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GEORGIA BULLETIN, THURSDAY. MAY 9,1968 ^
NEWS ANALYSIS
Pope Is Apprehensive
About Church ‘'Unrest’
By ROBERT A. GRAHAM, S.J.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) - Cries of alarm do not make good
copy. That may be why the recent warnings of Pope Paul VI
about the state of the Church have not gotten much publicity.
Yet the, pontiff’s deep worry showed clearly through his
remarks to a crowd of 30,000 pilgrims in St. Peter’s. The
spiritual and historical phase in which the Church now finds
herself, he told them, is not “serene.”
“This,” he said, “causes lively apprehension and sometimes
great bitterness for the pastors of the Church and for us.” This
anguish, he explained, is due not simply to the various crises in
society at large but above all, to “the unrest that disturbs some
sectors of the Catholic world.”
THE POPE went on to say that the Church is buffeted by a
hurricane of ideas and facts that are “not according to the
good Spirit.” In certain Catholic circles (which he did not
name or describe), the idea of “change” has teken the place of
the idea of “aggiornamento” or renewal.
These circles do an injustice to Pope John XXIII, he said,
by attributing to him ideas that have nothing to do with
renewal and are sometimes even subversive of the teaching and
the discipline of the Church herself.
This is not the first pessimistic and critical utterance of the
Pope about the religious crisis as seen from his position of
responsibility.
The initial instinct of the press is to play them down. Who
wants to cast the Pope in the role of a calamity howler? Some
probably think he is unduly upset; others hesitate to play up
his warnings for fear that the die-hard opponents of the
authentic Johannine reform might exploit them for their own
ends.
ACCORDING to eyewitnesses the Pope was in tears by the
time he finished his confidences to the intimate circle of his
fellow bishops.
The gist of the Pope’s remarks was reported in some
newspapers, notably the Catholic Herald of London, but
nothing was officially released. The story has been checked by
this writer. At the time, evidently, it was thought that both
the personal nature of the words and their
extemporaneousness made them unsuitable for release. But the
pontiff chose to repeat comparable remarks six weeks later --
not to a handful but literally from the housetops.
Since the Pope did not name names or point accusatory
fingers, anyone can speculate for himself what aspects of
church life most trouble him these days. In general, they are in
two areas: doctrine and personalities, and above all the
divisions between the clergy and laity, the bishops and their
clergy, and between the clergy and the Holy See. For a Pope
these are nightmarish dilemmas.
IRONICALLY, it can be convincingly argued that the
Church has been enjoying more revitalization and success than
it has seen for many a day. The present pontificate itself has
seen the papacy win acceptance in circles, both religious and
secular, which had been closed to the Pope from time
immemorial.
Paul VI naturally knows all this but he is also worried by
the high price that has been paid for this enhancement, in
terms of confusion and division within the Church herself. It is
his duty to moderate the enthusiasms of the day.
He is also looking to posterity which may reproach him -
should the danger signals prove all too prophetic - for not
having acted in time to save the Church from destructive
internal changes.
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IN SUM, it is not so easy as people think for even a Pope to
get his ideas to the attention of the world public.'
If the Pope is talking this way before 30,000 people, what
is he saying to his private visitors? We have a hint of his
personal feelings over the stresses and strains through which
the Church is passing - from an incident that took place earlier
this year.
Speaking to the bishops of the general council of the
Pontificial Commission for Latin America on Feb. 14, Pope
Paul finished his prepared speech but then added he wanted to
speak to them out of the fullness of his heart.
Often, especially when he finishes his work in the evening,
he said, after reading his correspondence and the reports that
come to his desk, he is filled with bitterness and distress,
disappointment and sorrow. The pain is not caused by factors
outside the Church so much as from within - “from sons,” he
said, “from whom we could expect loyalty, sacrifice,
understanding and cooperation.”
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