NEW CHANCE FOR THE BISHOPS
Steinfels, Peter
E UROPEAN historians have often referred to the aborted revolutions of 1848 as the turning point when European history failed to turn. Historians of the Catholic Church in America may be able...
...Second, the undigested mass o/ proposals: in a day and a half, the Detroit assembly approved over 200 recommendations, many of them making multiple points...
...Working first in groups of about 165, then in committees of 30 to 40, and then in small groups of 10 or so, the delegates revised the statements...
...and, reassembling at each level up to the full conference, voted the new documents up or down...
...First, representativeness: half the dioceses, and particularly large urban centers in the north and east, did not conduct grassroots discussions: at the same time, over ninety percent of the delegates in Detroit were either bishops or their appointees...
...Jointly sponsored by Holy Names College of Oakland and Prospective International, a Belgian Catholic organization, the meeting examined the special American experience of Catholicism...
...The real threat to Catholic continuity comes not from the desire to change institutions but from indifference to them...
...In facts like this the bishops should find cause for hope, not fear...
...panels of bishops heard testimony from invited experts on particular themes and from local spokespersons on the special concerns of the Church in that area...
...At their May meeting in Chicago, they NEW CHANCE FOR THE BISHOPS PETER STEINFEI~ may be led to dismiss Detroit, either by hard words or soft ones, in favor of a reassertion of episcopal prerogative...
...Perhaps it was only because the participants included far more "Church professionals" than lay people (and of course the disaffected or disaffiliated are never represented at such gatherings at all), but the meeting also displayed a serious concern for institutional forms that was in marked contrast to the naive antiinstitutionalism of the late sixties...
...But the real product of the Bicentennial consultation was the process itself, the most extensive effort of its kind held in the American Church...
...The product of these deliberations has many faults...
...Chief among them is sheer bulk...
...Third, the unre/lective atmosphere: Andrew Greeley called Detroit a "Tent Show" (although he, like myself, wasn't there...
...It would also help, of course, if consultation like this occurred more often than every two centuries...
...The ready solution is increased opportunity for "ordinary," Catholics to participate in the consultative process...
...These were brought before the 1,340 delegates to the Detroit "Call to Action" last October...
...Working groups shaped the testimony from the hearings and the reactions from parishes into eight documents...
...the bishops cannot...
...A good number of bishops are afraid that with the Bicentennial consultation they went for a ride on a tiger...
...They want to dismount...
...The problem with Detroit was that, absent any other broadbased, representative assembly except the 1,340 delegates themselves, the entire work of the Bicentennial consultation finally had to land in their laps for legitimation...
...Historians of the Catholic Church in America may be able to look on 1977 the same way...
...feedback sheets" produced 800,000 comments and proposals...
...but the tiger they are astride is not the "Call to Action" But America itself...
...Instead of simply issuing a Bicentennial statement drawn up in the bishops' offices, they would initiate a process of consultation and collaboration at all levels of the Church...
...its defenders have spoken of "evolution of consciousness" and pointed to the free nature of the debate and the careful attention to each amendment...
...There is a large element of truth in their perception...
...Because many of the Detroit recommendations were mildly liberal and a very few, at least in the view of most bishops, were downright radical, the American bishops are being tempted to treat Detroit mainly as a challenge to their own authority...
...It seems absolutely justified to insist that the dynamic of group deliberation, ineluding its eloquence and enthusiasms, is essential to democracy...
...Consider the objections made to the process culminating in the Detroit "Call to Action...
...Detroit gave us too many recommendations, many of them repetitious, the totality lacking in emphasis and careful rationale...
...Whether in the remarks of scholars like David O'Brien, John Coleman and Richard McBrien, or in the comments of the bishops, clergy and lay activists present, the theme that stood out was the democratic, voluntaristic character of American culture and religion, and the need for [he Church to evolve structures that fit it...
...A s~ries of regional hearings was organized...
...That is why we are ruled by parliaments and not (Continued on page 222) 1 April 1977:200...
...That is why the bishops would be letting an historic opportunity slip by if their May response to the Bicentennial consultation is essentially negative...
...Perhaps, then, the "ordinary" Catholic can complain that she was insufficiently represented...
...This point was made explicitly and implicitly, time and again, by participants at a meeting held several weeks ago in California...
...Parish discussions were organized in at least half the nation's dioceses...
...Obviously there must be a better method of sorting--which can only be done by a standing body of a representative character...
...Several years ago the American bishops made a crucial decision...
...There is a very real chance, however, that this process will be rejected...
Vol. 104 • April 1977 • No. 7
