What Path Lies Ahead?

Someone quoted to me recently the words of a famous thinker: “No one can be a man unless his father has died.” The thought is attributed to Freud, with clarification by Jung that such a death may occur symbolically.

In this conception, something new is born, painfully but of necessity, from this death: the end of looking upward to another man for all direction and wisdom, the realization that one is responsible for oneself and must to some extent shoulder that burden for his own good and for the sake of others. The answers are not going to be simply given to us; we must be willing find them ourselves.

Already in this new year, we have lost a father. Benedict XVI has been laid to rest in St. Peter’s.

We have lost other fathers too, more locally. As Bishop Doherty noted in a recent column in The Catholic Moment, “we have seen a reduction in the number of priests in active diocesan ministry.”

The same column notes that in the coming days (January 18 and 19), priests must convene with him to discern solutions. He stresses that this need for evaluations and adjustments “does not reflect a failure on anyone’s part,” just the need to measure our “present reality.” The article references the opportunity for “laity review,” so that we may know the reasons for all of this.

Perhaps, as the loss of so much fatherhood mounts, we already understand more than we wish to.

As one reader observed privately: “This all appears to be an exercise in what in the engineering fields is called backwards engineering; where the final result is taken apart to determine how the product works.”

The same reader asked: “Is this ’emergency’ meeting validating that Uniting in Heart is simply an elaborate system developed to manage the decline of the Church, as some have postulated from the start?  Don’t forget, Uniting in Heart is funded with a half million dollar grant from the Lilly Foundation, which is not a Catholic organization.  https://lillyendowment.org/for-current-grantees/recent-grants/?fa=11&initiative=44&search=
Is Lilly’s vision the same as Jesus Christ’s?”

This is a good question, since even this meeting is funded and brought you courtesy of the Lilly Endowment.

It’s plain, despite the ever cheerful tone of The Catholic Moment that things are not going well, taken as a whole, across the diocese. When a sudden and deeply detrimental trend appears, such as a large and rapid decrease in available priests (I believe the number is 7 or 8 since Uniting in Heart began), an exodus of ministry staff, and a tangible dip in the morale of the lay people, the correlation will be noticed by anyone who is paying attention.

Looking at things through the eyes of a child, one might say, ” I am certain our diocesan leaders will listen to the Holy Spirit and figure this all out.” Maybe you, like me, find yourself less able to look through this lens, with every father that we must symbolically bury.

I decline to view this state of affairs as normal.

So the question is whether any truthfulness will prevail in these discussions, especially truthfulness that casts unflattering light on the pastoral plan. Will they ask why our clergy now seem in to be in greater isolation, under greater physical and spiritual strain, with lower morale?

Will there be any willingness to consider that some of the philosophies of ecclesial life embedded in UiH (and perhaps in the present decision-making apparatus) are flawed?

Will they reassess, even at the cost of ego, that which is not helpful to the Church?

Or shall we just chalk it up to bad luck and continue on the same track?

UiH said that we must adapt and manifest a new reality, one in which the Church would grow, the parishes become more vibrant, vocations increase, and clergy live together with greater fraternity. If this is not occurring, then one must weigh why these things were said…A mask over decline management? Or a strategy which gravely misfired?

Though we must hope and pray such soul-searching occurs, it’s not plain to us that it will. The meeting, as presently set up, is to involve presentations by the “Missionary Pastors” (those who are left, that is). It’s not clear how much input other clergy will have, and lay people (apart from those under the bishop’s employ) don’t appear to have any.

All of this will have a direct bearing on future clergy assignments, since with the present trend, it will no longer be possible cover all the pastoral responsibilities as previously. Undoubtedly, there will be repercussions on the diocesan landscape.

So with this in mind, we should each shoulder these sobering truths as men rather than as children, and as Christian men rather than as cynics. We must enter into great prayer this week, asking God’s grace on our bishop and clergy, asking for clarity and truth, humility and hope, perseverance and courage, for all involved.

Renewal of the Church is possible. We can find success stories every day–such as this remarkable 5-year transformation of a struggling parish–but the preconditions of this are always God’s good pleasure and our faithfulness to Him, above ego, money, prestige, or any other earthly value.

Pray hard that our diocese finds that path this week and forges ahead.