A few weeks back I experienced one of those coincidences that seem contrived in the re-telling. But it happened. You will have to take my word for it. I had just read a Paul Morriss piece about a meeting between certain members of the hierarchy and a group of Catholic laymen and laywomen, organized for the purpose of exploring ways to “democratize” the Church.
Within just hours, I read a syndicated column by Fr. Richard McBrien criticizing Catholic lay groups for being too quick to condemn the hierarchy for the way it has dealt with the homosexual priest sex scandals.
As they say, you couldn’t make this up. McBrien is the professor of theology at Notre Dame known for taking the liberal side on most theological questions. He has written often to take the side of theologians who complain when Church authorities limit their freedom by demanding adherence to the Magisterium. Yet here he was defending the American bishops against lay Catholics who are not sufficiently versed in theological subtleties — folks who apply the lessons they “learned in their Baltimore Catechisms” to issues more complex than they realize.
It makes one wonder about the calls by liberal groups within the Church for a more active role for the laity in defining Church teachings, all this talk about the way God speaks to the modern world through the “people of God,” rather than through papal authority. Do the liberals really think that God reveals himself through the “people of God”? Or only when the “people of God” think in line with the reigning views in liberal theological circles? It looks like the latter to me, as if the efforts to redefine the lines of authority in the Church are less about a proper understanding of how God speaks to modern man than they are about changing the Church’s teachings to bring them in line with “progressive” theological insights.
Isn’t this how it works: When majority opinion looks like it can be swayed to challenge traditional views (such as on birth control, abortion or married priests), we are told to respect the voice of God speaking through the “people of God.” But when the laity stands in the way of new “insights” (such as on the nature of homosexuality), we are told to defer to those with the proper theological training, to see beyond the maxims in our old Baltimore Catechism. When liberal theologians speak of the “people of God” they are talking about the views that carry the day in their academic seminars. It has nothing to do with the views of the ordinary Catholic.
Call me paranoid, but I don’t believe that liberal Catholics are any more disposed to believe that God the Father, a personal living God the Father, acts to reveal His will through the majority opinion of the folks in the pews — the “people of God” — than through the Pope and the bishops. But, come to think of it, neither am I. Bear with me for a minute.
Don’t get me wrong: I do not doubt for a minute that God the Father could act to reveal Himself through the will of the masses, in some kind of democratic process, if He chose to do so. Indeed, I believe that just such a process takes place over the centuries. I don’t want to join in the bashing of the Middle Ages, but, clearly, our modern understanding of the rights of non-believers, insanity, slavery, witchcraft, the role of women in society, torture, and a host of other issues are closer to what God wants from us than the views of a typical knight or serf on a medieval manor. Mankind has progressed in its thinking over the ages. We are not perfect, far from it. We get worse in some areas. But overall we progress.
That said, I would have a hard time accepting that God’s will is revealed to us by taking a poll of what the average person thinks at every moment in history. As the saying goes, “God writes straight with crooked lines.” The majority opinion at any moment in history is likely to be one of the crooked lines. And, let us not forget, if one argues for divine revelation through the will of the “people of God,” one is still arguing for a miraculous intervention in human history, no less a miraculous event than the Creator making his will known through the authority of the popes. It is only a question of which process is more plausible.
Well, from where I sit, it is easier to make an act of faith that God speaks through the Apostolic Succession than through popular opinion. The most rigorous thinkers in the history of the Church — Thomas Aquinas, Ignatius Loyola, Cardinal Newman, for example — have made precisely this act of faith. They examined the development of Catholic doctrine, dealt with the apparent errors made by Rome, and remained faithful Catholics after weighing the evidence. They accepted the authority of the popes to speak in Christ’s name. So do I.
But to ask me to accept that the views of the “people of God” reveal God’s will is a bridge too far. The mass of mankind is wrong too often, swayed too easily by fads and popular enthusiasms, Catholics included. Popular opinion is volatile. The consensus view of Catholics has changed dramatically on issues such as birth control, divorce, abortion, sexuality, the nature of the Eucharist and the need for the sacrament of Penance in just the last few decades. Who is right about these things? The Catholics of the 1950s or the Catholics of today?
Does God’s will for mankind change this often? If we say yes, I submit that we are doing what C.S. Lewis called “putting God in the dock,” judging God by the fleeting views of our moment in history. That is a God who would be hard to worship. It would be closer to what Hegel called the “Zeitgeist,” the spirit of the times, than the God the Father taught to us by Jesus. Of course, if one no longer believes in the personal God the Father taught by Jesus, the God who has numbered every hair on our heads, that is another matter. A version of the Zeitgest may be the only option.
A God who speaks to us through the “people of God”? Hard to picture? For the liberals too. I repeat: Fr. McBrien isn’t willing to trust the vox populi about how the Church should deal with homosexuals in the priesthood. I guess the people of God are only the people of God when they get it right.
James Fitzpatrick's new novel, The Dead Sea Conspiracy: Teilhard de Chardin and the New American Church, is available from our online store. You can email Mr. Fitzpatrick at fitzpatrijames@sbcglobal.net.
(This article originally appeared in The Wanderer and is reprinted with permission. To subscribe call 651-224-5733.)
