The Burden of Freedom in the Church

On first hearing, I thought the parable of the grand inquisitor in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov to be preposterous.

The story, as told by one of the brothers, is that Jesus makes an unexpected return to 16th century Spain only to be arrested by a powerful cardinal on the board of the Inquisition.

The cardinal charges Jesus with undermining the work of the Church. Jesus, he explains, had the opportunity to relieve humankind of the burden of freedom, but he chose instead to promote it. Free choice, the cardinal believes, is the heaviest burden human beings must bear. It is antithetical to establishing the Kingdom of God.

The cardinal spells out for Jesus the Church's thinking: "Instead of taking men's freedom from them, Thou didst make it greater than ever! Didst Thou forget that man prefers peace, and even death, to freedom of choice in the knowledge of good and evil? Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering."

He explains that human beings are impotent rebels and they can be held only by three powers, namely miracle, mystery and authority. "Thou has rejected all three and has set the example for doing so." In the mind of the cardinal Jesus had the opportunity to do it right by simply yielding to the tempter's requests in the wilderness in that encounter described in Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus had refused to work a miracle and refused to accept the authority the devil would have given him.

Jesus' failure has now been addressed by the Church, the cardinal boasts. "We have corrected Thy work and have founded it upon miracle, mystery and authority. And men rejoiced that they were again led like sheep, and that the terrible gift that had brought them such suffering was, at last, lifted from their hearts."

The cardinal's justification for the  Church's thinking rests on its appraisal that human beings are pitiful children, and the Church's way will lead them to "become timid, and will look to us and huddle close to us in fear, as chicks to the hen."

On first hearing, the parable sounds preposterous. We ask ourselves, "Who could think that way?"

However, something of that same mentality may be reflected in Pope Pius X's condemnation of France's law of separation of Church and State when he writes in 1906, "...the one duty of the multitude is to allow themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock, to follow the Pastors" (Vehementer Nos, 8).

In that same vein, many will recall that "simple faithful" was a name frequently applied to the laity before Vatican II resurrected the designation "people of God."

Still today few lay men and women are familiar with these two theological concepts:

1) sensus fidei described by the Catechism as "the supernatural appreciation of the faith on the part of the whole people, when, 'from the bishops to the last of the faithful,' they manifest a universal consent in matters of faith and morals" (92).

2) sentire cum ecclesia militante formulated by St. Ignatius (who said in the original Spanish: el sentido verdadero en la Iglesia militante) which, as Yves Congar explains, means to "have a sense of the church bravely acting in the world." This concept, then, "does not easily fit into the formula of sheer material obedience (superficial fidelity)..." but rather "restores to the faithful of the church their part in the life of the body" (Congar, True and False Reform in the Church, p. 237).

Theology and Scripture recognize the role of the laity and the gifts given to them by the Spirit. The Second Vatican Council highlighted the working of the Spirit in the lives of all the faithful. The insights of Vatican II are still to be disseminated, accepted and applied.

Lumen Gentium, the document on the Church, recognized that all the faithful share in the priestly, prophetic and kingly office of Christ and play a part in the Church's mission (#31).

Gaudium et Spes, the document on the Church in the modern world, reminded the laity, "For guidance and spiritual strength let them turn to the clergy; but let them realize that their pastors will not always be so expert as to have ready answers to every problem, even every grave problem, that arises; this is not the role of the clergy" (#43).

Sacrosanctum Concilium, the document on the liturgy, directed pastors to "insure that the faithful take part fully aware of what they are doing, actively engaged in the rite and enriched by it" (#11). Catholics are no longer told they must attend Mass; they are to celebrate it!

Dostoyevsky's parable was motivated by his sense that the paternalism of the hierarchy was inconsistent with the message of Jesus. It was a call to recognize the gifts (the smarts) of God's people. It was so stark in its presentation that it seemed preposterous, but its application to the Church in various stages of its history leads to recognition and assent.

The hierarchy are essential components of the Church, but so are the laity. Paul's analogy of the one body with many parts (1 Corinthians 12:12) confirms the early Church's recognition of the nature of the communio or fellowship that is ours in Christ. The Spirit is poured out upon all. And all have the burden of being free to respond to that inspiration. The work of Vatican II and of the Spirit goes on.

Unrest in the Church as "communio"

There is unrest in the Church today.

One example is the formation of priests' associations in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Australia, the Philippines, and the United States. Members of the clergy are calling attention to what seems to them to be the abuse of power by the Vatican and a decided move away from the reforms and direction set by the Second Vatican Council.

The Austrian priests' group is calling for the development and publication of a kind of "bill of rights" for the people of God plus a structure for participation of the people in the decision-making authority of the Church. Sensus fidelium is still a valid theological dynamic.

Msgr. Helmut Schuller, former vicar general of the Archdiocese of Vienna, speaking on behalf of the 500 members of the Austrian priests' association, believes that the way many bishops and the pope have separated themselves from the views of the majority is a danger to the unity of the Church.

The Austrian association's initial call for "disobedience"  as a measure for reform alienated Vatican authorities, and prompted the pope to insist that the only way to renewal is through obedience and a focus on Jesus.

Schuller has asked the Vatican for a chance to talk about their position and explain what they mean by "disobedience" but the Vatican has not responded to their request.

If  Yves Congar were to address the stalemate between the priests' association and the Curia, he would most assuredly recommend that both sides focus on four things: 1)  the primacy of charity and pastoral concerns; 2) remaining in communion with the whole Church; 3) having patience with delays; and 4) seeking genuine renewal through a return to the principle of tradition.

Congar's advice can easily be gleaned from his 1950 masterpiece, True and False Reform in the Church. Each of his four conditions requires explanation and application if there is to be productive reform and the avoidance of schism.

Theologian and law professor Father Ladislaus Orsy, SJ,  suggests that one of the factors in the move toward the centralization of authority in the Vatican can be traced back to the eleventh century Pope Gregory VII. In an effort to purify the Church from secular influence, Gregory relied less on episcopal synods, and thereby changed the relationships between bishops and the Holy See.

This trend toward centralizing in Rome was exacerbated by the Protestant Reformation. A consequence of this centralizing of power in the papacy was the loss of the tradition of "communio," that is, the Church as a union of persons created by the Spirit of Christ.

"The Eastern churches," Orsy explains, "remained more faithful to the ancient doctrine of synodality, and the two branches of the same tree kept growing in different directions." At one point in the 11th century the tree split, and schism ensued.

{Synodality can be understood as councils, especially of bishops, sharing in the authority given the Church by Christ. The Eastern churches still operate in this fashion. The Roman Catholic Church, however, is less reliant on synods; the role and the authority of synods of bishops in the Roman branch are faint shadows of synods in the East.}

In Orsy's explanation, "The church was increasingly perceived, in places high and low, as a rigidly hierarchical institution where divine gifts (except those conferred by the sacraments) descended on the community through the mediation of the popes, bishops, and clergy."

Pope John XXIII and the ecumenical council of 1962-65  challenged that dynamic. Blessed John's aggiornamento in this case turned out to be a return to the older tradition, namely the understanding that the Spirit is poured out on all the people of God. We see that understanding in Lumen Gentium, where the theology of the people of God comes before the theology of the hierarchy.

Orsy continues, "There is a growing belief among the people that the church is a communio of persons --of all persons. This communio cannot be identified with the pope, or the bishops, or the priests, or with any particular group."

The communio of the Church is the Holy Spirit in the many. "Briefly but substantially," says Orsy, "this is the theological reality of communio" (cf. Receiving the Council by Ladislaus Orsy (Liturgical Press, 2009).

It is this notion of communio that provokes the call for decentralization of power in Rome (the conferences of bishops have been emasculated) and leads priests' associations in various parts of the world to call for dialogue with Rome. Congar's advice remains applicable.

True and False Reform

I've just finished reading Yves Congar's True and False Reform in the Church (Liturgical Press, 2011). Though first published in French in 1950, it remains a compelling invitation to look at the Church today and to embrace the notion of its ongoing reform.

One fascinating possibility connected with Congar's study is that it contributed to Pope John XXIII's decision to call for an ecumenical council.

It was at Vatican II that Congar learned that Archbishop Angelo Roncalli in 1952, when he was the Vatican's envoy to France, read the book, and mused, "A reform of the church: is such a thing really possible?"

Some who have read Congar's book and heard Pope John XXIII's opening address to the Council hear an echo of Congar's thesis in the Holy Father's understanding of the need for reform.

Blessed John XXIII's observation that "the substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another" sounds like Congar's observation, "...ideas of the 'outdated' or of  'change' do not bear upon Christianity in itself or upon its dogmas and its hierarchical structure. What is called into question, frankly, are certain forms, practices, or habits of historical Catholicism."

The Vatican's initial response to True and False Reform in the Church was negative, and the Holy Office ordered that the book not be translated or republished.

"As far as I myself am concerned, from the beginning of 1947 until the end of 1956," Congar later wrote, " I have never known anything from that quarter (that is, the Vatican's Holy Office) except an uninterrupted stream of denunciations, warnings, restrictive or discriminatory measures and distrustful interventions."

By 1962, however, Congar was serving as a peritus at the Second Vatican Council, and over the four sessions contributed many paragraphs to several Vatican II documents.

Congar, of course, was not alone in such rehabilitation. Prior to Vatican II Henri de Lubac, Karl Rahner, and John Courtney Murray had also experienced their share of investigation and disciplinary actions before becoming expert consultants for the Council Fathers. (And the investigations and discipline continue today for a newer slate of theologians as Bradford Hinze of Fordham University records in the first chapter of When The Magisterium Intervenes, edited by Richard R. Gaillardetz, Liturgical Press, 2012.)

One of Congar's main convictions about true and successful reform in the Catholic Church is that would-be reformers must remain in the Church. He faults Martin Luther for his violence and irritability, and suggests that had Luther advanced what was good and Christian in his thinking without breaking with the Church he would have better served the cause of reform.

There are, in Congar's analysis, four conditions for reform without schism: 1) The primacy of charity and of pastoral concerns. He quotes Pope Pius XI: "Every true and lasting reform in the last analysis had its point of departure in holiness, in persons who were inflamed and impelled by the love of God and neighbor."

2) Remaining in communion with the whole Church, and the reason for that communion with the whole body is  that "complete truth is to be found only in total communion."

3) Having patience with delays. Says Congar, "In any reform movement, impatience threatens to ruin everything...The innovator, whose reform turns to schism, lacks patience."

4) Genuine reform through a return to the principle of tradition (not through the forced introduction of some novelty). He writes, "A Catholic reform movement therefore will be obliged to begin with a return to the fundamental principles of Catholicism ...Tradition is essentially the continuity of development arising from the initial gift of the Church ...Resourcement consists in a re-centering on Christ and on the paschal mystery."

Congar is the first to acknowledge that reform is not easy to effect. He recognizes the role of the hierarchy is to be conservators. He acknowledges that institutions are by nature reluctant to change.

At the same time he recalls the insights of St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, Pope Nicholas I and St Gregory VII: "When you have custom without truth, all you have is antiquity of error" and "The Lord never said, 'I am the custom,' but rather 'I am the truth.'"

Pope Paul VI consulted with Congar on more than one occasion. Perhaps Congar's insight influenced Pope Paul as well as Pope John. In his encyclical Ecclesiam Suam, August 6, 1964, Pope Paul wrote, "...when we speak about reform we are not concerned to change things, but to preserve all the more resolutely the characteristic features which Christ has impressed on his Church. Or rather we are concerned to restore to the Church that ideal of perfection and beauty that corresponds to its original image.." (47).

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Vatican II!

Catholic University of America (CUA)  in Washington, DC, sponsored a four-day symposium titled "Reform and Renewal: Vatican II After Fifty Years," September 26-29, 2012.

Keynote speakers included Cardinal William Levada, former prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Father John O'Malley, SJ, historian and professor of theology at Georgetown University, and Monsignor Paul McPartlan, professor of systematic theology at CUA.

Their talks and subsequent workshops offered a positive interpretation of the Second Vatican Council and highlighted the many encouraging consequences resulting from the Council's teaching.

Cardinal Levada echoed Pope John Paul II's assessment that Vatican II was "the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century...a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning."

His Eminence noted the many developments in theology that preceded the Council and which became part of the Council's teaching, such as the liturgical movement, Patristic revival, and the biblical movement, "sparking a ressourcement in theological and historical disciplines."

The text of Levada's talk is online at http://trs.cua.edu/res/docs/news/Cardinal-Levada-CUA-Keynote

Father O'Malley's focus was on "The Hermeneutic of Reform: From Gregory VII to Benedict XVI," proposing that the reforms of Vatican II were motivated by and developed from a combination of resourcement (a return to the past to correct the present), aggiornamento (Pope John's term for renewal), and development (the theology proposed by John Henry Cardinal Newman in the 19th century).

O'Malley added, "When Pope Benedict XVI proposed a hermeneutic of reform for interpreting Vatican II, he stepped away from the sharp dichotomy of rupture/continuity that he had earlier insisted upon. Historians, surely, must welcome the new category. They know that the sharp dichotomy of rupture/continuity is never verified in historical events, which are always a mix of the old and the new. An event as radical as the French Revolution did not destroy the deep bond that contributed to define what it meant to be French."

The text of O'Malley's talk is online at http://www.questia.com/library/1G1-301555259/-the-hermeneutic-of-reform-a-historical-analysis.

Monsignor McPartlan addressed the issue of Catholic-Orthodox dialogue, insisting on the primacy of charity in ecumenism and observing that we need less arguing and more praying if we are to achieve a sense of unity.

Other CUA professors spoke to the apostolate of the laity, the liturgical and theological developments, religious freedom, Gaudium et spes, renewal of moral theology.

Over 500 participants attended one or more of the four day's sessions, many clergy and religious, seminarians and lay people, some students at CUA, and a few attendees from other parts of the country.

The tone of the symposium was positive, though some speakers (Cardinal Levada among them) acknowledged that some of the Council's initiatives have yet to be realized.

It is encouraging to see that other Catholic universities (e.g., Georgetown, October 11-12, 2012, as well as Saint Louis University, Saint Joseph's University) are not letting the Council's anniversary go unnoticed. Parishes across the country are also commemorating the golden anniversary, using the jubilee as an occasion for reviewing the letter and the spirit of the Council and recommitting to the direction set by this 21st ecumenical council of the Church.

It is good to know that fifty years later, Mother Church is still rejoicing that the Second Vatican Council, "by the singular gift of Divine Providence...here beside St. Peter's tomb" was solemnly opened by Pope John XXIII on October 11, 1962.

Happy Birthday!

We Have Our Work Cut Out For Us

We have our work cut out for us.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is sponsoring a two-day conference (October 1-2, 2012) called Summit 2012: Revitalizing the Domestic Church, to be held at the Dayton (OH) Convention Center.

It is described as "a two-day gathering for prayer, celebrating and envisioning of dynamic ways to effectively proclaim the Gospel message in our time. The goal is to explore the challenges that families face today and discover with one another viable tools and methods for evangelizing and ministering to the church of the home."

The program is for all parish leaders responsible for nurturing family faith, including pastors and all clergy plus catechetical leaders, school principals, youth ministers, high school religion department chairs, seminary teachers. Already over-worked staff are challenged to attend and implement.

We have our work cut out for us.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati will launch a series of television commercials, airing December 14 to January 20, for the Catholics Come Home evangelization program.  It is an outreach to Catholics who are no longer attending Mass or otherwise practicing the Faith.

Reasons given for not practicing are many: upset with pastor, angry over pedophilia and disappointed by cover-ups, too busy schedules, divorce and remarriage --it is that last one which will be the biggest challenge to pastors and church communities welcoming returnees --how to say "Welcome home, but you can't receive communion..."

We have our work cut out for us.

The Archdiocese has announced significant changes for its CMA (Catholic Ministries Appeal), the annual diocesan-wide collection, in 2013, including raising the goal from four million to five million dollars. The promotion suggests that additional revenues will be applied to the ministry of New Evangelization, that is, initiatives that "'go and make disciples' as we are called to do." Pastors and parish ministers are likely to be challenged on that suggestion on the grounds that evangelization should already be the primary mission of every Church institution. Further, many parish communities will be unable to meet new goals.

We have our work cut out for us.

Over the past few months several parishes with large "summer festivals" (fund-raising ventures with games, rides, food and drink) were overwhelmed by groups (one is tempted to say "mobs") of adolescents moving roughly, rudely through the festival site, trying to buy beer, and even snatching money boxes from festival booths. In some cases pastors and parish leaders are debating whether to have a festival again. "If only the festival revenues were not a budget item," one pastor lamented, "I'd cancel it in a moment."

We have our work cut out for us.

Several parishes with multiple Masses on the weekend are reduced to one priest. One priest for four or five weekend Masses plus confessions, and perhaps a wedding or a funeral added to the schedule, seems a recipe for burn-out, ill health, loss of enthusiasm. Aging pastors lament their lack of energy for multiple celebrations, and the lack of time for homily preparation.

We have our work cut out for us.

The expectations placed on pastors and parishes by  diocesan initiatives, the priest shortage, and cultural challenges pose a threat to the healthy life of our church communities.

Rearranging priorities, reducing Mass schedules, requesting greater involvement by the lay members of the parish are potential plans of action.

The old order of things is changing, and will necessarily have to yield to new ways of thinking and acting --of being Church. The process of effecting change will be difficult and upsetting.

We have our work cut out for us. Let us begin with prayer.

Be Yourself

At the end of an especially trying day, when the people she was trying to serve were more obnoxious than usual, Dorothy Day turned to a crucifix, looked intently at the image of the Christ, and blurted out, "Jesus, do you know how hard it is to love you?"

Trying to be Christ-like is the hardest part of being a Christian.

We can far more easily believe that Jesus is divine, that the Eucharist is truly the Body of Christ, that the Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic, than we can follow Jesus's instructions: "Love one another as I have loved you....What you do to others you do to me."

People like Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, Tom Dooley, Katharine Drexel have made heroic efforts to love their neighbors and imitate Jesus' patience and compassion. Their example leads us to call them prophets and saints.

On one occasion a fan and supporter of Day's Catholic Worker movement told her he thought she was a saint. Day turned on her admirer and replied, "Don't call me a saint; I'll not be put off so easily!"

Many of us doubt we can ever achieve sanctity because we know what goes on within our own minds and hearts. We struggle with pride, we become frustrated, we rebel. We tell ourselves that saints don't act like that, and we yield to disillusion.

Thomas Merton experienced this sense of defeat, but discovered this insight:

"Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious men are not saints: they never succeed in being themselves....

"They wear out their minds and bodies in a hopeless endeavor to have somebody else's experiences or write somebody else's poems or possess somebody else's sanctity....

"They waste their years in vain efforts to be some other poet, some other saint. For many absurd reasons, they are convinced that they are obliged to become somebody else who died two hundred years ago and who lived in circumstances utterly alien to their own." (cf. Seeds of Contemplation)

Day may have thought that saints found it easy to be saints. Too many biographies of holy men and women fail to convey the humanness of their subjects. The decision to follow Christ is one thing, execution of that decision is another. Jesus clarified the cost: "If you would be my disciple, you must pick up your cross..."

Saints come in differing shapes, sizes and circumstances. There is no "one-size fits all" template.

It is as if God supplies the building materials, but the blueprint and construction are left up to the individual builder.

Saints are not slavish imitators; rather they are inspired by those they admire to keep up the effort.

Each manifestation of sanctity is unique. None of us can be Mother Teresa, Pope John XXIII, or Elizabeth Seton. We can only be ourselves --in Christ.

Criticism and Reform

This summer seven Catholic priests in Portsmouth, Hampshire, invited their fellow priests to form an association for Catholic priests in England to promote the ongoing reform of the Church. They urged their brother priests and in fact all the faithful to read the signs of the times.

In response to their bishops' call to foster "a culture of dialog and solidarity," the seven noted issues which they believe need attention and discussion, such as married priests, Church teaching on sexual matters, and the Curia's by-passing of Vatican II teaching by countermanding the local bishops' authority for vernacular translation of  liturgical texts.

One response to their invitation came from a seminarian in England who suggested that these priests should "look at the reaction of the young people to the current Holy Father. They appreciate his clarity and his uncompromising Christianity. I think people have become sick of a Church that has tried to be trendy; they want to be part of a Church that knows what it stands for. If these Priests want to go with the times, they might wish to consider moving to the Church of England!"

Clearly not all clergy agree with them or the other priest-associations in Austria, Ireland, Australia, and the United States who are also issuing calls to action.

Some Catholics see criticism of the Church, the pope, the Vatican or the bishops as equal to insubordination, disloyalty, even mutiny. History and theology, however, suggest that talk of reform and critical comment are needed to keep the Church on course, true to its Gospel mission. 

Reformans et reformanda is Church tradition.

Criticism and change was at the heart of Paul's encounter with Peter: "And when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong" (Gal 2:11).

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was upset with Church leadership in his day, and in a homily opined that "they love their perquisites, and they love them more than they love Christ...Show me a bishop not more concerned with discharging his people's purses of their money than their souls of sins" (Homily 77 on Song of Songs).

And in the midst of the Second Vatican Council Pope Paul VI reminded the Roman Curia that "we have to accept criticism with humility and reflection and admit what is justly pointed out. Rome has no need to be defensive, turning a deaf ear to observations which come from respected sources, still less, when those sources are friends and brothers" (Acta Apostolica Sedis, 797).

It must be acknowledged that some criticism can be devoid of respect for authority, divisive, and destructive. Karl Rahner addressed this matter, insisting that "attachment to the Church must also be part of the spirituality of the future. Otherwise it (criticism) is elitist arrogance and a form of unbelief"  (K. Rahner, Concern for the Church, Crossroad, 1981, p. 153). Criticism without reason, respect, and love is counter-productive, but those who love the Church, who bring intelligent observation, and couch their critiques in reverence for others and for the magisterium deserve a hearing.

Former Archbishop of San Francisco John R. Quinn applauded Pope John Paul II's encyclical letter Ut unum sint, calling it "a revolution." He wrote, "For the first time it is the Pope himself who raises and legitimizes the question of reform and change in the papal office of the Church" (J R Quinn, The Reform of the Papacy, Crossroad, 1999, p.14).

Quinn quotes the encyclical frequently, noting John Paul's openness to exercising his primacy in a new situation, and highlighting the pope's request for prayer for the ongoing conversion of the Bishop of Rome. The Holy Father wrote, "I earnestly invite the faithful of the Catholic Church and all Christians to share this prayer. May all join me in praying for this conversion" (UUS, 4).

Yves Congar's book True and False Reform in the Church was met with censure by the Curia in the 1950s, but there is evidence that Archbishop Angelo Roncalli's reading of that study influenced his decision to summon the Second Vatican Council when he became pope.

Congar began with the plea that those who read his book would understand that "this is not a book of negative criticism but of love and trust --above all, of total love for and absolute trust in the truth."

He recalled the words of Pope Pius XII: "The free expression of one's opinion is the prerogative of every human society...In the eyes of Christians, repressing the expression of opinion or forcing it into silence is an attack upon the natural rights of persons, a violation of the world order that God has established...The church is a living body, and it would lack an element of its life if the free expression of opinion was lacking  --a lack for which both pastors and faithful would be blamed" (cf. Osservatore Romano, 2/18/1950, as quoted in Congar's book, p. 35).

A group of 35 Cincinnati-area priests (including one from the diocese of Columbus OH, and four from the diocese of Covington KY) met July 30 at Good Shepherd Church, Cincinnati, to review the agenda, policies, and plans of the recently formed Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP) which held its inaugural convention at St. Leo University in Florida in June.

The Cincinnati-meeting surfaced laments about the state of the Church today which were very similar to those aired at the Florida meeting (e.g., the rift between younger and older clergy, lack of dialog, sense that Church authorities are backtracking on Vatican II, creeping infallibility).

Those who participated at the Cincinnati meeting also expressed their hopes and dreams (e.g., holding to the vision of Vatican II, promotion of lay involvement, overcoming a climate of fear, keeping Christ as the center of priestly ministry, observing the 50th anniversary of the Council, finding a voice through the AUSCP).

The great majority of AUSCP members, locally and nationally, are loyal to the Church, concerned about deviations from the Gospel and from the directions set by Vatican II, and dedicated to their parish members.

Their criticism proceeds not from a desire to impose their personal opinions upon the Church, but from a sincere commitment to keeping the Church true to its mission.

Bishop Quinn's observation is worthy of consideration: "The failures of the Church in the second millennium --the loss of whole peoples to Catholic unity in the sixteenth century, the loss of the workers in the nineteenth, the alienation of the intellectuals in the twentieth-- have been due not so much to reform within the Church as to the lack of timely reform, the failure to weigh carefully enough the signs of the times, and the failure to act in time" (Reform of the Papacy, p. 44).