Thomas Groome: the demise of clericalism and breaking open of priesthood

Catholic New Times, Nov 16, 2003 by Ted Schmidt

What Makes Us Catholic: Eight Gifts for Life, by Thomas Groome San Francisco, HarperCollins, 2002.

In the pantheon of practitioners of religious education within the wide tent of Catholicism, none stands taller than Tom Groome, presently professor of theology and religious education at Boston College.

Groome is that rarest of educational animals, a scholar who combines a deep understanding of the Catholic story and vision, an academic who is familiar with the research but also, as the youngest of ten in a large Irish family, a man absolutely rooted in the human condition with all its foibles and moments of grandeur.

With these gifts, Groome also comes with the Celtic gift of story telling. He was an obvious choice to address the eighth annual Faith Meets Pedagogy (FMP) Conference in Hamilton, Ontario recently.

FMP is the major professional development effort of Catholic teachers in southern Ontario, an imaginative attempt to link faith with creative pedagogy. Workshops are offered in every conceivable area of the many challenges facing teachers today--the use of drama, music, art and liturgical dance in the classrooms, to working with autistic children and "Seeing the Rainbow," the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered young people in Catholic schools.

Keynote speakers must be able to supply the grand narratives out of which educators will work. With this in mind, both Groome and Dr. James Orbinsky of Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) were inspired choices.

The Nobel-winning Orbinsky was there to remind Catholic teachers that they are part of a suffering world in this increasingly connected global village, a timely message for Catholic teachers, some of whose worlds have grown increasingly insular and parochial in the last decade of neo-con ascendancy.

Keeping Hope Alive

Groome, cognizant of the degenerating morale within the church, chose to speak about keeping hope alive in difficult times. Personally, in the past five years, he has had to become more of a public person, as an academic and an ex-priest, in the staggering sex abuse swamp, the epicentre of which is Boston.

Appearing often on CNN and other major media outlets, Groome has chosen to sally forth, beyond the protected halls of academe and the 'neutrality' of silence, to address the present crisis of credibility in Catholicism today.

I asked Groome at breakfast what he believed were the "thought patterns" we had to rise up against to become "tomorrow's Catholics."

Chuckling at this early morning cut to the chase, he did not dodge the question. "One of the obvious ones I am going to address with the teachers today is clericalism, the whole clericalist culture which has become inimical to authentic priesthood. It is anything but the priesthood model of Jesus Christ ,who came not to be served but to serve. There is a whole elitist, pedestalized ideology of preference, deference, accepting that there is a real ontological difference between the ordained and the baptized.

Certainly this pope has augmented it and heralded it. Read his Holy Thursday statements on priesthood. They all champion clericalism. It is an exaggerated and inflated sense of priesthood, rather than seeing this 'holy orders' as helping maintain good relations in the community, which the old sacramental name meant.

The Greek hierarchy does not refer to the level of command on a power pyramid but rather to a ministry of helping a Christian community work well together--" holy order."

"Too often it has become an elitist sect, clique or club that is imposed on the Christian community. It militates against the authentic priesthood of the ordained which I deeply value and the priesthood of all believers. It kills both. A structural change is needed to help the demise of clericalism but also we need a change of ideology, a change of outlook, a change of consciousness.

The scandal in the Boston area is one of the best examples of debunking clericalism that we've had in a long time. However, it is sad to see it come that way. In a sense the pope's exaggerated and inflated clericalist ideas are part of this scandal. Not only did it happen on his watch, but he created an ethos around priesthood. So when the scandals began to be evident, the bishops' tendency was to cover them up. You could not allow these to become public because this is not what the Holy Father understood by priesthood. It is all a Potemkin village, a fake, a sham. It's the elephant in the living room which Rome won't address."

Diocesan priesthood must change

Asked about the destruction of local parishes by priests controlling parish councils (if they have one), by damning up the Spirit by not allowing the "sensus fidelium" to arise, he agreed.

"Yes, it brings us back to a deeper issue. You challenge the clerical ethos; we have to break up the present structures of diocesan priesthood as we know it. It's not priesthood that is breaking down; it is the clerical culture. The Spirit is breaking through, people claiming their baptism. This is not anti-priest. There will always be a vowed life; that is a gift. It's wonderful.