When bishops and priests are hesitant in exercising their authority,
the “father of lies” takes hold of the hearts and minds of the faithful,
Bishop Samuel J. Aquila of Fargo warned recently.
“One must honestly ask, how many times and years may a Catholic
politician vote for the so called ‘right to abortion’ … and still be
able to receive Holy Communion?” the bishop said.
The continual reception of Communion by those who “so visibly
contradict and promote a grave evil” creates “grave scandal” and
undermines the teaching and governing authority of the Church, he
warned.
The faithful can interpret these actions as indifference to the
teaching of Christ and the Church on the part of those who have “the
responsibility to govern.”
“If we honestly pray with the Gospel we can see that hesitancy and
non-accountability is not the way of Jesus Christ, but rather it is a
failure in the exercise of governance,” Bishop Aquila told a March 18
symposium in Philadelphia about the spirituality and identity of
diocesan priests.
While Jesus provides criteria in Matthew 18 for correcting a brother
or sister who sins, the bishop questioned whether Catholics follow this
example.
If these criteria had been followed with those who dissented from
Church teaching against contraception in 1968, he asked, “would we still
be dealing with the problem today of those who dissent on
contraception, abortion, same-sex unions, euthanasia and so many other
teachings of the Church?”
He cited Pope Benedict XVI’s conversation with Peter Seewald in the
book “Light of the Word,” where the Pope connected an anti-punishment
mentality to the response that some Church officials have had to sexual
abuse among clergy.
The awareness that punishment can be an act of love “ceased to
exist,” the Pope said. “This led to an odd darkening of the mind, even
in very good people.”
Pope Benedict said that love for the sinner and love for the person
harmed are “correctly balanced” when the sinner is punished
appropriately.
Bishops and priests should not apologize or make excuses for the
teachings of Christ and the Church, Bishop Aquila exhorted. Rather, they
should teach with “charity and unhesitating truth.”
The exercise of Church authority faces challenges because secular
culture “makes man into god” and undermines any authority attributed to
God. Bishops and priests should turn to Jesus Christ to learn how to
exercise their authority in governing the Church, the Fargo bishop said.
Jesus was “direct” in calling people to conversion and to change their way of acting and thinking, he pointed out.
“This directness makes many of us uncomfortable today.
“We should follow his example and language, even if we do not use his
precise words. His language is good to contemplate and definitely
should challenge us to look at how we correct the faithful, including
priests and bishops, and speak the truth especially with those who say
they are with Christ and the Church but do not accept the teaching of
Jesus and the Church.”
Jesus’ “forceful” language towards the Pharisees and Scribes “would
never be tolerated today” but the Gospel writers did not hesitate to
pass down his words, Bishop Aquila said.
“In love Jesus makes these direct statements to open the eyes of
those whose hearts and minds are hardened. His straight talk, given in
love for the person, desires the conversion and holiness of the person
to the ways of God,” the bishop explained.
“(T)oo many people understand correction or punishment as not loving
the other or as dominion over the other, and this is the work of ‘the
father of lies.’ A reluctance or hesitancy to correct and properly
punish does not invite the other into the truth that frees and
ultimately fails in true charity.
“As servants of truth, of Christ, we will correct those who sin for
their own good and for the love of the other, even if it leads to our
own persecution and rejection,” Bishop Aquila said.