Why Catholics don't object
Monday, January 19, 2009
Brother Richard DeMaria
A priest friend tells a story about a dinner party at which he was the guest of honor.
A number of the other guests began to make very negative comments about the church.
At first, he said nothing. But his annoyance grew and he eventually said, “That’s the church to which I have given my life which you are attacking.”
Because everyone at the table held him in the highest admiration and would never willingly offend him, the negative comments stopped.
The question is:
Why didn’t their respect for him prevent them from making the comments to begin with?
Why did they think that it was perfectly fine to be so negative about his church?
I suggest that it is because we Catholics, given our understanding of truth, can often see the “truth” in critical statements and therefore we don’t object. As a result, we have given the impression that criticism of the church is acceptable even in our presence.
I suggest that this silence before criticism reflects the following four understandings of truth:
- Catholics understand the limitations of all theology. They realize that every effort to describe the sacred inevitably distorts the truth. In particular, fundamentalist interpretations of Scripture distort the truth. Catholics are as opposed to fundamentalism as any non-believer, because they believe that fundamentalism distorts the revelation which Christ has brought into the world. Therefore, when someone criticizes a fundamentalist interpretation of Christianity, Catholics can be silent and agree with them. The dinner companions cited above, and many Catholics, often do not recognize the line that is crossed when what is criticized is an accurately stated element of our faith and not a fundamentalist distortion.
- Catholics understand that wisdom is found in the complementarily of opposites. Truth is found when one holds two seemingly contradictory ideas together. The Catholic faith in a very conscious way holds together two complementary and contradicting approaches to each area of its belief.
Whenever this balance is lost in a particular area of theology, what remains is a serious distortion of the Catholic understanding of the truth. The Catholic sees the error in one-sided understanding of the faith. Therefore, when someone criticizes a single-sided understanding of the tradition, the Catholic can be silent and agree with the criticism.
However, the Catholic should know his faith well enough to correct the misunderstanding by pointing out that a balancing concept is found in Catholic theology and practice. - Catholics have been taught by their leaders to be willing to admit that, because God uses human persons to lead his church, serious errors have been committed in the past by persons in the church. Catholics remember clearly the example of Pope John Paul II asking forgiveness for sins done in the name of the Catholic religion. In this, he modeled for Catholics the ability to admit humbly to its faults.
Therefore, when someone cites an example of misuse of religious power, the Catholic has learned to be silent in the face of that criticism. (The recent sexual abuse scandals have forced Catholics to take an even more humble stance.)
Some non-Catholics have interpreted this stance as a license to attack anything Catholic indiscriminately. All Catholics need to be able to separate justifiable criticism of the church from bigotry and to speak up against the latter. - Catholics realize that many of the practices that have been associated with the Catholic religion reflect the popular piety of a particular region and are not part of official tradition. Some popular acts of devotion border close to idolatry and superstition. The Catholic is as wary of idolatry and superstition as the non-believer. Thus, when others make disparaging remarks about some forms of popular piety, the Catholic may agree with the criticism and not object.
The non-Christian who considers all religious practices to be equally irrational does not know when his criticism is aimed at what believers consider to be a true part of the religion. Many Catholics do not know how to separate superstitions from true Catholic devotion and to recognize when criticism has crossed the line and calls for an objection.
In summary, it is the Catholic commitment to truth that sometimes keeps Catholics from objecting to attacks on their church. The question that faces every Catholic is identifying where criticism crosses the line of truth and when he or she is called upon to object.
Brother Richard DeMaria, CFC
Executive Director, Ministry of Christian Formation
