BLOG 3/7/13. THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS, AND A DIFFERENT GENERATION
Having been a guest of the Vatican at one time (when members of the Curia invited a group of us who identified ourselves as Protestant evangelicals to come discuss some topics together), I can appreciate the pageantry of what must be taking place there with the forthcoming conclave to select a new pope.
But they will incarnate a problem that is not theirs alone, but which is taking its toll on all of the Christendom church institutions—being isolated from the real cultural, social, and generational issues of our day in any “hands-on” way. Church professionals tend to create an ecclesiastical sub-culture that defines everything in terms of its own cloistered perception. There is an isolation that is tangible.
One of my all-time favorite movies was the movie: “The Shoes of the Fisherman,” which starred Anthony Quinn (1968). It is the story of a Russian archbishop imprisoned in a Siberian prison, camp back in the Soviet era, for his refusal to deny his faith. After twenty years in that isolation his release was the result of an attempt by the Soviet premier to establish some means of communicating with the Vatican. For twenty years he had been only another laborer with his imprisoned colleagues in that god-forsaken isolation. He had lived his faith and his inner freedom in the most dire of circumstances, and in the daily engagement with other sufferers.
The story is that upon his arrival in Rome, and over his protest, the pope made him a cardinal because of his incredible record of faithfulness. Then, while still trying to digest that new role, the pope died and in a surprise to him and the world the College of Cardinals, in their conclave, elected him pope. His frustration was that he didn’t know the simple people all around for whom he was to be the Holy Father. So he conspired to exit the Vatican one evening back a back door and in plain priestly black, and to roam the streets of Rome where no one knew who he was. It was an eye opener. (The Vatican soon discovered his absence and fetched him back inside the cloistered safety of the Vatican.)
OK, my point here is that as the “princes of the church” gather in secrecy to select the next pope, they are a group of those most committed to the prerogatives of that huge ecclesiastical system, and they are all somewhere between 60-80 years old. Many of them have been in the religious orders since their adolescence. They are still dominated by the Curia’s Italian and European members.
BUT … 50% of the world’s population is under twenty-five years of age, and formed by a totally different culture. The institutions of Christendom (Catholic and Protestant) are captive to their own well-being and survival, and that well-being and survival may have nothing at all to do with “new wine” of the gospel of the kingdom of God. What of the church’s tomorrow?
The younger generation is not impressed with the pretensions and expensiveness of these institutions. They are, however, quite capable of discerning what is authentic. They can see the simplicity of Christ, who could talk to the shady lady at the well, or hangout with publicans and sinners, or invite himself to dinner with a local crime boss—and see no connection between that Christ and what will be going on in the Sistine Chapel, or with the pretense of too many church professionals.
But their spiritual hunger is very real. Stand by …
[If you find these Blogs provocative/helpful, invite your friends to subscribe.]
