Seized by Christ

In Redemptor Hominis, one of the first encyclicals of Pope John Paul VI, he made reference to the fact that every man is the way of the Church. This statement is to imply that Christ has entrusted to the Church the salvation of every man, so it is the duty of the Church to reach out to every man, and show them the way to Christ.

In Gratissimus Sane, Pope John Paul II makes reference to the fact that every family is also the way of the Church.

In addition, he said that the Family is the way that the way that the Church walks with every individual, because every person starts out as a member of a family that establishes their character, and makes them a unique person.

However, in the last 50 years, the family has disintegrated, with more than 50 percent of marriages ending in divorce, and many children growing up without fathers. This actually creates more people with additional needs, and poorly formed character.

100 years ago, before mobility was so common, more people lived with extended family, that provided the moral and spiritual support of an individual and of a family. It could to some extent pick up for broken family situations, but that is generally no longer the case.

Even nuclear families are much smaller, so that is so much less the local support and council available.

And it was typical for a family to have within it, an uncle or child or cousin that was consecrated to the priesthood. Or sisters or aunts that were consecrated. One of the most devastating effects of the reduction of the priesthood was the loss of their  moral and spiritual guidance of the family.

With one priest for 4000 parishioners, substantially reduced family and reduced extended family, how can the Church realistically expect to walk with every family, much less every individual?

Many years ago, I compared the organization of the military with the Catholic Church.

In the military hierarchy, every group of 2 or 3 has a higher level to go to for support.

Military                       # of Individuals            Catholic Church

I believe that the military has through many thousands of years developed the optimal efficient hierarchy structure, to provide support from the top, and successful execution from the bottom.

For sake of reference, I added in parenthesis suggested groups where groups do not, or do not seem to exist in the Church.

I am not suggesting that we imitate the Military, but I would like to suggest that we could do better than we are now.

I have heard, for example, a deacon mention that there is discussion of housing priests in parish groups or subdeaneries so that they can have appropriate support and fellowship.

I am focused on the lower levels from the deacon group and down. That is why I am working to assemble a “catechesis” related to providing support to the individual, the family, and to small communities. I’m not trying to make up anything. I am going to try to gather from the teaching from the Church. I will also make reference to articles that support it, that appear all the time in the media.

On the other end, I am trying to inspire a Synod of Bishops to discuss Subsidiarity in general, and the sub-parish level in specific. Synods on Youth and Family  have established ongoing research of those topics. It would be worthwhile to define a starting point for developing a catechesis of Subsidiarity.

I believe that it could, for example, lead to new projects for religious orders.

I believe the current shape of the Church has everything to do with the resources available to work with. One can consider how many more resources would be available if the Church figures out how to walk with every man.

Sometimes I think about the fact that if there are 7 Billion people in the world, and 1.16 B Catholics, then there are 5 persons in the world for each Catholic. That approaches a manageable group size, comparable to Christ and the 12 apostles. If only we knew how to carry that out, then we would really be able to have the Church walking with every man, in Love.