Thankfully, THE church is not only larger than Roman Catholicism but larger than

Christianity, even. The sickness described applies to its institutional aspects,

which, because of our radical finitude, while not otherwise theologically

essential, have been practically indispensable in this temporal realm (I’m

struggling to avoid using the cliche’ “necessary evil”). The form of church polity

is an accidental, not an essential, and this hierarchy, in my view, has not only

outlived its usefulness but is more of an obfuscation of the sense of the faithful

than an amplification, which is to say that it has been, in a word, unfaithful. The

voice of the faithful will emerge from the rocks and stones, if necessary.

Pastorally, some form of institution will likely remain necessary but it will less

likely be hierarchical and will more likely be more open-sourced and peer-to-

peer (P2P). And this should suffice to keep alive the voice of self-critical protest

in the church’s vital prophetic tradition. For all practical purposes, talking

substance over form, a de facto CBNR (catholic but not Roman) cohort has

emerged vis a vis Emergent Christianity, re-sourcing our mystical core as John

XXIII’s prayer for aggiornamento has been answered by the Spirit, albeit not in

the way many would’ve expected! Sadly and ironically, Rome is harvesting the

seeds of self-destruction that it has planted, itself, while trying to weed out fruit-

bearing crops, which will be fine in the long-run as they grow elsewhere!

IN RESPONSE TO:

“To be restored our sickness must grow worse”

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Richard Rohr, OFM

I am presently teaching European jail chaplains in Romania, the poorest country

in Europe. Seeking some guidance and consolation amidst the historic and

present suffering of these people, I had an afternoon of prayer and took to

reading T.S.Eliot’s FOUR QUARTETS. In “East Coker” he says that “our only

health is the disease” and that “to be restored our sickness must grow worse”

and even “the whole world is our hospital”. It gives me some strange direction

amidst this tragic communist experiment, the state of politics in the USA, and the

daily Vatican meltdown as it continues to try to regain some control and authority

by condemning things in every direction.

We are clearly in a very strategic period of history where people are grabbing

for power because they do not know how to heal, restore, or bring life. You

would think the Pope and bishops should know better, yet they only need to look

to this part of the world to see what imposed and authoritarian change

accomplishes–which is nothing and worse than nothing. The push back, the

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alienation, the cynicism lasts for centuries, as I see here in a former Communist

state. I am afraid, as T.S.Eliot says “our sickness must grow worse” to see how

sick we are, and “our only health is in the disease” itself–to bring the poison to

the surface so none can deny it. The Roman Church and the US Congress are both

showing a very sad misuse of their power, which is no longer a power for good or

for the common good. The Catholic church has become its own worst enemy and

does not need atheists or agnostics to undo its mission. Like St. Peter himself, it is

denying and destroying its own message. The sadness I see here in Romania is

the sadness of power totally misused in the name of “reform”. I am afraid it is a

prophecy for the future of the Roman Catholic Church.

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