As promised, I am beginning a series of posts on what I believe are a number of fallacies underlying strategies Bishops and others in leadership positions appear to be eagerly adopting in responding to the crisis of faith and membership presently affecting the Church.
The series may be interrupted before it is completed due to what may be considered news worthy of comment. But it will be presented in its fullness, I promise.
I hope you will find the postings interesting, if not challenging.
Your comments (which I do not publish) are welcome. And, even though I do not post your comments on this blogsite, I do refer to them often and share their viewpoint when they are particularly insightful and appropriate to the issue.
So, let’s begin.
Fallacy #1: All heretics are misguided fools.
They may garner immediate attention, but allegiance to their errors quickly wanes and the faithful return to the orthodox teachings of the Church.
This is not a new fallacy.
As a matter of fact, just about a half-century ago, Walter Nigg, a Swiss Reformed theologian and church historian, wrote The Heretics to establish that the great heresies in church history were the result of some smart people with real grievances, and not the errant fools some have attempt to make them out to be.
I must confess that reading Wigg’s book was an eye-opener for me indeed!
But, I will say that things are quite a bit different these days when it comes to heresy within the Church.
There are no longer crowds carrying torches and hoisting banners emblazened with heretical slogans that are the rallying cry of those who challenge the doctrines and magisterial authority of the Successors of Peter.
These days, heresy is introduced among the faithful by way of the secular media which powerfully molds public opinion, making what was once morally offensive or unthinkable appear to be commonplace and acceptable, especially in the minds of young believers who in turn have extraordinary sway over the opinions of their parents.
These are the quiet unorthodox beliefs that many Catholics, who would consider themselves faithful to Church teaching and practice, believe and often express politically.
I dare say that vast majority of Catholics these days hold positions regarding abortion in the case of rape or when the life of the mother is in jeopardy which stand in stark contrast to the official teaching of the Church that abortion is intrinsically evil and is never legitimate or permissable.
The same would hold true regarding homosexual relationships, same sex marriage, end of life issues.
Catholics, for the most part, quietly have assimilated the positions of popular culture on these moral issues.
Certainly, the scandal attendant to the sexual abuse of minors by Priests and Clerics has done much to undermine the thinking of many Catholics regarding the sacredness of the Priesthood.
If Bishops and Priests believe they can counter the affect of these cultural influences by simply restating the orthodox teachings of the Church, they do not appreciate the problem the Church is up against nor will they succeed in mounting a successful defense against it.
Popes still write Apostolic Letters and the like, composed of thousands of words and hundreds of pages. Bishops write Pastoral Letters, shorter in length but no less complex to the average Catholic. Pastors preach too long and often about frivolous issues.
They haven’t figured it out yet.
People don’t read. Fewer than 10% of the general public read newspapers any more. Fewer than that percentage read books.
Practically, everything people know these days comes to them either from TV or the Internet, by way of 30 second blurbs or the condensed communications on Twitter.
People’s attention spans are measured in seconds these days and they are becoming even shorter.
Don’t believe me? The average length of a SuperBowl commerical is 30 seconds and costs millions of dollars.
That is the power the tube exercises over peoples choices and impressions about themselves, their neighbors, about life itself.
And those who command the airways and the Net are the teachers and preachers of modernday values and behavior.
Make no mistake about that!
The Church has failed to counteract the heresies with which Catholics are constantly bombarded because it has failed to respond to these untruths using the very instruments which have been so effective in popularizing them.
Lengthy arguments, heady treatises, bombastic sermons are no longer effective in combating the persuasive force of an image or a terse Tweet.
The Vatican doesn’t get it. The USCCB doesn’t get. Most Pastors don’t get it.
Even the length of this blog is proof that, while I think I understand the fallacy and how it should be counteracted, I am still unable to reduce my thoughts to a Tweet.
You, the readers of this blogsite, are the exceptions to the rule these days taking time to inform yourselves regarding the Church.
Perhaps, the day will come when the Church is able to take a lead in finding a way of communicating the truths of the Faith in a way that attracts peoples’ attention and succeeds in convincing them of their value.
I pray and hope so.
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