In all things charity

Catholics are prone to lament that they do not always receive sufficient respect from those outside the Church, especially from those in the secular world.

One reason for that doubtless involves those teachings and disciplines of the Catholic Church that run counter to the prevailing mood.

Another reason for the lack of external respect may reside in the internal deficit in respect. The manner of discourse in the Church often is deprived entirely of Christian love.

How can we, the Church, demand respect from non-Catholics when we cannot even show respect to one another?

We sinfully fail to communicate Christ’s love when we denounce, deride, insult, denigrate, scorn, misrepresent, ridicule, suspect, slander, doubt and label one another—or even tolerate such behaviour when we observe it. It is a bitter irony that in the supposed defence of Christ, his commandment—“that you love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34-35)—often is arbitrarily violated.

Disagreement need not mean discord. The followers of Christ have differed over all manner of subjects, even in apostolic times. Peter and  Paul had fundamental disagreements and debated these vigorously. But in disagreement they did not occupy adversarial positions, or question the other’s good faith.

Catholics will always differ with one another, even at the highest hierarchical levels. They will have diverging views on what Our Lord expects of us, on how to interpret and apply particular doctrines and teachings, and on how to understand the Church and its structures.

It is arrogant to believe that one’s conclusions on such matters—if they do not involve the deposits of our faith—are invariably beyond deliberation and to be held by everybody.

If there was no debate, then there would be no room for the Church to grow; it would be static and lifeless. The principle of “Ecclesia semper reformanda est” (“The Church is always in need of reform”) did not perish with the last renewal of the Church.

At some points, reforms were seismic: 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 and adapts accordingly, where it is possible. This requires a patient and open dialogue that acknowledges the presence of the Holy Spirit in all we do.

Healthy debate—conducted in a spirit of charity and love for the faith—does not damage the Church, but helps nourish the living body of Christ. Some of our greatest saints in their time posed uncomfortable questions of the Church. How different our Church might be if not for the questioning, in love and loyalty, by St Francis of Assisi?

It is not admissible to attack the good faith of fellow Catholics, regardless of the depth of disagreement. Whether conservative or progressive (in as far as these labels are at all meaningful), Catholics have the right to appeal to the teaching authority of the Church to reconsider matters that are not essential to our faith. That in itself does not exclude them from being in good standing with the Church—whereas to claim that they are may be an act of error itself.

Catholic discourse must be governed by the maxim often misattributed to St Augustine of Hippo but quoted approvingly by Pope John XXIII in his first encyclical, Ad Petri cathedram (1959): “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”