Stop the Scheming

The Catholic Church is not immune to internal conflict and division, to cliques, to scheming and backstabbing. Every now and then Pope Francis reminds priests that they must not see their clerical ministry as a career path but as a service to God and to his people.

Using the colloquial metaphors that often drive home his point forcefully, he has advised priests to avoid contracting ‘spiritual Alzheimer’s’, meaning that they must not forget the roots of the vocation.

He has also called clerical careerism ‘leprosy’. This doesn’t mean that the pope does not want priests to have a decent level of ambition, one which finds expression in the aspiration to do a good job. He certainly does not want shoddy priests who don’t care.

Healthy ambition must be motivated by the genuine desire to serve God and his people well, but not by lust for power and privilege.

Most priests seek to live out their calling faithfully, following the advice of the pope: ‘Yours is a life of service: God chose you to serve.’ Many succeed admirably in this and by their example bring people closer to God.

Every priest, however, is also human and subject to temptations. These can be immediately discernible, such as that of breaking one’s promise of chastity, or they can be almost imperceptible, poisoning good intentions with damaging behaviour.

Few priests are immune, for example, from the very human impulse to jockey for position: to assert greater authority in the parish, or to motivate for a transfer to a better parish, or to suggest himself for a powerful appointment. Even the holiest priests will know the struggles with the temptation to place self before God. And this is where Pope Francis, perhaps speaking from a position of self-awareness, is offering his counsel.

Just as the Holy Father rose up the ranks, indeed, to the Church’ s highest position, so will other priests be appointed to prestigious parishes or powerful positions. That’s how it must be. However, these advancements must be the product of meritorious and principled service, not the result of ambitious strategies or clandestine manoeuvring.

As it is in every human organisation, the Catholic Church is not immune to internal conflict and division, to cliques, to scheming and backstabbing. But while in the secular world, especially in business, this is taken for granted, it should be anathema in the Church.

This applies to the clergy and religious in their congregations, and also to lay people who work for the Church, as employees or as volunteers, from the flower-arranging group in the parish to the boards of big welfare organisations.

Business is governed by mammon, and all the sin that involves, but the Church is governed by God. Pride, envy, greed, egotism and duplicity run counter to the Lord’s commandments, especially those which call us to unity and love for the other.

While manipulative strategising and backstabbing might win contracts in business, in the Church they constitute offences to Christ.

This is nothing new, of course. Jesus himself had to address unseemly exhibitions of ambition among his apostles, such as when James and John (or, in Matthew’s gospel, Mrs Zebedee acting on behalf of her sons) vied for privileged seating arrangements in the afterlife (Mk 10:37, Mt 20:21).

St Paul expressed his exasperation at the division of the Christians in Corinth with their competing Christian parties and all the politics and double-crossing that involved.

Invariably there will be disagreement on points of theology or doctrine in the Church, and about vision and policy in Church organisations, including parishes. These debates must be conducted forthrightly but always in a spirit of respect for those on the opposite side. This is important, for when we harm those with whom we engage, we offend against love.

As Christians, all we do must be directed to Christ. That isn’t easy; even the most virtuous will fail at times to exercise humility and to extend charity towards others, but we may never give up trying to meet Christ’s supreme commandment.

Crucially, we must avoid the scandal of committing devious acts towards others and manipulating situations in order to gain advantages or to satisfy our ambitions, for what we do to those whom we scheme against, we do to Christ.