Certain truths, whether convenient or not, are undeniable.
One such truth is the fact that past choices lead to present circumstances. Likewise, present choices will lead to future situations.
Time and happenstance occur in everyone's lives.
But imagine using them as an excuse for a willful incapacity to accept personal responsibility for the present condition in which we find ourselves. At some point in the journey of life, we have to take ownership of our lives and cease blaming or faulting prior experiences or the actions of others for our present state. The alternative is to consign ourselves to being victims, powerless and ineffectual to change or improve our present situation or future aspirations.
The first step in the process of directing our future is to be honest and realistic in assessing where we are in this moment and what we have done, what personal choices we made which have brought us to this place. This is true for individuals. This is true for societies, whether secular or religious.
And so, as Catholics, we need to analyze and reflect upon the contemporary state of the Church. Both Clergy and laity need to engage in a candid consideration of our present condition if we are ever to hope to experience a revitalized relationship with the Body of Christ in the future.
So, lets take a look at where things stand in the Church at the moment.
Clearly, the Church has lost its once-established and influential dominance over the cultures of Europe and America. And, in its attempt to regain that influence, the Church has become increasingly polarized.
Bishops no longer enjoy the allegiance of the faithful on any number of moral or social issues ranging from abortion to capital punishment. The Bishops appear to be apathetic and powerless to effectively engage with the issues facing contemporary society and have been eager to retreat from public witness to the mandates and counsels of the Gospel.
For their part, the laity have a diminished understanding and appreciation for what is essentially and uniquely “Catholic”.
Studies have verified that within the denominations which comprise the Christian church, over the course of their lives 1 in 5 persons will switch denominations at least twice and 1 in 10 will switch three or more.
Catholics commitment to the Church tends to be thin. As a result, it take little impetus for them to abandon their Catholic practice in favor of other Christian churches less likely to challenge their viewpoints and lifestyles.
This “new ecumenism” appears to enjoy the enthusiastic support of Pope Francis who has eagerly embraced and commended religious sects and cults, be they Christian, Jewish, Islamic or even pagan. So much so that many conclude that the once-treasured “uniqueness” of the Catholic Church as the one, true Church largely has been diluted in the minds of many of the Catholic faithful.
Commendable as it is to actively work to remove old hatreds and antipathies, the consequence of relativising religious faith can only negatively impact the commitment and fidelity of the faithful to the eternal truths the Church claims to proclaim with singular authority.
And within the Church today, the relationship of the Bishop and the diocese to the local parish has been severely eroded. Catholics bear their name as members of a particular diocese and as the flock of a particular Bishop, but marginally. As one critic has noted: Catholics fly the flag of the diocese, but not too high; they give allegiance to the Bishop, but not unequivocally; they respect his ordinances, but observe some with benign neglect.”
This becomes particularly evident when Bishops develop policies or strategies which negatively impact or even result in the suppression of parishes. The faithful are loyal to the Church, but that loyalty is first and foremost directed to their neighborhood parish and Pastor.
Further directing our attention to the ecclesiastical structure of the Church, diocesan bureaucracy has become so bloated that the local Church is increasingly becoming the “object” of mission rather than the “agent” of mission.
More and more, parishes are being asked to sacrifice (and in some case jeopardize) their limited resources to provide income for diocesan administrative offices and agencies. Parishes coffers are being drained to provide funds for the extended ministries provided by the diocese, oftentimes in programs and policies which end in failure or result in a limited return for the investment required.
A new paradigm has emerged in contemporary diocesan administration: that the parishes exist to support the diocese rather than the other way around. This is a recipe for failure and bankruptcy, pure and simple.
And the Bishops are loathe to confront the reality that a cataclysmic change has swept over the earth. New technologies of communication have developed. The Internet has become a new nation in itself, with a citizenship and allegiance of popular and cultural attention the world has never seen before.
A century ago, over one-third of the world’s population identified itself as “Christian” with Catholicism being its largest denomination.
Today, Christendom still comprises a third of the religious faith of world, but the center of gravity has shifted from an adherence to hierarchical authority in the enunciation of the Faith to a more personal and subjective commitment to the Gospel and its tenets.
The present state of affairs in the Church is the result of the historical choices the Church has made and the various directions in which it has advanced agendas no longer strictly limited to the mission of proclaiming the Gospel.
Those choices have led to a diminished Church, a weaker Church, a more impoverished Church both morally and temporally.
It is clear that the Bishops, far from redirecting the Church’s from these historic choices, are reluctant to even admit the precarious condition in which the Church finds itself.
What will the Church look like a century from now? It’s a question which looms over the very fate of humanity and the continuation of Western civilization as well.
It is beneficial and well for us, then, to invoke the words of the prayer to the Holy Spirit Who alone can provide the wisdom and the courage necessary to revitalize the Church: “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and renew the face of the earth (and Your Church)!”
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