This review first featured in The Catholic Herald
Winter of Discontent
By Dwight Longenecker
Misguided Morality
The back cover copy of this book tells
us that the Michael Winter is a ‘loyal Catholic’. Whenever I read these words ‘me thinks the
lady doth protest too much.’ Why does the publisher have to re-assure
us that the author is ‘loyal’? Probably because he’s not. I admit
that true loyalty includes constructive criticism, but the criticism
in this book is out of balance and off target. Winter is an ex priest
who has gathered oodles of evidence that the Catholic Church cannot
command respect because she does not practice what she preaches.
Winter is not happy about this situation, so perhaps the book is
badly titled. Instead of Misguided Morality it should be called Winter
of Discontent.
Winter begins with three big examples:
The Church didn’t do enough
to stop the holocaust, the church didn’t do enough to support the
civil rights movement, and the church didn’t criticise South American
dictators enough. But if these three examples illustrate Winter’s
point they also illustrate the fact that he has missed the point.
His approach is imbalanced. Winter rarely gives us the other side.
He claims that Catholics did not stand up to the Nazi threat, but
he doesn’t acknowledge the subtlety of the situation or the great
amount that Pope Pius XII and many other did do to counter
the Nazis. He blames the Church for not denouncing South American
dictators, but ignores the Catholic Church’s role in bringing down
communism, helping to topple the Marcos regime, standing up to the
Mafia, international terrorism, and rampant capitalism. He blames
the church for not being in the forefront of the American civil rights
movement, but ignores the Church’s constant work for justice, peace,
human rights and racial equality in manifold ways all over the world.
Winter goes on to criticise the church’s
historical record on slavery, anti-semitism, imperialism and the
support of repressive conservative
regimes. He thinks the church is putting its head in the sand over
priestly celibacy, and he feels the Church treats priests who wish
to leave unjustly. According to Winter the Catholic Church unfairly
suppresses dissident theologians, and advocates subservience rather
than intelligent obedience. This robotic loyalty leads to criminal
action in the name of obedience. The same unthinking obedience ignores
the gifts of individuals, who are relegated to the ranks and are
expected to stay there. Winter goes on: Humane Vitae was wrong
and its tough line destroyed the very authority it sought to support.
The Church is not transparent in financial matters; it takes an immoral
stand over AIDS in Africa; it covers up immorality and criminal behaviour
of priests and religious; clerical dress is divisive, clergy and
bishops are autocratic etc etc etc.
Is this just another liberal whine by
a disgruntled former priest? Are Winter’s criticisms unsubstantiated and unjust? No. Winter supports
his criticisms with well-researched facts. He provides an exhaustive
and detailed report of the failures of the Catholic Church in many
areas. Many of his criticisms are fair and it is right that they
should be made. We need books like this that hold a mirror up to
the Church with brutal honesty. Such books help us see how the church
has failed and how she must improve. In that respect, this is a valuable
book. The problem is, Winter’s criticism is one-sided, and his sources
are biased. His argument would have been stronger if he had taken
the trouble to place them in a wider and more balanced context.
It is right that the Church’s failures should be chronicled. We
should be ashamed of those failures, but we should not be surprised.
What I find strange about Winter’s approach is that he seems to assume
that by outlining the terrible failures of the church we will all
be as outraged, shocked and frustrated as he is. Winter admits that,
in theory, Catholic moral teaching is impeccable, but he is distressed
at her lack of actual application of the moral teaching. Why should
this be shocking? Any reading of Church history would show that the
church has always struggled to live up to her own teachings.
This sort of shocked optimism is a tad
naïve. I can remember feeling
similarly shocked when, at the age of twelve, I overheard our pastor
screaming at the choir director that the church wasn’t big enough
for both of them. I thought they were both holy Christian men, and
their petty and selfish row was deeply shocking. But I got over it.
I came to realise that you could be a sincere and struggling Christian
without being totally perfect.
It is the same with the Catholic Church.
I didn’t become a Catholic
because I thought it was the perfect church, but because I thought
it was the true Church. I had already understood that the Body of
Christ was made up of still imperfect people (like myself) and I
actually expected Church history to be full of blood and thunder.
I wasn’t surprised to find that, like the Old Testament, Church history
was a tragic and hilarious catalogue of human hypocrisy, rebellion,
misunderstandings, mistakes and mayhem. I wasn’t surprised to find
that the battle is still going on. n fact, it seemed to me that the
church wouldn’t be authentic otherwise. Wouldn’t you distrust any
organisation that was squeaky clean from top to bottom all the time?
This is not to be complacent or excuse the Church’s monumental failure
and wrongdoing. It is simply to admit that the church is a human
as well as a divine institution.
This is the real problem with Winter’s discontent. It indicates
a misunderstanding of the whole nature, purpose and destiny of the
church. This off-target understanding is apparent in the first page
of the introduction. Winter writes, ‘If a non believer says to me, “Why
should I become a Christian and embrace the RC Church?” I should
be able to reply, “Because it will give you a moral programme that
will enhance your own life and enable you to enrich the world as
you go through it over the years.” ’ Really? Is that what the Church
is there for? Is the Catholic Church simply an institution that provides
self help training? I thought the Catholic Church was the supernaturally
established Body of Christ on earth. I thought it existed to proclaim
the gospel of redemption to souls that were darkened by sin and destined
for a desperate future alienated from God. I thought the Church was
there to administer supernatural assistance in my quest for everlasting
life. In other words, I thought it was about salvation, not self-help.
If Winter thinks the Church is there primarily to provide a moral
programme, then he is right that she should be judged by her failings.
If the Church simply offers a method to pull ourselves up by our
bootstraps and make the world a better place, then Winter is right;
and she has not only failed desperately, she ought to close up shop.
But if she is there to proclaim the fact that we are all struggling
sinners in need of salvation, then her own history is an example
of that fact, and her own struggles to live out the truth she proclaims
illustrate the fact that this terrible and everlasting struggle still
continues.
Dwight Longenecker’s latest book, More Christianity is
an optimistic apologetic for the Catholic faith.
