The Demise of the Institutionalized Church: Ivan Illich Was Right

Institutional vs. Institutionalized Church 

Not the Institutional Church, the Institutionalized Church...is dead... to me. The institutional Church is the essential form, substance and structure of the Church of Jesus Christ that will endure and prevail against the gates of hell, until Christ returns in glory. That is the sacramental economy, the interior/exterior form of the life of worship and proclamation of the Gospel as centered in the Eucharist and Baptism. It requires Holy Orders, the always-male and almost-always-celibate priesthood, episcopacy and papacy. By "institutionalized" Church I mean the complex of institutions that developed under the hierarchy in the Tridintine Church over four centuries (1560-1960): schools, hospitals, orphanages, etc.

In their day, these institutions marvelously expressed the corporal and spiritual works of Mercy of the Church, under the leadership of the hierarchy. But they have outlived their day: they have become counterproductive. They now prevent the pope, bishops and priests from fulfilling their mission of announcing the Gospel and presiding over our worship.

McCarrick/Maciel Legacy 

This became clear in the catastrophic summer of 2018 and its aftermath: McCarrick, Vigano, the state priest abuse  reports, and the death penalty change to the Catechism. What followed confirmed the sad conclusion: the Vatican under Francis continues to cover-up the entire McCarrick affair. Why were sexual predators McCarrick and Maciel able to rise to the pinnacle of Church power and influence and use the hierarchical structure of the Church itself to protect and hide their perversity? Why do we even now, two years later, have no disclosure from the Vatican, no response to the damming Vigano allegations? Why are the Vatican finances perennially shrouded in darkness, secrecy and deceit?

My answer: the rise of the mega-Church-bureaucracy! McCarrick and Maciel were both expert bureaucrats, supremely skilled in the arts of fundraising, charm, diplomacy, influence wielding, administration, and power-brokering. McCarrick was my ordinary for many years: he was in a class of his own in regard to raw energy, stamina, intelligence, emotional intuition, charm, wiliness, and statecraft. Both men used their personal charm, financial resources and leadership skills to form relationships with the papal and episcopal elite. This was possible because the humongous network of bureaucratic institutions required exactly this set of skills to survive and flourish: they did not require meekness, humility, simplicity, contemplation, or spiritual wisdom. Super-Bureaucrats!

Most bishops are good men: intelligent, competent, educated, experienced, well-intended, pious and even holy men. BUT ... they have become caretakers of massive bureaucracies. That is their job. They watch over multi-million dollar complexes with boundless liability, regulatory, financial, insurance, and administrative challenges. Their focus, energy, concern is on custody and care of their institutions; we can't blame them. And so they cannot be our shepherds. The problem is sociological. A iconic case for the organizational behaviorist!

The Dallas Charter

With this policy, the bishops stripped their brother priests of all due process: a single, shaky accusation can completely destroy the life of a priest. It is a horrific thing: an accused priest, problematically or outright falsely, is thrown under the bus by his bishop. He no longer has a trustworthy father, but a hostile prosecutor. Why has this happened? The bishops are listening to their lawyers and insurance people: they are protecting their institutions from liability and litigation. This wound to the heart of the hierarchy is itself enough to merit the wholesale disenfranchisement of the episcopacy from its mega-bureaucracy.

Pusillanimity before the Pandemic

  In my Archdiocese of Newark our Churches are closed and we have no sacramental life. None at all. This is abominable! You cannot tell me there are no safe ways to have Eucharist, penance, annointing of the sick and so forth. I for one am infuriated, scandalized, and nauseated by the timidity, pusillanimity, and inertia of our bishops; by their complete lack of apostolic zeal! I saw on TV the other night a lawyer who is bringing suit against states for their extreme limitation of worship. She was asked about support from the Catholic bishops: not so much as a wink or a nod was her answer! Why are they so lethargic, indifferent about our sacramental life? There are probably many causes. They seem weak on the efficacy and importance of the sacraments: "Oh we can wait! We can presume God will provide other ways." It is hard to deny (as I did for so many years), after the McCarrick/Vigano summer of 2018 that a convert homosexual network continues to operate in chanceries and the Vatican. But these human weaknesses are always with the Church. The decisive factor in the current, catastrophic spiritual castration of the hierarchy is their stewardship of huge organizations. Someone said "They want to be with the popular kids." We might call this "The Hesburg Complex": the obsession with building strong large institutions and befriending the powers that can enable that. So, the Governor calls the Cardinal and asks for help and he is eager to play along and stay in his good graces. Surely there is also a commendable concern to limit the spread of the virus and save lives; but there is no sense of balance or proportion! Must we completely eliminate our life of worship?


Ivan Illich: Prophet of a Poor, Powerless, Purified Church 

Over 50 years ago, mid 1960s, Ivan Illich called for the Church to become poor and liberated, to give up all these institutions. I found the idea inviting at the time but dismissed it because of all the corporal and spiritual good being done by this immense network: education, health care, concern for orphans, the poor and the marginalized. The loss, I calculated, would outweigh the spiritual gain. I didn't change my mind until the summer of 2018 when I saw that the hierarchy had sold its soul to protect its institutions. Illich was indeed a Prophet!

Lay Governance

The recommendation here is not that the Church as Body of Christ and People of God stop doing the corporal/spiritual works of Mercy in structured ways; that is inconceivable! Rather, that the hierarchy give up governance to the laity, so that they can focus on their actual ministry of worship and word.

Recall the institution of the diaconate in Acts: the apostles did not want to neglect prayer and worship to monitor distribution of food so they ordained deacons. Something analogous is called for now: bishops have to relinquish control of these huge institutions so they can attend to prayer and the Word.

Lay control will not necessarily improve those institutions: they may become more incompetent, corrupt and unorthodox. The intent is not to improve those institutions: they will become worse when unbound from the Church! The intent is to free the bishops to do their real mission: preach the Gospel and preside over worship! Not to protect and  develop mega-organizations!

Historical Context

The primitive Church had the most bare-bones, minimal institutions. The medieval achievement of Christendom married Church to state, with the benefit of enhanced influence but pronounced tendencies towards corruption. This arrangement survived even to 1960 in Iberia and Latin America, but the Tridintine Church entailed an increasing detachment of Church from state that culminated in Vatican II. What greatly distinguished those four centuries (1560-1960) was a spectacular explosion of energy and fruitfulness in new, active religious orders which build schools, hospitals and places of care. The story repeats itself over and over again: a soul is called by God to solitude and prayer; then starts doing good works; then is joined by many others; and opens tens or even hundreds of institutions before dying in holiness. Examples: Ignatius of Loyola, Elizabeth Seton, Francis Cabrini, Katherine Drexel, John Bosco, John Baptist de la Salle...far too many to count. All these were under the care of the bishop or pope. This was a marvelous world of faith and charity. This is the world in which my generation (post-WWII) grew up. That world is no more. Although remnants remain.

The Emergent Church

The vigor, resplendence and fecundity of  the post-Vatican II Church involve events that combine independence from  the institutionalized Church with loyalty to the Institutional Church. Examples:
1. Mother Angelica, herself a religious, brilliantly delivered EWTN from the envious clutches of the Vatican and the American Bishops and placed it safely in the hands of an independent lay board. While not exactly infallible, that board has been on the whole more faithful to Church tradition than our bishops and our current pope.
2.  The NeoCatchumenal Way of Kiko Arguello has developed its own alternate world of institutions largely independent of the established Church. Amazingly, this "way" focuses clearly on the Word and the sacramental life, including the clergy and religious life, so they venerate the Institutional Church as they ignore the institutionalized Church.
3. Similarly the charismatic renewal centers itself in the communion with Christ through Word and Worship and has retrieved Pentecostal, Evangelical and Catholic traditions along with a freedom to develop new forms and ignore dying structures. I think here especially of Ralph Martin, Mary Healy and Renewal Ministries. Likewise, Communion and Liberation Movement has given birth to a variety of cultural, social and service organizations, supportive of but independent of the hierarchy. There is a long list of such lay-led, Spirit-driven movements and institutions.
4. The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal offer a promising paradigm. They live poverty in a real manner and do not own property. Their local friary here in Newark, Most Blessed Sacrament, was a cloistered convent for over a century but was purchased by an independent lay board, a non-profit that owns and administers it, while the friars live there and use it for their ministry. Perhaps this is the way our hierarchy should go: hand properties over to independent lay boards so they can be free to pray, study, preach and develop strong Christian Catholic communities.

The Emergent Catholic Anarchism 

Just after Theodore McCarrick was stripped of his red hat, Bill McGurn opined (WSJ, July 30, 2018) that he might be much more than another sad incident of clerical, predatory abuse of younger men; that he might be another Tetzel, the infamous friar whose sale of indulgences triggered Luther and the Protestant Reformation and restructured Christianity. At the time I shook my head skeptically: "exaggeration! It is just another sad incident." By the end of that summer, I had changed my mind: Catholicism is again changed forever. The stripping of the Catholic Church of its mega-bureaucracy has now become necessary and inevitable.

This is a radical, risky proposal. I doubt it will be welcomed in clerical, episcopal or papal circles. It means a drastic loss of power, money and influence. It may happen in the course of time. I myself will not give a dime to Archdiocesan or Vatican fund raising drives. I will not pray for their efforts. If I cursed, I would curse their efforts. I am not alone!

In the Benedict Option Rod Dreher advocated a modulated withdrawal from the mega-institutions of society (government, business, entertainment, education) in order to strengthen small, close, independent communities of faith, family and community. I take it to be a retrieval of subsidiarity, strengthening the smaller communities which themselves become the strength of the larger organizations. This needs desperately to be done for the Catholic Church. We all need to downsize. It is my hope, for example, that our children be educated in Catholic schools, but without the involvement of clergy. This is the work of the laity. Hopefully the remnants of our parochial schools and the emergent home-schooling will together provide flourishing models. The intuitions of Illich, Ellul, Day, Berry and others can encourage us to build our own small pieces of "heaven on earth" as we are guided and inspired by a powerless, impoverished and holy priesthood and episcopacy.