Some days ago I had the joy of reading Pope Francis’ speech to the Leadership of the Episcopal Conference of Latin America (CELAM) during their general coordination meeting. This address was given on 29 July while the Holy Father was presiding over the WYD in Rio De Janeiro.

The Pontiff is rightly determined at instilling an attitude of nearness and encounter within the Church. In fact, the latter direly needs to adopt what the Pope calls the “revolution of tenderness”. Unfortunately, the body of Christ has been long afflicted with separatist ideas or attitudes that limit it from being what Christ intended it to be. Division ruins the Church’s inner powerful dynamism of and for communion and mission. The Holy Father decried these despicable and destructive attitudes that are weakening the Church’s very fabric: hope. These faulty ways of understanding and renewing the Church stem from the intrinsically wrong idea of trying “to interpret the Gospel apart from the Gospel itself and apart from the Church”. Sadly, some vicious attitudes which have been cropping up within the Church universally are also attacking the Maltese Church.

Christianity has nothing to do with sociological reductionism. Its message is not ideology that relies heavily on the hermeneutics which come from social sciences. Neither is Christianity psychologyizing. Can the “encounter with Jesus Christ” and its progression in a personal and communitarian journey of faith be simply reduced to a process of growing self-awareness? Is the Christian message self-centred, completely aloof from transcendence with the tragic consequence of losing its missionary impetus? Furthermore, the Christian message can never be linked to what Francis dubbed as “the Gnostic solution”. It is not about offering a higher spirituality by an elite group completely cut off from the social reality the Gospel seeks to enlighten. The disastrous effects of such rationalizing can easily arrive at a “the Pelagian solution” wherein Church’s problems are solely dealt with on purely disciplinary lines by attempting to restore outmoded ways and forms of being Church.

The desperate endeavour to recover the lost past can lead to functionalism. Here the means becomes more important than the end. The spirit of functionalism is insidious because it kills the mystery. What is relevant are proven results and statistics. To add insult to injury, clericalism worsens the whole picture by promoting the lack of maturity in the lay faithful and the fatal impairment of real Christian freedom.

Faced with this sad situation, it is important that we, as Church, and especially we, as her pastors, genuinely undergo this examination of conscience proposed to us by Pope Francis.

“Do we see to it that our work (as bishops and priests) is more pastoral than administrative? Who primarily benefits from our efforts, the Church as an organization or the People of God as a whole? Do we fight the temptation … by creating a proactive mindset? Do we promote opportunities and possibilities to manifest God’s mercy? Are we conscious of our responsibility for refocusing pastoral approaches and the functioning of Church structures for the benefit of the faithful and society? Do we make the lay faithful sharers in the mission? Do we offer them the word of God and the sacraments with a clear awareness and conviction that the Holy Spirit makes itself manifest in them? Is pastoral discernment a habitual criterion, through the use of diocesan councils? Do such councils and parish councils provide real opportunities for lay people to participate in pastoral consultation, organisation and planning? Are we conscious and convinced of the mission of the lay faithful and do we give them the freedom to continue discerning, in a way befitting their growth as disciples, the mission which the Lord has entrusted to them? Do we support them and accompany them, overcoming the temptation to manipulate them or infantilise them? Are we constantly open to letting ourselves be challenged in our efforts to advance the good of the Church and her mission in the world? Do pastoral agents and the faithful in general feel part of the Church? Do they identify with her and bring her closer to the baptized who are distant and alienated?”

Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap

SAN GWANN