KCP - Catholic Diocese of Broome

My last column in the KCP for 2004 (‘Have we no shame?’) prompted a number of responses, both verbal and written. The responses were divided in terms of positive and negative reactions to the content of the column. My first response is always to be grateful that at least somebody is reading the column.
Secondly, if it helps people to clarify and formulate their own personal view, whether it agrees with mine or not, then I think the effort has been worthwhile.

There is always the age old criticism from some that ‘the matters you treat are secular’ and have no place in a Church magazine. This is to me an irrelevant, and if I might say, out-dated view, of how the world is. My view, and that of many modern (and not so modern) theologians is that creation is one, a whole, and from God’s viewpoint there is nothing and nobody that is not worthy of inclusion in the kin-dom of God except those people who deliberately and personally choose to
reject their membership.

One article I read recently included the following reflection:

Ministers immersed in the life of the church are especially prey to the temptation of ecclesiolotry, the tendency to make an idol out of the church. At the root of this temptation is the failure to distinguish between the church and the reign of God’s justice and peace in the world. The church is not the kingdom. It is the graced
but sinful sign and instrument of the kingdom. (From “Church”, Fall 2004)

In my experience, it is not only ministers in the Church who can fall prey to this temptation. Many people have a pre-conceived notion of what properly belongs to the area of concern of the Church and Church people and want then to set the same limits on those working for the kin-dom. Some politicians want to set the same limits and prevent ‘church leaders’ from speaking out on what they perceive to be ‘secular political issues’ and therefore of no concern for the church. For many of us, these distinctions and dichotomies are arbitrary and false.

The bishops of the Second Vatican Council realized this when they
wrote in 1965:

The joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the men [sic.]of our
time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are
the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as
well. (Gaudium et Spes #1)

So, please keep reading The Profile and feel free to make your responses known in relation to this column. However, it would be unrealistic to expect that the interests of this writer will become any narrower in the near future.