Whither Rome. . .

Though the changes that came in the wake of Vatican II certainly reshaped the Roman Catholic Church, there is another movement happening right now that may reshape Rome even more.  Vatican II presumed that papal leadership meant something and, though Paul VI promoted changes never authorized or even really discussed by Vatican II, the Roman Church got in line with the new mass.  It was clear from Humane Vitae that Paul VI thought the faith was not changing, only forms -- even if those forms had been with Rome and defined Rome for more than 400 years.  Ever since there has been a battle within Rome against the forces who believed the faith was changing and the new mass was merely the outward example of those inward and doctrinal changes.

It took a while.  John Paul II worked against these forces and then Benedict XVI but in Francis the First was finally a champion who would marshal the full forces of papal authority to finish what the reformers thought they had begun.  The friendliness to the gay and lesbian community, the rejection of the Latin Mass door opened by BXVI, the invention of synodality, the appointment of bishops and cardinals, and the very personality and style of this pope have all conspired to create a new history of Vatican II in which the faith must change.  It is too late for some of those champions of modernity who have passed before the judgment seat of Christ and will give account for their own roles and stewardship of office but not for those who are still agitating.  What will Rome look like in the wake of it all?  Who knows?

The death of Rembert Weakland might have been a relief for those who found offense by his lifestyle, his positions, his arrogance, and his unfaithfulness -- thinking wrongly that his like had come and gone.  He was a scandal then and now and it is without conscience that Rome was able to promote and give voice to someone like him.  His own sexual predilections and his refusal to deal with sexual abuse all resonated for his rise to leadership and not against -- symbolic of all that is wrong in Rome.  He is gone but the positions he has agitated for remain.

Francis has pretty much gutted the Pontifical Academy for Life and it is ready to reverse Humane Vitae as soon as it is able.  Roman Catholic politicians face no real recrimination for thumbing their nose (or middle finger) at the doctrinal positions of their own proclaimed faith.  Whole areas of the Roman Church known to be in serious decline are insisting upon radical change that would make the faith less distinct within the muddy waters of modern thought, and the seminaries are pretty much empty -- meaning that the aged liberals will continue to influence parish, people, and church.  The Rome that we once knew is not the Rome we are seeing unfold.  As the once more somber voices are diluted by the voices of those Francis has promoted and they are moved increasingly to the edges of that church, the future lies in the hands of those who believe that Vatican II was unfinished and now the content of what is believed must accompany how it is practiced.

Personally, I find this disconcerting for a number of reasons.  Lutheranism is already in disarray.  The Anglicans are on the verge of a divorce across the world.  Evangelicalism has sold its soul to the entrepreneurial devil.  Sentimentalism, the individual judgment of what is true, meaningful, and beneficial have already deprived Christianity of any earthly unity around Scripture and creed.  As a Lutheran of the Missouri stripe I do not at all welcome the weakening of an important force that could contend for the faith once delivered.  It means those who are orthodox will stand increasingly alone in a sea of Christianity that has abandoned the voice of Scripture, turned the creed into mere words without truth, and ignored their own history except as legacy (largely to be rejected).  It is not a good day for us.  We know that God will make sure that 7,000 remain who have not bowed to Baal but that does not quite comfort those who know what the Church might have been and who now look with sadness on what she has become.  It is as if God is quickening the times and sifting the souls of the faithful.  While there is much work left to be done here, it does sometimes leave one longing with St. Paul for the heavenly goal sooner rather than later.  

I lament that my generation will bequeath a lesser bequest of the faith to those who follow.  I am saddened at what could have been and what we did and did not do to make it possible.  God does not require our efforts but that should not excuse us from offering body and soul to the cause of Christ.  I write this not to discourage but to warn, not to despair but to offer the somber reality of what we face, and not to give up but to encourage even more the work of God among us and through us.  The lukewarm fare worse than the cold in Revelation's vision and there is too much lukewarm in Christianity in general and in the churches in particular.  Rome is bigger than we are but you know what they say:  the bigger they are, the harder they fall.  No one should rejoice in this.  There is no room for smugness or arrogance.  Repentance and faith are the only answer.