c. 2005 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Pope Benedict XVI knows more theology than many of the crusader Catholics who take his election as a signal that passive obedience is in and that dissent is out and so are you if you disagree with even the least regulation of church life.
Such arrogant and punitive attitudes are based on a misconception of Catholicism. However traditionalist he may be, the new theologian pope understands the crusader types are outside the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church is not, nor has it ever been, a top-down organization. Vatican II’s renewal of its understanding of itself as a People of God rather than a triumphant army or overpowering institution affirms the vital participatory role that all Catholics play in their church.
Almost as old as the church is the formulation that if you want to know what the church teaches, you must look at what its community believes and how it prays. The morality of an action can be ascertained, according to another ancient tradition, by asking, “What do the majority of healthy faithful believe on this issue?”
What ordinary Catholics, rather than just officials, believe remains a crucial determinant of how we understand Catholic teaching.
This dynamic sense of how laws and regulations must be examined in the light of the human experience of conscientious Catholics is best expressed in what has long been accepted as one of the munera, or gifts, of the church, the canonical doctrine of Reception. Rooted in the work of such great figures as the fifth century St. Augustine, Reception means, according to canon lawyer James A. Coriden of the Washington Theological Union, “that for a law or rule to be an effective guide for the believing community it must be accepted by the community.”
The church has always recognized that no law can have substance or be put into effect, no matter how much abstract institutional authority is invoked, if it does not make sense to or does not match what ordinary good people have learned about it in the real world of time and chance.
The church has never taught that every regulation must be accepted in the same way. While the divinity of Christ is to be held by all Catholics, many questions remain open to discussion and theological development, including celibacy and the possibility of women priests. The church cannot successfully impose regulations or teachings on believers without attending to their conscientious reactions.
The latter can validate or invalidate even interpretations of Catholic teaching offered by popes.
Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Veterum Sapientiae prescribing the restoration of Latin as the teaching language in seminaries was never received by the believing church.
Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae restating the ban on birth control has never been received fully by the believing church. Pope John Paul II’s 1994 letter rejecting women priests has never been fully accepted by believers. That is why the discussion on both issues continues.
Theologians see these as examples of how the doctrine of Reception works.
Ordinary Catholics are not out to overthrow their bishops. Their own theological sophistication deepens their consciousness of being the church rather than being the subjects of churchmen.
MO/RB END RNS
(Eugene Cullen Kennedy, a longtime observer of the Roman Catholic Church, is professor emeritus of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago and author of “Cardinal Bernardin’s Stations of the Cross,” published by St. Martin’s Press.)
Editors: Search the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for file photos of Kennedy and Pope Benedict XVI.
