When he was cardinal of Krakow and the diocese faced a problem, Karol Wojtyla used to ask those working with him: “What is the truth of faith that sheds light on this problem?” He was head of a large diocese and yet he could work from the mind of the Church. In contrast, there are the memorable words of Cardinal Cushing (1895-1970), archbishop of Boston, to Catholic political leaders: “If your constituents want this legislation, vote for it.”
A blank check for Catholic politicians – and by extension for every other Catholic – to go with what society believes rather than what the Church believes. And Cardinal Cushing was not the only one. Archbishop Wojtyła, on the other hand, made his starting point the teaching of the Church. His stance had a consistency – one of the reasons for his journey to sainthood – that needs to be recovered in the United States.
And the point does not stop with the clergy. Vatican II explained that:
Since, in our own times, new problems are arising and very serious errors are circulating which tend to undermine the foundations of religion, the moral order, and human society itself, this sacred synod earnestly exhorts laymen – each according to his own gifts of intelligence and learning – to be more diligent in doing what they can to explain, defend, and properly apply Christian principles to the problems of our era in accordance with the mind of the Church. (Apostolicam actuositatem)
The secular sphere should not have precedence in our thinking, if we believe in Jesus Christ. The secular sphere and the mind of the Church are often opposed to each other because secular society is shot through with concupiscence and the effects of sin. The Church, in the person of Cardinal Cushing, as just one example, is affected by this same concupiscence and sin, when it uncritically goes along with societal thinking.
Critical thinking does not mean merely thinking a lot about something, and then coming, in a self-satisfied way, to the wrong conclusion. Thinking with the mind of the Church, according to Saint Ignatius of Loyola means that: “All judgment laid aside, we ought to have our mind ready and prompt to obey, in all, the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, which is our holy Mother the Church Hierarchical.”
This still stands, half a millennium later, because it is true. The problem sometimes appears to be that a particular bishop does not care to know the teaching of the Church. But aside from that, given the sheer availability of Church teaching (and even in all sorts of new formats), it actually is possible to find out what the mind of the Church is and bring that thought to bear on particular situations, as John Paul did.
Cardinal Wojtyla
And finally, there is a group working to make sure that the Church only teaches what is approved by secular culture – although why we would need yet another organization to promote that culture is beyond me. The great scandal of the fractures of the Church in the twentieth century has gone mostly unanswered and unchallenged, and no heads have rolled.
Thinking with the mind of the Church would, for example, have nipped many of the sex scandals in the bud. Clergy who did things like that could not possibly continue in ministry. It is entirely irrelevant if the personnel director does not “understand” the culprit’s behavior. The actions are violations of the moral law and the Church can act on those grounds. It does not have to wait for psychological studies.
But of course this would take unshakeable faith in the Church, and that faith was a casualty of a wrong reading of Vatican II. Having faith in the Church would have saved two billion dollars in payouts to victims, which could have been used to help the poor – whose patrimony it is.
Thinking with the mind of the Church involves much higher level thinking than thinking in step with any cultural group or political party. Culture groups can only have partial perspectives. Political parties are about interest groups and power. The Church is quite simply about the truth of existence itself.
One of the many things at stake here is that: “Truth preserves and expresses charity’s power to liberate in the ever-changing events of history.” (Benedict XVI) Without truth and the Church as the guardian of truth, we’re simply tossed about by the currents of history – instead of bringing the truth of Christ, and his love, to bear on every situation, as John Paul worked so hard to do.
