I appreciate Susan's welcome reminder (here) that "we are one church," a reminder that is evocative (deliberately so, I suspect) of the Lord's prayer to the Father for His followers "That they may be one just as we are" (John 17:11). And this discussion at MOJ is a reminder that our failure to live the unity to which Jesus called all Christians is manifest not only in the tragic separation of the churches of the East and the West, and the division caused by the Protestant Reformation, but within the Catholic communion itself.
But this very plea for unity (or the recollection of unity) makes Susan's conclusion difficult to understand. That is Susan concludes that, "[o]n the thrust Kristof's columns," she "stand[s] closer with Steve than [she] do[es] with Rick." But it is precisely "the thrust" of both of Kristoff's columns ( here and here) that there are "two Catholic Churches."
As such, her conclusion is in need of further elaboration.
Indeed, I don't believe that the words of St. John Chrysostom (which she quotes in her "Creo en Dios" blog entry here) that "the Church does not exist because those who are gathered in her are divided, but in order that all those who have parted company may be reunited" is even comprehensible through the secular lens through which Nicolas Kristof views the Church.
The unity of the Church is the unity of the faith -- a faith that Kristof would casually jettison, replacing it with the recylced Gnosticism of Elaine Pagels (as witnessed by his citations to the Apocryphal Gospel of Philip and Gospel of Mary). It is the true faith, the Catholic faith -- the faith "that comes to us from the apostles." -- that (as Rick said) inspires the very good works that Kristof admires but does not understand. What Kristof sees as works of compassion are in fact works of Christian charity. But love -- charity -- is always connected to truth. And truth is somehting to be received and discerned, by the laity, but also in a definitve manner by those entrusted with the apostolic office (see, e.g., Dei Verbum ¶¶ 7-8).
We are, indeed, one church -- one body of many parts sharing the one faith. To properly diagnose this body and heal it, one must first appreciate what keeps it alive and makes it one. On this account Kristof offers not medicine but alchemy.
I am in Warsaw, Poland where today I visited some extraordinary places commemorating the profound suffering of the people of this city and nation---Christians and Jews alike---at the hands of the Nazis and the Communists. It has been a deeply moving day. To their credit, Polish officials have not whitewashed the fact that some Poles collaborated with their oppressors and some Polish Christians participated in or facilitated atrocities against their Jewish brothers and sisters. But over the course of a blood-soaked century, and even during the darkest hours of Nazi and Soviet domination, a far greater number of Poles of all religious persuasions demonstrated extraordinary honor and courage. The Museum of the Warsaw Uprising, which opened in 2004, is exceptional in giving visitors a palpable sense of the horrors of life for Poles under German occupation and the heroism of the people of Warsaw who attempted, with the meagerest of military resources, to liberate themselves. The other profoundly moving experience of the day was a visit to the tomb of Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko---the holy and charismatic young priest who did so much to inspire Polish resistance to Communism. Fr. Popieluszko was brutally---and, boy, do I mean brutally---murdered by agents of the Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1984. To pray at his tomb is to join with Poles from all classes and walks of life and with people of Polish descent from many different nations who come to pay their respects. His beatification is set to take place in Rome next month. It will be a cause of great joy in this land.
Since I'm on research leave and working on writing a book about my conversion from Catholicim to Buddhism and back to Catholicim, I confess I've been very neglectful of Mirror of Justice. I have been poking my head in from time to time to see what people are discussing.
Reading the back and forth between Steven and Rick over the recent Kristoff pieces, I thought I'd share my blog post of this morning titled We are the Church (which you can read in its entirety here). Talking about the phrase "We are the Church," which I find myself saying with great frequency, I observe that
the phrase “We are the Church” can convey two very different messages, depending on how it is spoken. One can say “We are the Church,” in the way that children say “My dad is stronger than your dad,” or “My muscles are bigger than your muscles,” that is, in a way that suggests we – not you or not someone else – are the church. The alternative is to convey by “we are the Church” the sentiment that all of us – the Vatican, priests, nuns, lay persons, all of us, whether we are labeled “traditionalist Catholics,” “progressive Cathlics” or any other names – are together part of one Church.
On the thrust of Kristoff's columns, I stand closer with Steve than I do with Rick (as Rick knows since he has commented when I post the Kristoff columns on my Facebook page). But we all need to remember that we are one church.
Like Bob, I read closely the news article to which I linked about new Planned Parenthood clinics in Michigan (and linked to it in the hope that others would also read it closely). I agree with him that there is more in the article than (in Bob's words) "simply a 'health insurance reform legislation funds and increases the incidence of evil deeds - abortions - by evil entity - Planned Parenthood' story." But, as my initial link-post suggested, that story is, it seems to me, in the article.
I also agree with him that those of us who are pro-life should "light [such] candle[s]" as we can to reduce the possibility that we are, through our actions, subsidizing abortions in the ways that the federal government is (and is not merely accused of) doing, and to address compassionately and wisely the realities of poverty. We should also, though, always keep lit the candle (I do not suggest or believe that Bob disagrees with me here!) that is our unyielding insistence that it is a grave injustice and an insult to human dignity to exclude unborn children from the law's protection.
A few thoughts in response to Steve, whose recent postcriticizes one of mine. I did not expect, of course, Steve to agree with my view that Kristof's op-ed was misguided and presumptuous in places. (Recall here my link yesterday to Steve Smith's post about "wrong-headed friends". Steve Shiffrin is one of mine. [Insert here smiley-face emoticon.] Certainly, I hope that Steve's forcefully expressed disagreement with me about this matter does not tempt him to exclude me from his group of such friends!).
Steve writes:
After citing Woodward, Rick says that almost “on cue” (not sure why it was on cue), Kristof, according to Rick, offers the "yes, the institutional Church and its old, out-of-touch, male leaders are no good, but the real Church is out there, in the trenches, doing things I like" story that one often hears. Actually, Kristof’s claim is not that the people in the trenches are doing the “things he likes,” but the works of Jesus and, he maintains, that the leaders of the Church have drifted from the message of Jesus.
It was "on cue" because, just a few days after Woodward wrote a piece characterizing the Times in a certain way, Kristof wrote an op-ed, in the Times, that (in my view) reflected some of the aspects of the Times' coverage and writers that Woodward had highlighted. And, as for what Kristof's "claim is", I understand (obviously) that Kristof characterized the things that the people discussed were doing as being the kind of things that Jesus did and that Jesus's followers should do (and they are!). They are also, though, things that Kristof likes (and are unlike the things that the Church Jesus established does that Kristof does not like), and they are, I think, being praised because Kristof likes them. (This is not surprising, right? Of course we all all praise things we like.)
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