Fiducia Suplicans and the Fissure Growing in the Catholic Church
A perspective from a Catholic priest
The fissure in the Catholic Church widened after the release of Fiducia Suplicans last week. Social media exploded with many Catholics blaming the man they snidely call Bergoglio for the Catholic Church not being the way they want it.
The document allows for informal spontaneous blessings of those in same-sex or irregular marriages. Some praise it and others vilify the document.
As is always the case, never look at positions but instead look at issues. So the question is not whether you agree with Fiducia Suplicans or not, the issue is: where do you stand on church teaching, on the pastoral side or the legal side? Do you stand with the letter of the law or the spirit of the law? The answer as the pope often points out is both/and not either/or.
What is the difference between the two? It is whether you look into the eyes of people seeking Christ or see them through every jot and tittle of the law.
Priests to be among their people
The pope calls for priests to be among the people and not clerically stay away from local daily life holed up in rectories. He essentially wants them not just to be the shepherd but to be among the sheep. Setting the example, he used to travel by public transportation when he was the archbishop of Buenos Aires.
One of the cardinals working with him, Seán O’Malley, moved the archbishop’s residence out of an elite mansion across the street from Boston College and on the campus of St. John’s Seminary to the Cathedral rectory in the South End of Boston. There you have housing projects on one side and expensive condo brownstones on the other. Nearby is one of the LGBTQ neighborhoods in the city and also the home to some of the city’s most dangerous gangs. He lives where many of the people are of various demographics.
Those who stand against the pope are some of the more distant leaders from the people. They may have been seminary professors such as Bishop Athanasius Schneider. The auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana, Kazakhstan and his brother bishops from that archdiocese called for the pope to revoke this permission.
Cardinal Burke, another opponent, currently lives in a ten thousand square foot residence in Rome. They live by the letter of the law and demand the pope follow their lead.
This is the problem.
All have a calling to chastity and friendship
The pope’s recent approval of Fiducia Suplicans highlights this division. Two people of the same sex may find they cannot love a person of the opposite sex in the same way as heterosexuals do and find they have as deep a bond. They seek answers. We see a model of this in the relationship of St. John Henry Newman and Ambrose St. John, two men who lived such a deep friendship. NPR says they shared everything but a marital bed and lived together for thirty-two years.
The legalists will tell them they must remain celibate and if they want to get to Heaven that is their one choice. However, the pastoral teaching of the church reminds all that every Catholic has a calling to chastity and the virtue cannot be lived without friendship.
The pope speaks out of looking into the eyes of his sheep and his opponents speak from the perspective of dotting the i’s of their laws. Cardinal Burke stated that one must adhere to canon law and the pope responded that the code does not address some situations.
Many will cite what the LGBTQ community calls the clobber passages, these are biblical verses that condemn same-sex activity. Unfortunately, none of these verses explain why the proscription. Romans 1 cites homosexual activity and lack of wisdom are the product of idolatry.
The pope meanwhile is trying to address those who live as in 1 Samuel 18:1–5 and lead them down this path.
As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt. And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants. (ESV)
Francis’ position is these are real people in real-world living that Jesus also came to redeem. They too want to know Christ. He calls us to ask ourselves if we cast them away or do we open a channel for God’s love to lead them where he is calling them. The pope wants all those seeking Christ to find a welcome in His Church and does not believe in casting anyone away.
His opponents stand on the letter of the law demanding he be more restrictive and exclusive in his call, like an amusement ride operator pointing out that someone is not tall enough or is too fat.
Jesus and the Pharisees
We are looking at a similar situation to Jesus healing on the sabbath only to have the Pharisees castigate him for not following the letter of the law.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider published his own catechism to reflect what he wants the Church to teach. Based on the Catechism of the Council of Trent which convened in the wake of the protestant reformation in the sixteenth century, he dismisses Vatican II. If you read his tome, which I highly discourage you from doing, you will find it is void of the pastoral sense. He is doing the opposite of what many priests and even bishops did after the Vatican II Council—dismiss everything before 1967. He seems to now dismiss everything after 1967. We must do neither.
The most blatant example from his catechism, Credo, is God can take the suffering and death of an infant and use it to atone for sins against him by humanity (cf Chapter 1, Section 1, #56). Try explaining that to a couple with tearful eyes looking over the body of their stillborn child. See how long it is before the father knocks you out. Try then to explain to me how that does not make God like the pagan deity calling for natives to throw a virgin into a volcano to appease his anger.
What is the issue?
Again, what is the issue? It is the same one that Jesus fought, living by the letter of the law and treating men and women as slaves of its demands. He came to humanize the law which became like dry bones. After all, he taught that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27-28)
As a parish priest surrounded by places such as Harvard University, Boston University and the GBH Educational Foundation, where every eatery, store, and supermarket is presumed to be LGBTQ-friendly, I can fully understand the pope’s thoughts. He knows what it is like to look into the eyes of the faithful seeking to know Christ.
It is obvious, the others do not. They do not have that pastoral experience to the level Francis calls all Catholic leaders to live. Neither do their lay supporters. They are ready for battle, many of whom converted from evangelicalism and so they live by the letter of the Catholic documents just as they once lived by the letter of scripture. The greatest sign of this error is they never talk about prayer in their response. They do not see the blessing as a call to prayer and a door to those being blessed to encounter Christ.
So, when you go to Mass this weekend, especially on Christmas, if you hear talk of support or hatred of the pope, realize the issue is not who should be blessed. Rather, it is whether a pastor can look into the eyes of his parishioners and respond to their desire to experience the true Jesus in the church they attend without compromising what the Magisterium actually teaches.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
Fr. Robert J Carr writes from St. Anthony Parish in Allston, MA and podcasts at catholicaudiomedia.com
photo credit: softdelusion from BigStockPhoto.com