DRAFT
OF A CHAPTER
CONSERVATISM
Charles
P. Poole, Jr.
Original
version June 1997; rewritten
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Pre-Vatican II Experience
3. Implementing
4. Post-Vatican II Experience
5. Liberals and Conservatives
6. Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults .
7. Going Back and Heading Forward
8. The Church Moves Ahead
1.
INTRODUCTION
At the
present time there are strong conservative and strong liberal factions
competing with each other to influence the directions in which the Church will
go in the future. I have been concerned
about this dichotomy ever since my High School years, which were the World War
II years 1941-1945, and I have spent the last couple of decades of my life
involved in this controversy. I have not
tried to read up on the background and development of this issue so the
viewpoints which I present will be mainly those acquired from personal
experience.
2.
The
main religious project in my life during my four years at the Jesuit High
School Brooklyn Preparatory was to read the entire bible at the rate of a
chapter a day. I did not receive much
encouragement for doing this, and some of my fellow Catholics pointed out books
that they thought would be preferable reading material. It just was not
fashionable to read the scriptures in Catholic circles during the 1940's, and
this identified me as a liberal at an early age. When the advisability of my scripture
reading was questioned I would point out that the title page of my Douay-Rheims Bible indicated that one gained an indulgence
for reading the scriptures. I was not
much of an enthusiast for indulgences, but they really strengthened my case for
justifying extensive scripture reading.
In
college I spent a great deal of time at Friendship House in
I was
especially interested in the Fathers of the Church, and in how the contemporary
Church differed from the ancient Church of the first few centuries. In those days the average Catholic had little
concern about these topics, and some priests with whom I discussed my interests
were discouraging about the advisability of delving into these areas. On the conservative side I was fascinated by
the exposition of theology presented in the seven volumes of Adolphe Tanquery. These were the standard theology texts taught
in seminaries, and to my knowledge they had not been translated from Latin into
English so the seminarians would be forced to acquire expertise in reading and
comprehending Latin. Tanquery
expressed our main beliefs in a relatively small number of definitions, theses,
and sometimes corollaries, which were explained and proven in a very systematic
manner, with extensive citations from the Fathers of the Church, decrees of
Ecumenical Councils, papal encyclicals, etc. The reasoning and justifications
were very precise, which impressed me.
Each thesis was categorized by the level of belief ascribed to it: de fide, proxima
fide, certum, probabilis. This overall thesis approach seemed
analogous to that utilized by mathematicians and some physicists in formulating
and presenting the fundamentals of their subject matter.
During the
1940's and 1950's I was a staunch advocate of a number of ideas which came to
fruition at the Second Vatican Council during the 1960's, such as the
encouragement of regular scripture reading, celebrating Mass in the vernacular,
dialoguing with other Christians, seeking reunion with the Orthodox, giving lay
people greater roles in the Church, taking a strong stand against racial
prejudice, etc. Being a scientist I was
especially interested in two of the main goals of the Council, namely to bring
the Church back much closer to its roots (resourcement), and to make it
face up to the problems of the modern world (aggiornamento). In my
judgment the Council accomplished these two ambitions about as well as one
could optimistically expect it to do so.
The documents promulgated by the Council, and those issued after it,
were real landmarks in the history of the Church.
3.
IMPLEMENTING
As was
the case with the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the main effect that the Second
Vatican Council had on revitalizing the Church was the implementations of the
decrees of the Council during the subsequent two decades. This process began in 1969 by the
promulgation of the Novus Ordo
Mass in the vernacular with the issuing of the new Missal (sacramentary
plus lectionary). The Novus Ordo
Liturgy of the Hours, considered for centuries as the “official prayer of the
Church,” was ready in 1971. The ancient
Order (Rite) of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) for the preparation of individuals
to join the Church was reconstituted in 1972, after having been in disuse for
many centuries. It was not mandated in
the
4.
POST-VATICAN II EXPERIENCE
After
the Second Vatican Council the liberals tried to fashion the church in ways
that went far beyond what was envisioned at the Council. There seemed to be a tendency to protestantize the Church.
The obligation to attend Mass on Sunday was considered by many as no
longer in force. The rosary and other
Marian devotions were de-emphasized, as were doctrinal matters in general. Feminists campaigned for the universality of
inclusive language, and the ordination of women. The role of the laity in the Church became
more prevalent. God was no longer a “He”
but a “He” or “She.” I became
disenchanted with the trend toward what seemed to me to be an extreme
liberalism which could destroy the Church, and I became a conservative. My position was: let us return to Vatican II.
5.
LIBERALS
There
are various ways to categorize the liberal/conservative dichotomy. Liberals want much more change,
conservatives want curtailment of, and perhaps elimination of, some
changes. Liberals emphasize subsidiarity or decentralization, whereas conservatives
emphasize authority. Liberals are less
concerned about details of formal beliefs, whereas conservatives want adherence
to all dogmas. Liberals feel free to
overlook some Church moral teachings (e.g., birth control), while conservatives
want strict adherence to all of them. Liberals advocate being non-judgmental,
and conservatives are more judgmental.
Liberals emphasize the spirit of the law, and some conservatives stress
the letter of the law. Liberals want a
merciful God and conservatives seek a just God.
Liberals say a certain law may change in the future so they can ignore
it now, whereas conservatives say the Church never changes so all laws must be
strictly obeyed. Liberals think that
almost everyone will reach heaven, whereas conservatives not so sure about
this. Some of these comparisons are
caricatures of the actual situation, but they give the flavor of the
differences between the two approaches to present day Catholicism.
There
is an interesting index that can be used to identify whether a person is of the
conservative persuasion, or of the liberal persuasion, and that is whether he
or she recites what might be called the long form of the Creed, or what might
be called the short form of the Creed.
By the word Creed I mean the Nicene Creed which is recited by the
congregation during
It is
important to point out that both conservative and liberal Christians are
equally sincere in their aspirations, and it is much to our credit how amicably
the two camps coexist in many parishes, with a great deal of mutual respect for
each others dignity. Personally, I am very optimistic for the future of our
Church.
6.
RITE OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION OF ADULTS .
It
might be instructive to illustrate some aspects of liberal versus conservative programs
by an example. In 1990 I became involved
in our parish Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program, and for several years
I served as a member of a team which presented weekly explanations of various
aspects of our faith to individuals who wished to join the Church. I also became aware of the recommendations of
the North American Forum (NAF) for the Catechumenate
for implementing an RCIA program in a parish.
Their approach was to emphasize discussing the scriptures of the Sunday,
learning doctrine from these scripture readings, and having the candidates,
catechumens, and team members share their faith stories with each other at their meetings. I
was much more in favor of emphasizing the systematic teaching of dogma. The NAF approach seems to put the dominant emphasis on the conversion
of the heart, not the mind. I believe
that there should be an equality of emphasis.
When I
attended North American Forum Beginnings and Beyond Institutes in July 1990,
and again in June 1997, I found that the underlying philosophy explained in
their Participants Guide had changed very little in the interim. They claim that prior to the Second Vatican
Council (1961-1965), a Religious Education Model was followed for the
catechetical instruction of aspirants wishing to join the Church, and that it was
now necessary to replace this with their Pastoral Formation Model which forms
the basis for what they teach in their institutes. They referred to this as a
much needed Paradigm Shift in Christian Initiation. When I was the director of RCIA in our parish
for several years during the 1990's, we based our formation on what we called
the Inclusive Catechesis Model. It is
called inclusive because it emphasizes both scripture and doctrine. The following table compares these three
models. The entries in the first,
second, and third columns of the table are taken from the NAF Participants
Guide mentioned above, and the entries in the fourth column are my own. The entries in the row Primary Tools best epitomize the difference between the models. The
primary tool for the Religious Education Model is a doctrine textbook, the
primary tool for the Pastoral Formation Model is the lectionary, and the
primary tool for Inclusive Catechesis is a combination of both, just as it
should be.
|
|
Thesis Pre-Vatican II method |
Antithesis Current NAF method |
Synthesis Proposed new method |
|
Title |
Religious Education |
Pastoral Formation |
Inclusive Catechesis |
|
Model |
Teaching |
Apprenticeship |
Evangelizing |
|
Goal |
Knowledgeable Catholic |
Active member of missioned community |
Knowledgeable follower of Christ |
|
Reaches Fulfillment |
Intellectual assent |
Life of prayer and action leading to justice |
Life of prayer and true devotion to Christ |
|
Presumes |
Willingness to enter into analytical study |
Willingness to enter the journey of conversion |
Openness to follow the gospel |
|
Setting |
Classroom |
Liturgy |
Discussions of our faith |
|
Timing |
Academic year |
Liturgical year |
Liturgical year |
|
Primary Tools |
Textbook |
Lectionary |
Doctrine book and lectionary |
|
Is part of |
School ministry |
Parish ministry |
Religious education and evangelization |
|
Is cousin to |
Studying |
Living |
Maturing |
|
Who does it |
Few |
Community |
Team |
|
People involved |
Few |
Many |
Several |
|
Style of Relationship |
Teacher to student |
Community to new member |
Mentor to person converting |
Reactions
to the NAF philosophy have been many and varied. Supporters of the organization claim that it
has fostered a more vibrant and more authentically Christian spirit in our
parishes, and detractors assert that the NAF legacy is the presence in our
Church of too
many converts with an inadequate knowledge of their faith.
Another
way to gain some perspective on the development of Catechesis is through a
Hegelian analysis. The philosopher Hegel
maintained that knowledge and learning develop over time through a three step process called thesis, its opposite antithesis, and its
subsequent higher level truth or understanding called synthesis. In our case
the pre-Vatican II doctrinal instruction method constitutes the thesis, the NAF
lectionary based method is the antithesis, and the Inclusive Catechesis method
which harmonizes both approaches is the synthesis that we believe is destined
to emerge from the interaction between thesis and antithesis. In the terminology of Thomas Kuhn we have
here an initial Paradigm Shift from the thesis to the antithesis, and a hopefully
forthcoming Paradigm Shift from the antithesis to the
synthesis. History shows that the
proponents of the thesis and the antithesis are always firmly committed, and it
is not easy to proceed to the synthesis.
In our opinion movement toward the synthesis is long overdue.
In July
2000 I attended the Don Bosco Conference sponsored by
the Association for Catechuminal Ministry (ACM) held
at the
7.
GOING BACK
The
current divisions in the Church date back to the Second Vatican Council which
tried to accomplish two seemingly contradictory things. The first was based on
the Italian word aggiornamento which
means updating, or perhaps modernizing, and the second was based on the French
word resourcement
which means return to the sources. The
RCIA program constitutes a return to a process of formation that was dominant
in the Church during the early centuries of its existence, so RCIA has its
roots in resourcement.
At the present time, RCIA attempts to prepare catechumens and candidates for
living virtuous lives so they can become a leaven for reform in the modern
world. Its present approach involves aggiornamento. The current divergences of aspirations among
Catholics involve how to interpret the real meaning of aggiornamento.
8.
THE CHURCH MOVES AHEAD
class=Section2>
In
recent years the worldwide Church has been moving ahead in a moderate direction, a direction which
is more conservative at upper levels of the hierarchy, with more liberalism
down below. This is my assessment, as
are the remarks that follow. For
example, the bishops and cardinals appointed in recent years have tended to be
conservative. The Novus
Ordo Mass and subsequent modifications and
developments were moderate to liberal, although the recently issued 2002
revision of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) is more
conservative in tone. The Novus Ordo Liturgy of the Hours
is moderate. The Order (Rite) of
Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) is moderate in tone, but in many parishes
in the