Fifty years ago, Joseph Ratzinger and I were the two youngest official advisors to the Second Vatican Council (1962–5). That Council tried to reform important elements of the Roman system, but, unfortunately, the stubborn resistance of the Roman Curia managed by and large to hamper these efforts and to restrict their success. In the decades since the Council, Rome has gradually been turning back the clock on the proposals for reform and renewal, and this has in turn led to a renewed outbreak of an already rampant and alarming disease in the Catholic Church. The sexual abuse scandals caused by Catholic clergymen are only the latest symptom. The objections to these scandals have become so vehement that, in any other large organization, they would have triggered an intensive investigation into the reasons behind such a tragedy. Not so, however, for the Roman Curia or the Catholic episcopate! At first, Rome and the episcopate simply denied any share in the responsibility for the systematic cover-up of these cases. And, when that strategy failed, they have, with very few exceptions, shown little interest in uncovering the deep historical and systemic reasons for such horrific aberrations.
The regrettable refusal to look at the causes of this sickness compels me to bring out into the open the historical truth about the Christian Church, starting from its origins – in the face of all the current attempts to forget, conceal and cover them up. For people with little detailed historical education, for traditional Catholic readers, and possibly even for some bishops, these facts will undoubtedly prove frightening and disillusioning. Someone who has never been seriously confronted with historical facts of this kind will certainly be dismayed to learn how things have been done over long periods of time and how all too human so many Church institutions and constitutions – particularly the core Roman Catholic institution of the papacy – are.
However, there is also a positive side to these disappointing and disillusioning facts: they show that the Church’s institutions and its character – beginning with the papacy – can in fact be changed, even fundamentally reformed. The papacy need not be abolished, but it should be renewed in such a way that the Petrine ministry once again becomes the office in the succession to St Peter described in the Bible. However, what does need to be abolished is the Medieval Roman system of governance and control. My critical destruction is therefore done in the service of committed construction, of reform and renewal, in the hope that, despite all appearances to the contrary, the Catholic Church will remain viable into the third millennium.
Physician, not Judge
Many readers will be surprised that I use so many medical metaphors in this book. This is because, in terms of health and disease, similarities between the body corporate of the Catholic Church and the human organism immediately spring to mind. Moreover, using medical language in analysing the Church’s condition allows me to formulate certain truths more clearly than if I were to use legal language. I do not see myself as a judge, but rather – in the broadest sense of the term – as a kind of physician.
My fundamental criticism of the Roman System is grave, and I will give my reasons for it, point by point. I will attempt, to the best of my knowledge and in all conscience, to make an honest diagnosis throughout this book and to offer effective suggestions for treatment. Doubtlessly, the medicine will often be bitter, but the Church requires such medicine if it hopes to recover. The story I tell here is a gripping one, and – as is usually the case with descriptions of progressive disease – it is hardly pleasant. But I have not described my diagnosis so explicitly simply because I testily insist on being right or because I enjoy being contentious, but only to fulfil my duty in conscience to offer this service (possibly my last?) to my Church, a Church which I have endeavoured to serve all my life.
Based on my previous experience, I expect that Rome will do everything it can, if not to condemn such an uncomfortable and inconvenient book, then at least to keep it as far as possible under wraps. I hope, however, that this book will receive support from within the church community and from the public at large, in particular from theologians and, if possible, also from those bishops who genuinely wish for change. I also hope that this book will shake up those who are ideologically hidebound, and awaken the legally and financially entrenched Roman hierarchy from its complacent slumber, so that they will at least begin to take note of the pathogenesis presented here and to give thought to my explanation of how the disease from which the Catholic Church is suffering has developed, and of the consequences of this disease, so that they will not obstruct the unpleasant but urgently necessary therapy.
What a wonderful way this would be to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the prophetic Second Vatican Council! While not everything can be healed overnight, the agenda set forth here will, I am convinced, remain on the table as an important order of business for the Catholic Church in the coming years. And if that is the case, all of my effort has been worthwhile.
The Church Cannot Go On in This Way
‘Things just can’t go on like this in our Church’; ‘The powers that be, those up there in Rome, are doing their best to tear the Church apart!’ Complaints like these, and similarly bitter, outraged or despairing cries have frequently been heard over the past few years, in both Europe and the United States.
As Alois Glück, the clear-sighted and courageous chairman of the Central Committee of German Catholics, put it after the Second Ecumenical Church Congress in Munich back in May 2010:
The alternatives are either resignation, accompanied by a deliberate shrinking of the Church until it consists of only a small community of ‘staunch Christians’ as some have little or no regrets about doing, or getting up the courage and determination to try something new.
His words expressed the concerns and hopes of many Catholics, especially the most dedicated and highly motivated members of the Church. The response of the bishops, however, was slow and reluctant; many clearly wanted to continue as before. And that explains the frustration, the anger and the despair that is particularly strong among the most loyal Catholics, who have not yet forgotten the Second Vatican Council.
The Catholic Church is in its deepest crisis of confidence since the Reformation, and nobody can overlook it. As Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger missed a great opportunity to make the forward-looking ideas of the Second Vatican Council the lodestone of the Catholic Church worldwide and especially within the Vatican itself. Instead of courageously pushing forward the reforms begun by the Council, he did the opposite: again and again, he qualified and weakened the statements of the Council, interpreting them retrogressively, contrary to the spirit of the Council fathers. He even expressly set his face against Vatican II, which, as an ecumenical council, represents, according to the great Catholic tradition, the highest authority within the Catholic Church. He did this by:
• accepting, without any preconditions, the illegally ordained bishops from the traditionalist Pius X Fraternity, which has separated itself from the Catholic Church and which continues to reject central elements of the Council’s teaching;
• actively promoting the use of the Medieval Tridentine Mass and, on occasion, celebrating the Eucharist himself in Latin with his back to the congregation;
• creating a deep mistrust of the Protestant churches by continuing to insist that they do not constitute ‘Churches’ in the true sense of the word;
• failing to pursue the paths to understanding and communication with the Anglican Church as outlined in official (ARCIC) ecumenical documents, attempting instead to lure conservative married Anglican clergymen into the Roman Catholic Church by waiving their obligation to celibacy; and
• strengthening the forces opposing the Second Vatican Council within the Church by appointing men who are opposed to the Council to important administrative positions (e.g. the Secretariat of State, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and the Congregation of Bishops) and installing reactionary bishops around the world.
Benedict