Christianity is about witnessing in our daily lives and replicating in our daily choices the priorities and practices of Jesus Christ so that God's will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven. But when it comes to how to live like Jesus in the world today, we are faced with many contending options. As someone reminded me recently, there are many ways of being a Catholic and there are many opposing Catholic camps in every Catholic parish and in every church pew. Finding a harmony between respecting individual conscience and the rule of faith that is common to all and finding the right balance between innovation and tradition, and embracing the symphony of diversity in love is a challenge which Catholicism must meet with grace and openness in order to be relevant as a beacon of light in the world today.
Theologians following the thoughts of German scholar Karl Rahner have often distinguished between two kinds of religious adherence in the Catholic Church, one based on the official faith, and the other inspired by an actual faith based on people's experience, conviction and the inner promptings of their conscience. The official faith of the church is clearly articulated in the Catechism of the Church which sets out in unambiguous language the beliefs, teachings, morality, spirituality and sacramental life of Catholicism.
The actual faith is the day to day life of Catholics as they face the daily challenges and joys of life. In most instances, Catholic faithful are inspired and guided by these official teachings but there are daily choices which they make on a day to day basis which are inspired by their personal preference, the illumination of their consciences and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. There are also a combination of other external influences and positive values which a normal and balanced faithful integrates in his or her life without recourse to the Catechism. The ultimate call is to live like Jesus Christ and to live beyond the restrictive walls which selfishness and pride can impose on any person.
The Challenge Catholicism faces in this regard can be reflected in the recent Pew Research survey carried out this September about the attachment of US Catholics to Catholic culture, beliefs and practices. This was conducted before the visit of Pope Francis. The survey is quite revealing about the increasing gap between the official faith of the Church and the actual faith or daily practices and experiences of the faithful. The survey shows that roughly half or more of U.S. Catholics say that using contraceptives, living with a romantic partner outside of marriage and remarrying after a divorce without an annulment are not sins. And about four-in-ten (39%) say homosexual behavior is not a sin. But even among frequent churchgoers, majorities are open to non-traditional family arrangements. 90% of the people surveyed agreed that married mother and father is as good an arrangement in marriage as any other relations; 48% find unmarried parents living together acceptable; while 43% of American Catholics surveyed as against 23% find gay or lesbian marriages acceptable; 70% find it acceptable and good if a husband and wife choose not to have children; 55% find it acceptable for a man and woman to co-habit, while 46% find same-sex co-habitation acceptable.
While the Catholic Church does not formulate her beliefs and practices based on public opinion or approval ratings, it is indicative of the challenges Catholicism faces in meeting the needs of modern men and women. This is not simply an American phenomenon. I was surprised a few years ago when we had a training for women in an African village that was predominantly Catholic. Most of the women were not asking me questions about the sinfulness of contraception which is rejected in the official teaching of the Church, but whether the condoms sold in Africa are as good as the ones some NGOs were sending from the US and Canada.
The point here is that the wider the gap between official teaching and official position of the church and the daily choices of Catholics the more irrelevant the church will become to their daily realities. At the same time, the church cannot be a guinea pig for assimilating every social experimentation. However the question still remains as to how the Church of today can read the signs of the times according to Vatican II so as to be the salt and light to the world. One of the greatest theologians of the Catholic Church in the last century was French Dominican, Yves Congar.
He noted few years before Vatican II that Christianity like all religions could grow old if it becomes enslaved to a fixed expression or closes itself to the forces of history. For Congar the 'risk of growing old' and 'becoming locked into habits, memories and institutions' is always present in Christianity. According to Congar the Christian reformer Erasmus in the Middle Ages was saddened by the Church of his times because, "the pastoral had been overshadowed or effaced by the feudal, the Gospel spirit by the excrescences of flamboyant piety, faith by religion, and religion by practices." In our day this danger has become real and I believe that Pope Francis is calling the Church today to stretch our gaze beyond our limited human horizons, structures and systems to embrace needed changes in our church. Such changes must be a renewal from within the heart of Catholicism in order to bring unity in what is necessary and bridge the gap between what the Church is teaching and defending and what Catholics are living in their daily choices. This is the challenge facing the church leaders who are meeting about the future of the family in Rome.
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