If
there’s someone who consistently opposes the clerical attitude in the Roman
Catholic Church, that’s the Pope himself. Time and again, Pope Francis has been
broaching the subject of clericalism in the church, much to the discomfort of
many in the church.
He has
understood that the menace of clericalism is at the root of most of the
problems troubling the Catholic Church.
According to Unam Sanctam Catholicam, clericalism is defined as
a state of affairs in which there is an unnecessary or overly exaggerated
importance attributed to clergy, in such a way that the laity relate to them as
subjects to be ruled rather than a people to be lovingly pastored. “Basically,
a clericalist ideology is one that places too much emphasis on the clergy or
attributes undue importance to their actions. It is a defect of the virtue of
temperance by excess as applied to the government of the Church,” it says.
It has often led to sacramental blackmails in
the church which are suppressed within its four walls.
Last
week, returning to one of his favourite themes of the Church as a field
hospital for those who have been wounded, Pope Francis said God’s people are
seeking and needing to be consoled. “The Church has many wounds and some of them have
been caused by us, priests and practising Catholics,” he said.
So
often, he added, our “clerical attitudes” have done much damage to the Church.
However, he continued, there are “no wounds that cannot be consoled by the love
of God and priests are called to tend to these wounds, with the certainty that
God will always bring forgiveness and hope”.
In one of his homilies in December 2013, Pope
Francis prayed, “Lord, free
your people from a spirit of clericalism and aid them with a spirit of prophecy.”
Pope Francis then said, in the Gospel, those who met Christ with a spirit of
prophecy welcomed him as the Messiah, but without it, “the void that is left is
occupied by clericalism; and it is this clericalism that asks Jesus, ‘By what
authority do you do these things? By what law?”
Writing in National Catholic Reporter, Robert McClory said, “clericalism is
contagious, breeding a kind of mentality that revels in ecclesiastical
ambition, status and power. For some, especially those attracted to the
episcopacy, it often leads to indifference toward the experiences and needs of
ordinary Catholics. It encourages the creation (or repetition) of teachings and
regulations worked out in ivory-tower isolation from the real world.”
“For many generations earnest, young male
seminarians have been taught that they are aspiring to a higher level not
available to the laity, a level at which they will have the authority to teach,
sanctify and govern those below,” he says.
“In effect, they become members of a kind of
boys club that is warm, supportive and exclusive — and never breaks ranks. For
what they give up, they can expect a relatively high standard of living and the
respect, even adulation (at least until the abuse scandal hit), of their
grateful congregations,” McClory writes.
“Priests were so well respected that they were
often times feared rather than loved, the sacraments so revered that their
power was almost magical, the stress on clerical obedience so emphatic that
independent thought was stifled, and the hierarchy exercised so much power that
the priesthood became in effect a boundary restricting the faithful's access to
God rather than an intermediary who brought their petitions to God,” says Unam Sanctam Catholicam.
Will Pope succeed in eliminating clericalism from
the Catholic Church? He himself set an example with his frugal lifestyle,
avoiding pomp and pageantry, after becoming the Pope. It’s not going to be an
easy task.
Please
read what Pope says in Evangelii Gaudium. “A
clear awareness of this responsibility of the laity, grounded in their baptism
and confirmation, does not appear in the same way in all places. In some cases,
it is because lay persons have not been given the formation needed to take on
important responsibilities,” Pope says.
“In others, it is because in their particular
Churches room has not been made for them to speak and to act, due to an
excessive clericalism which keeps them away from decision-making. Even if many
are now involved in the lay ministries, this involvement is not reflected in a
greater penetration of Christian values in the social, political and economic
sectors,” Pope writes. It often remains tied to tasks within the Church,
without a real commitment to applying the Gospel to the transformation of
society. The formation of the laity and the evangelization of professional and
intellectual life represent a significant pastoral challenge, Pope says in the
apostolic exhortation.
The following incident is a
classic case of clericalism happened over two years ago. Similar incidents are
frequent in the Catholic world but remain unreported.
An unmarried woman with a baby had to embark on a depressing pilgrimage
around Buenos Aires
The Archbishop of the region
questioned, “Why a poor girl, who has resisted the temptation to have an
abortion and stood up at great cost to herself for the right to life should be
persecuted in such a way.”
The
Archbishop reminded the priests that the young woman was requesting baptism for
her child, not herself, and that they have no right to deny a sacrament in that
manner.
“I say this with sadness and if it sounds
like a complaint or an offensive comment please forgive me: in our
ecclesiastical region there are presbyteries that will not baptise children
whose mothers are not married, because they have been conceived outside holy
wedlock,” a Vatican insider quoted the Archbishop as saying.
The Archbishop said he was making a
call to end what he called sacramental blackmail.
He went on to speak about the
hijacking of a sacrament, calling it an expression of a rigorous and “hypocritical
neo-clericalism”, which uses the sacraments as tools to affirm its own
supremacy.
He was critical of priests for what
he described as rubbing the fragility and the wounds of people in their faces
by hosing down their hopes and expectations, simply because they do not fit
squarely into parish requirements or live up to someone else’s moral
expectation.
He said that apart from being
misleading, such pastoral models distort and reject the dynamic of Jesus
Christ’s incarnation, which he pointed out cannot be reduced to a doctrinal
slogan or used to serve the power hungry.
The Archbishop was
none other than Jorge Mario Bergoglio – currently Pope Francis. This happened
months before his selection as Pope.
