Positive parallels between the Commonwealth and the Church.
How do you hold together a large multinational association of highly diverse peoples in the modern world? That is a question with which many Catholic leaders are grappling at present, in various different ways. Consider the often furious debates around 2019’s Amazon synod. These debates focused on the limits of the “inculturation” of doctrine and liturgy – the extent to which particular cultures’ non-Catholic norms and traditions should be allowed to influence and form their practice of the faith. Alternatively, we might look at the ongoing tensions between the ageing, uncertain Churches of Europe – notably Germany, where the Synodal Way has exposed wide and deep dissent – and the vibrant, growing countries in the Global South.
Perhaps we have lessons to learn from other long-standing organisations. A recent book called The Enduring Crown Commonwealth, by the Canadian academics Michael J Smith and Stephen Klimczuk-Massion, reflects on the past, present and future of the British Commonwealth. They have a particular focus on Britain and what were once known as the Dominions – Canada, New Zealand and Australia – but they do also discuss the many other member states (more than a quarter of all countries on the planet are members, accounting for more than two billion people).
As the authors make clear, the Commonwealth is a successful organisation in many respects, promoting good government, the rule of law and international fraternity among nations who do not always have obvious shared interests. And yet it also faces significant challenges. These include the rise of radical anti-monarchy and anti-colonial ideologies, shifts in the global balance of power and the decline of British power, and demographic changes in Britain and the former “white Dominions” which weaken the instinctive feelings of kinship among the so-called CANZUK alliance.
All these difficulties have their parallels in the Catholic Church. We too must adapt to a world where the old certainties and the old verities no longer apply – indeed, are often treated with contempt and incomprehension by powerful people. There is a similarity between the diminished international status of Britain after the world wars and the end of empire, and the diminished reputation and authority of the Church after the challenges of the last century or so: the rise of atheism, the social revolutions of the 1960s, and the abuse crisis.
To a certain extent, both London and Rome have had to reinvent their public images and self-understanding. The British government became, instead of the undisputed head of a vast empire, an equal if leading member of a community of nations explicitly founded as a brotherhood of equals. The Church, meanwhile, has engaged in an ongoing reflection on how to relate to the modern world, with its hostility to religious authority and its obsessive privileging of the desiring individual self. Pope John Paul II said in his 1990 encyclical Redemptoris Missio that: “The Church proposes; she imposes nothing.” It is hard to imagine a pope from the 19th or early 20th centuries saying such a thing. This is a distinct change in emphasis and tone, if not in doctrine, just as Pope Francis’s emphasis on reaching out to peripheral peoples, like indigenous Amazonian groups, is an outworking of a changed conception of the Church’s status.
In the later sections of The Enduring Crown Commonwealth, its authors note a recent modest resurgence of the Commonwealth and its ideals after the challenges of the post-colonial periods; a renewed affection for Queen Elizabeth II and her successor King Charles, and a renewal of diplomatic and military ties between Britain and her allies in the face of potential enemies such as China. They are cautiously optimistic about the future, noting that the political inheritance of the English-speaking world – open societies, representative government, freedom of speech and thought, and due process – are more important than ever.
Catholics should also adopt this measured hopefulness about the future. We of course have an ultimate hope, for a time when justice will be done in full and there will be no more weeping. But even in worldly terms, we have reason to think that despite deep divisions and a current low ebb in many parts of the world, we have the resources for a revival. Often in Christian history, periods of difficulty have been followed by periods of dynamism and vibrancy. In early medieval times, the Church of the catacombs and the martyrs raised up saints and artists and great monuments to the faith that still stand today.
Recently, I visited St Martin’s in Canterbury, the oldest church in the English-speaking world, parts of which date to Roman times. It was the base for the Augustinian mission to the Anglo-Saxons, and King Ethelbert of Kent is said to have been baptised there. I thought then of Pope Benedict XVI’s inaugural homily: “The Church is alive. And the Church is young. She holds within herself the future of the world and therefore shows each of us the way towards the future.”
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.