More than Turkey on his Plate

Pope Benedict XVI has relationship problems not just with Islam but also with his Church. The circular skirmishing of Vatican I polemicists scarcely obfuscates their real purpose. Case in point is advocacy for the Latin Mass. What this skirmish is about is authority and control. If it wasn’t the Latin Mass it would be something else. The pope will be giving mixed signals if he accedes to them and authorizes its usage; on the other hand what is wrong with being conciliatory?

Authority and control (infallibilism and conciliarism) were the issues of the Great Western (Papal) Schism (1378-1417) and the Council of Constance; they were issues of the Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent; and they were issues of the First Vatican Council and the papacy of Pope Pius IX.

Pope Pius IX was the last King Pope and he fought mightily to preserve the ecclesiology of church/state imperialism. He demanded (under threat of self-proclamation) that Vatican I declare papal infallibility in order to give greater force and effect to his anathemas of “modernity”.

Pope John XXIII (ironic for his name-choice of a discredited pope associated with the Avignon schism) and the college of bishops affirmed the conciliar model of Church in the Constitutions of the Second Vatican Council; furthermore, the Council opened the Church to perhaps the greatest modern taboo of all—evolution. By any measure, that is a “change”, a fast forward move toward updating, “aggiornamento”. Change is sometimes essential to nature’s evolutionary continuity.

Pope John Paul II reacted against the rise of Liberation Theology under the conciliar-minded college of bishops, which he inherited. By his Episcopal appointments John Paul II changed the political balance in favor of infallibilism, hence, recidivism now toward dominion theology.

The question about Pope Benedict XVI is “what kind of litmus test will he use in making cardinal/bishop appointments?” Will he “stack the deck” for infallibilism or will he maintain a balance open to conciliarism? If he goes infallible he could cause a rift more significant than the fourteenth century schism. He could create an infallibilist hierarchy without a church supporting it. Pope Benedict might yet politicize cardinalate appointments in the same way that the Bush Administration politicized appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court. Time will tell.

The issue is ECCLESIOLOGY! How the Church understands itself. Will the Church return to the imperial model or will it accommodate the tide of historical evolution? Evolution is the common ground of hope on which all churches can come together in mutual respect and purpose. Now is not the time to return to the past.