Andrew Sorokowski's column

Decay and Rebirth

11.11.2010, 19:53
Decay and Rebirth - фото 1
"The Church must be forever building, for it is forever decaying within and attacked from without"

Andrew SOROKOWSKI"The Church must be forever building, for it is forever decaying within and attacked from without"

These words, from T.S. Eliot's Chorus II of his 1934 play "The Rock," seem to describe the Catholic Church of today. The terse formulation comprises three related points. First, there is always inner decay. Second, there are constant attacks on the Church. And third, the Church must always respond by building anew.

It is easy to see these three elements today. The sexual abuse scandals that have shaken the Church in America and then Europe have revealed deep decay and corruption. This has provided a new opportunity for the Church's enemies to step up their attacks. Most virulent are the ex-Catholics, along with a new breed of publicly militant atheists. In response, the Church can only clear away the corruption and begin to rebuild. Historically, this has occurred in periodic phases of reform, such as that following the Protestant Reformation and culminating in the Council of Trent.

If the Church is periodically reforming herself in response to external criticism of her inner decay, then it can be said that seen as a system, she is self-correcting. Not all systems are like this. A system that is not self-correcting runs on and on, its flaws becoming greater and greater, until they finally overcome the system and destroy it. This is typical of political systems, particularly those founded on totalitarian ideologies. But a system that constantly corrects its errors can last indefinitely. Conscious of her human as well as of her divine nature, the Church recognizes the fallibility of her members. Even the Pope confesses his sins. Thus, as a human institution the Church participates in a process of constant acknowledgment of sin, of repeated repentance, and of perpetual effort to overcome her failings.

Eliot's reference to the Church "decaying within" reminds one of the mammoth redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens) of coastal California. Growing to over a hundred meters in height, and nearly four meters in diameter, these giants can live for many centuries. Sometimes, after a redwood has been destroyed by inner decay or by fire caused by lightning, new growth appears around the edges of the remaining stump. Fresh shoots spring up, and the tree is re-born.

A recent article in the British "Economist" suggests that the Catholic Church in Europe, like a fallen redwood, is showing signs of new life around the edges of her hollow core. ("The Void Within," The Economist, 7-13 August 2010, pp. 20-22) According to this article, the Church's "liberal middle" has collapsed. No longer bound to her out of a sense of duty or obedience, a large portion of European Catholics have stopped practicing the faith. In Spain, for example, some 46% of the population describe themselves as "non-practicing Catholics." In traditionally Catholic countries like France, Italy, Ireland, and Austria, the Church's teachings on such matters as marriage and birth control are largely ignored. Mass attendance is low.

But the "Economist" points to three fringe areas where there are signs of revival. One is the rise of Catholic charismatic communities similar to those of Pentecostal and other Protestant movements. Another is charitable outreach to the most shunned and dispossessed, such as the ministry of an Italian priest who works to help homeless and unemployed Muslim immigrants. A third is traditionalism, exemplified by a popular French pastor who celebrates the Latin mass and resists his bishop's campaign to close down parishes. The traditionalist wing of the Catholic Church in the United States, which in general is suffering a decline offset only by Latin American immigration, likewise seems to be leading a Catholic revival.

Thus the Church in the West, in Eliot's words, is "forever building," even as it has been "decaying within" and is increasingly "attacked from without." What are the implications for the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church? Is she a part of the new growth along the geographic margins of European Catholicism? Or must she replicate the entire process of inner decay, external attack, and peripheral revival?

Andrew SOROKOWSKI

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