My conversation with Paul Brian Campbell, S.J. continues with his response to my comments about choosing to stay in the Catholic church these dicey days. Meanwhile, over at People for Others, I respond to his question about why I think Catholics ought to pay attention to the "Emerging Church" movement.Meredith,
I asked you to write on the question, “Why do you choose to stay in the Catholic church when it appears to be in crisis?” I was moved by your thoughts and wanted to respond immediately.
The line that leaps out at me is: “I actively, consciously choose to walk by faith and not by fright.” I needed to hear that from someone. I have been so angry at the hierarchy and frightened of impending doom for so long that I have all but overlooked my calling “to walk by faith.” Not blind faith, not stick your head in the sand faith, but a calm and steady-eyed trust in God made manifest in Jesus Christ.
You believe that Holy Spirit-generated change is coming and point out that the challenge is believing that we can “all be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye.” Tell me about it. I am old enough to (just) remember the turmoil and excitement that followed Vatican II. Lots of change and hopes for a more participative laity and responsive hierarchy. And then it all seemed to be clawed back as the Church’s innate conservatism emerged victorious once more.
Is it possible that this crisis will lead to real and lasting change in the way the Church sees itself and operates among us?
What gets me is that individual Catholics, whether clergy or lay, have no apparent difficulty in standing up at Mass and humbly stating, “I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do; and I ask Blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.” Why, then, as an institution can our hierarchy not summon up the guts to make the same Confiteor collectively?
You stay because you “know God is bigger and the Holy Spirit more powerful than anything humans might muck up.” Meredith, I believe. Help my unbelief.
Paul
