Most Reverend John J. Myers is Bishop of Peoria. This address was
given on October 23, 1993 at the CUF 25th Anniversary Conference in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
We live in times which future historians will surely judge to have been
pivotal. Forces and powers, some of which we are clearly aware of,
others of which we are only dimly aware of, if at all, struggle for
possession of the human soul. The human family, even while welcoming
increased awareness of its unity and of its mutual responsibility,
appears to be lost and floundering.
It is to persons in this real world that Jesus Christ sends His Church
which carries on His mission today, which mediates His presence and the
Father's love and mercy.
The Father continues to care for us, despite our temptations to think
otherwise. We need only consider the gift of Pope John Paul II to the
Church. As he begins his sixteenth year on the Chair of Peter, we have
ample reason for gratitude. In the last year we have received both the
Catechism of the Catholic Church and Veritatis Splendor. They provide a
strong and solid foundation for pastoral activity for many years to
come. In my remarks I would like to offer some thoughts for your
reflection on three separate matters: an appropriate pastoral stance
today, especially in catechesis; the normative nature of the Catechism
of the Catholic Church; and some themes from my own pastoral on
catechetics, "To Reach Full Knowledge of the Truth." (I
Timothy 2:4).
For some years now I have been speaking of what I consider to be the
appropriate "pastoral stance" for those in public ministry in
the Church. What do I mean by this?
The concept is not unrelated to what our Holy Father, when he was
Archbishop of Krakow, termed "attitude."
In Sources of Renewal, a study he prepared for his archdiocese on
the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, he states that
attitude is "taking up a position, and being ready to act in
accordance with it." The Holy Father's notion is quite technical
and rooted in his own philosophical thought. Yet it makes clear that one
must approach life from a certain stance, a certain vantage point. In
his work, he is interested in addressing the attitude of faith to be
found in a believer and the complex of attitudes that "go into
making the individual into a believing member of the Church." (P.
18)
Of more than passing interest to our situation today is the Holy
Father's reflection on faith:
The essence of faith consists of more than a purely intellectual assent
to the truth revealed by God, or a kind of reflection of that truth in
man's consciousness. "Self-abandonment to God" as a response
to revelation bears witness also to the fact that faith expresses itself
through man's attitude... (p. 204)
In Veritatis Splendor, the Holy Father amplifies this notion of attitude
by making use of the account of the rich young man. In this Gospel
parable, we see that the young man's understanding of the truth of
Christ's words was not enough. It was also necessary for him to commit
his entire being to this truth. This is, of course, only possible
through the grace of God.
Even as we continue to express clearly and without diminution the Gospel
as entrusted to the Church and reflected in the teaching of the Church,
we must keep in mind that our role is strictly instrumental. The
profound self-surrender that is the act of faith (which contains man's
free commitment, cf. Dei Verbum, 5) is directed to the Lord
Himself, who calls forth this very same response.
"Pastoral stance" may be a complex reality, but it is not
difficult to understand, at least in its broad outlines. Consider an
example of a sports event. There are various ways of participating in
the experience. One way is as a spectator: such persons interact with
the progress of the game, they show more or less excitement. While some
of these spectators may have a heavy involvement in the
proceedings-"fans" we would call them-others are there merely
for a diversion and for the cost of their ticket.
Another participant is the sports announcer or commentator: he has more
or less interest in the game. One might expect him to have greater
insight and broader knowledge of sports and of statistics. He has the
professional responsibility of holding our attention and of making a
living.
The coach is yet another participant. He must add the element of
leadership and maintain a vital relationship with his players. He will
likely be noted for his love for the game and his commitment to winning.
He is responsible to higher authorities.
Finally, the players are involved in the game; they have various skills
for their positions. They have an interest and love of the sport. Some
may be involved in it for money and career. They have various levels of
commitment and enthusiasm.
Various levels of commitment, then, can characterize each of the parties
I have mentioned. Those who go about their role with heartfelt
enthusiasm are bound to make a difference. They know the game. They know
the facts about themselves and about teammates and about the other team,
even unpleasant truths and limits. They have developed their own skills.
They play to win. No one would want players who do not have a
significant commitment to winning.
What we need in the Church is a whole spectrum of people playing their
own appropriate roles. Their enthusiasm for the Church should focus on
leading people to Christ, through a witness of truth and of love.
I turn to the Holy Father again and take some thoughts from his ad
limina addresses to the bishops of the United States, especially his
address of September 5, 1983. Pope John Paul II calls for a series of
attitudes appropriate for the pastor today and, in my judgment,
appropriate for all those who are engaged in pastoral activity in the
Church.
First, the authenticity of our own discipleship. Surely, this
requirement should cause each one of us to pause. It calls us to reflect
on our own union with Jesus Christ. We must be authentically engaged in
the struggle for holiness ourselves, not simply "spectators"
urging others on. There is no such thing as both an effective and
lukewarm minister. This reminds us of the need for our own personal
conversion, a conversion to Christ which is deep, sustained. and renewed
as often as necessary.
Secondly, a pastoral minister must embody the love which characterizes
true disciples of the Lord. This love must be all-embracing, directed to
saints and sinners alike. A minister must be open to friendship and
human caring. A minister must communicate esteem and respect, even if
sometimes this will involve disagreement. People can understand
disagreement so long as it is done in the context of mutual respect.
Because of the love of Christ, we should avoid harsh judgments or on an
unremittingly defensive posture. No team can win which is merely
defensive, although defense is surely a necessary skill. In this
connection we should keep in mind the need for what I call
"ecclesial civility." This involves not only an unwavering
commitment to the truth, but a corresponding realization that we are
servants of the Lord's invitation to intimate personal self-giving.
Thirdly, we must be ambassadors of compassion. This flows from awareness
of our own personal sinfulness and our personal struggle to be faithful
to Christ. This self-awareness will help us guard against
self-righteousness. But it must never be a pretext for confusing mercy
and understanding for fellow sinners with a denial of the full
liberating truth of Christ. The Holy Father has often mentioned such
topics as the indissolubility of marriage, the truth about human
sexuality and married love, and the dignity and vocation of women;
topics which a pastoral minister must address with both frankness and
compassion.
This civility, I am reminded, is apparent in the letters of your
founder, H. Lyman Stebbins, quotations of which appear in your excellent
monthly newsletter, Lay Witness.
Also, pastoral ministers must be ambassadors of fidelity to the
doctrine of the Church. This doctrine is not based on human
consensus, but rather on divine revelation as it has been reflected upon
in the Church and proclaimed by the magisterium of the Church. It is not
based on the permission of theologians. It is based on faith in the
power of God's truth to carry us beyond our own weak insights and
current understanding.
Pastoral ministers must espouse, promote, and embrace Church teaching.
They do so not as distant commentators in a media booth, but rather as
fully committed Church-loving believers. They seek to find ways to
convince people of the Church's teaching by sharing their own
conviction. Magisterial teaching is not "one opinion among
many," but the teaching which must be presented with a view to its
acceptance. Of course, the good teacher must find creative ways to
undertake this. Theologians who seek to promote their alternate views as
practical norms of faith and of action do a profound disservice to the
Church. We are reaping the harvest of over two decades born of this
confusion.
Theologians working appropriately within their own disciplines have a
responsibility to accept Church teaching as their starting point, not to
be the first in front of the camera and the microphone to reject it,
call it into question, or to try to point the attention of Church
members to voices other than those of their Church pastors.
Nor is it consonant with an appropriate pastoral stance to keep pointing
to the darkness in which people must live their lives and conduct their
affairs. Surely we do not have every answer-but we do claim to be
servants of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. Some seem to relish
the darkness. We must share the truth- in some clear fashion. All these
qualities will be summed up in an attitude of prayer: personal, public,
liturgical, especially participation in the Holy Eucharist. Membership
in the Church orients us to the Eucharist. Participation in the
Eucharist joins us more completely to the communion of the Church. Our
personal daily communion with God through prayer will be the font and
the forge of our pastoral ministry. I am convinced that one's personal
interior spiritual life, always rooted in the Scriptures and the
sacramental life of the Church, must underlie all apostolic efforts.
To summarize: a fruitful pastoral stance will always be rooted in the
discipleship of the Lord Jesus, in the self-surrender of faith; it will
emphasize the truth in season and out of season; it will be noted for an
all-embracing love; it will be compassionate, but not at the expense of
the truth.
If a correct pastoral stance demands that one stand with the Church,
then any doctrine or discipline which is truly normative is significant
for that stance. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clearly
normative, in my judgement, from several points of view.
First of all, the Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum by which
the Holy Father promulgated the Catechism, has binding force. Also, the
various elements of the Catechism retain the force which they hold from
other magisterial sources. Then, too, the effects of the Apostolic
Constitution of October 11, 1992, are lasting, The Pope acted "by
virtue of his apostolic authority." He termed the Catechism
"...a statement of the Church's faith and of Catholic
Teaching." In his talk of December 7, 1992, celebrating the gift of
the Catechism, he termed it "an authentic text" containing
"revealed truth, genuine and entire.
Consider Canon 754 of the Code of Canon Law:
All of Christ's faithful are obliged to observe the constitutions and
decrees which lawful ecclesiastical authority issues for the purpose of
proposing doctrine or of prescribing erroneous opinions; this holds
particularly for those published by the Roman Pontiff or the College of
Bishops.
Second, the Catechism is an act of the Magisterium. It is a practical
catechetical norm for everyone engaged in catechetical activity in the
Church.
Certain doctrines may require the assent of "divine and Catholic
faith" if they have been proclaimed as divinely revealed by the
solemn magisterium or the ordinary and universal magisterium of the
Church (see Canon 750). All are bound to shun any contrary doctrines.
Other teachings, not proposed as divinely revealed, require "a
religious assent of intellect and will." (Lumen Gentium 25;
Canon 752) Moreover, "Christ's faithful are therefore to insure
that they avoid whatever does not accord with that doctrine."
By way of reflection on these theological/canonical provisions of the
council and the code, we might note Pope John Paul II's statements in
his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, #19.
The revealed truth is "the property of God Himself." Even
Jesus "feels the need to stress that He is acting in full fidelity
to its divine source." "The same fidelity must be a
constitutive quality of the Church's faith, both when she is teaching it
and when she is professing it."
When we translate these obligations into the context of those bearing
responsibility for catechetics, we find further discipline of the
Church. For example, Canon 773:
It is pastors of souls especially who have their serious duty of
attending to the catechesis of the Christian people, so that, through
doctrinal formation and the experience of the Christian life, the faith
of the people may be living, manifest, and active.
Parents are "bound before all others" to form their children
(Canon 774). Diocesan bishops are to issue norms regarding catechetical
matters (ibid.). The parish priest is bound by office to foster
catechetical formation of adults, young people, and children (Canon
776). The priests are to seek the help of religious, seminarians, and
catechists to promote and foster the role of parents. More specific
directives to pastors are given in Canons 777 to 780.
From this, it would seem that, while pastors have the responsibility to
teach the faith and foster the role of parents, parents have a right to
expect and even demand the authentic presentation of the faith and
genuine support of their catechetical efforts by their pastors.
The Catechism is also a teaching instrument. The Holy Father called it
the type and exemplar of other catechisms. Archbishop Crescenzio Sepe,
Secretary of the Congregation for Clergy which is responsible for
catechesis, said that the Catechism is a "reference point." It
gives a model for creating other catechisms, even in its arrangement and
organization. According to Archbishop Sepe, its four-part structure is
"highly recommended." Clearly, no local catechism may
contradict it. Diocesan bishops should keep these provisions in mind as
they approve or disapprove catechisms in the exercise of their
responsibility (Canon 775). Even theologians, it would seem, must attend
to the Catechism of the Catholic Church for it is an authentic
statement of our faith.
Following are some reflections from my own pastoral letter, issued
January 25, 1993, "To Reach Full Knowledge of the Truth." This
pastoral was written after extensive convened with our Diocesan Pastoral
Council which is constituted annually to advise on particular topics.
Parents, grandparents, teachers, and religious education personnel as
well as priests of the diocese participated. Their advice to me was that
we should seek a Christ-centered renewal of catechesis in our diocese.
We must also stress union with the Church, building "communio."
They urged the need for parents and families to be involved together in
the process of catechetics. They wanted their priests to be more
directly involved in catechetics once again, rather than simply leaving
the tasks to professionals in the field.
In the pastoral, while discussing challenges and difficulties, I made
the following observations:
In the past twenty years there has been a confusion of ongoing
revelation with the definitive revelation in Christ. This was on the
part of those who wished to stress the importance of each individual's
lived experience. It seems to me that this confuses religious experience
with divine revelation. We know from the Council that we are to expect
"no new public revelation before the second coming of Christ"
(Dei Verbum #2). It is rather easy for persons who make this
error to believe that their own opinion is just as valid as the formal
magisterial teaching of the Church.
We are still faced with the problem of dissent, which is particularly
inappropriate in a catechetical context. Catechesis by its nature seeks
to help people grow in the full faith of the Church. Obviously this will
involve dealing with their questions and difficulties. If the teacher or
the text proceeds from the vantage point of dissent, then we are not
helping people grow into the full faith of the Church. In the pastoral I
stressed, for example, that the only appropriate way to discuss the
possible ordination of women is to help people understand why the Church
is correct in this teaching. A teacher should lead by the example of his
own acceptance of the teaching.
Even private withholding of assent is a problem. First of all, one may
be failing in a serious responsibility to give religious assent of
intellect and will. Having done this, one may easily avoid, downplay, or
ignore certain teachings of the Church and thereby deprive students of
hearing the faith in its fullness. This clearly does not give an example
of the internal self-donation which is an essential aspect of believing.
There is a continuing confusion about the role of theologians and of
catechists. A theologian working within the proper context does engage
in speculation. Such a person is trying to seek deeper understanding of
the faith, but the results of speculation are still speculative until
they have been affirmed by the magisterium of the Church. They are not
to be presented as equal to magisterial teaching. It is usually very
unhelpful to present speculative teaching in a catechetical context.
Dissent can never be the norm of either faith or action.
Because of a false sense of compassion we fail to challenge people.
Sometimes we underestimate people, especially young people, thinking
that they could never deal with a hard truth; that they were too weak or
too confused or, at length, too sinful. We must have confidence in the
people and even more confidence in the grace of God to touch their
hearts.
Only a genuine contact with saving truths can bring conversion, faith,
and eternal life. The difficulty is how we are to bring people,
especially children, to this encounter. Although we must explore all
that is fruitful in modern psychology and sociology, we must not seek to
substitute these sciences for the Gospel message of Jesus. While the
methodology employed to transmit the Church's teaching will vary with
the social condition or the maturity level of the student, the message
itself does not change. For example, an art activity about the nature of
God does not serve the message if students are allowed to believe that
He is whatever they think He is or want Him to be. Similarly, a class
discussion does not serve if it allows the students to believe that
morality is a matter of consensus or personal choice. This question of
method does not lend itself to a single answer; nonetheless, some
definite criteria for proper method can be established.
First, our methodology is just that-method, or procedure. We must never
let the method obscure or confuse the message. We must never let our
methods become the message. Second, our children must begin on their own
level of understanding, but their capacity to know and love God should
not be underestimated. After all, Jesus made a childlike faith and trust
the criterion for entrance into His heavenly kingdom. Children do not
need to understand advanced mathematics to study arithmetic; nor do they
need to learn advanced linguistic theory to study reading and grammar.
They can be introduced to concepts and ideas that they can grow into and
make their own over time. Third, though our children should not be made
into automatons or parrots, memorization of basic doctrine, prayers, and
practices is needed. Memorization should go hand in hand with
understanding, but catechists should also leave room for genuine growth
in the child's power of synthesis. For example, the simple response in
the old catechism that "God made me to know, love, and serve Him in
this life and to be happy with Him forever in the next" is
excellent material for fruitful meditation throughout one's life.
Memorization of this sort allows a child to have a permanent space in
mind and heart set aside for and dedicated to the things of God and of
the Church. These essential elements are permanent acquisitions for the
child. to refer to wherever he goes. He or she can retrieve them and
ponder them from different aspects and in different life settings. Such
doctrines are there to give comfort and solace in times of trouble, to
call for conversion, and to raise questions. This can happen because at
least to some degree, however small, these truths have taken root within
the child, gently but persistently opening their minds and hearts to the
world that lies beyond everyday perceptions. In this way, young people
are kept in touch with the transcendent, which is all but eliminated
from the secular understanding of the world. Recently this was brought
to my attention when I was discussing the faith with a young man who had
returned to the Church after many years away. When I asked him what in
particular had drawn him back, he replied, "Because I heard
something I could not unhear." He went on to explain that when he
came to his senses at last, he was drawn back to Christ and His Church
through the power and grace of the Gospel message he had learned in his
youth. Indeed, once truly heard, the Gospel cannot be unheard.
In no one is the "pastoral stance" I have sketched more
evident than in Pope John Paul II and in the approach he has taken in
his fifteen years as universal shepherd. Once again in Denver this
summer one could see literally hundreds of thousands of people welcome
and respond to his apostolic leadership.
No one doubted where he stood or his enthusiasm for the Gospel and for
the Church. His love invited a loving response. Compassion punctuated
and underscored his words. He spoke with strength, with vision, and with
courage. And he always and invariably spoke the truth. By respecting
other's freedom and dignity, he made the truth which makes us free seem
even more appealing.
And he spoke with hope, if not with optimism. Hear his words to the
young people as he departed from Denver's Stapleton International
Airport:
Do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places, like
the first Apostles who preached Christ and the good news of salvation in
the squares of cities, towns, and villages. This is no time to be
ashamed of the Gospel (cf. Romans 1:16). It is time to preach it from
the rooftops (cf Matthew 10:27). Do not be afraid to break out of
comfortable and routine models of living, in order to take up the
challenge of making Christ known in the modern "metropolis."
It is you who must "go out into the byroads" (Matthew 22:9)
and invite everyone you meet to the banquet which God has prepared for
His people. The Gospel must not be kept hidden because of fear or
indifference. It has to be put on a stand so that people may see its
light and give praise to our Heavenly Father (cf. Matthew 5:15-16).
Let us lift high the light so that the Light of the World may banish our
darkness.
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