Church is no democracy

"How often we wish that God would show Himself stronger, that He would strike decisively, defeating evil and creating a better world... We suffer on account of God's patience. And yet, we need His patience. God, who became a lamb, tells us that the world is saved by the Crucified One, not by those who crucified Him."

These words, taken from Pope Benedict's inaugural sermon, must be some of the most beautiful and most profound ever written. Many Catholics identify themselves with the Pope when he uttered these words. Ours is a world where evil, in all its multiple forms, seems overwhelming and Christianity and all it stands for is surely but decisively, especially in the Western world, being pushed aside and marginalised.

The media, which can be such a force for goodness, are often used to gnaw at the very foundations of society rendering vain and useless the efforts of those who believe that only Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Many newspaper writers seem to have discarded the most basic tenets of the Christian faith and they are unable to project in their views anything except their own secularist, materialistic view of life. As a consequence, they have nothing to offer except their views, so sad, so increasingly cynical and so utterly devoid of hope.

On the other hand, Catholics are sometimes timid and reticent in propounding the reasons for their faith in Christ and His Church. Thus, they unwittingly show how true are Jesus' words that, "the sons of darkness are wiser in their generation than the sons of light."

Blessed George Preca often used to state that "knowledge is the source of all goodness." Indeed this is so and the reaction in the media towards the frail health of Pope John Paul II reveal that ignorance in matters of faith can lead to incorrect and often baseless conjectures.

During the last few years of the Pope's life there was endless, empty talk about the predicament that the Church was supposedly finding herself in due to the Pontiff's illness and the urgent need to do something about it. The Church was likened to some multinational company whose CEO had to exude physical well-being, fitness and mental alertness to his subordinates and the world at large. Otherwise, sidelining and eventual substitution would follow in quick succession.

God must have been a trifle amused at all this nonsense and, in His infinite mercy and wisdom, when He thought best, solved the whole matter by gathering Pope John Paul to His bosom and eternal reward. This should have led us to stop and reflect at our limitations and short sightedness and ultimately, lack of faith. But alas it was not to be.

With the election of Benedict XVI the floodgates seem to have opened and many not only proceeded to comment about the election but also to verbally abuse and insult the new Pope, showing their disapproval of the cardinals' choice. One of the main reasons for this lies probably in the fact that it is difficult to accept that the Catholic Church, unlike political parties, is uncontrollable in her choices and all the pressure exerted by some of her members and by society at large to have her renege on her principles and values have proved futile.

The Church is no democracy where the will of the majority prevails and will not succumb to the temptation to pander to people's passions and whims to be popular. She is a mystery which, although made up of fallible human beings, cannot and never will be coerced into betraying what she believes her Lord and Founder wants her to teach.

Some people simply want the Church to confirm them in their sins and this, neither this Pope nor any other Pope can ever do. Those who bandy about the spectre of empty pews should realise that in leaving the Church they are only harming themselves and refusing the hundredfold in this world and life everlasting promised to those who are faithful and endure to the end.

There are also those who mistakenly believe that Vatican II gave some sort of green light to Catholics to do away with 2,000 years of teachings especially about faith and morals and for the Church to accept the inevitable (as sadly some other Christian denominations have done) and reach a compromise with the morals of today's society.

So much talk is spent on the spirit of the Vatican II but often there is abject ignorance about the letter of Vatican II, that is the actual and true teachings of this splendid event in the history of the Church. The Council, for example, is unequivocal in its condemnation of, among others, divorce, adultery and euthanasia.

As for artificial contraception, in Gaudium et Spes we are told that members of the Church "may not undertake methods of regulating procreation which are found blameworthy by the teaching authority of the Church in its unfolding of the divine law." In Lumen Gentium moreover it is made clear that where teachings of faith and morals are defined these must be adhered to with the "submission of faith".

"This is the infallibility which the Roman Pontiff, the head of the college of bishops, enjoys in virtue of his office, when, as the supreme shepherd and teacher of all the faithful, who confirms the brethren in their faith, he proclaims by a definitive act some doctrine of faith and morals ... Therefore his definitions need no approval of others nor do they allow an appeal to any other judgment."

One cannot deny the fact that in the developed world, especially Europe, churches are emptying and vocations are scarce. However, it is also true that Christ never tied the permanence of His Church in the world to a particular country or even continent. The God who, as Scripture tells us, is able to rise up children from stones will never go back on the promise to be always with the Church. The wondrous growth of the Church in third world countries, especially Africa, is a witness to this. Perhaps the parable of the vineyard where the kingdom is taken away from those who do not make fruit and given to those who joyfully accept it is coming to pass again after 2,000 years.

Finally, it can never be emphasised enough that in the Church there are countless numbers of the faithful whose names are never in the papers or in the media, whose learning is perhaps limited, but who are faithful to the Gospel and the Church's teachings and who God knows about and cherishes.

For these Jesus thanked His Father because they are the little ones to whom marvellous things have been revealed, and who will inherit the Kingdom, while the "wise and understanding" often so proud and self-sufficient, will be, as in Dostoevsky's unparallelled description of hell, "locked out like a child alone on a cold and dark night".