EDITORIAL

Words are not enough
Since 1968 our bishops, to a great extent, have been ruling the Church with words rather than with actions. Most Catholics in this country have witnessed serious violations of Church doctrine, liturgy, and catechetics; many have complained to their bishop and nothing has been done. There has been a dangerous lack of the proper exercise of authority on the part of bishops.

It is not easy to understand why this has been so. But dissent and disobedience have become entrenched in the Church since the rebellion of the theologians against Humanae Vitae in 1968. So we have had thirty years of dissent and almost no sanctions in order to protect the integrity of the Catholic faith.

One reason for this may be the neglect of the reality of sin in man and in the world. That men are sinners is evident each day in local and world news. But the naturalism in our culture says that man is basically good and blames crimes on parents and the environment. Unfortunately, too much of this type of thinking has invaded the Catholic Church.

For over thirty years the Church has been ravaged and divided by dissenters who have gone unpunished. Authorities have been afraid to use their authority to defend the faith. Why have they been so afraid? Is it because they fear the media and a bad press? Because authority has been almost paralyzed, faithful Catholics have been subjected to a lot of pious talk and no action.

It was pointed out at the recent Roman Synod, by the bishops themselves, that a diocesan bishop has the obligation, by reason of his office, to protect the faith and to correct those in error. This requires explicit warnings and, when the errors are not corrected, suitable sanctions according to the Canon Law of the Church.

Since heretics, dissenters and rebels have not been disciplined, many Catholics are confused about what the Church really stands for. For example, there has been a massive silence from our bishops in the USA regarding the sinfulness of contraception. At the same time, priests, theologians and teachers of religion across the country has been telling people that contraception is moral in some circumstances and that it is a matter of their own conscience. They write this, preach it, teach it—and nothing is done about it by the bishop of the area.

It seems to me that there has been an attempt to govern the Church by persuasion (that is, words), rather than by direction (that is, action). We have had enough words since Vatican II. What we need now is bold action, such as the very unusual threat of excommunication proclaimed by the Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska about five years ago. In fact, it was so unusual that the bishop’s move to protect the faith received national and international coverage in the news media.

The media are most interested in what is new, unusual and shocking. Apparently it was a shock to people in the press to discover a bishop who was willing to use his authority in order to protect the faith of people. Would to God that we had more bishops like that. For a year after the event, each time the bishop’s name was mentioned in a talk before Catholics there was spontaneous and vigorous applause. To me that is a sign that our people want bishops to exercise their authority in defense of the faith.

Right now we do not need any more documents from Rome or Washington. What we need is enforcement of the laws we already have on the books. When valid legislation is not enforced, one can easily think that the bishops lack either sincerity or courage. For, either they are not convinced of the truth of what they say or they are afraid to enforce it.

In the Gospels Jesus did more than just preach; he also acted. He drove the merchants and money-changers out of the temple. We need and deserve more of that.

Kenneth Baker, S.J., Editor

Back to Homiletic & Pastoral Review Table of Contents June 2002