A Crumbling Pillar Damages People's Faith
We need to restore the balance between rules and relationship
I remember when I was in the seminary, we learned that the Church was built on metaphorical pillars balancing each other out. These pillars may seem to oppose each other but together they support the whole faith experience.
For example, Catholics believe in scripture and tradition. We believe in faith and reason and we believe in the institutional and the charismatic. I realize well into my ministry something that many Americans never learned and suffer terribly because of it: the pillars of rules and relationship.
Notice in each of these pillars one extreme balances the opposite extreme. Without that balance the structure cannot be supported. Just as in real buildings if there is a pillar on one side of a house, for example but not on the other or in the middle, a part of the house will crumble.
So, a healthy structure needs two opposite pillars for support and the Church is no different.
A crumbling pillar
For at least a century and even longer, the US Catholic Church let one of those pillars crumble and in doing so the US Church structure grew severely weak on one side. It is where the pillar of relationship with Christ crumbled while the rules pillar grew stronger.
There are many ways this happened,
Through priests preaching exclusively on sin and not focusing on prayer.
Through a host of radical traditionalists using YouTube to preach their material as if they had a mandate from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops or had some form of authority to preach. Generally, they do not.
Common among many podcasters and YouTubers is the massa damnata ideology which teaches the vast majority of humanity will be condemned to Hell.
By embracing the Baltimore Catechism which had a strong emphasis on Hell and little emphasis on personal prayer; and other catechisms which preach similar ideas none of which are Vatican documents.
By bishops allowing wayward priests freedom to preach false doctrine emphasizing demonic possession, condemnation, and de-emphasizing God’s mercy and even His power over evil.
A Catholic media that has a less than approving attitude towards Vatican II and as well promotes a sin focused message.
A Catholic print/electronic media that sees all priest as corrupt monsters seeking to misguide all.
A strong focus on Hell without instructions of what the Church teaches is required to end up there.
A rejection of the teachings of Pope Francis and of Vatican II even by dismissing it as a fallible council.
This list is not exhaustive.
Fear of Hell is not the key to our faith
This creates Catholics who live in fear of ending in Hell. They fear they may have committed a mortal sin without a deep understanding of whether a sin was actually mortal or for that matter what a mortal sin really is. Traditional catechesis created a one size fits all approach to sin. There was an understanding that Catholics had to work all their life to ensure that at the moment of death they were void of mortal sin. Their prize, of course is salvation. The chances of winning the Heaven lottery is less than their chances of winning an actual lottery.
There is also a de-emphasis on the mercy of God and an over-emphasis on the justice of God. Leaving people to believe Catholicism is a tyrannical faith based only on obeying a tyrannical God reminiscent of the Holographic Wizard of Oz from the famous in 1934 movie.
This needs to change and quickly.
How do we change it. We need to shore up the relationship pillar. This means we need to teach more on prayer and give an accurate teaching on sin. We must help people to understand their Baptismal call as witnesses to Christ and steer them away from the fear of Hell that becomes an obstacle to knowing God’s love.
If the faithful seek Christ, they won’t end up in Hell, period.
This mission is urgent in this country; we need to teach starting today.
Priests and deacons need to preach more on growing in a loving relationship with Christ to their parishioners.
They need to teach how to pray to grow closer to Christ individually, in families, and as a parish
They need to help people to understand a solid definition of sin is not amorphous and ill defined.
People have to fully realize that the punishment fits the crime, eternal life alienated from God is not something God will allow for minor infractions of his law. Therefore, mortal sin is a serious act involving a serious choice, anything less than that is not a mortal sin.
Those who encountered Christ received an invitation to encounter him. They did not find him first because of a fear of Hell.
Parishes must be families of people who embrace their baptismal promises to hear the word of God and proclaim it.
The parish must focus on encouraging prayer and community
It is wrong to teach people to live in fear of a tyrannical God. The saints did not live like this and would condemn people today for teaching it. They have a deep love for the God they sought to know and serve every day.
Fr. Robert J Carr is pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Allston, MA
The parish podcast is at https://catholicaudiomedia.com