The Pope understands that a worthy shepherd must have the pastoral instincts and authenticity that link him with the laity, writes Michael W. Higgins
Leadership, effective and credible leadership, is about winning and holding confidence; it is about inspiring, conciliating and forging consensus.
As we know, this happens with less frequency than is optimal and when we fall short, far short, of the ideal, cynicism, negativism and indifference are quick to follow. Look at the current American political circus, the recent Irish elections, the whirligig of Brazilian political dissolution.
When it comes to the Roman Catholic Church, the genuinely global, pan-national entity of centuries-standing, the stakes are no less high. But, whereas the citizenry has some say in who governs them and in determining the comparative qualities of worthy candidates for leadership, the Catholic laity have no say in who leads them (other than an occasional perfunctory if not archaic request for consultation by a nervous papal nuncio compiling his terna or list of candidates for Rome).
Democracy
As we are regularly reminded, the Church is not a democracy and therefore not obliged to achieve any kind of broad consensus when it comes to decision-making, but nor is it an absolute monarchy, as the current Bishop of Rome has demonstrated on numerous occasions.
There are ways of governing that do not break with the apostolic past, that are consultative, empowering and creatively continuous with the best of our tradition, and yet more earnestly attentive to a maturing laity, an informed laity, a highly educated laity.
I was reminded of this in light of the starkly remonstrative editorial in The Tablet of London following Cardinal George Pell’s staggeringly unpolished satellite interview, an interview that he gave an Australian Commission investigating clerical sex abuse allegations during his tenure:
“He was appointed and promoted when the Vatican wanted a safer pair of hands at the helm of major dioceses, unimaginative men with an authoritarian or even belligerent streak who would not rock any ecclesiastical boats.
“That is the least likely personality type to pick up on diffuse and subtle emotional signals, and to know by intuition that something was going seriously wrong.” (Damaging Failings of the Cardinal, March 12, 2016).
Tough language, not heard often enough – certainly not in diocesan news organs or in Catholic organisations that define themselves as pious assemblies ever loyal – read: deferential – to ecclesiastical authority.
But necessary language, given the parlous state of many Church communities, roiling still with ever-surfacing instances of hierarchical cover-up, demoralised leadership, diminishing resources and spiritual atrophy.
In the US the spectre of failed episcopal oversight haunts the Church. The Archdioceses of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota and of Newark, New Jersey have been embroiled in protracted tensions and controversies resulting in the replacement of John Nienstedt as Archbishop of St Paul and Minneapolis by the very man who was appointed Coadjutor to John Myers, Archbishop of Newark in order to mollify if not eradicate the deep distrust pervading that local Church.
Several dioceses in Pennsylvania are bracing themselves for a new tranche of abuse that could easily threaten their fiscal survivability if not religious credibility. We are reaping what we have sown. All the more reason that Rome identify bishops with pastoral intelligence, transparent humility and an abiding empathy born of emotional maturity.
Evidence
There is strong evidence that that is precisely what Pope Francis is doing. He instructed the papal ambassadors that the qualities he was looking for in a future bishop were not to be found in those closeted in a chancery, cassocked in a seminary, or constrained by a strict reading of the Code of Canon Law.
Francis’ decision to appoint three inner city pastors as auxiliary bishops for the affable but clericalist Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and his intervention assuring that Blase Cupich be the new Archbishop of Chicago, are clear indicators that the Pope intends to renew the Church by renewing its episcopate.
He understands that a worthy shepherd must have the pastoral instincts and authenticity that link him with the laity, and his fellow priests, in ways that move beyond the obsequious and the bland.
Visit Michael W. Higgins’ blog, Pontifex Minimus: http://sacredheartuniversity.typepad.com/pontifexminimus/