Mixed news today — putting our money where our mouth is...
Thursday, 22nd March 2007

Dear friends,

CathNews brings very mixed news today...

The telegraphed closure of the UNIYA Jesuit Social Justice Centre this coming May underlines the continuing challenge faced by progressive initiatives in the institutional Church to find funding. Like the recently deceased OnLine Catholics publishing initiative in Australia, which basically died because of its inability to find secure sources of long term funding, the board of UNIYA have indicated that their initiative is also finding it difficult to find long term sustainable funding. On the other hand, tucked away down in the CathNews website review is some fascinating news of the dismissal of Fr Joseph Fessio from his role as Provost at the ultra-conservative and lavishly funded, Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida. It is ironic in a sense that both of these stories have a Jesuit connection as they are from polar opposites in the political and theological spectrum — the Jesuits though have somehow always managed to operate a very broad church. Reading between the lines of what is going on over in Florida it seems Fr Fessio may have met his fate for voicing some opinions publicly that were considered a little too risque and liberal for those who have ultimate control over the Ave Maria agenda.

The harsh, harsh reality is that the conservative and ultra-conservative sectors of the Church are flush with money wherever one looks and those that do not subscribe to the conservative and ultra-conservative agendas struggle. Why is this? Is it because, as some of the conservatives would claim, that this reflects that Providence is shining on their endeavours and that lights the way forward? Or do we have to look to other causal factors?

The harsh reality is that the exit from the pews in recent decades has been heaviest in the more educated sectors of society. These are also the places where future leaders tend to be found and, to some extent, where eventually are found those who control the financial agendas in the community. It's not a hard and fast rule though. Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza who made a mountain of money which he has now donated in large part to the founding of Ave Maria University is a good illustration that it isn't necessarily the brightest kids in the class who end up making the most money.

Rather than Providence being the explanation for the present affluence of the conservative and ultra-conservative sectors within the Church, I think it can be explained again by this "insecurity" factor operating in society that, in large part, explains the push towards fundamentalism not only within Catholicism or Christianity in general but out in wider secular society and also in all religions. One sector in society is running very scared today and they hanker after certitude and absolutes literally as though their lives depended on it. There are actually a lot of Tom Monaghan's out there who might have made truckloads of money selling pizzas, used cars and in property development. That does not necessarily mean they are "clever lads and lassies" or that they have some better understanding of how society works — or how God thinks!!! It means they were very successful in making truckloads of money and it doesn't translate much further than that unless you believe "making money" is the be and end all to the meaning of life and the evaluation of "success".

The reality is that those vast hordes who have left the Church, and particularly from the more educationally elite Catholic schools across the Western world, are hardly likely to be "getting religious" about religion, about the Church, or about the missionary endeavours of the Church. Their philanthropic "giving" one suspects ends up these days in far more secular and more cultural endeavours.

One other problem if you take the time to carefully peruse the Ave Maria website and the newsreports and blogs associated with the dismissal of Fr Fessio is that initiatives like Ave Maria tend to attract high level endorsement from the leaders in the institutional Church like Pope Benedict and the late Pope John Paul II. You don't tend to find their names endorsing initiatives like UNIYA, or OnLine Catholics, in such an enthusiastic way.

If His Holiness, and other leaders, truly do want to take the Church down to remnant status and face the judgments that that may involve, they might continue these now "long uncontested" policies. Very shortly now the fruits of those policies will begin to bear fruit in magnificent way. It is a matter of far more interesting speculation as to whether the cherubim and seraphim are going to be singing the praises of this version of "eternal truth" when the final evaluations of these policies come home to roost.

Meanwhile, those still in the Church who believe "ultimate truth" is going to be eventually found in other places, also need to do some very careful thinking through as to how their initiatives are going to secure "sustainable funding" in the long term.

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life, and in our world,

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher
Catholica Australia