Rahner on “hard-hearted” Catholicism
I’ve been dipping back into the riches of Karl Rahner’s writings recently as a result of some T.A. work I’ve been doing. I can’t help but be comforted by his reflections on how to bear with the reality of being a member of a flawed and sinful Church, particularly a Church whose flaws spring from national pathologies. A taste:
“We cannot have a fatherland unless we are prepared to live with its philistines and slackers. It is the same with the Church. We must not simply identify the ‘Catholicism’ of a particular country with the Church as a whole and blame the latter for the narrowness and hard-heartedness of a particular regional Catholicism. But, even in a local church where this narrow-minded Catholicism prevails, the word of God and his grace is proclaimed, his forgiveness granted and the death and resurrection of Jesus celebrated until he returns.”
[Karl Rahner, “Courage for an Ecclesial Christianity,” in Theological Investigations, Vol. XX: Concern for the Church, (New York: Crossroad, 1981), 11-12.]
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Amen.
I suspect you have in mind the obvious application of Rahner’s point to an American Catholic Church whose leaders obsess about sexual morality while remaining indifferent to social inequities and war-mongering. No question that this is narrow-minded and hard-hearted.
So why do relatively few American Catholics seem to care? Maybe because most of us have caught the national pathology. Or, more likely, because the alternative we hear advocated by the most vocal of the disgruntled among us is exemplified in the American Episcopal Church, whose leaders obsess about social inequities and war-mongering but openly celebrate the irresponsible sexual freedom that is rapidly destroying stable family life, the necessary basis for any just and peaceful society.
Nobody calls today’s Episcopal Church narrow-minded or hard-hearted; more often it is described as tolerant and compassionate. But until we are shown a way to avoid their Scylla when dodging our Charybdis, most of us will continue to put up with the limitations of Catholicism in the USA.
Ron – You are right insofar as I do, in fact, have something in mind. But that’s about it.
Ron,
Is it really fair to say that the “leaders” of the Church in America are indifferent?
I’ve seen the USCCB stand up for the rights of immigrants and workers more than once in official statements.
Granted, they could and should say and do more. But the charge of “indifference”, I think, goes too far.
Nothing in Ron’s comment seems very fair to me.
For the record, no, I did not have the u.s. bishops in mind when I posted the quote.
I think it’s important to remember that the
Church is the way she is because each one of us is flawed and sinful. Healing the Church and the world begins not by pointing out the mote in our brothers’ eye, but by recognizing the log in our own. You want to criticize the Church, or factions within it, start with “I confess …”
Michael, forgive me for having imagined you quoted Rahner in order to open some sort of dialogue. Would I have received a less petulant response if I too had said simply Amen?
Ron – Perhaps you should not have started your “dialogue” with a false assumption about my motivation for writing the post for the sole purpose of getting a jab in.
I didn’t read Michael or Rahner the way Ron did. I didn’t see it as a criticism of some (leaders or not) who “obsess” with one matter and are indifferent to another. I read it more as those who demand their “obsession” (which simply might be a talent) be shared by everyone.
The body has many parts, some are public policy advocates for one virtue or another, some do works of charity, some attend to the domestic church, some to public worship, some to the material needs of the church, some by their frailty and needs give us a chance to practice charity. Some parts of the body are achy, some parts are lazy, some are bruised, and some are enlarged and make you go to the men’s room a lot. Yet it is all the body. Live with it.
No context was provided for the quote, so I don’t know exactly what Karl Rahner had in mind, but Michael said Rahner’s words brought to his mind “reflections on how to bear being a member of a flawed and sinful Church, particularly a Church whose flaws spring from national pathologies.” I guessed (incorrectly, it seems) that he had in mind (a) the Catholic Church in America and (b) the “national pathologies” about which would-be Catholic peacemakers often complain: militarism, indifference to social injustice, and obsession with sexual behavior.
That speculation seems to have wounded his easily bruised sensitivities, so perhaps he himself should reveal what it is he wanted to talk about in the first place.
Ron – I certainly had the american Catholic church in mind, but not only the bishops. Church /= bishops.
Please. “Bruised sensitivities?” Your intention was to get a jab in, and that was obvious.
We’re making progress. So it was the American Catholic Church, but not just the bishops. Was it maybe the more conservative elements in the Church? The sort of folks who are raising a fuss about Obama at ND perhaps? And what exactly were the “national pathologies” you had in mind?
You’re in the ballpark now, ron. Lose the attitude and maybe we can discuss it further.
There is plenty of hard-hearted to go around, both in the rules themselves and in the actual situation ‘on the ground’. In retrospect, broadly speaking, the less ‘orthodox’, the nicer the people as well as the older, the nicer. The much derided old hippies. Back when women still thought they’d have a shot to be let into the old boys’ club and when priests were more pastoral than brim-stoning. Interestingly, a church run by nice people doesn’t seem to fare well in the market – fear, envy and loathing unites much better. When god dislikes the same people as you, that draws :) The same goes for the Catholic blogosphere, given the past popularity of something like the Cafeteria is Closed. The issues uniting the Religious Right aren’t exactly peace and justice. Whatever would they do without gays ? They’d have to invent them.
As far as bishops standing up for illegal immigrants – true, but on a different Sunday they call on Catholics to vote against gay rights, as happened in my state of California, from Mahoney on down.
Granted, the average bishop isn’t like this bishop from Nebraska, addressing the prez of Notre Dame U. But, given that the ‘young fogeys’ are on the march, you guys may enjoy (and some do) more of this kind of stuff. This is what happens frequently with bachelors, they get odd and cranky.
“Reverend and dear Father Jenkins,
Permit me to add my name as well to the long list of Bishops of the Catholic Church who are utterly appalled at your dedication to immorality and wrong-doing represented by your support for the obscenity called “The Vagina Monologues” and your absolute indifference to the murderous abortion program and beliefs of this President of the United States.
The fact that you have some sort of past connection with the State of Nebraska makes it all the more painful that the Catholic people here have to see your betrayal of the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.
I can assure you of my prayers for your conversion, and for the conversion of your formerly Catholic University.
I am,
Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus,
The Most Reverend Fabian W. Bruskewitz
Bishop of Lincoln”
Ah, Michael, bet you think I have an “attitude” but Gerald does not! Well, maybe you can dialogue with him, or at least with Mark. (You say whatever, and Mark says Amen?) Even then, Vox Nova readers could finally figure out why you posted the Rahner quote in the first place. It would be interesting to know.
Ron
That comment “bet you think” – you know, the mind reading act, that is an attitude, and that is one of the problems going on here. But I think most people would say Gerald has an attitude — heck, I am sure he would affirm it.
OK, I’ll ask it without even pretending to know what Michael might think: Michael, exactly why did you post this quotation from Karl Rahner???
Attitude ? Me ? Whatsoever do you mean =o) I’m all zenned out here dude. Heh. See for yourself in this self-portrait http://augustphotos.com/wp-content/gallery/weddings/624v3379-edit.jpg
The ‘demons’ who possessed me apparently went on to start their own blogs, “Creative Minority Report” and “The American Catholic”. :P
That Buddha statue has been with me for 8 years, he was never relegated to an attic :) He came to me in raw concrete form – a mistake on the company’s part – so I painted him myself. He hangs out with St. Francis.
ron – I believe it is fairly self-evident.
I wait this long for that reply!? I can only conclude that I pretty well identified your point in my initial post–except that you were being critical of fellow Catholics generally, not just bishops, as you subsequently explained.
Is your alternative something that looks like the Episcopal Church? That’s what I see being advanced by many self-styled progressives who lament that they now share a church with such backward folk as the people who don’t want Notre Dame to honor our President. I hope you have something better in mind, but since you don’t want to discuss it with backward folk, we may never find out.
Is your alternative something that looks like the Episcopal Church?
No. Something that looks like a more Catholic Catholic Church.
Why the obsession with the Episcopal Church?
Whenever the Catholic church fires an organist for being gay, it’s yet another Episcopalian church’s gain :P As Eddie Izzard put it so hilariously, the Church of England is a friendly airline, where one is asked “Cake or death ?” – “Cake please.” The Catholic church is a galley, to the beats of the drum the slavemaster chants “Row, you bastards, row you bastards” :o)
Here the Lego version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZVjKlBCvhg
How funny: I was recently reading a piece by the late great Fr. Hardon, condemning Rahner for his involvement in New Age thought.
How funny: I was recently reading a piece by the late great Fr. Hardon, condemning Rahner for his involvement in New Age thought.
That actually IS really funny! And the joke’s on Fr. Hardon.