Authority in the Church (3rd in a series of Church related issues)

Authority or the defiance of authority is certainly a favorite topic of mine. I could write volumes on this particular topic. Suffice it to say, I don't have much use for authority. So if this article seems somewhat biased and anti-authority, it's probably because it is. Oh, I'm sure there is a legitimate role for authority figures, I just haven't figured out yet what it might be. I do know that during my years in the seminary I was taught that the very worst argument one can use to prove your point is an argument from authority, eg. 'the bishops said'. I heartily concur.

The Church is a heirarchical institution and would appear to have a legitimate claim to exercise authority through the episcopate. The New Testament certainly references 'episkopoi' or bishops who seem to legitimately exercise authority. Yet it is also clear that this authority was not absolute. The Apostle Paul had no trouble rebuking Peter, ostensibly the first Pope, and even prevailing in his arguments about the Church's mission to the gentiles.

While in general someone needs to be in charge in any institution, the Church also manifests a very egalitarian structure at the New Testament level. From the Acts of the Apostles we learn that all goods were held in common among early Christian communities. Paul speaks of various charisms within the community, so that each member was valued and had something to offer. The Second Vatican Council stressed concepts of collegiality and the Church as the People of God, ie. the Church being not just the Bishops and heirarchy, but all of us being Church. A lot of bishops today would like to pretend these concepts don't exist, but just because a Bishop may have the power to refuse communion to members of the people of God does not mean this is not an abuse of power.

Church leadership in recent years has incrasingly been guilty of abuse of power. Abuse of power is a serious offense because of the imbalance between the heirarchy and those of us in the pews. We often hear that the Church is not a democracy, but neither is it a dictatorial repressive regime. Bishops are expected to exercise pastoral leadership. There are clearly some Bishops who need to ask the question as to whether their actions are truly representative of the way Jesus would exercise leadership.

Even conservatives don't practice or subscribe to blind obedience. We know that many feel free to ignore the Church's position on capital punishment or its current understanding of the just war theory. The social justice teachings of the Church are similarly ignored. I know a very active member of the Church whose religious philosophy is to the right of Archbishop Burke, the former head of the St. Louis Archdiocese, but she certainly doesn't follow a conventional philosophy of blind obedience. She actually delights in challenging priests and even Bishops if she does not believe in the rightness of what they are doing. Is it only progressives who must blindly adhere to their religious superiors? It certainly makes life easier if everybody simply follows the leader. it is unquestionably a much messier Church if we actually are expected to listen to each other, but it does have the advantage of valuing all its members. Pray pay and obey is just not good enough. Church leaders need to be challenged in every aspect of church governance.

The Church is not the only organization that emphasizes the need for strong discipline. The military and the FBI would be two examples. In fact years ago the FBI actively sought ex-seminarians to enter the bureau because they knew their training in discipline and obedience were similar to that of the bureau. And isn't that the point? Does the Church really see itself as a military organization? Even soldiers have had to learn that they can be liable for following unjust orders. The notion that personal consience and thought should cease with the publication of Humani Generis or the Pope announcing that there can be no further discussion on women priests or mandatory celibacy flies in the face of the world we live in. It might make life easier, but church leaders are going to have to recognize that ideas come from throughout the Church. Lay people are part of the Church too, and as an educated community have a stake in the future of the church.

Primacy of consience is actually a Catholic tradition embedded in the documents of Vatican II. The Declaration on Religious Liberty adopted from the writings of American theologian John Courtney Murray attests to a Catholic's obligation to follow his or her individual consience. Why then are Bishops denouncing individual Catholics for doing so? Again, church leaders would like to pretend that this is not part of the legacy of the Church but it is. The Church has made clear that you must follow your own consience. That consience is to be formed by Church teaching, but that does not mean that a Bishop can say that if your consience disagrees with Church teaching that it is a faulty consience. As Americans living in a pluralistic society we have a point of view that is sometimes not shared by Rome. Maybe it is Rome that needs to listen to us, just as they did at Vatican II. America has something to offer the Universal Church, even if Rome has determined to dilute American thought by appointing Bishops in this country who are sworn to do Rome's bidding in all things.

As in any strong organization, those with power hold the cards. If Church leaders want to be repressive they can. They can stifle the faithful, punish politicians and others. Lay people and simple clerics are at their mercy. Rome and the bishops can continue to move the Church down a dismal path until finally the spirit moves them and change comes to the Church as it did with Vatican II. This is precisely why I said at the beginning that abuse of power is such a serious sin. By its very nature it implies that there is really nothing a victim can do about it. The victim of abuse, as in the sexual abuse crisis is at the mercy of the one exercising power. That is why he who has the power has the greater sin. But this too shall pass.