As I look at the flood of commentary on Cardinal Ratzinger becoming Pope Benedict XVI, I’m reminded of two proverbs from my favorite collection of Murphy’s Laws.
Miles’s Law of position states: “Where you stand depends on where you sit.”
Fiedler’s 2nd rule of forecasting states: “He who lives by the crystal ball soon learns to eat ground glass.”
Consider how unreliable the pundits were in their forecasts of the recent popes. Every one expected John XXIII to be just a caretaker. John Paul I died before anyone expected. John Paul II stood against communism as everyone anticipated – but was far more and fare different than either the journalists or Cardinals thought.
Cardinal Ratzinger now sits in a different position. We can expect that his stand on certain issues – most likely procedural issues rather than doctrinal ones - will change. Journalists and bloggers whose crystal balls tell them to expect consistency will find themselves eating words that taste like ground glass.
If I had been at the conclave, I would have been looking for two changes in direction from the next Pope.
• The church must hold its leaders to high ethical standards. Tolerance of seriel child abuse should have led to removal from office. The United States Air Force is more likely to insist on ethical standards for its leaders.
• Bishops and Pastors must involve the laity in substantive issues.
Last summer I blogged an item on how Geoffrey T. Boisi and a team of management experts at the Wharton School of Business offered to help the institutional church deal with pedophilia as a management issue.Will the Bishops accept this offer of help from a team of lay men and women who face performance issues every day? Cardinal McCarrick had better odds of becoming pope.
My limited experience is that pastors are less and less willing to involve the laity in anything except predetermined and non-managerial roles. Parish councils are called on for prayerful discernment and “visioning.” Implementing vision as programs and evaluating the results is reserved to the pastor. In my view, this is not a progressive vs. conservative issue. It happened because working with councils and boards is, well, work. (I know. I chair a board meeting every month. We are good friends and get results. It is still work.).
In business and government, people get used to working with boards. They do it because they live in a competitive environment. Poor performance can mean going out of business or losing appropriations. Bishops and pastors do not have this spur and can rest in the promise that the “gates of hell will not prevail”. In thier circumstances, I would do as they – avoid board meetings if I could.
Lastly, the identity and policies of the new Pope are back burner issues in my life. I care about the Church and pray that it will prosper. However, I have front burner issues of a moral and spiritual nature: First, I am called to care for my wonderful wife, four children, two grandchildren and a large extended family. Second, my Kiwanis club sponsors Key Clubs at five high schools. Together they comprise 350 high school students, all available for community service – but we need to get them all working together. Third, I’m hopeful that my new column This World, This Day will become at least a small force for good in the world. In this mix, I find time for Centering Prayer and Tae Kwon Do.
Maybe Kenneth Woodward, in the Wall Street Journal puts my “back vs. front burner” statement best: "But the Catholic Church, it is worth recalling, is not a one-man show. All the media focus on Rome when a new pope is elected distorts the nature of the church itself. The problems and opportunities facing Catholics around the world cannot be solved by papal fiat or pontifical programs. Bishops and priests can help. But what the church needs most are Catholics who want to be Catholics, who know what that means, and who seek the grace to become true disciples of Christ. That they must do themselves.
Amen. Thanks to Rev. Donald Sensing for blogging about the Woodward piece.
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