In the last couple of months I have come across several articles or references to "deconstruction" as related to faith. Many have written about how corruption, or rot, or simply looking at faith claims and seeing that they don't match up to the world they see and experience has caused them to begin deconstructing their faith.
This columnist is affiliated with the Southern Baptists, a denomination which has been losing members for years, a trend which is accelerating.
Deconstruction essentially describes “what happens when a person asks questions that lead to the careful dismantling of their previous beliefs.”
I never had a single word to describe the process that took place in my mind, heart and soul over a period of about 20 years, a process which led me to leave the RCC. As she notes
Such painful, disorienting and overwhelming work can feel like a death. And it is a death.
Exactly right.
The writer focuses on rot in the church. The rot in the RCC was one factor in my choice to leave, but it was primarily because I see that rot as having its roots in several Catholic doctrines/teachings, that I don't believe will ever change.. It's one thing to see the rot caused by the bad apples, human beings, such as the child molesters, but when one believes that it is impossible to remedy the rot without changing some teachings, then there seems little hope.
https://religionnews.com/2021/08/04/with-this-much-rot-theres-no-choice-but-to-deconstruct/
BTW, the main reason I posted this is to help true believers gain some insight into how and why people leave their churches. The common assumption that those who leave just want to sleep in, or play golf, on Sunday, and the scorn that too often accompanies this assumption, is often misplaced.
ReplyDeleteI think I know why people leave the Church because it's for the same reasons that I would leave if I left. But I worked in a job where I felt the management was mediocre to incompetent and stuck with it because I believed in what they were doing. The pay was also decent, I admit. The Church management is terrible but I can still be me inside of it. If they don't like it, they can throw me out.
Delete"...if they don't like it, they can throw me out." Me too. I actually don't think about management too much, because its not all about them, in spite of what some of them think.
DeleteIt's a good metaphor.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the issues, as it pertains to abuse scandals in particular, is that most Catholics aren't personally affected by abuse, so the wounds and agonies are invisible to them. They don't really care as much as they could or would if it was more personal to them.
Jim, isn’t that a rather sad commentary on how shallow many Catholics’ (Baptists, evangelicals etc) commitment to following Jesus’ teachings really is. Pro forma - « Well, that’s just terrible. But it’s no skin off my nose. Nobody in my family or friends was abused. So I’ll just continue to go my way, doing nothing for “my neighbor “ who was abused.
DeleteSo why are Catholics so unaware? So uncaring?
It’s an issue that pops up in the news regularly, not just Catholic news. At times it dominates the news. Are Catholics so generally ignorant? If so, why? I can understand not doing homilies on it, but every Catholic parish should educate people through groups, or talks, or written material sent to everyone- all of the above. If the people in the pews cared enough to close their checkbooks and tell the PTB why, those bishops would very likely take real action. But Catholics don’t care enough for the victims of abuse to actually do anything like that - to take action that might wake up those overstuffed, cigar smoking, brandy sipping hierarchs who run the church. Who wants to remain part of a church tat is Christian in name only?
The general indifference of most Catholics I knew to the sex abuse scandals ( it wasn’t my kid, so..) the lack of caring. Is among the straws that eventually broke my Catholic back.
Especially bad in the RCC which asserts that it is a “ universal” community.
Anne - I do think that, over time, people's general awareness and concern has been raised. But it has taken a very long time.
DeleteI don't think you should judge people too harshly. Most of us, frankly, are rather stupid about many things. It is a limitation in most of us.
Most of us already are beset with a hornet's nest of cares and worries - many of which may strike us, at least initially, as more exigent than a case of abuse perpetrated by some priest we've never heard of against some kid we've never heard of. My kids are using drugs and failing high school, I'm going through a horrible divorce, my husband's business is failing and we're about to lose the house, I'm miserable in my job, my widowed mother is unable to care for herself and won't let us sell her house and put her in a nursing home, etc. etc. etc.
I don't think it's necessarily shallow. I think most of us aren't very imaginative, and also rather inattentive to what is going on around us. That's the kind of thing I sum up with the word "stupidity". And, as I say, we're already leading lives of quiet desperation, without this other thing piled on top of it.
FWIW - there was an abusive priest assigned to our parish. It all began and ended a few years before we moved out here and joined the parish. I think I've mentioned before: I belonged to the parish for a while - some years - before I even had heard anything about it. Yet I'm given to understand that it scarred many lives at the parish. I'm told the abuser was one of those horribly magnetic priests who charmed the socks off most of the parish while he was busily abusing various teens and ruining their lives. Apparently, he divided the entire parish community. One of the priests who was sent in, in the aftermath, to try to bring the parish community back to some semblance of normalcy, told me that his rectory doorbell would ring on a Monday - it would be a delegation demanding that the abuser be brought back. Then on a Tuesday, the doorbell would ring again, and it would be a different delegation, demanding that under no circumstances should be be brought back.
I am not sure exactly what that anecdote illustrates, but it says something about how a community deals with trauma. When I came along, the community was sort of in recovery and healing mode. Apparently, they didn't want to relive the pain, over and over again, so nothing was said to me about it. Is that unhealthy, or is it a healthy coping mechanism? I don't know.
I'm told the abuser was one of those horribly magnetic priests who charmed the socks off most of the parish while he was busily abusing various teens and ruining their lives.
DeleteNo matter how terrible a priest may be, he may alienate most of the parish, they always seem to be able to attract their own set of groupies.
"No matter how terrible a priest may be, he may alienate most of the parish, they always seem to be able to attract their own set of groupies."
DeleteTrue. That's even true of bad priests who aren't abusers. Maybe having a coterie of groupies is a sign that you may be a bad priest? Although I wonder how many of us possess the strength to dissociate ourselves from slavering, adoring fans?
I have never known any priests who abused children (at least that I was aware of).'There was one about twenty years ago who nearly tore the parish apart. I believe his was a mistaken vocation, that someone should have discerned him out during formation. As it was, our parish was ground zero for a very noisy, and public midlife crisis and vocation implosion. He ended up leaving the priesthood, and I hope he found himself. But dang that was a miserable six years for the parish. My husband was ordained to the diaconate during that time, and it was kind of trial by fire.
DeleteThere is one teaching I think should be revisited, and that would be our understanding of what "infallibility" really means. If you look at the scriptural underpinnings, it is the promise that the Holy Spirit will be with the church until the end of time. God very much plays the long game, and that is not at all the same as saying that, for instance, the pope can declare the discussion about the ordination of women to be "over" sometime in the 1990s, and have it decided once and for all. With a bad understanding of infallibility the church gives itself no room for teaching to evolve. I think of it similarly to a river, which is capable of purifying itself flowing over rocks and sand. That is if people refrain from polluting it upstream.
ReplyDeleteI do understand what deconstruction is, and how painful it can be. It is as though the things which were the underpinnings of one's life can no longer be relied on. I don't think we can judge anyone who is going through that kind of an experience.
Yes, claim to infallibility is a huge obstacle to needed change. The alleged ontological superiority of the clerical class is the foundation that clericalism is built on, and a teaching that should disappear.
DeleteFWIW - back when JP II was declaring that the discussion was over regarding women's ordination, someone shared with me the theory, or rumor, that the pope wanted to use the same mechanism (invoking the infallibility of the so-called ordinary magisterium) to "settle" any number of other controversial questions. And the person who talked him out of it and exercising restraint? Joseph Ratzinger.
DeleteI accept that the church can be infallible on matters of faith and morals, but I think declarations of infallibility should be made very, very sparingly. The dogma of the Assumption was one such, in 1950 or so (and that was made only after consultation with bishops around the world). That's enough for our collective lifetimes. Let's wait another ten or so generations before it's used again.
It all depends upon what one means by church.
ReplyDeleteI think of any organization (e.g. Catholicism) as consisting of its human capital (the people who belong to it, i.e. Catholics), it social capital (institutions such as dioceses, parishes, schools, hospitals, social service agencies and their associated networks) and its cultural capital (beliefs and values).
As far as individual Catholics go, some are saints, many are mediocre, and some are scoundrels. I stay because of the saints including many who are dead. They believed that being a Catholic helped them to be a saint, I tend to agree. I am sure that there are many saints outside of Catholicism, I just don’t see other organizations producing bumper crops of saints.
As for institutions, Catholicism has an enviable record. Many of those institutions may be mediocre, run by mediocre people but they still help people.
As for beliefs and values, I am very skeptical of how helpful or unhelpful they are. The American Grace study found that people who went to church regularly were happier, healthier, and more generous with their time and talent, but only if they had religious networks of family, friends and small groups. Those who went regularly but did not have a religious network received no benefits. There was no relationship to any beliefs.
I grew up in a Catholic family, I have Catholic friends, and I have participated in many Catholic small groups. Why would I want to throw all that away because of clergy? They are not part of my family, my friends or my small groups. I don’t support them financially.
As for the sexual abuse scandal, I spent about five years of my life (2002-2007) as part of Voice of the Faithful trying to organize Catholics in my diocese to do something. I was very disappointed in their response. As a group we provided support for some victims, and others who were upset about the issue.
Most Catholics are very willing to let the clergy continue to mismanage the Church. Clericalism is as much a product of the laity as of the clergy. Maybe mediocre Catholics deserve a mediocre clergy. I am just glad to be in the company of a few saints from time to time.
Jack, great point re: saints. And there are saints who are alive, and around us - at least if we show up at church :-). Or even around us if we don't show up at church - they're all around us in our communities.
DeleteIf you don't mind my saying so, you've taken part in the hard work of deconstruction. It's going to take a very long time, and require a lot of effort and sacrifice at every level, over several or many lifetimes. If we can do a little part, we've done something. I'm sure you've done more than a little.
I said above that I didn't know any priests accused of molesting minors. But I know some who embezzled funds, including this news item which came out in this morning's paper. I'm almost going to say that misappropriation of funds is more common than sexual problems. And I do not understand it. You hear about cases such as the former bishop of Wheeling, WV, in which there was a high roller, conspicuous consumption lifestyle. But I think that's the exception. The ones I've know, including this man, have lived almost ascetically. What did they do with the money? It just vanished. And it just serves to further errode trust, which isn't in good shape to begin with.
ReplyDeleteA lot of insiders have said that the financial scandals if fully disclosed would be more extensive than the sexual abuse scandals.
DeleteMoney often does weird things for people. Maybe some of these are addicted to gambling. Thought they could keep ahead of the game. Maybe the ascetic priests are like the occasional stories of little old women who live frugally save all their money, die millionaires and leave it all to the cats!
Yes, gambling addictions, and in Omaha you wouldn't have to go very far. The infamous "riverboats" are right there on the Missouri. They don't actually go anywhere, they're floating casinos. Only now the voters legalized casinos, so I suppose they'll be cropping up all over the place.
DeleteAnother thought that occurred to me is the possibility of blackmail. One hopes that's not the case.
Pastors have too much autonomy over the parish funds. There is a fundamental lack of checks and balances. If you put great temptation in front of people, some are going to succumb.
DeleteExcept sooner or later there's going to be an audit. I think that's something which is an archdiocesan policy. That how this "misappropriation" was discovered. This priest had to know that would happen, being the chancellor and later cathedral rector for years. At 72, he could have retired at any time; there was never a question of his needs not being taken care of. It makes me feel badly, he was a great deal of help in deacon formation (he was chancellor then). Very humble and unassuming, and ready to answer anyone's questions, or find the answer if he didn't know it. That's why I am afraid there may be more to the story.
DeleteRight, our archdiocese also audits.
DeleteThere have been cases in the past in which funds have been 'misappropriated' to support a love affair, and/or to provide support for a significant other. As you note, it's possible blackmail may play a part in some of those scenarios as well.