1. Thankfully, THE church is not only larger than Roman Catholicism but larger than
Christianity, even. The sickness described applies to its institutional aspects,
which, because of our radical finitude, while not otherwise theologically
essential, have been practically indispensable in this temporal realm (I’m
struggling to avoid using the cliche’ “necessary evil”). The form of church polity
is an accidental, not an essential, and this hierarchy, in my view, has not only
outlived its usefulness but is more of an obfuscation of the sense of the faithful
than an amplification, which is to say that it has been, in a word, unfaithful. The
voice of the faithful will emerge from the rocks and stones, if necessary.
Pastorally, some form of institution will likely remain necessary but it will less
likely be hierarchical and will more likely be more open-sourced and peer-topeer (P2P). And this should suffice to keep alive the voice of self-critical protest
in the church’s vital prophetic tradition. For all practical purposes, talking
substance over form, a de facto CBNR (catholic but not Roman) cohort has
emerged vis a vis Emergent Christianity, re-sourcing our mystical core as John
XXIII’s prayer for aggiornamento has been answered by the Spirit, albeit not in
the way many would’ve expected! Sadly and ironically, Rome is harvesting the
seeds of self-destruction that it has planted, itself, while trying to weed out fruitbearing crops, which will be fine in the long-run as they grow elsewhere!
IN RESPONSE TO:
“To be restored our sickness must grow worse”
Posted on June 6, 2012 by Richard Rohr, OFM
I am presently teaching European jail chaplains in Romania, the poorest country
in Europe. Seeking some guidance and consolation amidst the historic and
present suffering of these people, I had an afternoon of prayer and took to
reading T.S.Eliot’s FOUR QUARTETS. In “East Coker” he says that “our only
health is the disease” and that “to be restored our sickness must grow worse”
and even “the whole world is our hospital”. It gives me some strange direction
amidst this tragic communist experiment, the state of politics in the USA, and the
daily Vatican meltdown as it continues to try to regain some control and authority
by condemning things in every direction.
We are clearly in a very strategic period of history where people are grabbing
for power because they do not know how to heal, restore, or bring life. You
would think the Pope and bishops should know better, yet they only need to look
to this part of the world to see what imposed and authoritarian change
accomplishes–which is nothing and worse than nothing. The push back, the
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2. alienation, the cynicism lasts for centuries, as I see here in a former Communist
state. I am afraid, as T.S.Eliot says “our sickness must grow worse” to see how
sick we are, and “our only health is in the disease” itself–to bring the poison to
the surface so none can deny it. The Roman Church and the US Congress are both
showing a very sad misuse of their power, which is no longer a power for good or
for the common good. The Catholic church has become its own worst enemy and
does not need atheists or agnostics to undo its mission. Like St. Peter himself, it is
denying and destroying its own message. The sadness I see here in Romania is
the sadness of power totally misused in the name of “reform”. I am afraid it is a
prophecy for the future of the Roman Catholic Church.
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