This document provides diagnoses of the Catholic Church from historians, sociologists, psychologists, feminists and theologians. It discusses issues like clericalism, lack of reform, complicity with political powers, dysfunctional behaviors and exclusion of women. The marks of the church - oneness, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity - are also analyzed critically in light of these issues rather than being used to assert the church's perfection.

2. “Mother Church is sick”
“hierarchology”
Disquieted when confronted
with the outside world on equal
terms.

3. “church must rely on those
who live in the world and are
versed in different institutions
and specialties…”
 Gaudiem et Spes, 44

4. DIAGNOSIS OF A CHURCH
HISTORIAN
 Reformation- reform the Church in
head and members.
 Return to the core of the Christian
faith.
 We are saved by God’s gratuitous
initiative in the person of Jesus of
Nazareth.

5.  Trent and Counter-Reformation
 “hierarchical society.
ory
 Perfect summary of the history of the Catholic Church
from Trent (1545-1563) to the Vatican II Council (1962-
1965).
 Luther, monarchs of the 17th century, Enlightenment,
French Revolution, Marx, Modernism, Socialism.
 Result- fortress.
 Vatican I
 Supernatural, unchangeable, perfect institution,
guided by a monarch, surrounded by an elite corps of
generals , with a unified doctrine, unified worship, and
unified laws.

6.  Superior institution- necessary for the salvation of
souls.
 Vatican II- renewal: polarization in the church
 Panic-stricken church officials who wanted to
return to the more secure pre-Vatican II fortress.

7. DIAGNOSIS OF A SOCIOLOGIST
 Many church leaders are allies of rich politicians- Bsp.
De dios
 Church privileges (tax exemptions) etc. – reciprocated
through its silence or actual support of dubious state
programs.
 “Respect the Church-State separation. Bishops are in-
charge of souls and thus should stay out of politics.”

8.  In Latin America, we have a capitalist society
controlled by a small elite which tries to
consolidate its power by creating strong ties with
the local church leadership, a leadership which is
partly in control of the realm of ideology. Bishops
and clergy , pampered by the rich, would tend to
create the same pattern of domination within the
Church. The clergy control the means of production
within the institution. They produce the
sacraments and rituals which are ‘consumed’ by the
laity
 Church: Charism & Power- Leonardo Boff

9.  Hegemony of the rich;
 Ecclesiastical hegemony-develops own ideology, develops
its own theology to support its power structure.
 Ideological manipulation of theology-presentation of the
four marks of the church in pre-Vatican II apologetics.

10.  Oneness- uniformity in liturgies, doctrine, laws, and
moral codes, and the following of one leader, the pope.
 Holiness- found in obedience.
 Holy-obedient religious
 Apostolicity- owned by the hierarchy. (popes and
bishops are the successors of the apostles, hence they
alone are apostolic.
 Catholicity- seen in terms of number.
 Creed- “Church is apostolic”

11. BOFF
 Re-interpretation from the point of view of the whole
people of God- concern for the poor and the
oppressed.
 Oneness- common option and mission to reach out to
the poor;
 Holiness- militant struggle to bring about justice.
 Apostolicity- resides in the whole people of God.
 Catholicity-search to bring about a new world in w/c
the universal values of justice and peace will reign.

12.  “The Church has always compromised to be at the side
of the winner.”
 “The Church is not God’s kingdom; it tries to be a sign
of the kingdom.
 Christianity- reduced to one unique and exclusive
expression of dogma’ laws, liturgy and power
structures

13. DIAGNOSIS OF A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGIST
 Matthew Fox- behavior patterns of church leaders:
dysfunctional family.
 Addict-try to hide the fact from anyone outside their
limited family circle.
 No outside professional help is sought (suffer in
silence).
 Pattern- dysfunctional organization.
 Fortress Church of the Post-Enlightenment era and the
post Vatican II recreate such fortress-example of
dysfunctional organization.

14. CHARACTERISTICS
 Obsession with power and sex;
 Grandiosity;
 Desire to control everything;
 Loss of memory;
 Failure to focus on one mission;
 Refusal to engage in self-criticism;

15. DIAGNOSIS OF A FEMINIST
AUTHOR
 JCT- impregnated with a male bias w/c define women
as secondary and inferior members of the human
species.
 “cursed be the man who teaches his daughter Torah.”
 Early Christian tradition which did not permit a
woman “to teach or to have authority over men; she is
to keep silent.” (1 Tim. 2:12)
 Prevented women w/in the church to become shapers
of religious culture.

16.  Not the whole of the Christian story:
 Men and women are equal in the image of God and
restored to that equality through baptism in Christ
(Gal. 3:28)
 Foreign prophecy- to set lose the demands for women’s
equality.
 Deaf:
 Insensitivity of the leadership of the Church for
issues:

17.  Clerical celibacy;
 Hierarchical control over women religious;
 Divorce;
 reproductive rights;
 Homosexuality;
 Ordination of women.

18. MARKS OF THE CHURCH
 Defining characteristics of the church, stated in the
creeds of christendom.
 Four adjectives- notes/marks

19. ONE
Disunited at the institutional level.
Apparent tension: theoretical belief
in ‘one church’ and the observable
reality of a plurality of churches.

20. IMPERIALIST APPROACH
 One empirical, observable church- deserves
to be known and treated as the true church.
 All others are pretenders to the title
 Vatican I
 Vatican II- recognized others Christian
churches as “separated” Christian brothers
and sisters.

21. PLATONIC APPROACH
 Fundamental distinction between the
empirical church and the ideal church.
 Better interpreted along escathological
lines.

22. ESCHATOLOGICAL APPROACH
 Present disunity in the church will be
abolished in the last day.
 Present situation is temporary and will
be resolved at the time of
eschatological fulfillment.

23. BIOLOGICAL APPROACH
 Historical evolution of the church is likened
to the development of the branches of a
tree.
 Different empirical churches seen as
possessing an organic unity, despite their
institutional differences.

24.  Ubi Christus, ibi ecclesia
 Unity of the Church: Christ rather than historical or
cultural factor.
 NT: diversity of local churches is not regarded as
compromising the unity of the church.
 Possesses unity throughout its common calling from
God which expresses itself in different communities in
different cultures and situations.

25.  “Unity” must not be understood
sociologically or organizationally,
 ‘THEOLOGICALLY’
 Unity of the church is grounded in the
saving work of God in Christ

26.  “The unity of the church presupposes a multiplicity
of churches; the various churches do not need to
deny their origins or their specific situations; their
language, their history, their customs and
traditions, their way of life and thought, their
personal structure will differ fundamentally, and no
one has the right to take this from them. The same
thing is not suitable for everyone, at every time,
and in every place.
 The Church- Hans Küng

27.  Essentials common to the whole church of
God;
 Distinctive features lie in its application of
the Gospel to a specific historical situation.
 Fundamental unity of the Christian church,
while noting the need for adaptation to local
circumstances.

28. HOLY
 ‘morality’, ‘purity’, ‘sanctity’
 Bear little relation to the behavior of fallen human
beings.
 Kadad- “being cut off”; “being separated”
 Strong overtones of dedication
 People are “holy” in that they are dedicated to God.
 Church- separated from the world, in order to bear
witness to the grace and salvation of God.
 Theological not moral

29. CATHOLIC
Universal & all-embracing church-
underlies and undergirds
individual local churches.
Local church was the
representative of the universal
church.

30.  A church which is orthodox in its theology
 Strongly prescriptive and polemical tone.
 “Catholicism” is now contrasted with “schism” and
“heresy”
 Individuals place themselves outside the boundaries of
a doctrinally orthodox church.

31.  A church which extends throughout the
world.
 1st phase of the Christian church-
implausible (localized character)
 Strongly missionary character led to the
expansion of the church throughout the
Mediterranean.

32. Senses of katholikos
 The church is thus called “catholic” because it is spread
throughout the entire inhabited world (oikumenei), from
one end to the other, and because it teaches in its totality
(katholikos) and without leaving anything out every
doctrine which people need to know relating to things
visible and invisible, whether in heaven and earth. It is also
called “catholic” because it brings to obedience every sort
of person-whether rulers or their subjects, the educated
and the unlearned. It also makes available a universal
(katholikos) remedy and cure to every kind of sin
 Cyril of Jerusalem

33.  “The church is catholic, universal, first with respect to
place, because it is throughout the entire world (per
totum mundum), against the Donatist. This Church,
moreover, has three parts. One is on earth, another is
in heaven, and the third is in purgatory. Secondly,, the
cburch is universal with respect to the condition of
people, because no one is rejected, whether master or
slave, male or female. Thirdly, it is universal with
respect to time. For some have said that the church
should last until a certain time, but this is false,
because this church began from the time of Abel and
will last to the end of the world.”
 Thomas of Aquinas

34.  Catholic- retained the central and universally
recognized elements of Christian doctrine.
 Maintained continuity with the apostolic church at the
level of teaching by eliminating non-biblical practices.

35. APOSTOLIC
 Originating from the Apostles; having a direct link
with the apostles.
 Some one who was commissioned by Christ, and
charged with the task of preaching the good news of
the kingdom
 Someone who was a witness of the risen Christ, or to
whom Christ revealed himself as risen.

36. Apostolicity
 Planted in the world by the Apostles;
 Adhering to the teachings of the Apostles; (expressed
in Creeds) (Apostolic writings);
 Carrying on the succession of the Apostolic ministry