The Marginal Catholic:
Smith, Karen Sue
IN BRIEF The Marginal Catholic: Challenge, Don't Crush, by Joseph M. Champlin, Ave Maria Press, $6.95, 155 pp. The ancient churches had their rigor-ists: well-intentioned believers who left many...
...home and have finally returned to the house of God where they belong...
...The ancient churches had their rigor-ists: well-intentioned believers who left many an indelible mark upon the face of Christian commitment, showing how principled and how picayune it could be...
...Several chapters are devoted to baptism and marriage...
...on Scripture, which cannot be used to substantiate an exclusionary position despite specific verses demanding strong commitment...
...and on the signs of the times-citing statistics on family disintegration and change, alcohol and drug abuse, and other factors affecting faith development...
...While a few of the author's theological and liturgical points are arguable, the book deserves to be read because of its subject and tone, and the soundness of its main point...
...Champlin argues, gently and convincingly, against pastoral rigidity, keeping before the reader that it was sinners for whom Christ died...
...Ironically, many rigorists were condemned as heretics for deemphasizing such essential virtues as mercy, forgiveness, and hospitality...
...Rigorists today influence the church's institutional policies and, as Champlin points out, its pastoral practices: sacramental preparation (including marriage, baptism, and confirmation), penance, and annulments...
...One way to avoid crushing the bruised reed, Champlin says, is to realize that all requests of the church-for baptism, marriage, annulment, and so on-are moments for evangelization...
...Champlin has written a pastoral handbook for pastors, liturgists, deacons, teachers and directors of religious education, catechists and sponsors of the RCIA, parish council members-any Catholic in a local parish who ministers to other Catholics...
...an extremely personal and highly individualized approach" to pastoring...
...Without sacrificing ecclesial principles or commitment to discipleship, Champlin envisions an inclusive church: "a warm welcome reassures callers that they have...rediscovered their true spiritual...
...awesome respect...
...gentle patience...
...His advice: "caution...
...it is sinners who are the church...
...Each chapter-after the first and unfortunately the weakest-begins with a story: parishioners tell how they were driven away from or brought back to an active Catholicism...
...He bases his advice on the Code of Canon Law, designed to be flexible...
...K.s.s...
...Champlin's specific concern is for "marginal Catholics," those who "have only a tenuous link with the parish," a "fragile bond," manifest, perhaps, by their rejecting a major church tenet, not participating in weekly Mass, not receiving Eucharist or penance-not actively participating in parish life...
...Pastors and parish leaders who rigidly apply canon law and liturgical directives can harm the vulnerable faith of some Catholics and cause the church to appear cruel and heartless to those outside it...
...K.s.s...
Vol. 116 • November 1989 • No. 19
