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Day of the Dove Revisited
Making Peace
in the Catholic Church
By Philip D. Ropp
April 6, 2006
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Conflict within the
Catholic Church is hardly a modern
phenomenon. From Paul withstanding Peter to his face to the current
negotiations that are taking place between the Vatican and the
followers of Marcel Lefebvre, the history of Catholicism is fraught
with
controversy and debate, contempt and rebellion, negotiation and
reconciliation. Because our faith is a living entity and our
church a diverse and divergent family composed of all manner of
imperfect human beings, it should not surprise us that this is the
case. Neither should it surprise us that a church that is in such
a state of continual foment and ferment is, not in spite this but
because of it, a healthy and spiritually vibrant organism. By
definition, the absence of such activity is death, and when taken by
this measure we are certainly reassured that the Catholic Church is
alive and well. As in the case of Mark Twain, the rumor of our
demise is greatly exaggerated.
While it may be argued (and this seems to be what
we do best) that this condition, when considered objectively, is
ultimately healthy, this is not to say that it is necessarily pleasant.
As Catholics, we all tend to take ourselves and our faith very
seriously, as well we should. Each of us is convinced that the
way in which we have been taught and have chosen to practice this faith
is the One True Path to God, and most assuredly the path that all
should be following towards eternal life. There is no shortage of those
among us that wish to serve God, the problem being that too many wish
to
do so in an advisory capacity. We are all too willing to point to
our neighbor and pray, "God be merciful to him, a sinner." And
what we mean by this is "make him just like me." We all long for
peace within the church and we all believe that this is a noble and
necessary aim. The problem is that we all want this peace on our
own terms, and it doesn't work this way.
In the person of Jesus Christ, God has taken
the most personal and profoundly private part of each of us, our own
internal belief system, and instructed us to practice this belief
system as a religion in which we achieve complete unison and harmony
with all of our Catholic brothers and sisters. And not just with
all of our Catholic brothers and sisters but with all of our Christian
brothers and sisters. And not just with all of our Christian
brothers and sisters but with all of our human brothers and
sisters.
Like the Pharisees of old, we are repelled by the very idea of this. We
choose to draw together with those of like and narrow mind and reduce
the human condition back to rules and regulations slanted, of course,
in our own favor. It is in this way that we justify our contrary
behavior towards the God to whom we profess our undying love and
obedience. In so doing we, too, put the question to Jesus:
"Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?" And we, too,
fail to grasp the answer: "You
must love the the Lord your God with all your Heart, with all your
soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and
first commandment. The second resembles its: You must love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets
also." It has always been this simple, yet we choose to reenact
the complex commandments of the Law and, in turn, hang the
Prophets. So, who is right and who is wrong? Israel or
Judah? Sadducee or Pharisee? Hellenist or Judaizer?
West or East? Catholic or Protestant? Liberal or
Conservative? It is always the same question and the correct
answer always remains as Jesus taught it: The one that loves God above
all else and neighbor as self. Ah, but this is easier said than
done. Hence the rub.
In the time that I have been Catholic, I have
lived in one of the most conservative diocese in the United States and
one of the
most liberal. At either extreme end of the spectrum, I have
known individuals that loved the Lord and humanity and sought to live
out their faith by contributing to the best of their ability. And
I have also known individuals at either end of the spectrum that have
used their own narrow definition of truth as an excuse to bully and
belittle anyone who would pay them any mind into their own narrow
profile of righteousness and truth. Invariably, this
interpretation of righteousness and truth proves to be nothing more
than ego gratification cloaked in false piety by those on the far
right,
and a gross psuedo-intellectualism by those on the far left. And
so on the
right we have those that claim to possess God's unique revelation of
truth, while on the left we have those that claim to establish truth
through the power of their own intellect. Perhaps most interesting
of all, these extremes exist in the same relative proportions
regardless of the overall orientation of the diocese in question.
While these proportions are small, it is the most radical on either end
of this spectrum that also tend to be the most vocal and, therefore,
demand and receive the most attention. Since selling a minority
agenda is, after all, what they are attempting, and since it is
controversy that sells the news, the amount of attention that these
individuals receive is drastically disproportionate to their numbers,
while the amount of influence they wield is drastically
disproportionate to the amount
of support that they are able to garner. And the accompanying
theatrics grow tiresome.
Under most circumstances, throughout history and
into the modern age, the extremists remain at their respective poles.
While vocal perhaps, they cause little real trouble. In
fact, they serve the purpose of contributing to the intellectual and
religious debate, and in no small way this assists in pushing the cause
of true religion forward with the assurance that even the most extreme
perspectives have been considered and included within the process of
formulating and practicing sound theology. The key here is balance, and
to maintain this balance we rely on the hierarchy of the church -- the
teaching of the magisterium as passed down from pope to bishop to
priest and deacon to the laity. And the fact that the church still
stands strong in this, the so called "post modern" world, is testimony
to the efficacy of this system as well as evidence of a divine blessing
that has remained upon it since ancient times. However, this is not to
say that this system is perfect. To the contrary, if history is
witness to nothing else it is witness to the pain and suffering that
has existed when the human aspects of this system have allowed it to
swing either too far to the right or to the left. When the swing is to
the extreme left, we witness the corruption of the faith to conform to
the ways of the world. And so we read tales of antipopes and
wickedness instituted from on high and passed down in the form of one
ecclesiastical abuse or another. When the swing is to the extreme
right, we witness the corruption of the faith to conform to the ways of
hell. And so we read tales of inquisitors and torture instituted from
on
high and passed down in the form of one persecution or another.
Through the past century and into the early
years of this one, we have been richly blessed with a series of popes
that not only have represented the cream of our intellectual crop, but
have been spiritual and holy men as well: Men of
exceptional balance that have understood that real holiness requires
taking only the true and best from the extremes while incorporating
this
into a middle road that exemplifies the narrow path that Jesus
taught. Thanks to these men, we recognize the Truth of the
Sacred preserved to us from the past, our Scripture and Tradition,
while rejecting the profane that through time has tempted us to lose
our way. Thanks to these men we have been encouraged to accept
that which is right and good in the time in which we live and
assimilate it into our faith to the betterment of humankind and for the
glory of God. At the same time, they have taught us to reject the
all too modern temptation to replace our true and timeless God with the
false god of modern technology. They have accomplished this with little
enough support from the vast majority of us in the middle that have
benefited so much from it, while enduring the shrill protests and abuse
of those at the extremes that have done all within their power to
prevent the preservation of the true faith as God intended.
Witness, if you will, the Catholic Church of
Pope Benedict XVI:
On the right, he is negotiating with the schismatic
followers of the late French Archbishop, Marcel Levebvre, mounting a
sincere effort to bring them back into communion with Rome. This
schism began in 1988 as the culmination of long standing protests on
the part of Archbishop Lefebvre concerning various changes instituted
by Vatican II, most notably the Novus
Ordo or Roman Rite Mass.
It was the contention of the Archbishop (who died in 1991), and remains
that of his followers today, under the direction of Archbishop Bernard
Fellay, that the pre Vatican II Tridentine
Mass is
the only legitimate Mass and that the Novus Ordo goes against
the traditional teachings of the Catholic faith. When Archbishop
Lefebvre, in protest, ordained four bishops against the specific
written direction and authority of Pope John Paul II, he was
excommunicated and was followed into exile by those of like mind within
his order, the Society of St. Pius X. While the SSPX itself is not
considered in schism by the Catholic church, it has, nonetheless,
become the international symbol for all those that believe the only way
to be truly Catholic is to reject Vatican II in favor of the pre
council Papal Magisterium. In short, to actually be more Catholic than
the pope.
On the left he is facing an outright rebellion
against papal authority and traditional church teaching in liberal
Catholic universities and seminaries and within many, if not most, of
the religious orders. The hue and cry here is that the implementation
of Vatican II, as interpreted by the Holy See, has not gone nearly far
enough in liberating the church from the constraints of this same pre
council Papal Magisterium. This rebellion takes the form of bitter and
high volume verbal protests in favor of the ordination of women and
homosexuals, the promotion of Marxist political philosophies thinly
veiled in the language of a "theology of liberation," and, in the most
liberal circles, even the promotion of contraception and abortion on
demand. In addition, consider that many bishops, particularly in the
United States, have protected guilty priests and covered up the true
extent of the sexual abuse crisis, costing the church billions of
dollars in damages. And this is not to mention the ongoing and
incalculable damage,
both financial and spiritual, that is the result of dwindling Mass
attendance and the ensuing drop in contributions. To add insult
to injury, these tend to be the same bishops that have not only
reinvented the Sacred Liturgy to suit themselves, but have actually
discouraged traditional Catholic worship and devotion. And further,
they claim Vatican II as their authority for so doing.
In between these extremes reside hundreds of
millions of Catholic faithful seeking to practice their faith to the
best of their ability while taking seriously the instruction received
at Mass to pass the peace and to do so with all sincerity. Given
the extent to which those that occupy the far extremes of our church
community lobby for the support of the rest of us, it is, perhaps, one
of the great unrecognized miracles of the faith that this is
accomplished to the extent that it is. The goal of the most radical at
either right or left extreme is to polarize those that lean toward
their direction and ostracize those that don't. Heretofore, we
have not touched upon the very real spiritual dimension that comprises
this phenomenon. For as much as Christ wants for His Church to
succeed, Satan wants for its utter and total destruction, and,
therefore, it is he that is at the root of all evil, dissension and
hatred that makes its way into our midst. It is he that would put
us at each other's throats if we were to allow this, and it is he that
has inspired us in the past to make the streets run red with blood when
we have indulged him.
Oddly enough, an excellent illustration of
this comes from a Star Trek
episode entitled "Day of the Dove," which was very perceptively
written by Jerome Bixby and first aired on November 1, 1968.
In this story, the Enterprise is mysteriously called
to the aid of Earth colony Beta 12 A by a distress signal which claims
that the outpost is under attack by a star ship. Captain Kirk and
his landing party arrive to find no trace of the 100 men, women and
children that occupied the base. Kirk suspects Klingon
involvement, and this seems to be confirmed when the Enterprise detects an approaching
Klingon battle cruiser. Curiously, the Klingon ship is disabled
and has sustained heavy damage.
Klingon Commander Kang and his landing party
then beam down and proceed to subdue Kirk and his party, accusing the Enterprise of attacking and killing
400 Klingons aboard his ship. Kirk, in turn, accuses Kang of
killing the colonists of Beta 12 A. The waters become muddied
further when Chekov goes berserk and attempts to attack the Klingons,
accusing them of killing his brother in an earlier attack on a
Federation outpost, and does so in spite of the fact that he has no
brother.
Kang has Chekov tortured in an attempt to
coerce Kirk into beaming the Klingons aboard the Enterprise for the purpose of
taking command, but Kirk is able to alert Spock of this plot.
Mr.Scott holds the Klingons in transit until security can cover the
transporter, then beams the landing party and the Klingons remaining on
the crippled cruiser (including Kang's wife, Mara) onto the Enterprise and into custody.
The Enterprise then
spontaneously accelerates to Warp 9, trapping 38 crew members and a
like number Klingons in the same section of the ship. Kirk accuses Kang
of being responsible for this, and phasers and other accouterments of
the future are transformed into swords and other medieval
weaponry. Thusly armed, the Klingons escape and take control of
engineering, while the Enterprise crew
maintains control of the bridge. When the Klingons attempt to cut
off life support to the bridge and their efforts are mysteriously
foiled, the result is hand to hand combat with the crew of the Enterprise. In the ensuing
carnage, both humans and Klingons are killed, yet somehow their wounds
miraculously heal themselves and the victims return to battle.
During this time, Spock has determined that
there is a previously unknown alien life form that has gained access to
the ship. Kirk realizes that Chekov's bizarre behavior, the
seemingly spontaneous manipulation of the Enterprise, the warfare of the
crew and Klingons, and the mysterious healing of mortal wounds
sustained in battle are all the result of the influence of this alien,
which is depicted as a malevolent, rotating, multicolored energy field.
Kirk confronts Kang with this knowledge and Kang
responds by engaging Kirk in a sword fight which quickly escalates to
include all of the Klingons and the available crew members. With the
aid of Mara, Kirk is able to convince Kang of the veracity of his
story, and the hostilities are temporarily ceased. Kirk and Kang
are then able to reason together that the alien is sustained and
strengthened by the negative energy of the hatred and violence that has
been fostered between the crew and Klingons. Both realize that if they
are unable to overcome the long standing and newly created animosities
between their two respective peoples that they are all doomed to an
eternal hell of endless and pointless pain, suffering and death at the
bidding of this evil alien presence.
In light of this reality, Kirk and Kang are
able to find previously unexplored common ground and establish a
rapport that quickly grows in warmth, and strengthens and spreads to
all the combatants. In the face of this, the power of the alien weakens
and dissipates. This newfound camaraderie and the positive energy
produced results in the alien's realization of the futility of the
situation, and we see it pass through the hull of the Enterprise and out into the vast
reaches of space, presumably to seek more fertile pastures
elsewhere. The story ends with all involved gaining a new and
deeper understanding of the nature of their existence, and the hope
that this experience will result in a greater appreciation of the vital
importance of peace and goodwill throughout the galaxy.*
Speak of the devil and those on the left will
snort and scoff and lecture on superstition and paranoia; the same
reaction that is engendered when discussion turns to anything that does
not square with their narrow sense of the spiritual. Those on the
right will assure you in no uncertain terms that it is surely Old Nick
himself that is responsible for all that does not square with their
narrow world view and perspective. Truth be told, the force of
evil in our midst is nothing if not subtle, and, as the Star Trek story teaches, the devil
is at his best and most effective when he puts us at each other's
throats. When this can be accomplished with an anger fueled by
the fervor of righteous indignation and the zeal of false religion, so
much the better.
And so we see that there is a real and tangible
reason why the two greatest commandments Jesus taught us are love of
God and for each other. Too often are we guilty of peering around
the beam in our own eye in the effort to get a better glimpse of the
splinter in someone else's. Learning the true order of the universe --
God, others, self -- teaches the joy that is found when we are able to
actually put the needs of those less blessed ahead of our own and love
God as He intended. When all is said and done, this is what we were
sent to this planet to accomplish. And if love, goodwill and
mutual respect can bring the cessation of hostilities and peace between
the Federation and the Klingons, it can do the same for the various
factions within the Catholic Church.
* Star Trek plot
summary based on the work of Eric Weisstein available at ericweisstein.com
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