Religion & Law

I appreciate Susan's welcome reminder (here) that "we are one church,"  a reminder that is evocative (deliberately so, I suspect) of the Lord's prayer to the Father for His followers "That they may be one just as we are" (John 17:11).  And this discussion at MOJ is a reminder that our failure to live the unity to which Jesus called all Christians is manifest not only in the tragic separation of the churches of the East and the West, and the division caused by the Protestant Reformation, but within the Catholic communion itself.

But this very plea for unity (or the recollection of unity) makes Susan's conclusion difficult to understand.  That is Susan concludes that, "[o]n the thrust Kristof's columns," she "stand[s] closer with Steve than [she] do[es] with Rick."  But it is precisely "the thrust" of both of Kristoff's columns ( here and here) that there are "two Catholic Churches."

As such, her conclusion is in need of further elaboration.

Indeed, I don't believe that the words of St. John Chrysostom (which she quotes in her "Creo en Dios" blog entry here) that "the Church does not exist because those who are gathered in her are divided, but in order that all those who have parted company may be reunited" is even comprehensible through the secular lens through which Nicolas Kristof views the Church.

The unity of the Church is the unity of the faith -- a faith that Kristof would casually jettison, replacing it with the recylced Gnosticism of Elaine Pagels (as witnessed by his citations to the Apocryphal Gospel of Philip and Gospel of Mary).  It is the true faith, the Catholic faith -- the faith "that comes to us from the apostles." -- that (as Rick said) inspires the very good works that Kristof admires but does not understand.  What Kristof sees as works of compassion are in fact works of Christian charity.  But love -- charity -- is always connected to truth.  And truth is somehting to be received and discerned, by the laity, but also in a definitve manner by those entrusted with the apostolic office (see, e.g.,  Dei Verbum ¶¶ 7-8).

We are, indeed, one church -- one body of many parts sharing the one faith.  To properly diagnose this body and heal it, one must first appreciate what keeps it alive and makes it one.  On this account Kristof offers not medicine but alchemy.