IS there a Martin Luther in the house? Someone to nail Ninety-Five Theses to the door of Armagh Cathedral and usher in a reformation of the Irish Catholic and Apostolic Church?If there is, hopefully he or she is someone who does not possess the malevolence of the 16th century Augustinian monk.
That guy’s abhorrence of the Pope had as much to do with the painful hemorrhoids he picked up in the Eternal City as with the desire to reform Christianity!
In the meantime, Irish Catholics faced with a dysfunctional Church, “shameful mismanagement” by church leaders and the cover-up of clerical sexual abuse may yet act in a way that will horrify Rome: by holding a national synod or a national assembly.
And, let’s face it: the immediate task of any synod has to be an overhaul of the failed ecclesiastical governance of Ireland by the Pope, his cardinal, his archbishops, bishops, canons and curates, followed by a push to dismantle the centralised command structure that Cardinal Cullen imported from Rome in the 1870s, and under which Irish Catholics have had to live.
DESTRUCTURING CHURCH
A synod is not a new idea.
The late Bishop of Cork and Ross, Dr Michael Murphy, said in 1996 that he believed disenchantment with the Catholic Church in Ireland had everything to do with the Church’s structures.
He was the first to propose a national synod to discuss the crisis, although the good man hardly envisaged the tsunami of disgust that recently overwhelmed Cardinal Brady and his bishops.
The Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh, also endorsed the idea of a synod, as did the theologian, Fr Enda McDonagh, who saw merit in a “truly representative assembly.”
However, the person to put flesh on the bones was Jesuit theologian, Gerry O'Hanlon. In his opinion, the most appropriate vehicle to address the findings of the Murphy report was a national assembly.
“Why not go down the road of the oft-proposed national synod or assembly, well prepared in each diocese, touching into the experience of believers and disaffected alike?” he asked.
He wanted the process to be transparent, representative, accountable and local – with lay participation and “without any veto on the kinds of issues that might emerge in the consultative process.”
Rome Rule, he seemed to suggest, had more to do with the Middle Ages than 21st century Ireland. “It will not do any more for priests, bishops, cardinals, the Pope to simply tell us what to think, what to do. People rightly want to have a say,” he declared.
EPISCOPAL MEDIOCRITY
The theologian didn’t spare the bishops. “Now would also seem to be a good time to call into question the reality that certain narrow grounds of orthodoxy are a sine qua non of Episcopal appointments,” he said.
He pointed to the culture of “don’t ask, don’t tell” that the Murphy Report highlighted and which, he said, was pervasive in the Irish Church.
The problem was that it resulted in an intellectual mediocrity and a culture in which often very good people (lay, religious and clerical) kept quiet, even becoming unaware of why they believed what they believed, “instead of submitting beliefs to intelligent scrutiny.”
He argued that it was out of this “mistaken culture of loyalty” that the pool of Bishops was replenished, “thus perpetuating the institutional blind spot.”
Writing in the February edition of The Furrow, he also criticised a power structure that excluded women and the laity in general. Women should have a say in what goes on and to have the kind of participative role envisaged by Vatican II, he suggested.
Of course, the idea of a national assembly has its critics. Archbishop Martin of Dublin is one. He warned of a synod turning into “an ongoing talk-shop.”
What was required was the type of decisive leadership that clerics like he could offer. “Some of us are called to do that,” he explained.
HOME RULE
Archbishop Martin, a former Vatican bureaucrat, is well aware that a national assembly or synod would be anathema in Rome because of the possible emergence of a revamped Church that sought to assert autonomy over its own affairs.
Worse still, a Church that involved the ordinary man and woman in ecclesiastical decision-making might seriously challenge Vatican centralism!
Such an outcome would be appalling and smack of Lutheranism! And, once the genie was out of the bottle who knows what would follow?
If the unlikely happened, and a synod was held, what would be on the agenda? The clerical sex abuse scandal, of course. The synod would want to know the scale of sexual abuse in every diocese and what resources were available to deal with it.
Would lay-people co-ordinate the investigations and how would the Code of Canon Law (discredited and all as it is) apply to decisions taken by a Synod influenced by the laity?
On a broader canvas, what would Rome’s response be if the synod demanded a change to the rules of priestly celibacy, or the ordination of women?
Would Vatican bureaucrats and the Pope tolerate a situation whereby lay people played a role in the selection of bishops?
RIGHT MODEL?
A precedent already exists for a Catholic synod or national assembly. For example, a General Synod of clergy and laity governs the Church of Ireland. It decides Church policy and Canon Law.
Question is: do the advocates of new structures, such as a synod for the Irish Catholic Church, want something similar to the Protestant model?
However, the General Synod of the Church of Ireland did not cover itself in glory during the bad days of Northern sectarian bigotry, particularly in relation to the Drumcree protests.
It justified its non-action on the basis that it didn’t have the hierarchical structures to give it the power to stop individual pastors or churchgoers acting in consort with bigots.
The cop-out response led to the accusation that the Synod was little more than a “talking shop” (shades of Archbishop Martin!)
With that in mind, Catholics should think long and hard on what exactly they want from their version of a synod or a national assembly.
They also need to take into consideration the polarisation between Catholics who come to things with a liberal point of view and those of a traditional bent who believe in the retention of ecclesiastical structures at all costs.
All of which spells one thing: the Irish Catholic Church is in turmoil!
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