THE Catholic Church has no Neda (National Economic and Development Agency) equivalent. Yet, it too must analyze the pandemic’s impact on its life and plan for a new normal. It can only deny at its own peril that the pandemic has shattered long-held beliefs and practices.
Covid-19 has, like nothing else before it, immobilized the authoritarian hierarchical Catholic Church. It is challenging the religious monolith to look for its long-term survival in small self-sustaining basic Christian communities.
The people of God simply cannot continue their dependence on an elite clergy. Even during normal times, a relatively few ordained celibate clerics are simply not up to the task of ministering to the spiritual (and often also the material) needs of the faithful.
To be self-sustaining, these small Christian communities (one for every sitio would be small enough) must be trained or learn to elect from among themselves those who will preside over their liturgies of the word and of the Eucharist. The former is no problem as we already have women lectors and sermons might even be better in the form of a sharing of reflections on the readings of the day.
The Eucharist, however, needs an ordained priest. To be self-sustaining the community has to choose who among them (male, female or gay, married or single) will be sent to a seminary for training and ordination as a priest. (I am not as far gone as to advocate for the abolition of the priesthood. I am simply against a celibate clerical elite and for a democratically chosen non-celibate all-gender clergy.)
Moreover, sound Catholic theology allows some sacraments, like baptism, to be performed by the ordinary faithful. So why not give the privilege of baptizing children to their fathers, mothers or guardians. Blessings of houses and cars, etc. could also be more conveniently and inexpensively entrusted to heads of families.
The pandemic has also shot down confession of one’s sins to a priest. After all it is the sincerity of one’s contrition that merits forgiveness and not the priest’s absolution.
Even during normal times, there are too few priests to minister to the sick and dying. Thus, it would be more down-to-earth Christian to devolve the sacraments for the sick to relatives, doctors or nurses.
Of marriage we are taught that the ministers are the bride and groom. So, why does a priest have to preside over the ceremony?
There’s more but suffice it to say that Covid-19 has starkly shown that an elite clergy doesn’t cut it. The faithful need to mature and assume ownership of their Church and take responsibility for their Christian life. Christianity is not a set of beliefs but a way of life that is more fully lived in self-sustaining small Christian communities.