Governance, Accountability, and the Future of The Catholic Church ed. by Francis Oakley, Bruce Russett (review)

GOVERNANCE, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND THE FUTURE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH edited by Francis Oakley and Bruce Russett. NewYork: Continuum, 2004. Pp. 240. A bishop, several priests and lay people delivered these essays or conference papers before an audience at Yale University in March 2003 under the theme of the present title. Their lectures come at one of the most urgent moments in the history of the church in America and will be helpful to anyone interested in its welfare. Archbishop Donald Wuerl (then Bishop of Pittsburgh) and his respondent , Peter Steinfels, begin the volume. Wuerl attends to the divine institution of the Church’s governance structure. His ecclesiological starting points are baptism and holy orders. Revelation is entrusted to the hierarchy for safeguarding, but the gospel’s enactment in every time and place is the responsibility of all the faithful by virtue of their baptism. Wuerl cautioned that “a re-evaluation of the nature and value of the Catholic priesthood” often hostile to Gospel values was taking place in the media. Steinfels, a columnist for The New York Times, noted how the bishop made a swift leap from Jesus’ constitution of the Church to its contemporary state. He also wondered whether the baptized “have any share, unmentioned by Bishop Wuerl, in the teaching, governing, and sanctifying tasks in the church as well as the world” (27). Two further items interested Steinfels: openness to political models of governance (e.g., inclusion of democratic principles) and the relationship between transparency and accountability. Making information more available to the public may signal greater accountability, but that is not necessarily sufficient to gain the public’s trust. Someone must vouch for the data’s verifiability , completeness, and accuracy. Four additional areas complete the text: historical perspectives; theological and canonical analysis; legal, political, and financial aspects of the Church; and challenges and opportunities for the Church inAmerica. Francine Cardman of Weston Jesuit School of Theology examines the experience of the ministry of governance in the early Church. It was anything but neat, yet the flexibility of regional conferences of the early Christian movement may be useful for the contemporary church. Brian Tierney, Professor Emeritus at Cornell University, highlights the use of “alternative structures” among the medievals, several of whom were promoting an absolutistic papacy. Huggucio kept alive notions of book reviews 543 544 the jurist representation and consent by the entire faithful, employing the old Roman dictum “Quod omnes tangit. . . .” Tierney’s fellow medievalists, Marcia Colish and Francis Oakley, make the case for reclaiming those beliefs and practices that, like Tierney ’s alternative structures, admit of change. For Colish this means doctrinal development; for Oakley, constitutionalism in the Church. Both form part of the Church’s heritage, and altering the present governing status of those in authority need not be re-invented. John Beal’s impassioned critique of “the long Lent of 2002” is a blowby -blow indictment of the arrogance of power within the Church. From the “glass ceiling” affecting laypersons in Church governance, to trampling the rights of the accused, the scandal that erupted in 2002 appears manifold. Beal suggests a five-fold prolegomena for a future canon law. Canonists must take into account: 1) the human or sociological dimension of their labors; 2) power, not to be ignored; 3) sin, taken seriously through proper checks and balances; 4) the importance of secular law; and 5) ecclesiologies having “a healthy balance of Trinitarian, ecclesial, and eschatological perspectives” (101). Gerald Fogarty, SJ, Professor of History at the University of Virginia, covers the history of episcopal governing bodies in America for the last two centuries. Both James Heft, SM of the University of Dayton and John McGreevey of the University of Notre Dame, provide some theological and historical analysis from the revelations of clergy misconduct. FADICA’s Francis Butler draws upon his experience in the philanthropic sector. The picture he paints of Catholic giving in the aftermath of the scandal is as dismal as the record of lawsuits that dioceses bring against one another and financial malfeasance at both parish and diocesan levels. Two international perspectives are offered on the crisis: essays by Gerard Mannion (Europe) and Peter Phan (Asia). Bruce Russett, Professor of International Relations...