The Church That I Want

It’s hot and sticky, three guitars are playing off key and they are accompanying ten
tone-deaf children. The priest gives a disastrous homily, two old ladies take up the
offering, and the altar boy is the faithful representative of the youth group, a
“boring” kid (that’s what we call the nerds in Argentina) using shoes from the 80s.
Can you think of amore depressing setting? Tell me, can you blame those who
distance themselves from the church because nothing, I mean, nothing motivates
them to go?

I never felt like going to the church until recently, in these last three weeks. Two
blocks from my new house in the United States, there is a church of the Paulist
Fathers, and they invited me to go. I thought that there was nothing to lose by trying
and so I went. The result? For the first time in my life- after having gone to
thousands of masses in various countries- I felt like this celebration had to do with
my faith. It was not just the organ, the choir perfectly tuned with various harmonies
and the care with which they celebrated. It was the priest that actually prepared his
homily. It was the homily that left me thinking. It actually left me thinking! And it
finally made me want to come back. I wanted to hear more. I wanted to learn. I
wanted to continue to think about the fundamentals of my faith!

In what moment does reason divorce itself from faith? Why has the church
turned into a vademecum (handbook) of clerical moralism that old ladies, with
rosaries clutched in their hand, repeat like parrots seated in the first benches of the
church? IN November 2011 I traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria. I spent two days traveling
around the city. I entered at least for Orthodox churches. I was very impressed to
see in all of them the priests studying in offices within the walls of the church.
Studying! I never have seen a priest studying and one can tell. Every Sunday in the
homilies you can tell.

It’s fashionable to talk about the reform of the church. Reform has nothing to do
with accepting abortion to use one example. That is never going to happen because
to accept abortion would be to renounce the founding principles of Christianity. It’s
like asking a Jewish person to accept the divinity of Christ. He would know longer be
Jewish would he? Reform should first take place in the priesthood. I don’t want my
pastor to be ignorant, to not be able to interpret a compass, an ignorant man that
instead of guiding unloads the sheep.1 I want a priest that makes me thing, that gives

1
Regarding the relation of the pastor and the sheep, Foucault introduces a concept
that he considers to be exceptional: pastoral power. For Foucault, cast institutions
created a form of power similar to the relation of a pastor with his sheep. In a flock,
the pastor takes care of all the sheep, but also attends to each one separately. The
priest as a pastor therefore, worries about the church and its faithful, seeking the
salvation of souls through the exploitation of the same by way of the sacrament of
confession. What makes the definition interesting however is that Foucault suggests
that the modern state took over the pastoral functions through the institutions that
me the fundamental values that sustain my faith. I want my priest to be sufficiently
courageous so as to question his own privilege and the role of the Church in the
world.

Therefore the reform must first take place by deconstructing many ossified
traditions that have much to do with men and little to do with God. The role of
women in the church is a burning question. I can’t explain to myself how we can go
from the witnesses of the strength of Mary and Mary Magdalene to the third rate
groups that organize “tés cató licos” or the dried up nuns that-as my mother says- do
not spread or inspire vocations because they haven’t even seen a young person
embalmed in formaldehyde.

Finally, and here is where I agree with Sandra in her argument, I do not want to be
part of a church that is more associated with power than the truth. Nor do I
want a church that pushes itself to be the official religion of states. Faith should be
freely expressed. It cannot be imposed! I don’t want a church that is marred by
corruption and pedophile scandals, a church that covers up those responsible and
condemns the victims to silence, to shame, to injustice, to oblivion.

As a Catholic, I want to be part of a thinking church that brought to the world the
concept of person and that came to redefine liberty. I want to be part of the church
that liberated the slaves from the oppression of Rome. I want to be part of the
church of St. Francis and Mother Teresa. I want to be part of the church that asks
pardon for so many of the outrages committed because of complicit silence. I want
to be part of the church that preaches with the word and teaches with moral
example. I want to be part of the church that Pope Francis, the first Argentine pope,
proposes, the church that does not the most powerful first, but the poor and most
humble of heart.

assure (a) the material reproduction of the individual life and the social body; (b)
control of the individuals; (c) the deliberate production and control of power
relations.