By Catherine Brown
The past year has been a bad one for the Catholic Church hierarchy. In the Catholic heartlands, in so far as there are any these days, popular support for the "moral fads" which Pope John Paul II attacks in his new encyclical is leading to a liberalisation of social laws.
In Ireland last year, the total ban on abortion was dealt a fatal blow after the campaign around the "X" case (the 14-year-old rape victim who was initially denied travel to England for an abortion). In defiance of the Irish Catholic bishops' opposition, preached from pulpits across the republic, the November 1992 referendum overwhelmingly endorsed women's right to information about abortion services and the right to travel overseas for an abortion.
Despite organised prayer vigils outside the Irish parliament, on June 24 homosexuality was legalised. Only weeks before, the parliament voted to permit vending machine sales of condoms — which were unavailable till 1979, and even then only to married couples. Divorce will probably be legalised at next year's referendum.
In Spain, the Socialist Party government's proposed education campaign on safe sex was blocked by two judges, from the Catholic group Opus Dei. The subsequent public outrage gave a clear indication of how out of touch the official Catholic Church's position is. (It advocates abstinence as the only option in the campaign against AIDS.
Closer to its home, the church has been damaged by the corruption scandal that has engulfed the Italian Christian Democrats. Not only has the party been implicated in receiving bribes and abuse of government positions, but leading CD members stand accused of working closely with the mafia and even of complicity in the assassination of Prime Minister Aldo Moro.
A commentator in La Stampa, a major Italian daily, argues that CD use of "Christian" in its name "is undeserved and serves to label the party with values it no longer shares".
The Conference of Italian Bishops nevertheless still called for "the faithful" to vote for CD earlier this year. Given the close links between the Catholic hierarchy and CD, some of the dirt is inevitably rubbing off.
While in Western Europe the Catholic hierarchy is losing its grip on "the faithful", in Australia "the faithful" are threatening to disappear almost entirely.
The most recent official statistics of the archdiocese of Melbourne show that in 1993 only 20.5% of Catholics attend weekly mass. In 1970, it was 60%. Fewer than 7% of young Catholics go to mass after leaving Catholic schools.
'Crisis'
A statement issued by the office of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference says the pope's latest encyclical is in response to a "genuine crisis" in the church, even within seminaries and theology faculties. The question, however, is whether the pope's reaffirmation of what could be called Catholic fundamentalism will relieve the crisis or intensify it.
The pope's assertion of "eternal truths" and "intrinsic evils" leaves little room for interpretation or personal conscience. The encyclical represents a return to an Inquisition mentality, argues Swiss theologian Father Hans Kung. A dissident, Kung had his permission to teach revoked by the Vatican because of his views on papal authority.
There is "the threat that the title 'Catholic' will be removed from schools, universities and hospitals, medical and social institutions which do not stick to the Roman doctrine", Kung said.
While the Catholic press argues that the pope is not talking about sex and sins but rather "freedom, truth and intrinsic evil", it is no accident that the encyclical concludes with a meditation on Mary. This is image of women the pope is still trying to reinforce.
Despite the threatening tone of the encyclical, written specifically for bishops, many Catholics would like to see an open discussion of its contents. Sister Veronica Brady, associate professor of English at the University of Western Australia, spoke with Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly about the papal statement.
"I can compare it to the document by Pope Paul VI on matters of birth control and the way that caused great distress to many people. I suspect this will do so as well", commented Sister Veronica.
"I think it's an offence against women. Granted that the document doesn't deal specifically with the topic of contraception, abortion or homosexuality but in the commentaries made on it, that's been emphasised.
"It trots out once more that tired old notion of 'natural law'. This seems to me to be very silly, because every time you have an operation you are interfering with nature, and that's not said to be evil. It also says that certain acts are 'intrinsically evil'. I don't see how any rational person can say that the actions can be evil; everything has to depend on your intention."
Contraception
The statement by the office of the ACBC says, "To put it in the simplest terms, the encyclical repeats that there is a moral law, which can be known, and that particular acts can be judged as right or wrong. There are acts which, whatever the circumstances, whatever the consequences, are always wrong."
This reads like a dictionary definition of fundamentalism. Truth is to be found in the Bible or, for more recent additions, papal encyclicals. The impact of the notion of "eternal" characteristics of good or evil, regardless of consequences, can be seen in the pope's condemnation of contraception and therefore condoms regardless of the AIDS threat.
Overwhelmingly, the papal teaching on contraception is simply ignored. In the United States, a recent survey indicates 90% of Catholic women do not take the church's contraception directive seriously.
The spiritual renewal under the papacy of John XXIII was reflected through the Vatican 2 Council of the early 1960s. Sister Veronica argues the new encyclical "goes against the understanding that was put forward at Vatican 2" that the church was "the people of God", thus giving "the papacy an obligation to listen as well as to pronounce.
"What we have here is the international announcement from the centre that this is the way things are going to be. Dissent is condemned and dissent is not to happen. The church does not just belong to popes and the bishops that happen to agree with him. Suppose they decide to excommunicate all of us who disagree with them."
Sister Veronica feels the issues raised should be discussed within the church as "a place of freedom, where we listen to one another and realise that the truth is never finally given".
The actual scriptural basis of the encyclical Sister Veronica describes "as very strange indeed. In fact, the passage on which it takes its stand, the story of the rich young man, is usually taken by scripture scholars to be a critique of hierarchical authority and to suggest it is not enough to live by rules and regulations but one needs to live by the inward spirit."
Sister Veronica agrees with the encyclical that there is a crisis of values in the world today. "Its centrepiece though is, in these matters the conscience must be subordinate to truth. No-one again would deny that. But truth is actually defined as what the pope says it is. I think some of us would have a lot of trouble with that."
The encyclical's concentration on "individualistic" ethics based on rules and regulations, Sister Veronica argues, ignores the real issues today, which are "communal", interpersonal relationships and dealing with more global problems. "I just think it's missed the bus. It's lamentable."
Youth
The papal encyclical has disappointed many by failing to take up issues of concern to young people. The social reality for many young people is unemployment and underemployment, and the needs of young people arising from this are not reflected enough through the church, Joe Magri from Young Christian Workers in Sydney told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly.
"Preoccupied with its education system and a minority who are actively involved in the life of the church, it neglects the reality of the majority of young people", said Magri.
In Brisbane's Catholic Leader, a report on the national vocations (to priesthood and the convent) conference, held in Melbourne in early October, observed that while the young people present had "no problems" about god, they did have real problems with the institutional church.
With its emphasis on individual morality and "eternal" values rather than the complexities of changing social relationships, the encyclical seems likely to intensify such concerns. The Catholic Church in recent decades has been most dynamic and has maintained the strongest following where it has related to the needs of the poor and oppressed — a social orientation reflected in liberation theology.
John Paul II's hostility to liberation theology has long been known and is evident in the encyclical's inability to say anything meaningful in this area. Thus it details a morality for business practices flowing from the commandment "Thou shalt not steal".
This is hardly comprehensive moral guidance for late 20th century society. Tax frauds, forged cheques and unjust wages are condemned, as is "work badly done". But what about (legal) tax avoidance? Is it just or unjust for a company to reduce wages at a time of high unemployment? Is it moral or immoral to reinvest profits in machinery that replaces workers? Is it stealing or just good business practice when companies save money by polluting the environment with waste products?
Dealing with such questions seems all the more obligatory when it is recalled that the Vatican is itself one of the world's major capitalist firms.
Speaking at Latvia's Riga University in September, the pope endorsed Karl Marx's analysis of primitive capitalism, saying "Marx was right". Naturally, he added that Marx's solutions were wrong. But "Thou shalt not steal" did not noticeably restrain primitive capitalism in Marx's day, and it is not likely to restrain either the capitalism trying to establish itself in eastern Europe or the parasitic developed capitalism of the West.
Can John Paul II's Catholic fundamentalism revive the standing of the church? Predictably, there are some enthusiasts, such as the reactionary B.A. Santamaria. He sees the encyclical as safeguarding the faith for the remaining few believers. He dismisses the critics, who, he claims, are waiting for "a new and more liberal papal successor ... They are deluding themselves. They expected the same from Paul VI. What they got was Humanae Vitae [the papal attack on contraception in 1968]."
But the kind of religious fundamentalism the pope is pushing doesn't have a record of much success in the modern world. Islamic fundamentalism has won a mass following in some countries primarily by becoming identified with the struggle of the poor against a foreign exploiter/oppressor. That kind of identification is totally contrary to the course of the present pope.