting on people to fill the pews is an outdated practice, and now is the time in which the gospel must be lived outwardly: “Ours is the era of the shepherd leaving the 99 sheep and going out in search of the lost one.”

“We must therefore avoid the temptation of feeling secure in our well established church and rest content with our huge attendance at Masses.”

The living out the gospel needs a watchfulness and an extension into society, and cannot be lived out in a complacent or indifferent way, he reflected.

I agree with the Archbishop’s observations and comments which I believe explain much of the recent experience of such great loss of membership within the Church in the United States.   Catholics have been thrown to the wolves in the assault against them by an increasingly secular society and mass media.  Bishops and Pastors have been silent against these attacks, choosing instead to take assurance in the fact that the Church will perdure.  Some Bishops have even pubicly stated that a “smaller Church might be a better Church.”

When the Bishops and our Pastors finally realize the power and influence of Grace that derives from a submissive reading and study of the Scriptures, the Wisdom of the Lord that is available through a love of His Holy Word, and when they invite God’s People to humble prayer asking His Divine Protection over the Body of Christ, then and only then may the Church experience a true rebirth and revitalization, and the world know the hope of redemption.