UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Thomas Reese | Aug. 13, 2013
ANALYSIS
The church faces three temptations, according to Pope Francis: the temptation to turn the Gospel message into an ideology; the temptation to run the church like a business; and the temptation of clericalism. In an address July 28 to the episcopal council of CELAM, the Latin American conference of bishops, Pope Francis laid out these temptations and how the church should respond to them. I began to look at the issue last week; this week, I continue the analysis.
Making the Gospel message an ideology
This temptation, the pope argues, has been present in the church from the beginning. It attempts to interpret the Gospel apart from the church or the Gospel itself. Francis says you must look at the Gospel with the eyes of a disciple. There is no such thing as “antiseptic” hermeneutics.
Other forms of the ideological temptation include sociological reductionism and psychologizing. The first interprets the Gospel message through the lens of social science, whether from a Marxist or libertarian perspective. Here, the Gospel is manipulated for political reasons. It is a temptation of both the right and the left to use the Gospel to serve political goals. Fear of this temptation probably led Francis to be cautious toward liberation theology while at the same time very negative toward libertarian capitalism. …
Clericalism
The last temptation of the church is to clericalism, which, as its name implies, is a particular temptation for bishops and priests, but Francis argues that often, the laity is complicit. “The priest clericalizes the layperson and the layperson kindly asks to be clericalized because deep down it is easier.” He believes that “the phenomenon of clericalism explains, in great part, the lack of maturity and Christian freedom in a good part of the Latin American laity.”
Freedom of the laity, he argues, “finds expression in communal experiences: Catholic as community.” Greater autonomy, which on the whole he believes is a “healthy thing,” is expressed through popular piety. “The spread of bible study groups, of ecclesial basic communities and of pastoral councils,” he says, is also “helping to overcome clericalism and to increase lay responsibility.” Liberal clericalism can disdain popular piety while conservative clericalism fears giving the laity a greater role in the church.
Although these were presented as temptations for the Latin American church, it is obvious that they are universal. They are alive and well in Rome and in the United States.
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