Archbishop Schnurr claims his new “clustering” initiative for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is based on The Changing Face of Church: Emerging Models of Parish Leadership, by Marti R. Jewell and David A. Ramey. This 2010 book is chock full of the buzzwords and concepts used by chancery officials and other professional Catholics, e.g., the vacuous Whole Community Catechesis and, alarmingly, the downright pernicious Reign of God theology. The latter is promoted by noted local dissenters Paul Knitter and Ken Overberg of Cincinnati’s Xavier University. Here is what Pope Benedict had to say about “regnocentrism” in his modern classic Jesus of Nazareth:
Since that time, a secularist reinterpretation of the idea of the Kingdom has gained considerable ground, particularly, though not exclusively, in Catholic theology. This reinterpretation propounds a new view of Christianity, religions, and history in general, and it claims that such a radical refashioning will enable people to reappropriate Jesus’ supposed message. It is claimed that in the pre-Vatican II period, “ecclesiocentrism” was the dominant position: The Church was represented as the center of Christianity. Then there was a shift to Christocentrism, to the doctrine that Christ is the center of everything. But it is not only the Church that is divisive — so the argument continues — since Christ belongs exclusively to Christians. Hence the further step from Christocentrism to theocentrism. This has allegedly brought us closer to the community of religions, but our final goal continues to elude us, since even God can be a cause of division between religions and between people.Therefore, it is claimed, we must now move toward “regnocentrism,” that is, toward the centrality of the Kingdom. This at last, we are told, is the heart of Jesus’ message, and it is also the right formula for finally harnessing mankind’s positive energies and directing them toward the world’s future. “Kingdom,” on this interpretation, is simply the name for a world governed by peace, justice, and the conservation of creation. It also means no more than this. This “Kingdom” is said to be the goal of history that has to be attained. This is supposedly the real task of religions: to work together for the coming of the “Kingdom.” They are of course perfectly free to preserve their traditions and live according to their respective identities as well, but they must bring their different identities to bear on the common task of building the “Kingdom,” a world, in other words, where peace, justice, and respect for creation are the dominant values.
This sounds good; it seems like a way of finally enabling the whole world to appropriate Jesus’ message, but without requiring missionary evangelization of other religions. It looks as if now, at long last, Jesus’ words have gained some practical content, because the establishment of the “Kingdom” has become a common task and is drawing nigh. On closer examination, though, it seems suspicious. Who is to say what justice is? What serves justice in particular situations? How do we create peace? On closer inspection, this whole project proves to be utopian dreaming without any real content, except insofar as its exponents tacitly presuppose some partisan doctrine as the content that all are required to accept.
But the main thing that leaps out is that God has disappeared; man is the only actor left on the stage. The respect for religious “traditions” claimed by this way of thinking is only apparent. The truth is that they are regarded as so many sets of customs, which people should be allowed to keep, even though they ultimately count for nothing. Faith and religions are now directed toward political goals. Only the organization of the world counts. Religion matters insofar as it can serve that objective. This post-Christian vision of faith and religion is disturbingly close to Jesus’ third temptation.
Readers of my previous site, Ten Reasons, may recall a 2008 post about this topic. Sherry Weddell of the Siena Institute linked to the post and added additional thoughts:
A quick and dirty take on some of the assumptions of this understanding of the mission of Christ and the purpose of the Church would be:1) multiple economies of salvation (Jesus is salvific only for Christians at best);
2) repudiates the crucifixion as in any way redemptive because that would place an act of violence at the very center of God’s purposes;
3) asserts that the Incarnation is an end in itself (God just wanted to share human life so much) and that objective redemption was not the purpose of Jesus’ earthly life;
4) regards Jesus not primarily as Savior but as Announcer/Prophet of God’s reign;
5) regards the Church strictly as a prophetic servant of the Reign of God which is independent of the Church and much more important; and
6) understands liturgy as a celebration of community which prepares us to go out and work for God’s reign.
As Pope Benedict points out: “But the main thing that leaps out is that God has disappeared; man is the only actor left on the stage.”
The Kingdom without the King. Instead of the Kingdom flowing out of relationship to the King.
Of course, much of the impetus behind the development of “reign of God” theology was an experience of an impotent/corrupt/self-satisfied local Catholic community who did little or nothing to aid the poor and aided and abetted their oppressors. The King was sacramentally present but the fruit of a transforming relationship was not.
According to Mission of the Redeemer, 16, the Kingdom ( Reign) of God is already present in the person of Jesus. It is slowly established in humanity and the world through “a mysterious connection with him.”
What is that mysterious connection? One of the main ways the kingdom is established is through the life-changing fruition of sacramental grace in the lives of individuals and then whole communities (often sparked by and fostered by those same individuals whose charisms and vocations emerge out of a living relationship with Christ).
Changing structures of injustice takes a long, anointed, patient, enduring, sacrificial obedience in the same direction. To change large scale, complicated structures of injustice takes many such people who engage it as a personal vocation and spend their lives doing so because Christ has called and is sustaining, inspiring, and guiding them.
The Kingdom emerges out of obedient relationship with the King.
Read through some of the testimonials included in the Changing Face of Church. They practically seem lifted from Sherry’s “quick and dirty” take. On page 50, a pastoral associate from the “Upper Midwest” claims, “I hope the community will be ‘life-now focused’ rather than ‘life-hereafter focused,’” an eery echo of points 3 and 4. The overall thrust of the book is much the same. In the comment box for the first “clustering” post, someone asks, “What can we DO?” Get ready to fight this tooth and nail.
2 January 2012 at 12:51 pm
You should submit an Amazon review of this book based on this entry.
2 January 2012 at 4:50 pm
Did it, and it’s up.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R30DJ3EC83Q5S1/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0829426477&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=
2 January 2012 at 1:12 pm
I guess that explains the lack of focus on traditional devotional practices. It’s very easy to leave stuff out, if you’re following a template that doesn’t care about certain important things. (Even if it’s very well organized for the purposes it does care about.)
So basically, the committee in charge of this needed to use templates from at least one other source, to hit up what these Reigny people disdain.
2 January 2012 at 2:23 pm
It would be interesting to know just how much the Archbishop is personally invested in this scheme, or if he has yet to gain a handle on the operation of his own staff. This smells of maintaining the status quo, and yet there are signs of a situation that is in a state of flux. A lot of mixed signals coming out of the Archdiocese at the moment.
2 January 2012 at 2:46 pm
David: I too smell the odor of status quo. Disappointing. Interested in hearing your take on the signs of flux. Would like to keep an eye on tend young shoots that may yield some change.
2 January 2012 at 3:10 pm
Archbishop Schnurr has been here for over two years. If there’s a “status quo,” he owns it. And I really don’t see very many mixed signals; his last praiseworthy decision of any significance was allowing the St. Mark’s community establish a TLM parish, and that was over a year ago.
2 January 2012 at 3:33 pm
Steve/Rich:
I can’t go into detail, because events haven’t fleshed out yet, but the early signs of regime change can manifest themselves at the parish level. The revision of the Roman Missal is one example of a catalyst. No, there is no dramatic change in what you hear every Sunday, but some people are taking a second look at how music is used at Mass. There is a renewed interest in the use of plainchant, but what holds it back is how some people might react.
2 January 2012 at 3:41 pm
David,
Those are trends being driven at the national — or “Magisterial” — level. They have little to do with anything +Schnurr is doing locally.
2 January 2012 at 7:35 pm
That doesn’t mean they aren’t happening in the Archdiocese. That little red book in all the pews? That’s more than the Diocese of Arlington did, which was produce a laminated card with only the words that were changed. Cincinnati has a booklet that includes the chants of the Mass. Parishes are being encouraged to learn all the settings in the booklet, and that includes the chants.
2 January 2012 at 4:56 pm
Very scary stuff, Rich. — Rosemary
2 January 2012 at 5:04 pm
This is supposedly the real task of religions: to work together for the coming of the “Kingdom.”
As this analysis clearly reveals, this entire vision is Marxist. How exactly does this “kingdom” as thus described differ from the “dictatorship of the proletariat”? It doesn’t, not much.
“I guess that explains the lack of focus on traditional devotional practices.”
That would be because Marxist thought (which has profoundly influenced much modern thought) holds that the individual is conditioned by the societal structures around him or her. (We read this daily in the newspapers. We are told that the perpetrator of disgusting crimes should be treated leniently because he grew up in poverty (and so forth.) We need to inaugurate more social programs, and individual crime will melt away!) Therefore, goes this reasoning, the way to change the individual is to change the social structure. Individual devotion or prayer has little to do with this.
Jesus of Nazareth clearly reasoned in the other direction: a just society would spring from redeemed individuals. When invited to attack the ruling power structures of his time (and/or become involved in outright revolution), he unambiguously refused. “The Kingdom of God is [within/among] you.” (The Greek word can mean either, or both.) From this standpoint the way to generate the renewed Church would be to emphasize individual and collective devotional practices rather than pretend that we can, on our own power, build a godly society. In fact we cannot until we are renewed in Christ Jesus, each and every one of us.
2 January 2012 at 5:46 pm
When I was a Protestant, our pastor clung to this same sort of faddish secularized nonsense, desperately looking for ways to revive his church. What he failed to realize was that his church – like his denomination – was emptying because of his embrace of “inclusive language” and his harping on accepting those of different sexual orientations, i.e. because of his essentially un-Christian approach to ministry, and that no amount of motivational gimmickry would fix the problem
Likewise, this has the feel of re-arranging the deck chairs on the you-know-what, and a corporate mentality response to a crisis of faith, i.e. the replacement of Catholicism with pseudo-Marxist-Protestantism (including the Novus Ordo). If the Archbishop would do his utmost to restore Tradition and suppress the nest of egomaniacal dissenters whose nexus is Xavier, he might be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.
Or maybe he’s decided that the Archdiocese is just beyond fixing, and he’s just too old to rock the boat. Either way, this is not a response based on the supernatural, but on the Procter & Gamble/United Way mentality.
“Nearer, My God, to Thee…..”
2 January 2012 at 6:03 pm
PS:
But the main thing that leaps out is that God has disappeared; man is the only actor left on the stage….Faith and religions are now directed toward political goals. Only the organization of the world counts….
Compare these words with the Pope’s banal message for World Day of Peace. He seems to fall victim to the same tendencies he exposes:
http://www.news.va/en/news/papal-message-for-world-day-of-peace-2012
2 January 2012 at 7:08 pm
Everyone knows the joke about the man who keeps banging his head, goes to the doctor to complain about his head hurting when he bangs his head, and is told by the doctor “stop banging your head.”
Well, there’s a reason the joke is funny.
But in this case, there is a twist: the people who keep banging their heads and wondering why their heads hurt won’t rest until EVERYONE ELSE is banging their head too.
2 January 2012 at 7:33 pm
Look, I think it’s easy to take ONE thing that goes on during a man’s watch and make an assumption about his big picture. We’re forgetting that one of the first priorities the Archbishop set for himself, was the encouragement of vocations. For all we know, he could just be playing along with this “strategic plan” nonsense until he can think of an excuse to retire all the one-armed paper-hangers he doesn’t need.
2 January 2012 at 7:50 pm
David,
As I noted earlier, in what became a somewhat controversial comment, he was not elevated to be Seminary-Rector-in-Chief. Ah heck, I’ll quote the whole thing:
2 January 2012 at 8:13 pm
Rich: I’m sorry, I just don’t get your point.
Steve: I’m not overly thrilled either, and some will recall that I was skeptical about him when everyone else was jumping up and down for joy. But if he is indeed paying undue attention to the seminary and vocations, ask yourself just how much control could he reasonably be expected to have, over a bureaucracy years in the making, not of his own making, and that he can’t shut down overnight?
You know what keeps the Diocese of Arlington on the straight and narrow? It’s not the bishop. Or at least not JUST the bishop. It’s the priests. Specifically, it’s a generation of priests who were ordained when Keating was bishop, and Father Jim Gould was vocations director. That has set the tone for the successors to both, right up to the present day. It is a strategy that is being copied in other dioceses around the country.
Some of you guys want a poker player, for a game that needs a chess player. And with chess, you have to watch the whole board, not just the next hand.
2 January 2012 at 8:04 pm
David: In the time +Schnurr has been at the helm I, for one, have tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. That benefit from his attempt to increase vocations to the priesthood with a seminary seemingly preparing better than 30 and 40 years ago. But – the clock ticks. Other opportunities to send signals have passed in such a way if I were with the crowd happy with the AOC the last 40 years I would be sighing a big relief.
This pew warmer is growing more disappointed with each passing month that this man will restore the center of gravity holding the faithful and pulling those orbiting about. The clock ticks, my heart sinks – but still hoping, still praying.
I agree with Rich that every improvement I have seen in AOC has been because of National direction – not local. There are islands of gravity but the leader must lead – few signs yet.
2 January 2012 at 8:29 pm
David,
My point, which I thought was clear from my quoted comment, is he is a weak leader and isn’t living up to his responsibilities as our ordinary. Moreover, his background as a bureaucrat — I don’t believe he has ever served as a parish pastor — is increasing the bureaucratic mindset that permeates this diocese.
2 January 2012 at 8:37 pm
Oh, now I follow you.
You’re probably right. But it doesn’t mean that what he’s doing now with vocations won’t bear good fruit later. I never imagined anything dramatic happening on his watch myself. But if he only stays five years (which is the most I give him), cleans up the seminary, and increases the number of new priests, he will have made the next guy’s job a lot easier.
2 January 2012 at 8:57 pm
David,
The seminary was cleaned up before he got here, and the leadership team now in charge was picked by his predecessor. To his lasting credit, Archbishop Pilarczyk did the heavy lifting.
2 January 2012 at 9:00 pm
Rich: I don’t agree, but we’ll have to leave it at that.
Steve: “if I were with the crowd happy with the AOC the last 40 years I would be sighing a big relief.” Not the ones *I* talk to, Steve.
2 January 2012 at 11:21 pm
I was disappointed, but not surprised, to read about the “Reign of God” theology being”regnant” in the Archdiocese. I am in a different diocese, but the same theology seems dominant here, too. While praying and talking about the mission of the Church, and therefore of the parish, our pastoral council discussed the lack of clear and Catholic mission in our parishes: the proclamation of the Gospel and the calling of all people to conversion to Jesus Christ and salvation in Him. While the Evangelicals issue this clear call to conversion to Christ, the Catholics continue to talk about being welcoming, affirming, inclusive, and building the Kingdom. Nothing about salvation, grace, Jesus, etc. And as long as we keep failing to do what the Lord sent us to do, we will continue to die on the vine. God bless the bishops who have a clear sense of their mission and vocation: to proclaim Jesus as Lord and to call people to conversion and salvation.
3 January 2012 at 2:55 pm
Fred try this tripe on for size
Mission Statement
The members of the Marion Catholic Community, given life through the Holy Spirit in Baptism, are called together as a community of faith to praise and worship God our Creator and to proclaim in word and deed the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.
As members of the Body of Christ we strive to serve all to provide an atmosphere of hospitality which enables all to respond fully to the life-long challenge “to do right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
————————————-
from the Marion Catholic Community, not Marian, named from Marion TWP and the Marion Local Schools where all the parish children go, named in honor of Francis Marion, the swamp fox, a revolutionary war general from S Carolina
so our patron is a revolutionary war leader???
4 January 2012 at 7:17 pm
I don’t think it’s “regnant” in the Archdiocese, although it certainly is in some parishes. I think the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is a VERY mixed bag.
3 January 2012 at 3:29 am
As I have stated before, When Archbishop Pilarczyk said Schnurr was his first choice as replacment, my expectations dropped to about zero and nothing has happened during his time here to change that feeling.
3 January 2012 at 8:53 am
I haven’t followed +Schnurr’s progress very closely since he arrived, but my impression of him is that he is vastly different from +Pilarczyk in his attitude towards Tradition (Deo Gracias that we no longer have to listen to that garbage about the return of a “liturgical winter”) – perhaps imitating what appears to be the Pope’s “big tent” vision – but quite similar to him in terms of governance. He did, however, replace the leadership at the (Occasionally) Catholic Telegraph – or was that a result of attrition rather than his initiative? The (O)CT, though, was a lot easier to fix than Xavier.
Meanwhile, Fr. Schnippel, at least, appears to understand the direct relationship between the restoration of Tradition and the resuscitation of the (local) priesthood.
3 January 2012 at 9:11 am
Most bishops are intimidated by the Jesuits, especially here on the East Coast. This is no big secret. What IS a big secret, is why.
3 January 2012 at 1:05 pm
let us pray and continue to look at glass is half full – in regard to the vocations the past failure theme of “living with fewer preists” versus Bishop Schnurr them of growing vocations is a good sign- thanks be to God – also the current priests coming out of the seminary are good and Holy men (for most part) willing to take on the challenge and speaking from the pulpit on the Church teaching – this will bear fruit in years to come and be a force multiplier for vocations – let us affirm the good priests and laity and pray for all
3 January 2012 at 2:57 pm
wow Rich 28 replies, hit a nerve????
3 January 2012 at 3:06 pm
Father Paul Scalia once said in a homily, that as pastor, he never felt the need to craft a mission statement. “We already have a mission. It’s to win save souls and get them into heaven.” Or words to that effect. My advice to people who endure this (and I have the luxury of speaking from a distance) is that if enough people ignored these “make work” exercises (as they called them in the Army), they might not go away, but the damage would be kept to a minimum. It is the nature of bureaucracies to justify themselves for their own sakes. “Nothing to see here, move along, move along …”
4 January 2012 at 7:19 pm
I don’t know who Fr. Paul Scalia is, but I love him! I have asked people over and over why we need to have mission statements. I understand the concept, believe me. But it seems to me that — as one parish web site I read put it — “We are a Roman Catholic parish and our mission is to carry out the mission of the Church” should pretty much do it. But then, I hate anything that smacks of fads or corporate-speak.
4 January 2012 at 7:37 pm
You really should. Father Scalia is pastor of St John the Beloved Parish in McLean, Virginia, home of the only regularly celebrated Traditional High Mass in the DC area. (Oh, and I sorta work for him.) His columns for the Arlington Catholic Herald can be found here.
3 January 2012 at 3:06 pm
“We already have a mission; it’s to save souls and get them into heaven.” Yeah, that’s what I meant to type.
3 January 2012 at 4:42 pm
And just for some off-topic fun, did you catch Ken Jesus-Seminar-fanboi Overberg’s Dec, 4th homily quoting Rahner invoking the Loyal Opposition?
3 January 2012 at 5:09 pm
Yep.
http://otritt.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/her-majestys-opposition-and-his-excellencys-priorities/
4 January 2012 at 7:38 pm
Gail: I meant “regular” as in “every Sunday.”
4 January 2012 at 9:15 pm
St. Mary’s downtown also celebrates Mass in the Extraordinary Form every Sunday, as does St. John’s (although in the old Church) here in Silver Spring.
4 January 2012 at 9:19 pm
Paul, I was referring specifically to High Mass. To my knowledge, St Mary’s does not do a High Mass every Sunday. Neither does St John’s.
5 January 2012 at 3:28 pm
Sorry, my bad Dave. Yeah, St. Mary’s does a high Mass once a month, and not at all in the summer.
7 January 2012 at 1:02 am
[...] Cincinnati’s Regnocentric Clustering Plan – Rich, Over the Rhine and Into the Tiber [...]
7 January 2012 at 10:51 am
The path to the Kingdom is narrow and strewn with thorns.
7 January 2012 at 12:53 pm
The same thing is being done in the Diocese of Boise
15 March 2013 at 8:59 am
[...] passes for Social Justice is in reality a false ecumenicism that Benedict XVI identified as Regnocentrism. In a word, it’s the tyranny of “COEXIST”. In our mad zeal to be inclusive (which [...]