Reread Charles Davis, God's Grace in History, Fontana (Collins) 1966. It's about the relationship of the secular sphere to the sacred, and the mission of the Church. Too much verbiage, but I find myself more sympathetic to his argument than I was forty-three years ago.
In the light of current publicity about the efforts of the hierarchy to conceal evidence of child sex abuse by priests, the following struck me as apposite:
(p.88) "... the empirical or institutional Church with its array of functions and organized worship is a means not an end. The end is the progress of the order of grace among men through faith, hope and charity, until the higher integration intended by God for mankind is finally achieved in the Kingdom. .... In a difficult situation the Church is sometimes tempted to compromise its mission in order to save its institutional existence. To do so is to betray Christ. Its permanence as a visible community has in fact been guaranteed. All the more reason why it should not fear to risk its own survival when the end for which it exists demands this."
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Should I dash off a comment on your last several posts or should I make a thoughtful response? A little organization and discipline call go a long way. Little to fear from anarchists they just won't cooperate or follow orders. But all that published and out of print knowledge is fascinating and worth seeking.
The Catechism of Catholic Doctrine
(printed by M.H. Gill and Son, Dublin, no date, but prior to 1954)
Chapter XI, The Holy Catholic Church, p. 39. Question 138:
138. What is the Church?
The Church is the visible society founded by Christ himself, to continue on earth his work of teaching, sanctifying and ruling mankind, for their eternal salvation.
I note that they slipped in 'ruling' there. We should return to that point. Accepting the rest of it, for the moment, one has to ask: What is the appropriate structure for this society? Davis raises and discusses this, but focusses too much on the micro level, that of parish organization. The big question is, what about the top level? In my opinion, the main problems began when Christianity became the official religion of the Empire, after which it adopted a governing structure modelled on the civil structure of the time, and began to develop ambitions to exercise civil rule. Subsequent modifications have only advanced matters to the point where the structure mirrors that of the Holy Roman Empire, with an absolute ruler elected for life by a small college of men. Let's have some democracy!
The question that comes to my mind revolves around worldly concerns such as government and the role of religion in worldly affairs. I cannot imagine Constantine really grasping Christianity. Does the divinity intervene in human affairs repairing every malady and misfortune we encounter? If it were so what sort of character and strength and self sufficiency would we develop? What sort of victory would that be for us? What kind of beings would we be? Is victory a divine sanction for our behavior?
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