OSV STORY FOR AUGUST 25

A search for common ground in a 'time of peril'

Citing 'a mood of suspicion and acrimony,' a new project aims to spur dialogue on divisive issues in the U.S. Church

By David Scott

With dire warnings that the Catholic Church in America is in a "time of peril," its future threatened by internal "bickering, disparagement and stalemate," Cardinal Joseph Bernardin Aug. 12 announced a new initiative aimed at rebuilding "common ground" in the Church.

The 3,000-word manifesto of the new Catholic Common Ground Project describes the common ground as "centered on faith in Jesus, marked by accountability to the living Catholic tradition and ruled by a renewed spirit of civility, dialogue, generosity and broad and serious consultation."

The new project comes in the wake of a series of seemingly unrelated rumblings in the U.S. Church: "We Are Church," a petition drive launched by Catholic groups calling for drastic changes in Church teaching on issues ranging from the priesthood to homosexuality and abortion; a major address by retired Archbishop John Quinn calling for new relations between the Pope and the bishops; and a similar call issued late last year by 40 U.S. bishops.

And the project's manifesto, "Called to Be Catholic: Church in a Time of Peril," alludes to many of these same concerns: women's roles in the Church, declining numbers of priests and Religious, "the image and morale of priests," disagreement with the Church's moral and sexual teachings, relations between theologians and Church authorities, "the manner of decision-making and consultation in Church governance," and "the place of collegiality and subsidiarity in the relations between Rome and the American episcopacy."

Group decisions

Acknowledging that "the bishops united with the Pope have been specially endowed by God with the power to preserve the true faith," the common-ground statement asserts that "no single group or viewpoint in the Church has a complete monopoly on the truth."

While saying that the Church, "for all its humanness, cannot be treated as merely a human organization," the manifesto envisions a more democratic Church decision-making process: "An essential element of Catholic leadership must be wide and serious consultation, especially of those most affected by Church policies under examination."

It also is critical of "a chain-of-command, highly institutional understanding of the Church, a model resembling a modern corporation, with headquarters and branch offices."

The statement singled out religious education and liturgy as areas where a "dynamic of fear and polarization" and "ideological litmus tests" have hamstrung the Church's response to the serious needs of ordinary Catholics.

By sponsoring research and meetings, the common-ground project will hope to foster dialogue and understanding.

Seven bishops, including Cardinal Roger Mahony and Archbishops Oscar Lipscomb, Daniel Pilarczyk and Rembert Weakland, O.S.B., will advise the group, which also includes priests, nuns and prominent Catholic laypeople such as former Gov. Robert Casey, Harvard lawyer Mary Ann Glendon, public-policy analyst Michael Novak and Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, editor of Commonweal magazine.

The National Pastoral Life Center, an independent professional Catholic organization, will staff the new group. Its director, Msgr. Philip Murnion, was credited with drafting the common-ground statement.

In a press conference announcing the initiative, Cardinal Bernardin issued a hopeful appeal to all Catholics: "to restore and strengthen the unity that has been fractured or diminished."

No getting along?

But initial reaction to the initiative indicated that the "unity" the cardinal is seeking remains a long way off.

Indeed, Catholics For a Free Choice, a militant abortion advocate, and two self-described Catholic "traditionalist groups," Catholics Concerned and Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc., denounced the new initiative.

But the most substantial initial challenge came from Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston. In a sharp response, he criticized the common-ground manifesto, saying that it was filled with "gratuitous assumptions," and that "at significant points it breathes an ideological bias, which it elsewhere decries in others."

Cardinal Law questioned the manifesto's basic assumption that "dialogue" is the way to truth and common ground in the Church.

"The Church already has 'common ground,' " he said. "It is found in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, and it is mediated to us through the authoritative and binding teaching of the magisterium."

He questioned whether there is any appropriate "dialogue" on issues where the Church's magisterium, or teaching authority, has spoken definitively.

The common-ground statement asserts that Catholics must have a "serious engagement with the tradition and its authoritative representatives." It likewise calls for respect of "the living magisterium of the Church exercised by the bishops and the Chair of Peter."

However, it also says that "there is nothing wrong with the prospect that different visions should contend within American Catholicism . . . and indeed, differences of opinion are essential to the process of attaining the truth."

But as Cardinal Law indicated, many of the contested issues in U.S. Catholicism involve areas that the Church's teaching authority has held are non-negotiable truths.

"Dissent from revealed truth or the authoritative teaching of the Church cannot be 'dialogued' away," Cardinal Law said. "Truth and dissent from truth are not equal partners in ecclesial dialogue. Dialogue as a pastoral effort to assist in a fuller appropriation of the truth is laudable. Dialogue as a way to mediate between the truth and dissent is mutual deception.''

Cardinal Law took particular issue with the statement's assumption that how Church teachings are "received" by the faithful should play a part in the considerations of Church decision makers.

The statement invokes what it describes as "the Church's ancient concept of reception," which it says "reminds us that all the faithful are called to a role in grasping a truth or incorporating a decision or practice into the Church's life."

Groups wanting the Church to reconsider its teachings on certain areas, such as women's ordination and birth control, often appeal to the perception that those teachings have not been well "received" or accepted by ordinary Catholics.

And the common-ground manifesto makes a similar appeal, describing a "gap between Church teachings and the convictions of many faithful" in the areas of "human sexuality" and "several other areas of morality."

In suggesting "working principles" to govern future dialogue, the statement says, "We should test all proposals for their pastoral realism and potential impact on living individuals as well as for their theological truth."

But Cardinal Law questioned whether theological truths should be conditioned on majority opinion or "reception," and he asserted that what Catholics truly believe "cannot be measured by polls, which are subject to all the pressures of contemporary culture."

He noted that in the 1980s, many Catholics did not go along with the U.S. bishops' pastoral letters on peace and on the economy, and that many today don't agree with the bishops' opposition to the death penalty. Nevertheless, he said, "the Church must teach 'in season and out of season, when convenient and inconvenient.' "

Faith and crisis

While the common ground manifesto locates the crisis in the Church in "a polarization that inhibits discussion and cripples leadership," Cardinal Law, in his response, sees a more fundamental problem of belief:

"The crisis the Church is facing can only be adequately addressed by a clarion call to conversion," he said. "Jesus' question to Peter must be responded to by each of us: 'Who do you say that I am?' Only with this beginning will institutional renewal and reform be authentic."

The new Catholic Common Ground Project underscores the increasing intensity of debate over divisions in the U.S. Church. But at present, it would appear that among key Catholic leaders there is not even common ground as to the root causes or even the nature of the problems facing the Church.

Scott is editor of Our Sunday Visitor

Copyright Our Sunday Visitor 1996; from the 8-25-96 edition

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