In recent weeks Pope Benedict XVI has unnerved liberal Catholics as well as many Protestants and Jews with two pronouncements. The first removed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass which since Vatican II has been replaced by a more accessible version of this core Catholic rite. The second pronouncement reasserted that the Roman Catholic Church is the one and only true church through which salvation can be achieved. Many people, both within and outside the Catholic community, are perplexed and apprehensive that the Pope is taking the Church back to its exclusivist and even intolerant pre-Vatican II days.
But perhaps something very different is transpiring. Anyone familiar with Pope Benedict’s work knows that while he is indeed a deeply traditional thinker he is not some pre-modern religious fanatic. He is a genuine intellectual and theologian. Strikingly, in these pronouncements, he repeatedly points out that these decisions are “continuous with Vatican II” and that he remains “deeply committed to ecumenical dialogue” and the “mutual openness” necessary for such dialogue to be “truly constructive”. As if to make clear that he not be misunderstood regarding these commitments, the Pope approved the document on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul — a major ecumenical feast day.
If we take Pope Benedict’s affirmation of Vatican II and commitment to ecumenism seriously then it may well be that the Pope is offering a view that is far more subtle and challenging than most commentators have grasped. Rather than returning the Church to pre-Vatican II, the Pope may be struggling with one of the critical contemporary philosophical, religious, and spiritual issues that should engage anyone interested in the nature of truth. One of the great accomplishments of the past few centuries – the modern period – is the development of a more pluralist understanding of truth and the ensuing explosion of freedoms. But, pluralism has also led to two reactions across the planet: a religious and moral relativism that is terrifying traditional people on the one hand and a fierce fundamentalism that is frightening liberals on the other. Is there a place between a fierce fundamentalist understanding of truth which leads believers to dismiss if not destroy each other and a purely contingent and contextual understanding of truth - that every view is equally true as it is merely another perspective - which leads to moral casualness, if not moral anarchy? Is there an approach to truth that is neither viciously absolutist (pre-modern) nor nihilistically relativist (post-modern)? Because a world divided between people defending their absolute truth with increasing violence and people who believe all truth is relative becoming increasingly cynical and morally shallow is a very dangerous world.
In claiming that absolute truth AND deep ecumenism can be held together, the Pope may be carving out a new psycho-spiritual space yet to be realized in any communities political or social life –including the Church’s. For most of human history, passionate commitment to the truth AND tolerance, yet alone open engagement with people who believe differently, have not gone hand in hand. Belief that one was absolutely right and that others needed to see the Light translated into everything from forced conversions to pogroms.
This is not simply an issue for Catholics. Anyone who believes something strongly - whether traditional or liberal, secular or religious - “believes” somewhere deep inside that their truth is superior to others and tries in one way or another to “convert” other people to their view. Secular fundamentalists like Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens whose best selling books are dismissive of religion surely think their truth is superior to religious truth and most definitely want to convert people to their view? Liberal Christians and Liberal Jews wish that traditionalists and conservatives in their communities would see the light? When we fail to recognize this or make believe this is not the case – as with most politically correct interfaith and intercultural dialogue - we wind up trading honesty for the chimera of agreement, integrity for niceties and passion for the illusion of harmony.
Can we stake our lives on what we believe, honestly say that we hope others come to see our truth and even offer it to them, without any disrespect, condescension or coercion?
Perhaps the Pope is attempting to hold together the passionate commitment absolute truth evokes, which has weakened in liberal religious communities, with the tolerance and openness that genuine ecumenism requires, which so many fundamentalists have repudiated. Not surprisingly, traditionalists will embrace the "absolute truth" side of the Pope’s pronouncement and will minimize his stated commitment to continuity with Vatican II, which they see as eroding authentic Church teaching, while liberal Catholics, Protestants and Jews will be wary of the" absolute" truth side which they see as demeaning and potentially dangerous and will want to reemphasize the ecumenical side. Each will ignore or will be crazed by the part of what the Pope said that challenges them.
But the Pope is inviting us to hold together in our consciousness what appears to be contradictory: a commitment to absolute truth and to genuine openness. We need to admit that the truth we ultimately stake our life on is greater and truer than what others possess or else we would fashion other commitments AND at the same time we need to embrace that this is not incommensurate with a deep ecumenism. One might call this post-post modern – neither a traditionalist understanding of the truth in the pre-modern sense nor a relativistic understanding of the truth in the post-modern sense. It is the sort of truth I call a ‘humble absolute’.
Ultimately, the crucial metrics for religion is if its teachings and practices help us remove the veils from our own hearts - that is become more humble and honest about our own lives and more compassionate and loving to all of life. If returning to the Latin Mass and reasserting belief in the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church does this for Catholics then all will be well. If this “reform of the reform”, as the Pope has called it, leads traditional Catholics to a sense of self-righteousness towards other Catholics and superiority to believers in other faiths, which might well have been appropriate for the Pope to remind his followers was indeed the case historically, the Pope will have simply affirmed what so many people sincerely yearning for the truth already feel about organized religion. It does more damage than good, divides people far more than connects them, and teaches us to loathe rather than to love.
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