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The Best Time to Be Catholic? ...article in the Davenport Messenger

George Wertin found this article in a Catholic newspaper from our neighboring state of Iowa. It comes from the Davenport Messenger, a newspaper of the Diocese of Davenport. This article appeared in the May 16, 2002 issue. There are volumes being written about the crisis in the church and some of it is good. This particular interview seemed to address some key points that should be considered. - Chuck MacDonald

Editor's note: The Davenport Messenger does not have a website. We have retyped the story as they wrote it.

The churchman tried to take a spiritual and theological high road, but the crowd’s mood was not immediately receptive. There was more interest in venting anger and frustration over the clergy sex abuse story that seems never-ending, along with questions about how a culture of secrecy and apparent poor leadership might be ended in the Church. Not that the 50 or so people gathered to hear retired Archbishop John Quinn disagreed with his comments.

Retired Archbishop John Quinn

The scene was a shallow semi-circle of chairs set up in the Regina High School cafeteria in Iowa City. It was last Friday night, the first day of a four-day visit to Iowa City by Archbishop Quinn during which he would speak again on Sunday at St. Thomas More Church and on Monday under the auspices of the University of Iowa School of Religion.

At the Regina event he got immediate attention with his opening words: “This is the best time in the history of the Church to be a priest and to be a Catholic.” What did this startling assertion mean? We have been humiliated like Christ on the cross, he said, and we are feeling powerless, like Christ, and are thought to be failures, like Christ. “ We have come face to face with Christ in his poverty, humiliation and weakness, and that is the ultimate call of the Gospel - the scandal of the Gospel.”

In a few minutes Archbishop Quinn would be bombarded with questions about malfeasance among bishops and the scandal of clergy sex abuse. But for the time given him to speak a word of hope, the former Archbishop of San Francisco, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference and host of Pope John Paul during his 1987 visit to the United States set a tone of deep spiritual seeking.

“It is not the successful Christ, but the poor, humble, rejected Christ, who shows us the realities of the evangelization of Christian life,” he said. American Catholics have tended to feel part of a successful Church which is even something of a power in society. The feeling is misleading. We can’t have faith because the Church is powerful, because it is successful, any more,” Archbishop Quinn noted.

"The Church is walking the path of humiliation; a providential path, in which the Holy Spirit is calling the Church to a more authentic embrace of the Gospel. A situation like the current scandal forces that issue, he said. The faith questions become more real: Why are we Christian? Whom do we want to follow?"

The future of the Church as a multicultural world Church will be influenced by small Christian communities which gather to reflect on those questions. As they reflect on those questions. As they reflect on what it means to be Christian, they will be shaped by the Spirit into disciples. - Archbishop Quinn

That’s all very well, the archbishop was told when he finished his remarks but how will small communities have any effect on the structures of the Church, which seem to be a big part of the present problem? There was no attempt to make a glib answer. When a man said he doesn’t see much sign of the hierarchy acting humbly, showing insufficient anguish and penitence, the archbishop simply said, “I agree.”

He also noted that people seem to be feeling so much distress because this is something we can’t control. This humiliation, our emptying of power and control, brings us into the mystery of the emptying of Christ, he said. But a woman declared, the Catholic laity feel anger against the bishops because of their activities, not humiliation. What will be done? ...another woman wanted to know.

"I think there will be, now, a national policy", Archbishop Quinn said. A national policy on clergy sexual abuse was proposed several years ago, he pointed out, but many bishops opposed it and did not follow it, including Boston. His own idea, he said, is that there should be a panel of distinguished lay men and women who would assess the situation today and make recommendations to the bishops.

The feeling that lay people are being kept in the dark bothered another woman. “I am an angry Catholic,” she declared firmly. “ I’m sick of being told nothing.”

Archbishop Quinn acknowledged that the issue of secrecy, and the need for 'transparency' in the Church was growing in importance. There is very strong sentiment about it, he said. “It is not a new thing in the Church to have the laity involved in making decisions,” he added. “There is an ancient axiom that what affects all, should be decided by all of those affected", the archbishop said, giving examples from the rule of St. Benedict and St. Dominic for their religious communities. “These are not unCatholic sentiments” he said.

For Archbishop Quinn and others, a lack of leadership is a glaring problem for the Church today. And the process of selecting leadership is one of the roots of the problem. “I think we need to have another council and sketch some of the deeper questions facing the Church today.

Reform of the papacy led the list - and is the topical title of the book Archbishop Quinn wrote three years ago. Also reform of the Church's central structures; subsidiary in the Church; ineffective synods controlled by the Vatican; and the model of priesthood we have inherited.

We have to look at the fundamental issues of the priesthood, especially the monastic paradigm that has dominated for 1,000 years. The idea of priesthood was the life of a monk: separated from ordinary life, wearing a habit and tonsure, and prayer the daily office. We need to move to the apostolic paradigm for the priesthood,” said Archbishop Quinn, by which he meant priests who share the ordinary life of people, as modeled by St. Paul in his travels. This won’t be easy he pointed out, “The apostolic model is very demanding, just read Paul.”

“It is not a new thing in the Church to have the laity involved in making decisions,” he added. “There is an ancient axiom that what affects all, should be decided by all of those affected,” the archbishop said, giving examples from the rule of St. Benedict and St. Dominic for their religious communities. “These are not unCatholic sentiments” . - Archbishop Quinn

One year ago, before the recent sex abuse scandal, James Carroll published an article in the Boston Globe about the struggles of the Catholic Church. He suggested several books to help Catholics understand their faith. His suggestions.