Alive and Believing for the 1980's
By Bill Callahan, SJ

An evening of Reflection with Chicago Call to Action on Being a Roman Catholic American Citizen in the Present Decade. Presented at DePaul University, 4/9/80

 

As we start to reflect upon the decade of the 1980s, I think what we see is as diverse as the National Catholic Reporter's coverage this week. There is a celebration, with the refrain that Bishop Oscar Romero is dead -a martyr -- rejoice! There are also reflections of a Jesuit brother of mine from Belgium, speaking of the time of the process of normalization after Vatican II, the one that is just beginning, a normalization which is a time of trying to reflect and trying to discipline some of the excesses in doctrine that have occurred after the Second Vatican Council. It's a time when all around the world, save the highest levels of ordained ministry and jurisdiction, the people of the church, the women but also the laymen are moving into positions of responsibility and of ministry. It's a time when many things are happening within our church. And I would like to simply reflect with you on what is likely for us as a church in the 1980s.

I think we would be not looking large enough if we didn't try to put into perspective the church within which we live which is spread throughout the world. There is no way that our church and our faith, and even the way we live at the local level, is not deeply colored by what is happening with the spirit of our world and the events in it. And if we situate our church in the 80s, we see that it is likely to be an unsettled world through much of the 80s an anxious one even when it is peaceful. We are clear that in the 80s we will have a realignment of world power relationships. It's a time in the affluent countries when we are starting to cope with diminished expectations. We haven't let go of them yet, but we are starting to face the turning point of our expectations where competition for jobs and resources and markets is becoming a reality that colors the way we behave toward one another. I think we'll grow more conscious of that. We're seeing a gap of the rich and poor nations and the tensions which that is bringing up as our anxieties lead us to consider something that is almost absurd within a nation that defends the rights of private
property questions of whether we should to to war over "protecting the resources that we need" which belong to somebody else -- something we would be most uncomfortable about if they were considering
whether to go to war to protect their resources on our grounds.

It is a time of the aging of the northern hemisphere and the rising up of the southern hemisphere where the population is growing and where much of the future of the world is starting to be acted out.

It's clear that we're going to have to confront as Christians the fact that the arms race is already renewed -- not that it's going to be -- it is already renewed. And the question is is that going to continue and what posture shall we take towards it?

It is going to be a time when there is a continuing spread of the dream of liberation - political liberation of the kind that we see being wrestled with in Sal Salvador, and in Zimbabwe-Rhodesia and in South Africa. It is a dream of liberation that extends down into the whole movement of feminism within the church and within U.S. society. It is moving all around the world.

In a very provocative article in "Theological Studies" Karl Rahner argues that there have been two great transition points in the history of the church: The first of them at the time of Acts 15 when the church made the transition from being a Jewish church -- a Jewish group that followed Jesus -- to the opening to the world community. That world community meant that it became a Mediterranean church, and then under the impact of the Muslim pressures, a European church that later on would set up colonial churches following colonial governments. -And Rahner argues very strongly that the Vatican Council has been a turning point in the second great revolution in the church's history -- the emergence of a truly world church. And the symbol of that is that each person in each country would hear their faith developed in their own language within their own customs, within their own expressions of a common faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is that question of unity within diversity. If we are going to be a church of the world, we are going to be subject to the world forces. And in trying to assess some of these forces, I would like to describe a perspective.

CURRENTS IN THE CHURCH
ENCULTURATION, SCRIPTURE, JUSTICE, DECENTRALIZATION.

I do believe that the strongest dynamic flowing from the Second Vatican Council is the attempt to truly be a Catholic church rather then simply a European church or a European church with colonies. It is the call to enculturate faith -- to enculturate it with the expectation, not necessarily perfectly clear when it was voted on, that the church is going to become multi-cultural; that the church in South America is going to be shaped differently from the church of North America and from Europe; that the African church will be taking on the dynamics of attempting to express faith from a heritage that is tribal, where the great catch is to try to work and deal with tribal rivalries in the various nations and still adapt to a modern world. In this regard Nyerere i's a perfect example -- one that troubles us in the U.S. because we label him socialist as he attempts to protect the values of tribal living, while still adapting successfully to the modern world. Quite clearly the church of the Far East, with its cultural experience and its teaching back into the religions of Buddha, of Confucius and of the other great faiths of the Far Fast, is going to be a different experience and a different expression of faith than the one that arises in the U.S. So I think that the first of the great streams set in motion with enormous momentum is the force of enculturation.

The second great current that is running with great strength is the recovery of a biblically based spirituality, liberty and theology -- a renewed focus on the Lord Jesus Christ -- not always as Lord but as a person who became like us in all but sin I think that much of the present struggle of the 80s is going to be over "What think ye of Christ?"

The Second Vatican Council also set in motion a third strong current -- the surge toward making social justice not peripheral but central to Christian faith. A biblical simplicity is reflected in "The Church in the Modern World" as it says, "A faith that is sound will show forth in deeds." That is a very, very heavy trip for a people who are free in proclaiming the values of their faith. We've heard that Roman Catholics have big mouths. Well, the challenge is, not to develop smaller mouths but to develop lives acted out in faith that let the mouths stay big in proclaiming that faith. So, indeed, I believe the momentum of social justice is a central issue of faith and increasingly a central is-sue of spirituality. If action on behalf of justice is a constitutive' dimension of the preaching of the gospel, it is a constitutive dimension of the spirituality and prayer that reflect that gospel preaching. And a spirituality that is too personalist and does not incorporate it is a defective spirituality.

The fourth great current is the current toward the decentralization of ministry and responsibility within our church -- a very major shift, one not necessarily as easy to act out as to articulate. We are facing the question of shared responsibility, of collegiality, and implicit within it- the- shift from a paternal-child model of faith toward faith which is that of adults. Among adults there is no denial in any sense of the teaching power, but it is the teaching power of an adult speaking to other adults in a way in which the adults must take responsibility for the way in which they act out that faith.

And with that comes the fifth great current -- the shifting patterns of authority called forth by the changing situations within our church. It is a shift away from the dominating, ruling style that made such sense when the church was deeply embattled and saw its task as simply protecting the church from hostile forces, towards a biblical vision of faith that summons us as Christ summoned people who had too small visions of themselves. He summoned larger dreams that enabled people to believe

in the possibilities arising from their own gifts. He summoned them to gather together to express their gifts and celebrate their efforts -- both those ending in success and those ending in failure -- for the failure of the cross became the celebration of the unquenchable life of Jesus. So, indeed I do think we are moving, and the motion around authority creates a shifting pattern.

COUNTERCURRENTS
TRADITIONALISTS, PAPAL AUTHORITY

At the same time we're seeing in the 80s something that I think is quite different than what we saw in the early 70s. We are seeing strong restraining tendencies rise up. Some of this comes naturally, for when we grow anxious we tend to act with greater restraint. Of course we do, and the worldwide anxiety over inflation and the possibility of a nuclear war frightens us. The only experience I have had relating to nuclear war is watching the NASA films, especially the ones of Enewietok where from a camera that was placed on a very high tower almost 30 miles distant, you watched as little toy ships floated on the Enewietok lagoon. And then the voice said, "10--9--8--7--" and at "zero" this great bubble burst forth from that lagoon and burst forth again and formed a cloud with that typical pattern. And the little toy ships were riding high up the side of the water, as the voice said, "And that is the heavy cruiser Arkansas." And after a certain time, the camera 30 miles away shook and went out of commission with the shock wave. That's the closest I've gotten to it. But all of us intuit that the forces are there to effectively wipe out our lives. That's a little anxiety producing. There is also the longing at times for security - the longing for simple answers.

Within our church there are several strong restraining tendencies that also are acquiring momentum, Some of them are symbolized by Cardinal LeFebvre who is clearly tapping into a very strong vein of Catholic tradition that believes that the Second Vatican Council was not sufficiently reverent of that tradition. And I for one can remember the days of my enthusiasm for new liturgy, when a close friend of mine went after me very fiercely and said, "Don't put in a new fascism to replace an old one" -- a good warning that people's sensitivities are precious and wherever possible to be respected. There is a restraining tendency toward seeking a simple kind of biblical fundamentalism. It sometimes goes together very strongly with a political fundamentalism, wanting to deal with the world in simple, clear answers, not wanting to deal with anything gray. This is not just something that we can attribute to any particular person. It is a normal current within our church that occurs after every great time of transition and change. The conservatizing trend within our church is normal and can be deeply healthy and shared hopefully by all of us.

I do think we see within our church at the present time a reassertion of papal presence and authority. The pattern that seems to emerge in the pontificate of Pope John Paul II is one of trying to put things together through the use' of large scale visits and media type caravans -- to bring the presence of church authority, especially in the wonderfully charismatic person of Pope John Paul II, to as many lands as possible in as short a time as possible. The very arduous schedules which are clearly set by John Paul himself contribute to that presence. We see within this pattern the reassertion of doctrinal presence achieved through carefully chosen conflict with some key figures within the national churches. We also have a restatement of traditional church teaching in many areas, especially on sexual morality, ministry and authority,

Part of the very purpose of this, clearly, is to establish control of the public debate within the church -- to lay out the kind of guidelines within which the debate will take place. There will indeed be conflict within that. And conflict is not something that should be feared or looked upon as a destructive force -- although it could be destructive. I do think there is also a move to reassert much tighter control and discipline over the clergy and over the bishops. It is not clear what you do with women religious. And up until recently there has not been a great necessity to deal with many of the laity. That is starting to change very strongly as around the world we see that we clergy are growing old, that in 10 years three-fourths of the American clergy will be 65 or older. That is an actual fact. That's true of many of the churches of the northern hemisphere. It is not true of the churches of the southern hemisphere in certain areas.

I believe that Pope John Paul in his pontificate will move in the direction of deemphasizing the West. And I for one cannot complain deeply with that because the

church of Europe and the colonies Must decrease for others to increase -just as is true in the secular sphere, I do believe that John Paul feels he has the power and the gifts to deal strongly with the East, both to deal with Communism, and to provide aid and comfort to the Orthodox. I also think that Pope John Paul will move rather carefully to undercut LeFebvre and the traditionalists, but at the same time to keep the allegiance of LeFebvre's followers -- achieving this by allowing greater flexibility with the Latin Mass which I think, frankly, is a blessing.

LIVING WITH CONFLICT
DURABILITY OF VATICAN 11

When you start to have a strong momentum for the movements that I have described and the resulting restraining tendencies, it's like two great streams of water. When You have the joining of two great streams of water, of course you'll have turbulence. When the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers come together in the springtime, when they're both in spring flow, you have great turbulence. You have it at the beach when you watch 'one wave going back in an undertow and another rolling up on top of it, Turbulence, struggle, conflict are not necessarily destructive of faith. In fact, they can be enormously building of faith. In this joining of the waters, you will have the forces of expansion, of those that want to move outwards, versus the forces of contraction; of those that want to control. We see this in many areas: the biblical liberation model of theology versus the patriarchal model; the strong divergence among Catholic people on sexual and other matters; the reassertion of traditional teaching in traditional language derived from a previous age; the tension drawn over the pronouncements of Ephesus and Calcedon on the Christology question; the tension between a spirituality that will reach out to be embracive of society and a spiritual revival that wants to pull back and nurture personal faith and the of being loved by Jesus.

Some of the most extreme perils of the latter are shown in places like Bolivia, Chile and Paraguay where there has been covert funding of parts of the charismatic movement precisely because of its power to drain away political forces for change. This heritage we have of faith being a private venture dates far back. Consider the simple expression of Thomas a Kempis, "I never go out of myself but I return less a man." It reveals the assumption that it is alone -- alone physically, alone from relationship -- that one is truly deepest in religion. There is a sense that as one goes forth it is generally dissipating, with the implication that if one went forth too long, one would fall apart.

We have the rising tide of feminism, as I mentioned before. And any people who suggest that this is an American phenomenon only simply aren't in touch. The primary debate is taking place at the public level within the U.S., but it is moving on all the continents, even down to Islam. The strongest petitions for equality in ministry are coming from the East Asian bishops, who are faced with the perfectly sexist fact that wherever their own cultural "law of Perda" is in effect, men cannot minister to women. The question thus becomes, "Do you want a church?" And that is why the East Asian bishops two years ago requested of Rome a very careful way that they might move towards equality in ministry.

A critical issue affecting the spirit of the rising churches is the question of the durability, the perseverance of the forces for growth. We know perfectly well from church history that the ability of our church to preserve tradition is established, is powerful. But what about preserving the forces for growth?

I suggest that the 80s will be analogous to what's happening with my garden in Washington, D.C. My bedroom window is full of plants. I'm an old farmer, and I grow them in a city garden which has automatic tithing provided by the people who pass by. These plants have to be hardened off to make the transition to grow in Washington's heat and cold the rest of the year. You don't harden them off by keeping them protected in the bedroom all the time. At a certain time you deliberately submit them to greater heat and cold, to greater dryness, so they can make the
transition.

I think the 80s are going to be that kind of testing time. I do believe that social justice as a thrust will not be stilled. I believe that the feminist empowerment is breaking through -- even at a time when it seems to be getting blunted -and that probably the sign of it in the next two years will be an attempt to blunt it and limit it with concessions. I believe the decentralization of ministry will clearly continue. It is simply a fact, it makes sense, and there is nothing in ministry to replace that need.

The pressure and the tensions rising up will continue through the 80s, and I think we should get used to them. I do not believe they will be destructive. I think also that if the attempts to rein in Vatican II are not successful, we I break into an adult church, for that is what this kind of tension starts to produce -- a typical pattern when you try to reverse something. I-have been part of a struggle with local church in Arlington, Virginia, where there was an attempt to get people to back off from the sharing of ministry and responsibility which rose up in that church in the late 60s and early 70s. The very struggle forced the people to reflect on what they believed, and a number of people very adult in their faith has emerged.

GIFTS OF THE U.S. CHURCH
EDUCATION, DISSENT, HUMAN RIGHTS, NOISY CONTEMPLATION

If we are indeed enculturating around the world, what should the U.S. gifts particularly be? Let me suggest a few dimensions and conclude with some recommendations.

First of all, we are clearly the most highly educated, broad-based laity in the history of the church. That's a responsibility. Our educational patterns have indeed succeeded beyond anything we dreamed when we began. But we are not only highly educated -- we have the skills and gifts of democracy that are going to be part of our contribution to our church. And therefore, I do believe we have the responsibility to show how more of this can be incorporated into the decision-making and ministry of our church and into its accountability -so normal in the kind of culture we live in. I do believe the 80s will see a real flowering of broad-based ministry in the United States.

Secondly, I believe we have a gift for esteeming and working with the power of dissenting views to expand faith. We must come to name and esteem this gift more fully within the church. I think we're used to this kind of tension in other areas of our life. That's why we go jogging -- if we don't exercise, the body atrophies. If we don't keep tension on our muscles and develop them, they indeed will shrink. And so also a faith that does not struggle is a faith that atrophies and shrinks.

Thirdly, I believe we in the United States have a gift of concern for human rights and freedom both within the United States and in our relationship to other nations. And we have a responsibility as a church community to pressure our country in this regard. Often times it can be the other way around -- our country has often pressured us in faith, as we have seen on the slavery question, as we have seen on feminism -where civil society has led our own faith community. I do believe the growth of equality for women and for men will continue to flower.

And the real test is whether affluent, educated Catholics can bend their own self-interest to join in the empowerment of poorer people within this nation and around the world -- that sense of First World "letting go", the theology of relinquishment, the witness of John the Baptist - or will we, even within the Roman Catholic community, brush aside the social teachings of our church, which have not often been preached widely because they are far more radical than we are and deeply threatening to the way of life we have lived. It is not clear whether this challenge can be effectively met -- and there is little witness of it in the past -- but if we do not, I believe our time in purgatory will be greatly lengthened.

If we accept this challenge, I believe in the 80s we will increase our ability to focus resources and funds in areas that we believe in -- it's part of our growing and accountability -- which will also show up in our diverting resources and funds from the areas we don't believe in. We are growing more comfortable with that in the church -we can vote with our feet and our pocketbooks -- it has been a traditional American pattern of life.

Fourthly, I believe we have the gift, the task, of taking the lead in building a personally owned, socially conscious faith and prayer which can flourish amidst the noise and cares of contemporary life. I suggest this for the United States partly because our education and our broad-based approach to faith empower us to theologize and work with spirituality in a way that countries coping strictly with survival needs have not yet had the freedom to reflectively pursue.

In saying this I don't mean to demean -- on the contrary, I deeply admire -the "communidades de base" of much of Central and South America, and their own adaptations in Asia and Africa. They are showing the way for us to take the Scriptures, to read them, to pray them -- to take our lives and compare them, to try to work out the activities of our lives in ways that reflect that Gospel.

But I do believe we have a special task to begin building -- and I believe it's coming forth -- the other half of our approach to deep prayer. The first half has been deeply developed in the monastic movement, how to pray deeply when one goes apart from the cares of the world. The part that lies ahead is the spirituality that responds to the church's social call to move into the world, to embrace it, especially where people are poor and oppressed, and to learn to pray as deeply in the midst of that world of activity as we once thought possible only when we went apart.

Finally, you and I have the gift, the challenge as church of asking the deep down question, "Can our faith deal with the implications of capitalism in a critical, Gospel way?" The unquestioning patriotism towards our community of the United States is passing away, and ought to. Our primary touchstone of faith is the Gospel, and the Gospel critiques every civil structure. The Gospel must also criticize the way we live within the church as well -- and that is part of our responsibility.

LIVING IN THE '80's
EXPERIENTIAL FAITH, STRUGGLE, MERRIMENT, DREAMING.

In conclusion, I'd like to just set some suggestions for how to live in the 1980s. I do believe it is deeply important to nurture local communities. But the personalist trend and spirituality within individuals can sometimes be reflected in an excessively nurturing direction in local communities. It is deeply important not to lose contact with the larger church. What is happening in El Salvador is a critical dimension of your and my faith experience and it must not be put aside; it must not be denied -- concern not only for Bishop Romero, who was the 27th assassination that day, but for the other 26 who are precious brothers and sisters.

I do believe we have to build a biblical faith of ever-increasing depth, and with it the power to analyze and submit the current decision-making of our lives to that faith. We have to learn, in an ever deeper way, to own our own experience. God does not come to you and to me by going apart from the experiences of our lives so that we may pray and find God. Our path of salvation is the path through the experiences of our lives those are where God is acting within us. And to own that life, to celebrate it and to celebrate the gifts that we bring to bear on that life, is how we shall build the deep prayer we have talked of. Struggle is ordinarily the most powerful dynamic of a developing faith. It's not exactly what you prescribe for people, but it's the thing that historically you look back on in individual and collective life, to say, "Ah, and that's when we did the deepest growing." It is why the Exodus became a central focus for the community that came forth out of Egypt. It's why we have recently been celebrating the death of Christ and the resurrection.

It is the celebration of Romero's death that took a radical turn when Romero, at age 60, was appointed to the position as Bishop of San Salvador. He changed from a life that was notably uninvolved when he went out to see the bodies of the peasants who had been assassinated while they prayed, and he came back from that contemplative experience and started to preach the Gospel in a new way and to describe what he had seen. And he kept that up, and his life changed in his last 3 years until finally, under a death threat - which he knew of in advance- he refused to take all the protection that is now so prominently being developed for executives and business people. He stayed vulnerable, he stayed preaching the truth, he stayed living with that struggle that was growing; and he took upon himself the struggle of his people and the death that went with it.

I think we have to learn -- it's often a learned skill -- not to be afraid of struggle. Struggle is integral to our faith. We have to avoid that tendency to fundamentalism which is a biblical trap, a religious, dogmatic trap. It perhaps is normal at times to want life to be more simple, but Christ when he came and preached to us preached to the people in parables. He wanted them to have to wrestle to draw forth the content of that preaching.

lie need to nurture the ability to celebrate. I don't believe that in the journey of faith that lies ahead, grim pilgrims will be as helpful as those who can celebrate. I don't think we have to worry about being passionate people, even angry people. That is part of the power of love. It is said, "When the passion dies, the love is dead." Our church, I believe, is growing more passionate. It's part of the religious shifting that is taking place, a shifting of our life-style in order to esteem life for brothers and sisters in other lands. We will have to walk that path and encourage our nation to walk that path. It means we will join the recent popes in saying "No more war, never again." It means we cannot celebrate a renewed arms race, even though it might affect our need for security. It means we cannot esteem and accept capital punishment. It means if we are to be reverent towards life -and please" God, we shall be -- it must be towards all of the life that is God's creation.

Also, when we struggle we cannot let anyone become our enemy. Saul Alinsky used to say that in organizing it really helped to find someone who could become your enemy. I greatly admired Saul, for when one got close to him many of the stereotypes crudely laid upon him yielded to a deeply compassionate person -- but I don't believe that it's within our capacity as followers of Jesus to let people be our enemies, whether it be in San Salvador or in any of the places we struggle. Rather, we are called to love even the people who treat us as enemies. Our faith is called to be a tough and merry faith.

I think one of the transitions that lies ahead -- and it is a blessed one -is the realization that the coming of religiosity to a person's life does not make him or her more fragile. We've sometimes treated it that way, as you can see within religious formation programs. The moment a religious vocation reared, you wanted to snatch it away from the cares of the world, away from secular life, and put it in the country and surround and protect it as though it were a hothouse plant. The coming of religiosity made us more fragile.

On the contrary, the coming of religiosity as Christ described it was part of a dream that made little people tough enough even to die for a friend. Our faith is a much tougher faith than we have ever been willing to welcome before. You and I are tough durable people - tough enough to be vulnerable, tough enough not to have to make others our enemies in order to cope with life but to lay upon ourselves the trip of reconciliation and of love. To do that, and to realize how strong and durable we are when we reopen our hearts to Christ, is, I believe, the empowerment that merriment and humor bring. In previous days of struggle, when the Calvinists and the Puritans struggled with the Irish and French Jansenists, merriment was a hostile, aggressive act, which meant you were departing from religion. Religion was serious, grim business. In these days I don't believe that holds any longer. Following Jesus is a merry task, and the merriment is part of the way we can deal with the passions in a persevering way, to build justice around the world.

That justice will not come easily, or because we say, "Please, let my people go." That justice is symbolized in the fact that it took 9 plagues upon Pharoah's house and the land of Egypt before Pharoah would finally let them go, and even then he gave chase.

And finally, I do believe that what we need even more in the 80s than we've had before is to let loose the power of our dreaming. It is for the dream that Christ raised up that people are willing to die -- the dream of reconciliation, of compassion, of love unto death -laid out not in nice norms so we won't get too narrow, but laid upon us as the call to bend our decisions to act that out. It is the dream of following Christ. It is the dream that hopefully in the 80s will infect all of us as we struggle to bring forth out faith in the modern world and to make Christ live through the people of our church.