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S1E5: Correcting Authority Figures · Mentoring In Ministry

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  Welcome to the Mentoring in Ministry podcast. In each
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  episode, we approach various catechetical
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  topics from different perspectives.
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  I'm Drake McCalister. I'm with Scott Sollom.
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  And we're doing catechetical conversations
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  today, answering commonly asked questions
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  that catechists like you might be asking out
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  in the field. So Scott, I'm glad you decided to take the
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  tough question here because that's
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  really what we're talking about here is what happens when
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  you're a catechist and you see
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  somebody in a position of authority, Pope,
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  maybe a bishop, maybe your parish priest,
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  say something that might not be accurate or maybe is
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  straight out error, something not
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  true. How do you go about managing that with those you
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  catechize by way of sorting out
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  that so they understand the truth but respecting the
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  authority of the overseer? But also, what
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  about those maybe you've released some catechists and now
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  they're also maybe not accurately
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  teaching the faith. How do you go about navigating these
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  potentially volatile situations?
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  Great question. What comes to mind first is context. And
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  I'm thinking in regards to someone
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  comes in and says, " Hey, the pastor said this. What do you
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  think? " Before I maybe even said
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  what I think, I would actually probably find out what the
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  context was. I might defer and say
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  something like, " It'd be really good to understand the
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  context and what the pastor was thinking. "
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  And I'd have to hear it in its full well-rounded version of
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  the discussion because just one little
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  tidbit might not be enough for me to understand what was
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  actually happening. So context really
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  matters. In fact, this reminds me, this is a couple of
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  years ago now, but when Pope Francis was just
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  entering his pontificate and he said something along the
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  lines of, this isn't a direct quote,
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  but I know you remember this, he said something like, " The
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  church can't be obsessed with her moral
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  teachings. " And people hit the roof because my goodness, I
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  mean, I had friends who were working
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  for various organizations whose sole existence was helping
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  to teach and clarify and in some cases
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  helped to put into the undergirding the actual law
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  regarding say marriage and what the heck? Of
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  course, what do you mean? Is he saying we don't have moral
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  teachings? Is he saying that doesn't
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  matter for moral teachings? And then when you backed up and
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  actually saw what he said in its
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  context, what he was saying is in relationship, getting to
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  know people, spreading the good news,
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  they understand who Jesus is, then and only then are they
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  ready to hear in a kind of a personal
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  conversional way the moral teachings of the church. As
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  opposed to if you just run around and hit people
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  ahead saying, wrong, bad, naughty, try Jesus, that's not
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  going to work. And so he was just making
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  this the most basic observation about how evangelization
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  works. It's slow and in stages,
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  it's personal. You teach the good news, you give witness.
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  And then when they're ready, the moral
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  teachings will actually matter to them and they can take
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  them on. So the context there made all
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  the difference in the world, but it went around the
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  cyberspace for a full week at least about what
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  this actually meant and whether or not this was going to be
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  something heretical or damaging. And
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  it need not be the case, which is maybe the second point
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  that I would make. The first place is
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  context. And the second point is just not to kind of run
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  around with our hair on fire at, oh my gosh,
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  this is the end of the world. The church is going to hell
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  in a handbasket because I think this
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  Bishop I heard from a friend who saw on some other website
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  in the blog that a Bishop said this,
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  and now we're all up in arms because he didn't say it the
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  way I'd want him to say it. But rather to
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  understand that the church actually won't change, the
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  teachings won't change because Christ doesn't
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  change. And so you don't want to get into the mode of
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  running around like Chicken Little, the sky is
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  falling because someone said something that might not have
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  been accurate. Rather understand that the
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  truth will prevail. The Holy Spirit's there to guard the
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  truth. And so to understand it pastorally
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  in a way that you don't kind of fly off the handle. That
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  being said, of course, you're going to need to
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  and you have to take the time to set straight whatever
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  needs to be set straight. And that'll
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  be different depending on your relationship to the people
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  who are involved. So for example,
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  I've never had a situation like this, but I can imagine if
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  it was something with my boss or my
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  boss would happen to be the pastor, I would very much want
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  to very deferentially and only in a
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  one on one situation express what I had heard and have him
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  have an opportunity to say something back
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  about what he actually said. And sometimes you just have
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  one or two words makes a significant
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  difference in a particular teaching. And it might be an
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  opportunity just to say very humbly,
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  you know, we might want to revisit how we say this because
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  this word here or that word there,
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  you know, makes this bit of a difference. And but anyways,
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  it's a very not in a social setting,
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  not in a public setting to go ahead and
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  try to have that personal conversation. Now,
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  that being the case, if it's a catechist who has now gone
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  out and perhaps told an entire audience
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  of confirmation parents, 140 of them on a Thursday night,
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  something that was actually incorrect.
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  It is our duty to make sure that those 140 people
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  understand what was actually the case and what the
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  actual truth is, so that they don't walk away having been
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  misguided, which is one of the key,
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  of course, jobs of the catechist and those who are in
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  charge of catechist to make sure that the truth
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  and all its integrity, all its rigor, all its vigor is
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  given in a heartfelt, you know, loving manner.
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  And so that can be done in a number of ways. I would first
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  of all go to the pastor and say,
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  here's what happened. How do we go ahead and kind of go
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  back and revisit this with these people?
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  Maybe there'll be another
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  confirmation meeting after Christmas, same group.
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  Let's just revisit this, walk this back, that kind of
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  thing. Maybe you send a letter,
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  whatever the case might be. But it is the case that we have
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  to, on the one hand, not kind of
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  pretend the sky is falling and make it too big of a deal.
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  And on the other hand, know that the truth
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  matters. Truth compels and people have a right to the
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  truth. And so whatever you have to do to get
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  the truth out, you have to do. Finally, I would just say,
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  again, a stitch in time saves nine.
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  So as you're doing catechist training, if you have a
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  catechist who you know isn't able because
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  they're not ready to believe, hold true, or profess
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  something that the Catholic Church
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  most certainly does hold to be revealed by God, then that's
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  okay for them personally. But they
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  need to step back for a little while from their
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  catechetical endeavors until they're ready to give
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  kind of a full proclamation of the goodness that Christ has
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  revealed. And that can be done in a
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  very loving way that you're concerned for
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  them. And at the same time, because of your
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  job and making sure that the truth is transmitted to make
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  sure that they're not out and about
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  teaching falsities. Yeah, well said. A good sense of
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  balance, perspective, context is so important,
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  especially with our media when it comes to public religious
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  figures. They are skewing things all the
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  time. And I think too with the catechists that are under
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  us, many times, in fact, I would say more
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  often than not, errors given by those under us often are
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  not intentional. They maybe just don't
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  quite know how to articulate the faith and they actually
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  aren't trying to be a modalist and deny
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  the Trinity, but they just get tripped up in the words. And
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  so that's where the context that you've
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  said and the balance is important. Is this something that
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  really needs to be addressed?
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  Is it a major error? Was it something that
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  really just kind of went over people's heads?
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  Is so important and really being pastoral in all those
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  decisions. So thank you, Scott. Thank you.