Are some Catholic leaders becoming wimps?

 

 

She is a 59 year old Jewish convert to Catholicism  and a practicisng  psychtherapist. She is very bright,  and sometimes uncomfortably ( for me) direct.  Sitting in my office in new york city, she was challenging  modern Catholic leaders by making me wince and  conversationally tap dance around the  whole notion of Catholic  “ waffling.”

 

She had become a Catholic some 15 years  ago for  a myriad of reasons. Certainly, we both believe that  it was God’s own grace which brought  her to “ Rome”. Yet, she, as   a ruthlessly honest intellectual, found the  unequivocal self definition of the church most appealing-----i.e.  The Catholic Church  sees herself as the one church in full possession of the  legacy of jesus.

That the Catholic Church , with full confidence, can say  that  she  was founded  by the Lord himself—in person--- and that all other churches—bar    none---- are   lacking something of what she has. And that  all others   are unable to  trace their  existence directly to him !!!

 

Indeed, in this  age of   extreme  “  ecumenism “  such statements are considered outrageous  and  arrogant. Pressure is brought more and more to see  egalitarianism as  the   desired norm. This is   particularly so in the  United States where any kind of class  superiority is considered gauche  and un- American. Add to this national mood, the prevailing  other-directedness which David Reisman  explored a generation ago  and which impacts heavily on the modern need to be accepted--- and we have a problem which  has seeped  even  into  Christ’s own Church.

 

    leaders are apparently terrified lest they be considered  “ conservative” as  George Weigal has so  cogently  aired  in his powerful new book    the Courage to be Catholic.  The watering down   of catholic positions to  meet the approval of the  media which demand  that others jump through  the   current “ hoops”  or risk being  relegated  to the outer darkness of irrelevance  is obvious.

 

We  ( and I sadly include myself to some extent in this category) hesitate to state plainly the  church’s stand on  unnatural birth prevention, abortion, homosexual behavior, pre –marital sexual activity, concubinage, lying on tax returns,complicity in evil  for politicians and others,ordination  of women and   the list goes on and on.

 

But why the hesitation? Why the fear ?  Why the disloyalty?

 

The need  for approval and acceptance  is becoming more and more powerful. In effect, we will bend over backwards  to  be 

“ one of the boys”. Please approve me:  we are saying this by our silence. And this is  dishonorable. Eli Weisal, whom i interviewed many years ago in a television program stated  so dynamically:   Silence in the face of oppression  helps only the oppressor.  Is this  not  another way of saying that evil triumphs when good people keep silent?

 

If, as we claim, truth is important, how can Catholic leaders  assent to falsehood by  their silence? If we believe that the truth does make one free, are we not  becoming slaves  by our  assent to falsehood--- by our silence?

 

Further, integrity demands that we  “integrate” our various personal levels. If  one  mouths  externally  an apparent agreement with  truth but interiorly withholds belief,  one then becomes the worst of hypocrites.the   dynamic  for such   duplicity  is again to “ stand well’   in the eyes of others. Reisman  again with his “other directed” personality.

 

As Weigal points  out –we  need to have real courage  to be counter cultural. I fear that we are  weak and frightened and that perhaps  my Jewish friend  is right.  We are becoming wimps!!!

We need  a Charles Borremeo. I personally would  be grateful to have a Savonarola!!!!