David Quinn
Our Christian faith ultimately rests on Christ himself, writes David Quinn
The faith of many Catholics has suffered another battering recently because of the latest eruption of public anger over abuse scandals. In Germany, a report commissioned by the Catholic bishops there shows that over a 70-year period, more than 3,000 priests have been accused of child abuse, about 5% of the total who have served in that time.
When the Pope came here last month, it was in the shadow of the scandals, and in the US, there has been renewed anger at the hierarchy because many bishops must have known that the former Archbishop of Washington DC, Theodore McCarrick, had been sexually compromising his seminarians for many years. It was an open secret. More recently an allegation emerged that he had abused an 11-year old.
But when we say that our Faith has taken a battering, we have to ask, our faith in what, exactly? I think the most accurate answer is, faith in the leadership of the Church. That is a very different thing from losing faith in Christianity itself.
Unfortunately, we have had to learn very painfully that many of the leaders of the Catholic Church have feet of clay, to put it very mildly. Some are simply corrupt (like McCarrick), and others are reluctant ever to take a hard decision, including facing down the abusers in the ranks of the clergy. Self-protection came before child-protection, even though in Ireland the situation in this regard has vastly improved.
Leadership
Mediocrity is commonplace, not that this is limited to the Church. Mediocre, self-serving leadership has been exposed across society; in the banks, in politics, in journalism, in the gardaí and so on. Real bravery and vision are in short supply.
In the leadership ranks of the Church, however, you would hope for something better. You would hope that zeal for the Gospel would result in a willingness to take hard decisions when necessary, to not be so self-serving and self-justificatory, that there would be a clear knowledge that sometimes you have to walk the way of the Cross, however painful that is.
When you think about it a little harder, however, maybe it is not so surprising. Christianity is very frank about the weaknesses of human nature. It knows that we are innately sinful and are well capable of deceiving ourselves about our own true motives and intents. That is why we believe we need the grace of God to ultimately rise above ourselves. We cannot save ourselves purely through our own efforts.
A big problem for the Church in Ireland, and elsewhere, is that when we think of the Church, we think primarily of the institution, of the structures. Instead we need to remember that Christianity is first and foremost a way of life, a way of life based on the figure of Jesus Christ.
If we think predominantly of the structure, then it is very hard not to think in terms of power. Has the structure, the institution, a position of power and influence in society or not? If our Faith depends on it having power and influence, then our faith will wane as that wanes. It has to, because there will always be a reason why any institution loses power and influence and it will usually be because it used its position badly. Again, think of all the institutions in society that have lost status for this reason, recently and through history.
Vision
That is not to say the Church shouldn’t seek influence. If we as Christians believe we have something to say about the just ordering of society, then collectively we should seek to bring about that vision.
But throughout history, depending on time and place, the influence of Christians in society has waxed and waned and so has that of the institution. In fact, there have been plenty of times and plenty of places where the influence of the Church has never been strong, think of China for instance.
In countries like China, Christians, including Catholics, have never been able to base their faith on the power of the institutional Church. They have always had to base it on something else, and hopefully that something else has been Jesus Christ.
Jesus described himself as “the Way, the Truth and the Life”. Faith in him is the bedrock of Christianity and of the lives of every individual Christian. No matter how badly or corruptly the Church is led at any given moment in time, we as Christians have no excuse for not trying to model our lives on Jesus and his example. We are either his disciples, or we are not Christians at all.
The community of people who follow Christ is called, simply, the Church, and it must have its leadership structures. But structures led by flawed, sinful humans will always let you down eventually.
A faith that rests on Jesus himself can’t fail unless we decide we no longer believe in him, unless we decide we have come up with a better answer in our lives than him.
When Jesus asked the disciples, “Do you want to leave too?”, Peter replied on their behalf: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
That is the answer all Christians give when our leaders fail, and we ourselves fail, to live as we ought.