Concept Ungrasped

Chicago lawyer David Simon, no doubt meaning well, writes, "Not too Big to Fail: Break up the Catholic Church."

The number of misunderstandings may not equal Martin Luther's complaint list, but it is long. Who, for example, is going to bring this breakup about? No liberal democracy in the world asserts the right to control the Catholic churches within its own borders, let alone those in other countries. And those totalitarian states that do try find the efforts don't work well and in any event certainly don't export themselves. China may assert the right to appoint the bishops who will guide Catholic churches in China and elements within the church leadership might misplace their spine and agree, but clandestine churches continue to meet without government approval. And it seems unlikely that bishops in the unruly American Catholic churches would assent to being directed by Chinese officials. Should suggestions be made we might even find American bishops agreeing with each other on something.

So there is no exterior authority that can force the Roman Catholic church to divide. Would internal authorities do so? Jettison 2,000 years of Christian teaching about the church being the institution founded by Jesus himself and handed off to Peter? A note: As a Protestant I'm not at all convinced that the one true church can completely identify with only one earthly communion, but I'm trying to think as though I were a part of the church Simon says should break up.

Whether the church divided on national lines, diocesan lines or other criteria, Simon points out that there would be some with histories of corruption and abuse and others without. "But as with non-Catholic churches, both worshippers and clergy would vote with their feet, move to better-run churches, and thereby impose competitive discipline, financial and otherwise, on poorly run churches." Yes. That's exactly how people who are serious about doctrine and theology choose the church they attend.

Simon suggests that such a breakup, however it happens, would significantly reduce the crime and corruption the worldwide Roman Catholic organization is simply too immense to handle. He overlooks, I think, the reality and ubiquity of good ol'-fashioned human iniquity. The only dead-solid certain way to significantly reduce the crime and corruption in a church is to empty it. And that carries other problems.