Taking several steps backwards
I sometimes wonder if I’m the only person in Peterborough who goes to vatican.va and reads the latest papal message.
So in need are we of good leaders who are smart as well as honest, I seek to absorb what each thinks, and get as much inspiration as possible.
I was born and baptized into this church, and I feel some responsibility to account for my membership. I owe it to my ancestors and to the people I’ve met around the world who have had no access to education, let alone theological education, but live generous, humble, and faith-filled lives. I also owe it to succeeding generations, my eight grandchildren and their colleagues, who earnestly try to make the world a little more hospitable.
Plus, I, too, have nagging questions about the institutional church’s relevance, its perceptiveness, its long dark episodes and deep continuing flaws. And I, too, as every human being does, wonder about life’s ultimate meaning.
Perhaps some priests, theologians and teachers do track down these writings. Surely, Peterborough Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Miehm does. Sometimes, often, really, these messages to the world give me pleasure, as this Pope, who is a Jesuit — formed and from the global south, tries hard and with a good mind and soul, to bring the vast institution of one billion members, along with him into the postmodern age.
His writing on the climate crisis six years ago, Laudato Si (the messages always have Latin names) was hailed by scientists and environmentalists around the world. His pleading for peace in Ukraine and Gaza/Israel has been powerful and has shown sharp geopolitical understanding and a deep attachment to New Testament values. Pastorally, he has washed the feet of women in prison, and described the church he hopes for as a “field hospital.” Always mercy, always forgiveness.
His concern is shown in passionate economic writing. He constantly urges less wealth for the few, and a huge increase in poverty alleviation. He critiques rampant capitalism, racism, and war. His personal courage is remarkable, as he struggles, age 87, with physical frailty, and yet travels to all parts of the world.
He came to northern Canada in 2023 on a pilgrimage to apologize to Indigenous people for the suffering and displacement brought about by centuries of colonial tactics and the damaging residential school system of the 19th and 20th centuries run by the church.
Francis has recently initiated a process of consulting the people of the church via a two-year program, including meetings in Rome in October 2023 and October 2024. Some 450 people, mostly bishops, but about 70 lay people, including some women, met daily to pray and listen to one another.
Yet, with all of that, this man has serious blind spots in the crucial matters of women in leadership, democracy in the church, and sexuality. Or perhaps it is the celibate clergy, the vast bureaucracy, the resistance to change, the inertia, the threat of losing power among the men, all combine to frustrate change. But the latest letter sounded promising: Dignitas Infinita, issued this month and running to 17 pages. I printed it off.
It contained references to a marvellous document in 1948 from the United Nations: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But (and here’s the rub), it also referred over and over to itself: other papal statements, including those from Popes John Paul and Benedict.
I found it good on war, trafficking, sexual abuse, migrants and violence. But poor on abortion (the longest section), gender theory, surrogacy, sex change, digital violence and euthanasia. No mention at all of contraception, though its condemnation in 1968 still appears on the books. No mention of LGBTQ people.
Taken all together, Dignitas Infinita takes several steps backwards. That is sad.