Newsgroup: it.cultura.religioni.cristiani
Titolo: Dissent is also a Catholic tradition :-)

Dissent is also a Catholic tradition
By PAT MORRISON
Several years ago a Dominican friend gave me a contemporary icon of St.
Catherine of Siena.
The icon, by artist Robert Lentz, depicts Catherine weighed down by a ship
she carries on her shoulders. The image represents a mystical event that
occurred toward the end of Catherine's short life of 33 years: While praying
one day outside St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Catherine had a vision that
the barque of Peter, depicted in a mosaic above the façade of the old
basilica, came off the building and landed with an oppressive, almost
suffocating weight, on her frail shoulders.
A contemporary psychologist interpreting the experience in the light of
Catherine's life would probably say that her vision was a reflection of what
was going on around her. In a way, the church's deadening heaviness was
literally killing Catherine, who had spent her entire life working and
praying for its unity and reform -- at the time, it seemed to her, totally
unsuccessfully.
Almost 600 years later, in 1970, Catherine was honored as the second female
doctor of the church, and the title is not without significance: In some
ways, she was physician to the church of her day and its leadership,
diagnosing their ills and prescribing remedies, often with a less than
gentle "bedside manner." The young upstart ragazza from Siena displayed no
hesitancy in telling the pope in no uncertain terms what she believed God
wanted him to do, whether it was returning the papacy to Rome from Avignon
or ordering moral reform. While she prayed and did penance for the pope and
lovingly referred to him as "Sweet Christ on Earth" for the exalted office
he held, she also didn't mince words: "Get up now, act manfully! God wills
it!" And when she learned firsthand that cardinals' mistresses were
cavorting in the halls and bedrooms of the papal court, she wrote a
blistering letter blasting the pontiff for his weakness. "The stench from
the sins of the Roman curia" was making the world retch and sickening heaven
too, she wrote, and he was responsible.
Catherine is a prime example that one can love the church, be a faithful lay
Catholic -- she was a Dominican tertiary, or third order member, not a
nun -- and at the same time challenge the institution and its leadership
when they are wrong.
In Catherine's time, dissent from the institutional church carried a heavy
price tag; it often meant facing the Inquisition, or worse. Today, the
measures against "dissenters" may be less severe (we haven't dragged the
rack out of storage yet), but some church leaders seem to need to label and
punish anyone urging church reform.
A case in point is Voice of the Faithful, the new grassroots group of lay
Catholics calling on the U.S. church to reform itself. These are not
wild-eyed radicals bent on overthrowing the institution, but for the most
part committed Catholics who care about their church and are urging
transparency and openness, and an end to sex-abuse cover-ups. The group --
which is carefully distancing itself from other agendas, whether women's
ordination or married priests -- has been banned from meeting on church
property in some dioceses. In a recent issue of his diocesan newspaper,
Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J., called Voice of the Faithful
"anti-church and, ultimately, anti-Catholic." His letter went on to say that
"through its words and deeds, we believe that this organization has as its
purposes: to act as a cover for dissent with the faith; to cause division
within the church; and to openly attack church hierarchy" (NCR, Oct. 25).
The knee-jerk vehemence of some bishops' actions makes one wonder what they'
re so afraid of. It would seem that for Voice of the Faithful, still in its
infancy, the wisest approach, even if they feel threatened, would be to
follow the Gamaliel principle. Gamaliel was the Pharisee, recorded in Acts
5, who urged the Jewish council to take a wait-and-see attitude with this
new rabble-rousing group of Christians. After all, said the wise rabbi, "if
this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is
of God, you will not be able to overthrow them -- and in that case you may
even find yourselves fighting against God!"
Right now, the U.S. church needs pastors with Gamaliel's wisdom and members
with Catherine's faithful dissent. As in every century, God has made sure
there is no lack of both. But we need to hear their voices. The crushing
heft of a beloved but unhealthy church weighs heavy on all our shoulders.
Pat Morrison is NCR managing editor.
National Catholic Reporter, November 01, 2002
--
--
«Là dove due si uniscono tra di loro nell'amore,
 il mio Nome è santificato e io sono il terzo in questo legame»
(Midrash a Lv 19,18; Gv 13,1; Mt 18,19s)

 institution and its leadership when they are wrong.
Buonasera Y.
come vanno le acque?
Mi č venuta questa domanda che propongo a te e a tutti i 23 che ci
leggono (kiplico in omaggio a chi indovina la citazione).
Come si misura l'amore alla Chiesa?
Oggi, a posteriori, sappiamo che Santa Caterina amava la Chiesa.
Ma, per il presente, come fare a distinguere chi ama la Chiesa da chi
no?
La domanda, of course, č slegata dalle persone citate nel tuo messaggio
che, non conoscendo, non mi permetto di giudicare.
Facciamo un po' di accademia, e dimentichiamo le persone concrete?
Meleyak

 Facciamo un po' di accademia, e dimentichiamo le persone concrete?
dell'articolo interessava solo la parte introduttiva e legata al
tradizionale ed utile dissenso interno. La contestualizzazione non mi
interessava in particolar modo.
y.

 no?
Come distinguere tra chi ama la propria moglie e chi no?
serata interrogativa.
La notte portera' consiglio.
Non facciamo morire questo 3d.
y.

 Come si misura l'amore alla Chiesa?
mah, io riposizionerei la domanda...
PRIMA mi chiederei SE riusciamo a distinguere quelli che -amano- Cristo...
Quando e se riusciremo a rispondere a qs. domand, ci porremo, all-interno
dell-insieme cosi- definito, la successiva.
Tertium non datur..
ciao
pietro
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 impostore (anche se in buona fede)?
Intanto lo mettevano in prigione (cfr. Geremia) :-)
Però perdonami ma io credo sia necessario ribaltare la prospettiva.
Giusto per non arrivare sempre con il treno dopo, e riabilitare le persone
dopo 50 o 100 anni.
Proviamo a elaborare un modello per, quantomeno, abbreviare i tempi?
Per non ritrovarci sempre nella posizione di Mt 23,29-32 (che imho
condanna l'ipocrisia più che il profeticidio).
Io una mezza idea ce l'ho: innanzitutto è sbagliata la mia impostazione
del discorso.
La missione del profeta, ieri come oggi, non si compie NONOSTANTE le
persecuzioni, ma GRAZIE alle persecuzioni.
Come la missione di Cristo non si è compiuta NONOSTANTE la croce, ma
grazie ad essa.
Per cui innanzitutto non scandalizzarsi della persecuzione, e guardare
piuttosto come il profeta che stiamo esaminando si pone di fronte ad essa.
Vittimismo? Ribellione? Pusillanimità? Orgoglio?
oppure
Sacrificio? Obbedienza? Coraggio? Umiltà?
Questa forse è la vera fedeltà al Vangelo di cui parli tu?
Ovvio, non si può poi nemmeno pretendere da una persona l'impeccabilità
per cui magari al primo "vaffa..." allora no, è sicuramente un falso
profeta perché è un violento.
Insomma... un po' di elasticità mentale penso sia d'obbligo.
Meleyak
P.S. al prossimo intervento, if any, provo a parlare di un caso particolare
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 Cristo...
Ma questo va bene solo nella tua prospettiva schizoide che separa il Capo
dal Corpo :-P
Io quando parlo di Chiesa parlo di Cristo
Et viceversa.
Meleyak
P.S. Pietro... la Chiesa non è la Curia Romana!!! La Chiesa non sono i
parroci e i vescovi!!!
Duc in altum!!! Anche con l'ecclesiologia!!! :-)
