Francis Oakley explains how, when it comes to governance and accountability, the Catholic may have mislaid its own rich history. The Politics of Oblivion “IF I WERE PREACHING A HOMILY future of the church may lie in its will- Oakley begins The Conciliarist instead of trying to make a historical ingness to pay renewed attention to Tradition with the Great Schism (1378- case, I would be strongly tempted to missing, overlooked or repressed pieces 1417), when competing claimants to choose as my text the Party slogan of its own history. the papal held court in both which George Orwell adduces in his ter- Both books, Oakley writes, seek to Rome and Avignon. The Council of rifying novel 1984. Namely, ‘Who con- “draw out from the historiographic Constance (1414-18) succeeded in put- trols the past controls the future; who shadows and return to the bright lights ting an end to the crisis, he writes, by controls the present controls the past.’” of centre stage the robust if persistently judging and deposing the rival con- So begins historian and Williams underacknowledged tradition of consti- tenders and by “electing a new President Emeritus Francis Oakley’s tutionalist thinking and aspiration that whose legacy came to be universally assessment of the challenges facing the for long centuries tugged uneasily at the accepted.” Roman today. In his adamantly monarchical consciousness The at Constance supported two most recent books, The Conciliarist of that ancient and hallowed institu- the legitimacy of their decision by legis- Tradition: Constitutionalism in the tion.” Though rooted in the 15th cen- lating for the future that “under certain Catholic Church, 1300-1870, and tury, his research is particularly circumstances” a “general council repre- Governance, Accountability and the relevant, given questions about account- senting the entire community of the

orld Photos unless noted Future of the Catholic Church, which he ability raised by the church’s ongoing faithful … could exercise a jurisdictional W co-edited with Yale political scientist sexual abuse scandals. or governmental authority superior to AP/Wide Bruce Russett ’56 (and from [the pope’s],” Oakley which the Orwell quotation writes. Moreover, the

Photos provided by comes), Oakley argues that the By Margaret O’Brien Steinfels bishops argued that

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The Politics of Oblivion

Pope John Paul II has said, “The church is not a democracy.”

eignty made bishops accountable only to The guidelines were not binding on the pope—and the pope only to . bishops, however, and only about half The threat of heresy hung over any the U.S. dioceses implemented a sexual efforts to preserve the idea of a more abuse policy at the time, according to a collegial relationship. Eventually, Oakley 2004 report by the conference’s says, theologians came to join in the National Review Board for the “institutional forgetting” of the conciliar Protection of Children and Young tradition. Even the reforming efforts of People. Dioceses that did draft policies the (1963-65), didn’t always follow them consistently, which promised greater collegiality and the report states. a more communitarian vision of the Furthermore, the regular practice of church, came up against severe limits. sealing agreements with victims and As one example, although synods of their lawyers hid the financial conse- bishops (ecclasiastical advisory councils) quences of civil settlements, leaving even were instituted after Vatican II, they bishops unsure of the number of victims have fallen short of any true form of and perpetrators or the financial ramifi- collaboration, Oakley says. Their agen- cations of the settlements. das, he argues, are generally established To some, the issues surrounding the

by the administrative body of the 2002 revelations appeared to be rooted Pope John Paul II (far left) denounced “the grave scandal” of priests Vatican, and their conclusions almost in a “crisis of fidelity,” as scholar and implicated in child sex-abuse cases, always conform to papal formulations. papal biographer George Weigel—among while the public struggled to understand how steps taken by the others—puts it. Genuine reform, he has U.S. bishops in the past failed to banish perpetrators from the church. FAST-FORWARD TO 2002, WHEN argued, lies in faithfulness to “the Meanwhile, religious leaders, accusations of past instances of sexual teaching of Vatican II as authoritatively journalists, philanthropists and abuse by clergy were made public for the interpreted by Pope John Paul II.” scholars, including distinguished

homas More Chapel medievalist Marcia Colish (left), T first time. The initial response in many And, as the pope has said: “The gathered at Yale to discuss the future of the Catholic Church. quarters was incredulity, as the issue of church is not a democracy,” which, to abuse seemed to have been settled in the scholars such as Weigel and Mary Ann late 1980s and early 1990s, after a few Glendon, the Learned Hand Professor of Photo provided by Saint sensational trials in which priests were Law at Harvard and president of the dearly for what he considers to be “a Dozens of prominent scholars, jour- such a council could impose “constitu- the church and for consultation with the found guilty and imprisoned. Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, bold exercise in the politics of oblivion.” nalists and philanthropists as well as tional limits on the exercise of [papal] clergy and faithful—not only fell into In response, the U.S. Conference of rules out a failure of leadership or author- Oakley and Russett’s Governance, bishops, priests and women religious prerogatives or serve as a [means] to disuse but was gradually stripped of any Catholic Bishops prepared a policy state- ity as the cause of the church’s problems. Accountability and the Future of the gathered in New Haven with the aim of prevent their abuse.” legitimacy. ment to encourage greater attention to Oakley counters that, when it comes Catholic Church, a collection of pre- discussing ways “to help heal and In reconstructing the history and his- At the same time, he argues, the prin- the problem. Guidelines included report- to matters of governance, the church sentations made during a three-day strengthen the church by promoting a toriography surrounding the Council of ciples of papal and infallibility ing incidents to civil authorities and, seems to have mislaid, mistaken or for- conference at Yale’s Saint Thomas deeper understanding of matters pertain- Constance, Oakley details how this con- gradually gained ground and were given with sufficient evidence, relieving the gotten much of its own rich history, More Chapel and law school in 2003, ing to its governance and leadership, ciliar tradition—with authority for bish- dogmatic formulation in 1870 at the First alleged offender “promptly of his minis- including the vision of Constance. seems to convey a consensus to that and to the roles of the laity and clergy,” ops to participate in the governance of Vatican Council. This unlimited sover- terial duties,” the conference stated. Moreover, he says, the church suffers effect among conference participants. write Oakley and Russett, who helped

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The Politics of Oblivion

the product of the second thousand as to endanger the institution itself years of Christian history. Indeed, in and all its members.” the degree to which it is able on a daily basis to impose its sovereign will on the MAKING THE CASE FOR THE provincial churches of Roman Catholic relevance of the Council of Constance Christiandom—via effectively central- to the challenges facing the Catholic ized governmental agencies, bureau- Church in the United States centuries cratic mechanisms, juridical later is no easy task. Indeed, Oakley procedures and instrumentalities of expresses disquiet at how difficult it rapid communication—the papacy is remains to get theologians to pay homas More Chapel T the achievement of the past 200 years attention to the strands of forgotten at most.” church history resurrected over the His point is underlined by Gerald past several decades by Catholic and

Photo provided by Saint Fogarty, S.J., the William R. Keenan non-Catholic historians in Jr. Professor of Religious Studies and and North America. History at University of Virginia, who He adds that there would be in his essay traces the history of “enormous theological implications” episcopal governance in the United for the question of authority in the States. In 1783, John Carroll, the first church if a return were made to a U.S. Catholic , was elected to more collegial form of governance. that office by his fellow clergy—a Reviewers nevertheless laud right they had petitioned the Vatican Oakley’s and Russett’s books for their to exercise. Thereafter, Carroll regu- depth and their combination of “solid larly consulted with his clergy through historical scholarship and practical a senate of priests. pastoral insight,” as Notre Dame Williams’ Francis Oakley (top, center) details how the conciliar tradition gave authority for bishops to Russett argues that these kinds of theologian Richard McBrien writes. participate with the pope in church governance and for consultation with clergy and the faithful. checks and balances are necessary in The Conciliarist Tradition has

Also shown: Papal biographer George Weigel (above) the church today. “The religious world received the Sixteenth Century argues that church reform lies in fidelity to the pope’s interpretation of Vatican II. (Opposite) U.S. cardinals is not immune,” he says, to the issues Society and Conference’s 2004 gather in to hear the pope’s message in facing the corporate and political Roland H. Bainton Prize for best the wake of sex abuse revelations in 2002. worlds. In the case of the church, he book dealing with early modern to organize the conference with Fay that there is no theological or historical adds, “mechanisms for accountability history. In reviewing the book for tradition actually contains.” Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is co-director Vincent ’60 (a trustee of Yale’s Catholic reason for the church to be “trapped in and transparency have been corrupted Commonweal magazine, Eamon Catholicism, Duffy adds, “has always of Fordham University’s Center for Center) and Father Robert Beloin (Yale’s the absolute time warp of or paralyzed.” Duffy, professor of the history of appealed to tradition as a vehicle of and Culture and is Fordham’s Catholic chaplain. the early modern period,” an era when Russett adds that although there at University of truth. Oakley here reminds us that Journalist in Residence. She was editor- In the essay collection, medievalist many of the justifications and symbols is “no perfect balance [of powers] for Cambridge, says it is “a shining the tradition is more complex, more in-chief of Commonweal magazine from Marcia Colish, a visiting fellow in of papal authority were first adopted. all time for any institution … the example of what real learning can do conflicted and incomparably more 1998 to 2002 and has recently published history and visiting professor of history Oakley concurs, noting that the present mix, heavily tilted toward to … encourage a more nuanced and challenging than we are prone to two volumes for the series “American and religious studies at Yale, argues papacy as we know it is “very much monarchy, is so badly out of balance three-dimensional grip on what our imagine.” Catholics in the Public Square.”

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