Pope Francis, in his December 2016 homily in the guest house Casa Santa Marta where he’s lived since 2013, said ‘the evil of clericalism is a really awful thing’. He lamented clergy who tell parishioners ‘this should be done like this, like this, like this, and you – go away!’ He is not alone.
The Latin America Synodal Continental Document, one of only two sub[1]mitted before Easter as intended, confirms that countries ‘repeatedly denounced’ clericalism, which the writers of the document ‘understood as the expression of clerical authoritarianism and the distortion of ministerial service into an abuse of power’. It ‘demands a new institutional model that counteracts the pyramidal model that facilitates clericalism’. The Asian Document ‘hints at systemic causes’ and ‘points out the subculture of silence and impunity’.
Power abuse
In wider society, power abuse takes many forms. Perhaps, in this context however, clericalism means those clergy who ignore, mislead, bully, restrict, frighten, silence, exclude, judge, damn – and, many years ago, burn at the stake.
At its root is an unspoken assumption that God himself can be limited and controlled by a hierarchy of ordained men. Can we also agree that sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults tops this list and that cover-up is equally bad? 95% of diocesan syntheses from England and Wales criticised the hierarchy for putting the protection of its reputation above the sufferings of the abused. Pope Francis has also been known to take to task those parishioners who shirk their responsibilities to challenge clericalism.
Clerical power abuse can come from a myriad of directions – from a co-seminarian, a spiritual director, a teacher, a parish priest, a religious superior, a bishop, or a legislative department in the Vatican. It can take many forms including racism, homophobia, and misogyny.
There is no legal protection within the Church to protect the rights of the abused whether lay or religious, and it is carried out ‘in God’s name’. It’s important to underline that getting rid of clericalism is not a uniquely Western concern.
At a recent online Q&A, Philomena Mwaura, an eminent theologian at Kenyatta University, Nairobi, who was involved in the African Continental Assembly, told us that one of the key questions they had asked was ‘how has clericalism contributed to the exclusion of the laity?
She added ‘the structure of the Church is characterised by clericalism all over the world. Without overhauling this structure how can they be made to work for the people of God?… It seems the Church in Africa is committed to addressing clericalism’. Mwaura was also one of the 35 people who drew up the Document for the Continental Stage in Frascati published 27 October 2022, which drew on all 112 national reports.
Tellingly, the ‘Frascati document’ has a subtitle ‘Beyond clericalism’ and quotes many reports that ‘signal the importance of ridding the Church of clericalism so that all its members, including priests and laity, can fulfil a common mission’.
It is, of course, also important to understand that all the people across the world who’ve spoken out against clericalism are not against having priests. Although there is huge support in favour of women’s ordination, and in favour of married priests, Catholics, by and large, are not yet anti-clergy.
They are however, wanting change, and they are increasingly sceptical that the hierarchy can reform itself. History shows that the hierarchy has been unable to tackle clerical sexual abuse. In the recent documentary interview with young people, The Pope Answers, filmed last year, a young man asks ‘what about pederasty in the Church?’ The young man was a victim himself as a child, and failed to receive justice after a sentence of eleven years for the abuser was reduced to two and he was allowed to continue as a teacher.
Frustration
It is when the Pope says that he will review this particular case, that another young man expresses his frustration at the inadequacy of the Church’s policy of zero tolerance. ‘This is not justice,’ he protests. ‘I mean, he had to come here so you would say that the issue would be solved.’
Hans Zöllner, a German Jesuit who has served on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors since it was first established in Rome by Pope Francis in 2014, said in his resignation letter of 29 March 2023 ‘I have grown increasingly concerned with how the commission has gone about achieving [its] goal, particularly in the areas of responsibility, compliance, accountability and transparency.’
So if even the important work initiated by the Pope himself is failing, how likely are the bishops and the Curia to undertake a general overhaul of their structures in order to end the exclusion of the laity, as demanded for example by the Church in Africa?
Will the bishops agree that individual countries can unilaterally introduce changes at their own speed, as the German bishops are requesting? After all, for almost all of the Church’s history – until the middle of the nineteenth century in fact – almost all national churches chose their own bishops, used their own liturgies and formulated their own structures of discipline.
Pope Francis has successfully shown us the beauty of synodality, and at the same time shown us that clericalism is its opposite. If the word synodal is not to become a clanging cymbal, the institutional hierarchy must make moves in October to rid itself of clericalism. If that were to happen, what would the Church look like? This is the focus of a lay-led event, The Discipleship of Equals, to be held in October 2023, whilst the bishops are meeting in Rome.
The event is being hosted by the Companions of Spirit Unbounded – a new global network of Catholic and other Christian groups that actively embraces diversity and actively works to include groups marginalized by the hierarchical Church.
At the week-long conference 8-14 October (both online and with ‘in person’ speakers in Rome and Bristol, England on Friday 13 and Saturday 14) we will ask international theologians, canon lawyers, spiritual leaders and activists to envisage a new Church; in fact to define an emerging Church that is learning to rid itself of clerical domination.
Emerge
We cannot say, at this stage, what might emerge, but having carried out numerous consultations we can envisage speakers articulating diverse cultural views on embracing people we see as ‘other’, on sharing authority, on tackling human rights abuses and the legacies of colonisation, and on building small Christian communities. And they will do all of this and more while intent on hearing the cry of the abused and of the earth.
We will work with clergy, female and female religious and any bishops who will put their heads above the parapet. If we get this right, we will give powerful backing to Pope Francis. And in this way, with the help of the Spirit, we can all unlearn and eradicate all attitudes of dependence, submission and silence within communities, Churches and society.
Penelope Middelboe is a member of a lay-led forum for reform, Root & Branch, which initiated Spirit Unbounded as global outreach, in the belief that we’re stronger together. The Discipleship of Equals event will be funded from donations and accessible ticket sales. More Companions welcome.
https://www.rootandbranch-synod.org/ https://spiritunbounded.org/
Spirit Unbounded will be hosting an online discussion on ‘Human Rights in the Catholic Church featuring keynote speakers Mary McAleese and Sr Joan Chittister. The event will coincide with the 2023 Synod of Bishops in Rome this October.
This lay-led response to the Synod, entitled ‘Discipleship of Equals’ will take place between October 8-14 and it is anticipated, annually thereafter, in an agreed global setting.
