Crisis in the Catholic Church

Outwardly Pope John Paul II, who has been actively involved in
battling war and suppression, is a beacon of hope for those
who long for freedom. Internally, however, his anti-reformist
tenure has plunged the Roman Catholic church into an epochal
credibility crisis.

The Pope's Contradictions
By Hans Küng

Don't be fooled by the crowds: Millions have left the Catholic
Church under Pope John Paul II's leadership. The Catholic church is in dire straits. The pope is deathly ill and deserves every bit of sympathy he can get. But the church must live on, and in light of the selection of a new pope, it will need a diagnosis, an unadorned insider analysis. The therapy will be discussed later.

Many marvel at the staying power of this highly fragile,
partially paralyzed head of the Roman Catholic church, a man
who, despite all medications, is barely able to speak. He is
treated with a sort of reverence that would never be extended
to an American president or a German chancellor in a similar
state. Others feel put off by a man they see as an obstinate
office bearer who, instead of accepting the Christian path to
his own eternity, is using all means at his disposal to hold
on to power in a largely undemocratic system.

Even for many Catholics, this pope at the end of his physical
strength, refusing to relinquish his power, is the symbol of a
fraudulent church that has calcified and become senile behind
its glittering façade.

The festive mood that prevailed during the Second Vatican
Council (1962 to 1965), or Vatican II, has disappeared.
Vatican II's outlook of renewal, ecumenical understanding and
a general opening of the world now seems overcast and the
future gloomy. Many have resigned themselves or even turned
away out of frustration from this self-absorbed hierarchy. As
a result, many people are confronted with an impossible set of
alternatives: "play the game or leave the church." New hope
will only begin to take root when church officials in Rome and
in the episcopacy reorient themselves toward the compass of
the Gospel.

One of the few glimmers of hope has been the pope's stance
against the Iraq war and war in general. The role the Polish
pope played in helping bring about the collapse of the Soviet
empire is also emphasized, and rightly so. But it's also
heavily exaggerated by papal propagandists. After all, the
Soviet regime did not fail because of the pope (before the
arrival of Gorbachev, the pope was achieving about as little
as he is now achieving in China), but instead imploded because
of the Soviet system's inherent economic and social
contradictions.

In my view, Karol Wojtyla is not the greatest, but certainly
the most contradictory, pope of the 20th century. A pope of
many great gifts and many wrong decisions! To summarize his
tenure and reduce it to a common denominator: His "foreign
policy" demands conversion, reform and dialogue from the rest
of the world. But this is sharply contradicted by his
"domestic policy," which is oriented toward the restoration of
the pre-council status quo, obstructing reform, denying
dialogue within the church, and absolute Roman dominance. This
inconsistency is evident in many areas. While expressly
acknowledging the positive sides of this pontificate, which,
incidentally, have received plenty of official emphasis, I
would like to focus on the nine most glaring contradictions:

HUMAN RIGHTS: Outwardly, John Paul II supports human rights,
while inwardly withholding them from bishops, theologians and
especially women.

The Vatican -- once a resolute foe of human rights, but
nowadays all too willing to become involved in European
politics -- has yet to sign the European Council's Declaration
of Human Rights. Far too many canons of the absolutist Roman
church law of the Middle Ages would have to be amended first.
The concept of separation of powers, the bedrock of all modern
legal practice, is unknown in the Roman Catholic church. Due
process is an unknown entity in the church. In disputes, one
and the same Vatican agency functions as lawmaker, prosecutor
and judge.

Consequences: A servile episcopate and intolerable legal
conditions. Any pastor, theologian or layperson who enters
into a legal dispute with the higher church courts has
virtually no prospects of prevailing.

THE ROLE OF WOMEN: The great worshiper of the Virgin Mary
preaches a noble concept of womanhood, but at the same time
forbids women from practicing birth control and bars them from
ordination.

Consequences: There is a rift between external conformism and
internal autonomy of conscience. This results in bishops who
lean towards Rome, alienating themselves from women, as was
the case in the dispute surrounding the issue of abortion
counseling (in 1999, the Pope ordered German bishops to close
counseling centers that issued certificates to women that
could later be used to get an abortion). This in turn leads to
a growing exodus among those women who have so far remained
faithful to the church.

SEXUAL MORALS: This pope, while preaching against mass poverty
and suffering in the world, makes himself partially
responsible for this suffering as a result of his attitudes
toward birth control and explosive population growth.

During his many trips and in a speech to the 1994 United
Nations Conference on Population and Development in Cairo,
John Paul II declared his opposition to the pill and condoms.
As a result, the pope, more than any other statesman, can be
held partly responsible for uncontrolled population growth in
some countries and the spread of AIDS in Africa.

Consequences: Even in traditionally Catholic countries like
Ireland, Spain and Portugal, the pope's and the Roman Catholic
church's rigorous sexual morals are openly or tacitly
rejected.

CELIBACY AMONG PRIESTS: By propagating the traditional image
of the celibate male priest, Karol Wojtyla bears the principal
responsibility for the catastrophic dearth of priests, the
collapse of spiritual welfare in many countries, and the many
pedophilia scandals the church is no longer able to cover up.

Marriage is still forbidden to men who have agreed to devote
their lives to the priesthood. This is only one example of how
this pope, like others before him, is ignoring the teachings
of the bible and the great Catholic tradition of the first
millennium, which did not require office bearers to take a vow
of celibacy. If someone, by virtue of his office, is forced to
spend his life without a wife and children, there is a great
risk that healthy integration of sexuality will fail, which
can lead to pedophilic acts, for example.

Consequences: The ranks have been thinned and there is a lack
of new blood in the Catholic church. Soon almost two-thirds of
parishes, both in German-speaking countries and elsewhere,
will be without an ordained pastor and regular celebrations of
the Eucharist. It's a deficiency that even the declining
influx of priests from other countries (1,400 of Germany's
priests are from Poland, India and Africa) and the combining
of parishes into "spiritual welfare units," a highly unpopular
trend among the faithful, can no longer hide. The number of
newly ordained priests in Germany dropped from 366 in 1990 to
161 in 2003, and the average age of active priests today is
now above 60.

ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT: The pope likes to be seen as a spokesman
for the ecumenical movement. At the same time, however, he has
weighed heavily on the Vatican's relations with orthodox and
reform churches, and has refused to recognize their
ecclesiastical offices and Communion services.

The pope could heed the advice of several ecumenical study
commissions and follow the practice of many local pastors by
recognizing the offices and Communion services of non-Catholic
churches and permitting Eucharistic hospitality. He could also
tone down the Vatican's excessive, medieval claim to power, in
terms of doctrine and church leadership, vis-à-vis eastern
European churches and reform churches, and could do away with
the Vatican's policy of sending Roman-Catholic bishops to
regions dominated by the Russian Orthodox church.

The pope could do these things, but John Paul II doesn't want
to. Instead, he wants to preserve and even expand the Roman
power system. For this reason, he resorts to a pious two-
facedness: Rome's politics of power and prestige are veiled by
ecumenical soapbox speeches and empty gestures.

Consequences: Ecumenical understanding was blocked after the
council, and relations with the Orthodox and Protestant
churches were burdened to an appalling extent. The papacy,
like its predecessors in the 11th and 16th centuries, is
proving to be the greatest obstacle to unity among Christian
churches in freedom and diversity.

PERSONNEL POLICY: As a suffragan bishop and later as
archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla took part in the Second
Vatican Council. But as pope, he disregarded the collegiality
which had been agreed to there and instead celebrated the
triumph of his papacy at the cost of the bishops.

With his "internal policies," this Pope betrayed the council
numerous times. Instead of using the conciliatory program
words "Aggiornamento - Dialogue and Collegiality --
ecumenical," what's valid now in doctrine and practice is
"restoration, lectureship, obedience and re-Romanization." The
criteria for the appointment of a bishop is not the spirit of
the gospel or pastoral open-mindedness, but rather to be
absolutely loyal to the party line in Rome. Before their
appointment, their fundamental conformity is tested based on a
curial catalog of questions and they are sacrally sealed
through a personal and unlimited pledge of obedience to the
Pope that is tantamount to an oath to the "Fuehrer."

The Pope's friends among the German-speaking bishops include
Cologne's Cardinal Joachim Meisner, the Bishop of Fulda
Johannes Dyba, who died in 2000, Hans Hermann Groer, who
resigned from his post as Vienna's cardinal in 1995 following
allegations that he had sexually abused pupils years before
and the Bishop of St. Poeltin, Kurt Krenn, who just lost his
post after a sex scandal emerged in his priests' seminary.
Those are just the most spectacular mistakes of these
pastorally devastating personnel policies, which have allowed
the moral, intellectual and pastoral level of the episcopate
to dangerously slip.

Consequences: A largely mediocre, ultra-conservative and
servile episcopate is possibly the most serious burden of this
overly long pontificate. The masses of cheering Catholics at
the best-staged Pope manifestations should not deceive:
Millions have left the church under this pontificate or they
have withdrawn from religious life in opposition.

CLERICALISM: The Polish pope comes across as a deeply
religious representative of a Christian Europe, but his
triumphant appearances and his reactionary policies
unintentionally promote hostility to the church and even an
aversion to Christianity.

In the papal campaign of evangelization, which centers on a
sexual morality that is out of step with the times, women, in
particular, who do not share the Vatican's position on
controversial issues like birth control, abortion, divorce and
artificial insemination are disparaged as promoters of a
"culture of death." As a result of its interventions -- in
Germany, for example, where it sought to influence politicians
and the episcopacy in the dispute surrounding the issue of
abortion counseling -- the Roman Curia creates the impression
that it has little respect for the legal separation of church
and state. Indeed, the Vatican (using the European People's
Party as its mouthpiece) is also trying to exert pressure on
the European Parliament by calling for the appointment of
experts, in issues relating to abortion legislation, for
example, who are especially loyal to Rome. Instead of entering
the social mainstream everywhere by supporting reasonable
solutions, the Roman Curia, through its proclamations and
secret agitation (through nuntiatures, bishops' conferences
and "friends"), is in fact fueling the polarization between
the pro-life and pro-choice movements, between moralists and
libertines.

Consequences: Rome's clericalist policy merely strengthens the
position of dogmatic anti-clericalists and fundamentalist
atheists. It also creates suspicion among believers that
religion could be being misused for political ends.

NEW BLOOD IN THE CHURCH: As a charismatic communicator and
media star, this pope is especially effective among young
people, even as he grows older. But he achieves this by
drawing in large part on the conservative "new movements" of
Italian origin, the "Opus Dei" movement that originated in
Spain, and an uncritical public loyal to the pope. All of this
is symptomatic of the pope's approach to dealing with the lay
public and his inability to converse with his critics.

The major regional and international youth events sponsored by
the new lay movements (Focolare, Comunione e Liberazione, St.
Egidio, Regnum Christi) and supervised by the church hierarchy
attract hundreds of thousands of young people, many of them
well-meaning but far too many uncritical. In times when they
lack convincing leadership figures, these young people are
most impressed by a shared "event." The personal magnetism of
"John Paul Superstar" is usually more important than the
content of the pope's speeches, while their effects on parish
life are minimal.

In keeping with his ideal of a uniform and obedient church,
the pope sees the future of the church almost exclusively in
these easily controlled, conservative lay movements. This
includes the Vatican's distancing itself from the Jesuit
order, which is oriented toward the tenets of the council.
Preferred by earlier popes, the Jesuits, because of their
intellectual qualities, critical theology and liberal
theological options, are now perceived as spanners in the
works of the papal restoration policy.

Instead, Karol Wojtyla, even during his tenure as archbishop
of Krakow, placed his full confidence in the financially
powerful and influential, but undemocratic and secretive Opus
Dei movement, a group linked to fascist regimes in the past
and now especially active in the world of finance, politics
and journalism. In fact, by granting Opus Dei special legal
status, the pope even made the organization exempt from
supervision by the church's bishops.

Consequences: Young people from church groups and
congregations (with the exception of alter servers), and
especially the non-organized "average Catholics," usually stay
away from major youth get-togethers. Catholic youth
organizations at odds with the Vatican are disciplined and
starved when local bishops, at Rome's behest, withhold their
funding. The growing role of the archconservative and non-
transparent Opus Dei movement in many institutions has created
a climate of uncertainty and suspicion. Once-critical bishops
have cozied up to Opus Dei, while laypeople who were once
involved in the church have withdrawn in resignation.

SINS OF THE PAST: Despite the fact that in 2000 he forced
himself through a public confession of the church's historical
transgressions, John Paul II has drawn almost no practical
consequences from it.

The baroque and bombastic confession of the church's
transgressions, staged with cardinals in St. Peter's
Cathedral, remained vague, non-specific and ambiguous. The
pope only asked for forgiveness for the transgressions of the
"sons and daughters" of the church, but not for those of the
"Holy Fathers," those of the "church itself" and those of the
hierarchies present at the event.

The pope never commented on the Curia's dealings with the
Mafia, and in fact contributed more to covering up than
uncovering scandals and criminal behavior. The Vatican has
also been extremely slow to prosecute pedophilia scandals
involving Catholic clergy.

Consequences: The half-hearted papal confession remained
without consequences, producing neither reversals nor action,
only words.

For the Catholic church, this pontificate, despite its
positive aspects, has on the whole proven to be a great
disappointment and, ultimately, a disaster. As a result of his
contradictions, this pope has deeply polarized the church,
alienated it from countless people and plunged it into an
epochal crisis -- a structural crisis that, after a quarter
century, is now revealing fatal deficits in terms of
development and a tremendous need for reform.

Contrary to all intentions conveyed in the Second Vatican
Council, the medieval Roman system, a power apparatus with
totalitarian features, was restored through clever and
ruthless personnel and academic policies. Bishops were brought
into line, pastors overloaded, theologians muzzled, the laity
deprived of their rights, women discriminated against,
national synods and churchgoers' requests ignored, along with
sex scandals, prohibitions on discussion, liturgical spoon-
feeding, a ban on sermons by lay theologians, incitement to
denunciation, prevention of Holy Communion -- "the world" can
hardly be blamed for all of this!!

The upshot is that the Catholic church has completely lost the
enormous credibility it once enjoyed under the papacy of John
XXIII and in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.

If the next pope were to continue the policies of this
pontificate, he would only reinforce an enormous backup of
problems and turn the Catholic church's current structural
crisis into a hopeless situation. Instead, a new pope must
decide in favor of a change in course and inspire the church
to embark on new paths -- in the spirit of John XXIII and in
keeping with the impetus for reform brought about by the
Second Vatican Council.

REUTERS

End

Hans Kung is one of today's leading Catholic theologians.
Küng, a Swiss national living in the southern German city of
Tübingen, has been embroiled in an ongoing feud with church
authorities for decades. As a result of his critical inquiries
on the papacy, the Vatican withdrew his church authority to
teach in 1979. Nevertheless, Küng, 75, is still a priest and,
until his retirement in 1995, taught ecumenical theology at
the University of Tübingen. As president of the Global Ethic
Foundation, Küng is also an advisor to the United Nations.