1) With regard to doctrinal changes in the Catholic Church, most of the major reforms proposed for Catholicism – election of bishops, ordination of women, acceptance of artificial contraception, less focus on abortion, homosexual activity, and divorce – are all present in the Episcopal Church. However, the Episcopal Church hardly demonstrates that these changes are a panacea. It is currently flirting with schism (and no fewer than three Episcopal bishops in the last year have converted to Catholicism). Foreign Affairs magazine noted a couple of years back that the number of American Episcopals fell from 3.6 million in 1960 to around 2.3 million in recent years, even as the national population grew. Finally, there are mixed reports on whether the Episcopal Church is facing a priest shortage in the near future. These sobering trends should make us consider doctrinal questions very, very carefully.
2) Regarding the issue of clericalism, yes, the Church does have trouble communicating in the same language and with the same media as the rest of society; as an example, the terms “scandal”, “inherently evil”, and “intrinsically disordered” mean different things in Church jargon than in regular conversation.
However, to add further anecdotal evidence to our conversation: I am in a volunteer role whose function is to set up young adult chapters of a certain Catholic organization throughout the area. When I review the proposals I have made over the years for such groups, I have been turned down every bit as often, if not more often, by the lay leadership in a parish, rather than its pastor. In short, I am doubtful that resistance to young adult ministry is purely (or even predominantly) the province of clergy.
3) With regard to lack of (single) young adult opportunities, activities, and programs in the Church, a couple of thoughts:
a. There may be more there than you think – I personally know of 14 different groups for Catholics between the ages of 19 – 40 in St. Louis City and its surrounding counties. They simply advertise themselves to differing degrees.
b. While the Church may not devote enough concerted thought to such programs, it is also incumbent upon us, as young adults, to take the initiative to start such programs. With regard to the young adult groups I know of that have struggled or folded, although pastor indifference or disapproval can contribute, the largest issues have been (a) the transient nature of young adults make leadership handoff very difficult and (b) young adults are a very non-committal demographic, i.e. the phenomena of the “disappearing member”. Even purely social events that place no expectations on the participants but to show up and have a good time can often be an exercise in disappointment.

While the Church may not invest enough in such groups, the truth of the matter is that younger adults have all of the expertise and time needed to put together such groups ourselves, and most require little to no funding to operate. What Catholic young adult ministry needs more than anything is young adults willing to lead such groups and a consistent membership base. Certainly I am guilty of failure on both counts, but I think we have to acknowledge this issue.

Bryan Kirchoff
St. Louis

A democratic church would tear it to shreds. If the congregration elected the bishops the catholic church would cease to exist. The bishops, priests and deacons are here to do God’s work, not man’s.

I have a story on this. A colleague of mine is a former Baptist minister. He got out of that to sell insurance not because of the stress of ministering to the sick or the danger of missionary work or the other stressful pastoral work that comes with serving a congregation. He got out because of the church council. He was on a mission in South America, and he was baptising converts in the ocean, and they were videotaping the baptisms as part of the project. Well, while they were there, unbeknownst to them, a pair of topless women were strolling up and down the beach in the background. When the church council saw this they were insensed. It was the last straw, he left the ministry and went into private business. He felt he needed to preach to the people, what they wanted to hear.

Imagine if our priests had that over their heads? THink that would improve the vocation issue? I don’t think so!

Think about where you work – do they take a vote on every decision being made? Unlikely. What is more plausible is there is a manger making all of the decisions, or possibly a collection of wisened old people on a board of directors who appoint a manager to make all the decisions.

The Trinity is our board of directors, and the Pope is our CEO, if you like (please note that the Pope does not serve on the board, nor do I think he even has a direct link from them to him. Actually we all have a direct link from ourselves right to the board, Mass. That’s some BOD we have, its like the chairman visiting your cube everyday, but you’d be lucky to meet the CEO once in your lifetime!).

My point is that top down decision making works and is constantly in use. In our human institutions the accountability is easy to see. Stock prices, hirings and firings, elections are all clear visible results of those decisions. In the Church…we’ll find out in due time who did well and who didn’t!

Its not just the Church that isn’t a democracy…this is the Kingdom of God on earth founded by Christ, himself, not the united states of salvation.

Unfortunately, the face of the Catholic Church in the world is the face of the heirarchy, not of the billions of parishioners around the world. The good work they do is lost when the heirarchy protects child molesters or declares that individuals that vote their conscience (for a pro-choice candidate) might be jeopardizing their salvation.

For those of us with progressive points of view, everyday life is made all the more difficult when, every time we hang out with people of similar political persuasions we have to defend or participation in a Church that seems to become less and less defensible.

Healthcare, immigration, social justice, the Iraq war, climate change, education, etc. The Church has brilliant things to say about these issues – issues which are of great concern to Americans – but Americans won’t hear them unless the official church 1) opens itself to democracy – some form of binding lay decision-making esp. the selection of bishops, priests, and deacons 2) brings the “official” teaching of the church up to date regarding sexuality, ordination, and birth control to name a few, and 3) submits to lay oversight of its decision-making and administrative processes.

Americans have certain “gut” instincts (equality, freedom, openness, fairness, democracy) and they know when an institution is vioating those principles. Right now, the heirarchy’s instincts (clericalism, moral dictatorship, secrecy, privilege, monarchy) are in stark contrast with those of Americans. We have been told since we were children, “the Church is not a democracy.” In this country and other democratic nations around the world, is it any wonder that more and more people find the monarchical church an illegitimate form of government and no longer submit to be ruled by it?

Some years ago I was involved in several social activist groups, and in some independent media groups. The issues we dealt with were mostly aimed at helping low-income and indigents, and it frustrated me that most of the media work we were doing couldn’t actually be accessed by those very people we were trying to reach, since public access TV is only accessible to those who pay for cable reception; online video feeds are accessible only to those who can afford good computers and high-speed internet service.

There were a few groups that had some success mobilizing the low-income population to take some action on important issues, but for the most part, activism does usually seem to be a luxury of the more privileged classes.

And yeah, that is sad.

I didn’t mean to say anything against graduate study in theology. (Some of you know I partake myself.) And I can’t count the times I’ve sat in class and thought, “Wow, every baptized Catholic should know about this!”

Though I do agree that we shouldn’t have to! And I think that does speak to a failing of the modern Church, that it isn’t educating its adults as it should be. I think if the Church were to fully embrace the spirit of Vatican2, and started actively helping us of the laity in forming a mature and informed faith life, it would be a good start at least!