Shouting into the wind

by Editor · February 19, 2003

As the only national Catholic weekly newspaper in South Africa, The Southern Cross benefits from serving and uniting within its pages the full range of Catholic opinion.

Few Catholic publications can present such a breadth of viewpoints as this newspaper does. In many countries, Catholic publications cater for specific ideological directions. This diversity is particularly evident in the United States, where an abundance of Catholic newspapers and magazines cover more or less strictly specific schools of thought.

Thus, the National Catholic Reporter can be characterised as being a critical-progressive organ, Our Sunday Visitor as moderate-conservative, and The Wanderer as hardline-traditionalist � with many other publications echoing these agendas or filling the gaps.

Such diversification can and does result in the creation of what one may call ghettos of Catholic opinion, with a certain homogeneity of assumptions and lack of profoundly divergent perspectives. As a result, communication and debate between the various schools of thought within the broad Church tends to be stifled, and positions tend to become entrenched.

The Vaticanologist John L Allen Jr in his outstanding study of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican Enforcer of the Faith, Continuum, 2000) pointedly summarises this Catholic ghetto mentality thus:

“The problem with political arguments in contemporary Catholicism is that too often the disagreeing parties simply talk past one another, having very little intellectual common ground upon which to base the discussions.

“Neither side is willing to spend the intellectual effort to deeply understand the concerns that drive their opponents, the arguments that have led them to the conclusions they hold, the alternatives they have considered and rejected.”

Allen continues: “Each side suspects the other of being cavalier in its convictions and insufficiently grounded in the authentic depth of the Catholic tradition.”

The nature of recent debate in the letters pages of The Southern Cross bears out Allen�s conclusions. Many published letters have been marked by a lack of understanding and charity, by prejudice and suspicion, by polemic, and even by personal attacks and slander. These attributes are not consistent with the Christian ethos we profess.

The Southern Cross has also received (unpublished) letters that were plainly vindictive and legally libellous towards the editor and correspondents to the letters page.

One must presume that all Catholics who read The Southern Cross � from proponents of women�s ordination to opponents of the reforms of Vatican II � do so out of a deep love for Christ�s Church, the sacraments, and the faith. Readers take the trouble to write letters to the editor precisely because they love the Church.

While robust debate is inevitable and even desirable in our communal pursuit for truth, this should be marked by respect for the bona fides of those with whom one might differ.

By its nature, The Southern Cross has the potential to reflect the full richness of Catholic opinion within its pages, and aims to do so. Here is a place in which Catholics of polarised positions can come together and discern, with Christian charity, how and what “the other side” is thinking.

Let mutual understanding take the place of suspicion, mistrust and, indeed, loathing.