Some further thoughts on the "authority" question... (Main Forum)

by Brian Coyne , LINDEN, NSW, Thursday, August 09, 2012, 11:59 (284 days ago) @ Brian Coyne

Thinking back over my own life and spiritual journey, I suspect one of the most profound changes I detect in myself centres on this question of "authority". Up until the conclave that gave us Benedict XVI, I think I honestly did believe that in some mystical or mythological way it was God or the Holy Spirit that ultimately chose, through the assembled wisdom of those actually in the conclave, who should lead his Church. I'm not suggesting it was something deeply studied or even reflected on. It was more in the nature of "vague belief" accumulated in that vast pot pouri of beliefs any of us inherit from the culture in which we are raised.

I wonder today if my views might have changed a lot earlier if there had not been such a long gap in the conclave that gave us JPII in 1978 and the BXVI conclave in 2005? Light-heartedly I wonder if the "elephant in the 2005 conclave" was our own Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney — who was close enough to make some assessment about in his personal qualities and outlook — that has been a significant cause in the gradual shift of my own beliefs? (Pell, for those not in the know, is reputed to have been a significant political operator and ecclesial lobbyist in the background urging a vote for Cardinal Ratzinger.)

My belief today is that conclaves are no more "guided by the Holy Spirit" than are the elections that might be held in any political party anywhere in the world as to who might be chosen as leader. It's all driven by egos (usually highly inflated), emotional insecurities and all the usual things that drive all of the rest of us when we go down to a polling booth each year to choose some politician to represent us. There is no "higher force" at work in a conclave because the men assembled there are "ontologically changed" or they all engage in "prayerful discernment" about the name God, or the Holy Spirit, is suggesting to them should be chosen. It is a very flawed and human process open to all the usual lobbying, ego games, AND the insecurities that drive most enterprises, governments, businesses or political parties.

I think the entire question of "authority" is one of the big "hot button" issues emerging in human society about religion and spirituality. I sense it might ultimately be the "authority" issue, more than any other single issue, that ultimately determines the shape of the phoenix that arises from the present religious crisis in human society. It might be this issue that is the prime driver in determining if there is some institutional structure in the future or if religion becomes essentially de-institutionalised which I think is a discernable trend in other realms of the way in which human society organizes itself.

Brian Coyne
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