A Culture of Life

During his many years of service to the Catholic Church and the world, the late Pope John Paul II often spoke of the need for what he called a culture of life — a way of seeing the world that promotes human dignity, social justice and solidarity with the poor and the oppressed, both among Christians and all people of good will. This culture of life was to foster respect for human life at every stage, recognizing the special dignity of each person as a sister or brother — someone whose sufferings and whose triumphs are also our own.

While the human societies, nations, governments, communities and individuals that the pope and other religious leaders often rightly challenged to live up to this ideal of respect for human life continue to need this prophetic message, unfortunately what is less often recognized is the need for the church itself — the community of believers and its leaders — to hear and respond to this same message. While those of us who believe in God and hope to pass on something of the compassion we’ve discovered in our own lives are often capable of bearing a great deal of hope to others, we also have the capacity to do exactly the opposite. By proclaiming that we believe in the dignity of human life and then sending mixed messages about specific people or groups we actually give scandal to those who look to us for signs of hope and thus ourselves contribute to the very patterns of turning away from life, hope and dignity that we seek to mitigate and heal.

While the examples of how this tragic situation occurs are sadly many, two will suffice here for now. First, in the case of the Catholic Church, there’s the issue of justice within the church itself. Why, for example, does church leadership continue to persist in clinging to the notion that women cannot be ordained as priests, stating that women somehow cannot represent Christ at the altar since they are female and Christ was male? Why do these tired, archaic arguments continue to be employed when the very human sciences the Church aspires to no longer reactively dismiss clearly and decisively demonstrate that to be a man or woman is not a rigid, air-tight category—that women can sometimes represent values traditionally associated with men and vice versa? Unfortunately, as was the case with Galileo and others in history, the Catholic Church and other churches and religious groups tend to persist in defending outdated ways of understanding the human condition and in doing so alienate and scandalize the very people they aspire to serve, elevate and encourage.

The other clear example that comes immediately to mind is the treatment received by the LGBT community in various churches and religious groups. Again, because of uniformed, entrenched views of the Bible and/or church traditions, many religious groups and their members deny queer people of faith a place at the table, telling us we’re somehow unworthy, condemned, disordered, sinful, rejected or cast out. Of course the cruelest irony and the gravest consequence of these unthinking attitudes is that our community is then doubly condemned by these same groups and individuals when, without the nurturing environments of faith, community and support that are denied to us, we try to seek out life, hope and freedom as best we can, sometimes finding ourselves far distanced from faith in a God who loves us and occasionally losing our way and falling into situations and patterns that are neither life-giving nor integrally liberating.

As Fr. John McNeill, one of the pioneers in the movement for LGBT liberation in the Catholic Church once said: Basta, Enough ! The time is long past for all of us in churches and religious organizations to wake up and stop oppressing our own people. It is time to finally let go of our mindless persistence in antiquated ways of thinking that are neither helpful, life-giving, nor hope-inducing. It is time to cease giving scandal to those who look to us for signs of hope, freedom and peace in their lives. It is time to repent and make sincere atonement for the ways that each of us has failed to stand up for the rights and dignity of others. It is time to start building an authentic culture of life, beginning in the church itself and then moving outwards—time to affirm the dignity of all God’s daughters and sons, defending their rights and working for their integral liberation.

This is not easy and is a task that will not happen overnight. It will take generations to build up the kind of culture of life, tolerance and human dignity we are talking about here. Moreover, there is no one, set way to contribute to this goal. Each of us must examine our own hearts and consciences and allow God to guide us into the ways we can respond in our own circumstances and situations. And yet our ultimate goal is the same and is indeed our solemn task as human beings, as children of God — not to lose sight of the suffering of others but instead to allow the compassion and love we each have received to touch us, comfort us, strengthen us, set us free and empower us to bring joy, peace, hope, freedom and love to our world.

Blessings,
P. Chuck