Thursday, 30 April 2009

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  the pope and the papacy - José M. Castillo

  The Pope and The Papacy 
  

  By José M. Castillo Theologian and ex-Jesuit. Former professor of theology at the University of Granada, where he was expelled during the 80’s by Ratzinger. He is considered among the great men of modern theology

      
         There is no doubt that the exercise of the papacy is extremely difficult. Benedict XVI said he was alone. And years ago, Paul VI and John Paul II had asked for help from bishops and theologians to find new ways to exercise “the ministry of Peter”, i.e., the papacy.
  
         And the fundamental problem is not motivated primarily by the person as pope (whether conservative or progressive), but rather by the position as such, i.e., the mode and manner in which the Papacy has come to be organized.
  
         It is clear that a global institution like the Catholic Church requires a supranational authority that can coordinate the activities that go beyond borders and resolve problems that cannot be solved locally. But as true as that is, as an authority, they can organize themselves in many different ways.
  
         It can be either a democratic or monarchical authority. The most ancient form in the Church was democracy. The same word "Ecclesia" was taken from the technical language of Greek democracy and means the "assembly" of free citizens gathered to make their own decisions. So the church worked for over a thousand years with this kind of organization until the eleventh century.
  
         In those centuries, the popes were precisely the great defenders of democracy in the Church. To quote the text of St. Leo the Great (s. V): "He who must be placed at the head of all, should be elected by all" (Epist. 14, 4).
  
         Moreover, in those centuries, the bishop of Rome did not have the role you have now. Since Justinian (sixth century), the Church was ruled by five patriarchs: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem ( "Novella" 109). Rome always aspired to the presidency, based on the tradition that St. Peter was buried there.
  
         But it is remarkable that St. Gregory the Great always resisted being designated as the "universal pope." In addition, even in the West (Rome) the government was not concentrated in any patriarch but was rather shared in the local synods by all the bishops, doctrinal decision-makers and government.
  
         We also know that throughout the Middle Ages the text of Matthew 16:18-19, which now applies to the primacy of Peter, applied to the twelve Apostles and was read as “Gospel” in the Mass of the ordination of bishops. It was realized that the Apostles had received the same "honor" and "power" as that of Peter (Yves Congar).
  
         Starting from 1073, Gregory VII made the worst decision in the history of the papacy. The pope decided to concentrate all power into the bishop of Rome. A decision that would be reinforced in the following centuries, especially after Innocent III (1196-1216) whose theologians invented the theory of plenitudo potestatis, which in practice, made the pope the absolute master of the world—a madness that could not even balance the Great Schism in 1409 when the church found itself with three popes, none of them willing to relinquish power.
  
         The Council of Constance (1415) said that the council was above the Pope, which was equivalent to making sure that the episcopate had authority over the papacy. This decision was ratified by the Council of Basel (1431). However being short-lived, the council of Florence (1439) defined that "the Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff hold primacy in the entire universe."
  
        Things remained the same until the Second Vatican Council, when the Constitution on the Church (No. 22) stated that the pope is the subject of supreme and full authority in the Church, but immediately added that it also has this power with the bishops worldwide. It was, however, not resolved how to harmonize these two powers.
  
         The recent Code of Canon Law resolved this enormous theological problem by affirming the pope's supreme power over all of the bishops and the Church (Can. 331 and 333). So the whole Church has been at the mercy of the decisions of one man. This is something that can be proved neither from the New Testament, nor from the previous twenty centuries of Church tradition and history.
  
         This situation, over all, has three grave consequences:
  
               1) While the papacy continues “as is”, the union of all Christians is impossible. This is because the other Christian confessions know very well the history that I have just condensed into a few words. And these Christians do not feel, nor are they able to feel, motivated in conscience to submit to a power that is not justified from the Christian faith.
  
               2) When the Papacy is organized as an absolute monarchy, it also makes it impossible to endorse and integrate Human Rights within the life of the Church (and in its international relations). The problems and conflicts with pop culture and public power is and will be relentless as we live every day and everywhere.
  
               The papacy will continue exhorting others to implement human rights, but the Church will continue on without practicing them. This involves violent assaults to individuals, human groups and public institutions.
  
               3) So, the Church lives and will continue to live in constant contradiction with the Gospel. Jesus never allowed any of the apostles to claim to be the first, the most important, or the one who positions himself over the other.
  
               This fundamental fact, is insistently repeated in the Gospels, and is not integrated into the theology of the papacy. And that is more or less serious than that of "You are Peter ..." You cannot take from the Gospel that which is suitable and leave out that which is uncomfortable.
  
         I agree that Benedict XVI has taken a wrong path. It is a path of decline, not progress. But the problem is not the pope, but in the papacy.

  José M. Castillo 

  Translated by Josh Furnal

  
  

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