Deadening the Intellectual Life of the Church, Part 2
There are structures and habits in church governance which work to deaden the intellectual life of the church.
The hierarchy is obsessed with obedience. Anyone ordained and anyone holding an office in the church takes a “profession of faith” which includes the following oath: “I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act.” There are other oaths.
The apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae addresses the catholicism of Catholic colleges and universities. It cites Canon 812: “Those who teach theological disciplines in any institutes of higher studies whatsoever must have a mandate from the competent ecclesiastical authority.” In the U.S., “The mandatum is to be granted by the diocesan Bishop of the diocese in which the Catholic university is located.” The college or university is subject to the particular opinion of the bishop who happens to run the diocese in which the college or university finds itself. The history of the pedophilia scandal in the Church shows that a culture of obedience can too easily enable acquiescence to evil.
When it comes to sanctions against theologians, the CDF ignores the lessons of modern jurisprudence: precise definition of an offense; separation of the roles of judge, the prosecutor, and defense; equal access; the presumption of innocence; openness; appeal.
Definitive doctrine, a new category of doctrine created by John Paul II, is not “infallible” but which nevertheless is “irreformable” (i.e., can’t be changed) – a logical inconsistency on the face of it.
Obsession with obedience coupled with continuous extensions of papal-defined “definitive doctrine” (which cannot be changed even though it is not infallible) and the existence of mandatums and sanctions creates an environment which is suppressing the intellectual life of the church. Who can speak out on any issue not a part of the papal party line without potential repercussion? Not any untenured professor of theology under a mandatum, or anyone who has taken the oath of fidelity, which is everyone who has been ordained and anyone who holds an office in the church. They are all subject to sanctions if found to be uttering “erroneous” or “dangerous” doctrine. Even if such sanctions are rarely exercised, they intimidate.
For example, all it takes is “a steady muttering” to get a million dollar investigation going, as evidenced by the ongoing “visitation” of American religious women by the Vatican. “In his Tuesday interview with Vatican Radio, Cardinal Rode said ‘some criticism arrived from United States and an important representative of the U.S. Church warned me about certain irregularities or deficiencies in the lives of American women religious.’ Though Cardinal Rode did not say who the representative was, he also revealed the problems include ‘a certain secularist mentality that has spread among these religious families, perhaps even a certain ‘feminist spirit.’”
(The full story)
Benedict’s latest statement is on British politics, where he claims that legislation introduced by Labour to end discrimination “actually violates natural law” since it stops worshippers remaining true to their beliefs because it makes them admit homosexuals to the priesthood or face prosecution for discriminating against them. Don’t hold your breath waiting for an uprising of Thomists to stand up and argue the point that this attitude is a misreading if not complete distortion of natural law; who wants to get smacked upside the head by the CDF or some bishop’s mandatum?
“Creative thinkers who scrutinize the divine mysteries and give us a language to speak about them must be constantly aware that the church trusts them and protects them. If norms are needed to prevent deviations, norms are even more necessary to secure freedom for creative thinking.” (Orsy, p. 103)
The hierarchy is in a pickle. If they are truly rational about any one of the Church’s contentious issues (e.g., birth control, celibacy, women’s ordination, celibacy, etc.), it will create the expectation that they will be rational about all of them; the whole papal party line either stands inviolate or falls as a whole to the scrutiny of evidence-based reason. Until this scrutiny happens, the Church’s entire intellectual progress, its entire means to have faith seek understanding, will be stymied by the very people who are supposed to be its leaders.
I see issues such as lack of collegiality, mandatums, the injustice of the CDF investigations, mandatory celibacy, the role of women, etc. etc. not as progressive / conservative issues but as moral issues as they affect the ability of the Church to spread its message. These are questions of justice, not political preference. I think it’s important to clarify the nature and extent of the disfunction in the Church not to bash it but to get a handle on fixing it. The Church does abuse its own.
