The news from Rome: what's wrong with church governance

Commonweal, Nov 5, 2004 by Alberto Melloni

John Paul II has served more than twenty-five years as pope. Although he has a debilitating disease, medical progress may prolong his life for years. Pius IX (1792-1878), in a century with far fewer medical resources, reigned thirty-one years; it is possible that this pope will reign as long. Nonetheless, there is a sense that the future is waiting, for better or worse, and it is bearing down on us.

At the same time, this has become a time of waiting and of silence in the church. In fact, silence seems to be the primary form of discipline demanded now by ecclesiastical authority. A pontificate with so long a duration leads to a certain sense of alienation, which is not often fully expressed because the bishops and the faithful are tacitly asked to--and are willing to--remain silent. In the buses of Rome, passengers are warned non parlate al conducente (don't talk to the driver). Many Catholics, bishops as well as laypeople and clergy, are asked to do the same: "Don't talk to the driver."

For example, few bishops believe that the actual implementation of Humanae vitae is widespread, yet no one will take the risk of raising the issue of contraception. It is too dangerous, and even futile. Besides, if you remain silent on the subject, you may enjoy a certain degree of freedom. If you observe the discipline of silence, nobody is likely to bother you because you are not openly challenging ecclesiastical authority.

This is not a solution, but a problem. And when problems become so serious that silence is no longer possible, the fragility of the church is revealed shockingly and unexpectedly. The clergy sexual-abuse scandal in the United States was a tragic case in point. Everyone had a different explanation of who and what were responsible for such a disaster, yet no one was prepared to face the challenge openly. Even now, we lack a clear understanding of the issues. And despite the "noise" in the media, the church remains largely "silent" about the problem.

The Roman Catholic Church is a large and diverse body, and it would be unusual to have a common diagnosis of the hows and whys of such a difficult issue as clerical sexual abuse. After all, only those who engage in frequent dialogue are able to analyze a situation and arrive at a diagnosis. Language and terminology need time to be harmonized in order to ensure that we are talking about the same conditions and problems; this happens only through patient discussion. Even so, one of the unwritten understandings of Roman Catholicism is that discussing such matters dishonors mother church. As a result, American Catholics are divided between those convinced that a too-liberal Catholicism opened the door to perpetrators, and those who think that the failure to reconsider optional celibacy lies at the heart of the scandal. Among European Catholics, public opinion is divided between those who think that the fault lies with the adversarial nature of the U.S. legal system, and those who question the selection and appointment of bishops who appeared unable to tell the difference between sin and a crime.

In these circumstances, we habitually, but incorrectly, tend to describe the position of Catholics--both lay and episcopal--as conservative or progressive, left or right, the implicit assumption being that when it comes to choosing the next pope, the papal conclave will divide along similar lines, thus marking the direction the church will follow for the future. On the contrary, these "political" distinctions hardly capture the reality of the church. The next conclave will include a variety of perspectives. How could it be otherwise in a church that experiences actual tensions between authority and freedom, truth and pluralism, uniformity and multiculturalism, identity and otherness?

These are clearly some of the issues that beset Catholics living in a media-dominated society, and they will have an impact on the next conclave. Now add to this the fact that an ailing pope plays the leader's role before the media, creating even more ambiguities. In such a world, the media's representatives have an unprecedented responsibility.

In a future conclave, the media will play a very powerful role, possibly exercising real sway in the papal election, comparable to the power of the old "Catholic crowns" in ages past. Members of the media may have an even greater responsibility because they may influence what are seen as the core issues. After all, this is Rome, with all its gossip and rumors, but also the home of the real body of Catholicism, with all its instruments of service, learning, tradition, and inspiration.

It must be said that some structures of Roman Catholicism no longer appear to be functioning properly; they are "out of service." The primary one is the Roman curia, founded in 1588 to rule the universal church of its day. It has been "reformed" several times: by Pius X, juridically through the 1917 Code of Canon Law; by Pius XII who refused to appoint a secretary of state for thirteen of the nineteen years of his pontificate, and to appoint any new cardinals for five years. The curia was challenged by John XXIII with the announcement of the Second Vatican Council. It was reformed once more by Paul VI in 1968, and again by John Paul II in 1988. John Paul II himself decided to bypass his curia and its intermediate administrative bodies by ruling the church through his personal charisma and globe-spanning travels. He invested his ecumenical efforts as bishop of Rome, but he did not treat the institutional dysfunctions of the Roman curia as a serious issue (consequently, if some of its officials want to create a case for Mel Gibson's movie, they can). This institutional weakness does not require an authoritarian restoration, but points out the need for authority and harmony. Furthermore, there is something wrong when the Catholic Church seems to need several popes: one pope to rule the curia, one to govern the Vatican and the Diocese of Rome, one for traveling, another for politics, and a pope for reading and writing. It is clear that the Vatican's inner circle of officials and the Catholic faithful in general need to focus on this dysfunctional system of ecclesiastical governance.