A Millennial Journey in Faith: Fight for the Church’s spiritual riches

This summer, I slowly made my way through Sigrid Undset’s biography of the medieval mystic, saint and unlikely papal adviser, Catherine of Siena.

At an age when her peers were pairing off to wed, Catherine secluded herself for three years to fast and pray. At the Lord’s urging, she left her cell to engage in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. She fed the hungry, clothed the naked, cared for the sick and urged sinners to repent.

Through her total dedication to the Lord, she achieved a rare level of communion with Him. Her intimacy with the Lord became evident to those around her, and many different people began to seek her advice on matters both spiritual and temporal, leading to an extensive correspondence.

Amidst the backdrop of her life, we learn of 14^th century Italy – warring city-states, corrupt intra-city politics, hired English armies and, of course, a Bishop of Rome who long lived in Avignon, France, abandoning his city for French luxury.

When Catherine was young, the papacy was already in Avignon. Catherine, drawn into the situation through her correspondence, traveled to Avignon to act as an envoy of the city of Florence and convince Gregory to return to Rome.

When she arrived at the papal courts, she saw that they were full of corrupt prelates who lived for their own comfort, many going so far as to violate their vows of celibacy. While Pope Gregory XI did not engage in the worst offenses, he, according to Undset, had an attachment to his family and to his country that was at odds with his holy office as Vicar of Christ.

Of Pope Gregory XI, Undset writes, “Although Gregory was less worldly than most of the leaders of his time, and much less revengeful than almost all his opponents, (Catherine) exhorts him to fight for the Church’s spiritual riches, and not for its temporal possessions.”

Catherine addressed the Holy Father with reverence and affection, while also urging him to devote his life to serving Christ, even when this demanded self-sacrifice. Undset, a Norwegian convert to Catholicism, writes of obstacles to understanding Catherine’s relationship to the pope.

“It is perhaps even more difficult for present-day people in Protestant lands to understand her attitude toward the two popes whom she can in the same letter call Christ-on-earth, the immortal Peter whom Christ has built His Church upon, and advise, command and admonish for their human weaknesses. For her, it was no contradiction at all, beyond the fact that all human relationships are full of contradiction,” for “no one can know whether the Holy Father has been a holy man until his death – and as it has been put in the hands of men to appoint a man as the Vicar of Christ, it is only to be expected that the voters will too often vote from impure, mean or cunning motives, for a man who will become an evil to the Church of God on earth. God will nevertheless watch over His Church, raise and restore again what mankind may ruin or soil.”

Reading this chapter of history has taken on a new meaning as the summer news cycle unfolded. Corruption, rot and evil are clearly not things of the past. There are church leaders driven not only by arrogance and ambition, but at least one – Archbishop McCarrick – by evil motives. The lay faithful are rightly scandalized by his sins and his ascension within the hierarchy.

We are angry that his abuse of seminarians was so widespread and seemingly well-known, yet he was promoted!

My thoughts turn to Pope Benedict. If he took action against McCarrick, why weren’t the penalties more severe? My husband reminds me of the Gospel of Mark when the disciples were unable to cast out a demon, but Jesus did. When asked why they were not able to cast out the demon, Jesus answers that some are only cast out through prayer and fasting.

Last week at my parish, the organ went out during the offertory hymn. There was a moment’s pause, then the congregation continued. At first, the singing was soft, but gradually more people realized we would keep singing without the organ. By the beginning of the next verse, the organ joined in again.

In the moment, it seemed that we were without the guidance of the organ for a long time, but it actually was a small fraction of the song.