Now that the election of a new Pope has been resolved we can
perhaps focus on the future of the Roman Catholic Church. David Perlich reporting today for the
Canadian Broadcasting Corp. summarized the situation well when he stated “Pope Francis has accepted an enormous
burden. He's the leader of a Roman Catholic Church beset with grave challenges.
Amongst them: a dysfunctional curial government culture, a church whose
reputation has been plagued by scandal and questions over its relevance in the
modern world and the everyday lives of Catholics.” At this point Catholics should ask is it fair
or reasonable that one man, the Pope, should be burdened with such a huge
problem and be expected to bring about the necessary reform"?
It might surprise
some to learn from Hans Küng and his scholarly work ‘Christianity – Essence,
History and Future’ (2002) “the great
ecumenical reform Council of Constance which met from 1414 to 1418 declared: the council is above the Pope. The
gathering understood itself to be a general council [like Vatican II] legitimately
assembled in the Holy Spirit, representing the whole church. Its authority was directly bestowed by
Christ, and everyone, even the Pope, had to obey it: in matters of faith, the
abolition of the schism and church reform.
Anyone – even if this should be the Pope – who refused to obey the
commands and resolutions of this council and any legitimate ecumenical council
on the points mentioned was to be duly punished. This was a clear defeat for the Roman curial
system, which had taken the Catholic Church of the West to the edge of the abyss. Authority in the church does not lie in a
monarch but in the church itself, of which the Pope is the servant not the
master.”
Küng tell us that
the Council of Constance, while still normative, was amazingly soon replaced by
the restoration of papal absolutism. One can easily see its implications on papal authority
or power; which was only further advanced by endowing the power of infallibility on a
Pope, as decreed by the First Vatican Council at Rome in 1869. Summarizing
Küng’s views on this important fact:
- The papacy has increasingly become an institution of power
- The papacy developed more and more power structures by adopting highly
developed Roman jurisprudence and imperial legal practise [note the current
Catechism & canon law]
- The papacy has preserved the trappings of power and control
Accordingly, is
it not reasonable now to suggest that the many challenges facing the Roman
Catholic Church and Pope Francis I* be placed in the hands of the next
ecumenical council? This would not only release
Francis from having to deal with all these difficult issues by himself but put
it in the hands of many perhaps even through the influence of the laity? Is it not in the interest of ALL Roman Catholics
to have a spiritual leader, such as Jesus, who is a true shepherd instead of an
enforcer of the law?
Again Küng asks " Should the church
of the future no longer appear as the bulwark of reaction against democracy but
in the spirit of its founder as a community in ‘freedom, equality and brotherhood’?
In the light of the gospel should
the future church not consist of a community of free men and women and at the same time be an advocate of freedom
in the world and become a community of those who are fundamentally equal? The church a community of brothers and sisters
instead of a system ruled in patriarchal fashion"?
Speculating on
the future of Catholicism Küng asks “under a new pontificate might not and
should not the question of infallibility be investigated again, with objectivity,
scientific honesty, fairness and justice?” Addressing the question of ecumenism
Küng suggests that "the pluralization of religion
will give men and women new spiritual perspectives –deepening their own
religious feelings through insights, symbols, ethnical demands and meditative
practices of other religions and alternative movements".
Finally, the idea
of a Third Ecumenical Council as envisioned by the Council of Constance
more than 600 years ago, may be the only means through which the Vatican along with the People of God can
break through the current crisis of the institution.
* on his second day as Pope Francis I was already and unfairly accused of failing to speak out against human rights abuses during military
rule in his native Argentina. See details here.
Link: election of Pope John Paul I
