Vatican II brought a radical change to our understanding of Church as "the People of God". Tom McMahon's commentary today explores what this means. Do "the People of God" have much power, or say, in the present institution dominated by Rome?

Who is the Church? People of God? Are Rome and the Curia the Church?

I want to open with two unrelated stories, using them further on. Just hold them in mind as you read.

As a boy we joked "them's fighting words where I come from" (in response to a hostile exchange) … but (after a pause) "I ain't where I come from".

A few years ago when our son Tommy applied for a job in the South San Francisco Library he was interviewed by the head librarian. She commented to him: "you have an interesting last name, McMahon; a Father McMahon was the best priest that ever served here in South City" (1959-1964) and Tommy smiled, responding "he's my father".

In commentaries of the past I have made a distinction between the institutional church and the People of God. As a child I grew up and then lived as priest within these combined experiences for 13 years virtually from the day I was ordained until 1967 when I found shelter with a legitimate pastoral priest Father Tom Murray (r.i.p) who had a healthy concern for people. I consider the difference vital to understanding the present crisis within the institution and the healthy growth and awareness of many individual followers of Jesus, our Christ.

In e-mail interchanges I often see the word CHURCH with no distinction between historical institution and what after Vatican Two is now called the PEOPLE OF GOD. They are not necessarily one and the same. Based on our first communion training I sense ordinary people have a difficult time keeping them separate. A Roman concept of church carries ugly and monumentus historical baggage. The old is deep in our genes while the new is struggling in rebirth. The papacy of Benedict the 16th represents the opposition to the concept of the People of God. Institutional church is a man-made invention whereas people are the Creator's creation. Church institution can be corrupted whereas creation is sound and good (Genesis Ch one). Evil is human misuse of creation. I'm convinced human goodness will eventually win. The Creator-God is on our side.

The Creator of galaxies is in no hurry...

The top down papacy continues the pre-Vatican Two, Trentan notion of "sacerdos alter Christus" (the priest is another Christ) a sharp differing from the People of God being the Body of Christ. One might be bold enough to say that today the papal Head is fast loosing its body and the people Body paying little attention to its head, a confusing analogy. We are in the midst of a multi-generational transition of concepts. Reform will continue to take "one hundred years … or more … or less". Humans need follow the old Italian saying "festina lente" — "make haste slowly". The Creator of galaxies is in no hurry.

Few ordained priests can match my first 13 years of ministry wherein I was stationed institutionally with five pathologically ill ordained priests who held the canonical title of pastor. These priests, coasting on the simple fact of their being ordained and appointed under Church law by a bishop, duped and disadvantaged people by using the title and legal game of church leadership. The institution sold the Trentan (1542 c.e.) notion that ordination changes a man ontologically; this theology can readily be understood in the medieval days of illiteracy and spiritual chaos, it serving well before the days of an educated middle class. It is flawed theology, resting on the unprovable idea that Jesus ordained males to the priesthood at the Last Supper.

Readers of my past commentaries have been exposed to some experiences I endured during those dozen-plus-one years. I offer here five sample nightmares from as many pastors, always with an eye to the damage done to innocent parishioners. I mix the years as each man is dead and I respect his person. None of the five was qualified to lead spiritually the People of God. They were badly trained businessmen, born and active in an age of great transition which they themselves could not appreciate. They never learned anything spiritually new after their ordination. They were, as psychotherapist Richard Sipe says, emotional 14 year olds, intoxicated with image and power. Even before Vatican Two in the 1950's the institutional church was undergoing massive transition but none of the five could adapt to change and the people suffered. The clerical scandals of today pale as I look back over the abuse people suffered under these men. I was the unnamed pastoral person who did what I could to protect the people spiritually. I had the same seminary training as most senior clergy of the day. I had the example of my uncle priest, ordained in 1922, a selfless human being who was a servant of people and of Jesus.

Nightmares that I would best forget … yet will never go away from me...

a) During Mass I took the ciborium from the hands of an inebriated pastor as he gave Holy Communion to 400 school children; b) I personally purchased hosts to keep alive the practice of communion after the pastor had spoken to the school children that they should not go to communion so often, as the hosts cost too much; c) In a parish of 1500 families I was disciplined by a money-hungry priest when I refused to become head of the parish festival committee, accused of shirking my duty as a pastoral priest (cf librarian story); d) I was attacked on Easter Saturday by a recluse pastor as I was bringing 25 small children into church, he shouting at me for all to hear "get your goddam Mexican kids out of my church"; e) At a Saturday evening meal with six inebriated priests the pastor called for a flipping of a coin to see who would give the people a few words on Sunday, this two years after Vatican Two.

None of these stories could be repeated today as an alert people have been educated in their rights and duty as Christians. Progress has been made.

In each of these scenarios human beings were heavily disadvantaged by ignorant and arrogant priests who felt superior to people simply because they were ordained. Each of these men, along with the bishops who ordained and appointed them missed the point (sinned) of their holding a church office. Our seminary training was obsolete and useless. Post-ordination clericalism and materialism had rotted out the spirituality of once good men. Episcopal spiritual leadership was never present, the bishops mere businessmen, custodians of the worldwide Vatican commercial plantations called dioceses and parishes. Like a Jesus rising from the dead, Vatican Two breathed new life into the CHURCH via people. A clerical priesthood was/is on its death bed. A priestly people was on the rise.

I have no want to spend time on a negative past. I am haunted, and have dreams sometimes, of the above five nightmares, plus. I realize my situations were unique yet I ask you to think that this clerical ignorance and criminal conduct toward people was long tolerated by the people while the bishop stood by, aware/unaware(?), saying nothing. In many cases I was the only one who stood as a buffer between clerical violence and innocent people. The story of the South City Librarian is plentiful reward for my honest effort. I have no need to lick the wounds of my past. I am offering these examples as a challenge for laity to be aware and ask how much reform is possible and needed. Do you fix a broken past or create a new experience? If as a Catholic you have made a god of your priest then you have no connection to Jesus and you are living in spiritual disillusion. I suggest THE PEOPLE OF GOD is a Jesus experience. Jesus is mystery ... who needs to be constantly investigated.

As I look back I sense the key to a good priest leader was his parents, a most difficult faith and morals combination to find in our present society. Any worthwhile priest of today can trace his heritage back to his parents and childhood formation. My early family formation was a Jesus experience. What a challenge is offered today to my sons to recreate this type of family atmosphere in a culture steeped in greed, violence, war, and selfishness. Spiritual reform begins at home; a healthy future is in the hands of today's parents. Nature takes its time in raising its children. We have years of daily example in fostering our young.

Some peers of mine have accused me of sour grapes saying; "Tom choose to marry, hot for sex and he's out of the Roman priesthood, an angry man." After 1980 I said nothing about this for years, quietly adjusting to family life (and making the mistakes that family men do … then, being in my 50's, I had a community of spiritual people of which I was a member and I learned from our mutual spiritual efforts.) I had no fighting words to offer to the church institution. In embarrassment I began to tell the emperor he had no clothes and some saw my writing as "them's fighting words where I come from". I had no want to down play the priesthood; I was confused by the bishops covering up the wayward priests and I did get angry as a professionally trained therapist to my being classified with sexually ill pedophiles because I married. Now look at the institution classifying as "grava peccata/grave sin" morally deviant clerics and women who have been ordained priests. Isn't Rome pathetic? Isn't there a bishop available worldwide that cries out in protest of this abomination. Am I insultive when I remark that the bishops have been celibatively castrated? Little wimps afraid to rebuke a tyrannical monarchical father? Their conduct is medieval. Does anyone hear a sermon in protest? (Please inform me if you do.) Jesus has been simply ignored. The priestly caste system protected at the expense of children's well being. How unChristian!

I have no axe to grind. As a mental health therapist I mourn the ignorance and mismanagement of the present day institutional hierarchs. The historical grapes of my life have been crushed into bubbly champagne. I write and share the joy of life. I am a happy family man with four beautiful grandchildren and I refuse to truck with a medieval church institution that tells me I am living in sin. I am grateful to have been raised by a fine-spirited woman. Mom and my family was a loving church unto itself with the Spirit of Jesus as our guiding light. I have revelled in family life as we struggle with reality and aging. I believe Jesus was a married Jewish rabbi and I'll bet Jesus had kids.

I delight in the raising of the "voice of the people". I warn you, as one of the laity myself, of the task that lies ahead of those who commit themselves to the way of Jesus. Jesus is counter-culture, often counter Roman church. Early Christians knew what they were doing when they told the Hill of Calvary story and kept it right dead center in the Gospel narratives. No one can miss it today and it is not an easy lesson … THEY CAN NAIL YA IF YOU BEAR WITNESS TO A JESUS' WAY of LIFE! This is the primary warfare that is plaguing the People of God today. Be on the lookout for the ancient Roman symbols of power. Jesus never wore them.

p.s. just today I heard I heard the story of a Jesus African priest who has been a joy and blessing to oppressed people. I will carry his full story in late September. He and his fellow workers live in a home named "he has risen".

Tom McMahon in San Jose. Ca. having been on the road to reform for 60 years and realizing that it can lead to Rome's Calvary hill, today shouting back at the Roman curial guards: "have you heard, Jesus has risen! You'll find him in people " 23/08/2010

[Index of Commentaries by Tom McMahon]