The oxygen of the Church

by Editor · May 30, 2007

As living beings, we are always in need of improvement. Likewise, as a living body, the Church is always in need of reform.

The principle of �Ecclesia semper reformanda est� (�the Church is always in need of reform�) did not perish with last renewal of the Church. At times the progress of reformation has been seismic, such as the apostles� reception of gentiles, the Gregorian reforms of the 11th century, the Council of Trent, Vatican II. At other times reforms evolve as the Church reads the signs of the times or comes to new understandings of reality.

Time was when the Church emphatically condemned usury (the charging of interest on loans), condoned slavery, performed capital punishment, taught astronomical fallacies, and was led by popes who were also temporal rulers.

Today the Church invests in banks, condemns and acts against human trafficking, campaigns against the death penalty, favours evolution theories over creationism, and discourages its clergy from engaging in active politics.

In brief, most of the Church�s non-essential teachings and disciplines are open to adjustment.

And then there are some doctrines without which a Catholic could not be a Catholic, chiefly the deposit of the faith and the infallibly declared dogma.

There is always the temptation to find comfort in treating all that the Church teaches as being beyond challenge, virtually placing subsidiary teachings and even disciplines on the same level as the deposit of the faith (such as the incarnation, resurrection, trinity, real presence) , dispensing with the notion of a hierarchical order of truths.

Falling for this temptation, however, is an error. Some of the things we believe to be true today may well prove to be not so true tomorrow. Think of usury, think of Galileo, think of slavery.

It is revealing that Pope Benedict felt obligated to issue a pre-emptive invitation to the readers of his new book, Jesus of Nazareth, to disagree with him on anything he has written in it. In doing so, the Holy Father doubtlessly was aware that in the minds of many Catholics there is no distinction between the pope�s teaching authority, and his personal opinions.

The distinction between dogma, reformable teachings and even opinions tends to be blurred. History should record that the profoundly academic Pope Benedict has sought to sharpen these distinctions.

For example, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger he reportedly cautioned Pope John Paul II against the idea of proclaiming infallible Pope Paul VI�s traching in the 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae, which banned artificial birth control. The future Pope Benedict presumably subscribes to the content of that encyclical�he has given no hint that he doesn�t�but also acknowledges that the Church�s position on contraceptives may be open to review.

Indeed, before Pope Paul issued Humanae vitae, his own commission of eminent theologians, who had studied the question for several years, advised him not to ban outright all forms of artificial birth control.

Even though Pope Paul disagreed with their conclusion, it cannot be that these illustrious theologians became dissenters from Church teaching overnight. It follows that a well-grounded challenge to the conclusions of Humane vitae is in itself not an act of dissent.

Those who arbitrarily call into question the Catholic credentials and reputation of those who question the non-essential teachings of our faith are doing the Church a disservice.

It is easy to forget that many of our greatest saints in their time posed uncomfortable questions of the Church. What a poorer Church might we have had if not for the likes of St Francis of Assisi who did, in love and loyalty, challenge the Church?

Inquiry and dialogue are as much the oxygen of the Church as are prayer and devotions. Deprive the living Body of Christ of that oxygen, and it will die.