Sensitive Topics, Myself, Bishops, and Removing All Doubt

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | May 28, 2014

After several years of self-restraint, I finally gave voice to misgivings about what I regard as abuses in the otherwise legitimate celebration of patriotic holidays. In each previous year, I had decided not to borrow trouble. This year, on the US holiday of Memorial Day, I thought I could avoid most of the pitfalls. In this I deceived myself.

It is not that I disavow what I wrote; on the contrary, I continue to think my concerns ought at least to be discussed. But I did underestimate the strong feelings involved, which very much color the interpretation of what I wrote and why. The discussion has been revealing, both in Sound Off and on Facebook. While many agreed with what I wrote, it is clear that a significant number of thoughtful Catholics regard my comments as a classic illustration of the principle that it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

If I may be permitted to be a weasel for a moment, I am not alone! I think something similar happened a few days ago to the bishops of England and Wales, when they spoke out to defend same-sex civil unions against pending legislation which would convert all of them to marriages. Read our news story and you will immediately see what I mean. The bishops tried to say something good, but did so clumsily, and in an almost impossible context.

Perhaps an even more egregious case is provided by Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, who decried the remarkable rise of “euroskeptics” in Monday’s elections for the parliament of the European Union. This would appear to be a classic instance of misplaced clerical meddling in legitimate differences among Catholics and others as to how best to organize their political affairs. But it is also part of our issue here: Bishops must avoid being partisan, if only to maintain the ability to offer credible spiritual service to all.

The Role of the Bishop

Let me continue for a moment to keep the focus off of my own shortcomings. It is one thing for Jeff Mirus, with no authority whatsoever to speak for the Church, to be perceived (however inaccurately!) as just another commentator, puffed up by his own pride and prejudice. But it is quite another thing for any bishop to fuel the misperception that he belongs in the same category. For in the Catholic universe, bishops are and ought to be perceived as something very different.

Bishops are placed in office to teach, rule and sanctify. It is my job to be a “commentator”, and I’d like to keep the competition to a minimum. Bishops need not apply; bishops should not apply. Insofar as bishops speak, it should be to teach the certain spiritual and moral principles of Jesus Christ, to spiritually encourage the souls in their care, and to rebuke those who use their positions to undermine the credibility of the Church. The prudent bishop offers his opinions as little as humanly possible on those questions about which good people can disagree. To take our last example as symbolic, the prudent bishop’s foundation for interacting with Europhiles should, apart from questions of faith and morals, be as strong as his foundation for interacting with Euroskeptics.

In an organization of which I was once a part, we had an intensely partisan chaplain. He was always obviously on one side in any internal dispute about the best way to proceed, even though all were agreed on fundamental Catholic values. The result was a widening of staff divisions and an absolute inability for that chaplain to promote unity in a common Christian cause. Always ascribing factiousness to only one side, he was powerless to reduce it anywhere, and in fact made it far worse.

Such divisions are very common among strong-minded people engaged together in apostolic work, and they very frequently result in the ultimate destruction of the work. A chaplain—or a bishop—who can transcend human differences involving perceptions and preferences in order to keep everybody charitably focused on fundamental principles and common ends can foster a community in which the participants can properly handle the elation of winning one point and the disappointment of losing another.

All Things to All Men

In all this, St. Paul’s example is the essential guide:

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews; to those under the law I became as one under the law—though not being myself under the law—that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law—not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ—that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. [1 Cor 9:19-23]

Now, how much more effective might my own essay on a sensitive topic have been if I had begun by according a full legitimate appreciation to love of country, the American emphasis on political liberty, military service, and death on the battlefield—before talking about the abuses, exaggerations and misconceptions in our celebration of these things that I find troubling. My failure to do this has almost certainly led some to perceive me as standing haughtily above those who deeply honor these values.

This is part of what it means to be all things to all men. It is not a question of deception. The very first responsibility is to engage others seriously by recognizing the legitimate goods with which they are concerned. Happily, my readers can rejoice that I am not a bishop. For if this is a responsibility of all Christians by virtue of love and truth, it is a specific occupational responsibility for bishops, who are called not only to exemplify ordinary Christian virtues in the highest degree but to exercise a specific ministerial responsibility for all.

Perhaps I should admit to the trick of expanding the guilt. But may my readers forgive my lapses, and may Our Lord preserve all of us from those self-centered ways of speaking which really do remove all doubt.