Who is to blame for the collapse of the Catholic Church in Chile? Bishops and priests to some extent. Fathers, mothers and guardians to some extent. Catechists to some extent. But these evangelizers, in another respect, are innocent. Guilty in part and partly innocent.
In much of the traditionally Christian West, whether Catholic or Protestant, the decline in religious affiliation is accelerating. People leave their churches and communities. How far will these abandonments go? How many will still remain members of their religious groups? Let us go further: it seems that in the same traditional indigenous peoples there is an erosion in their cultures and spiritualities.
This wear and tear often leaves room for chilling dehumanizations. Beliefs dissipate, but people end up believing in dangerous novelties or end up being devoured by individualism. In matters of faith there are no empty spaces. If you do not believe in this, you will believe in that.
The phenomenon that affects us is called secularization. The prevailing culture does not need religions for people to significantly change their lives. A situation of acculturation also takes place: the cultural assumptions that made Christianity intelligible evaporate. The fact is that today’s Catholic version of Christianity has become as anachronistic as typewriters, coal locomotives, Coco Chanel hats or papyrus books. Catholicism has gradually become something alien to the times, ancient and even esoteric. Freak.
But must Christianity necessarily be anachronistic? I don’t think so. In centuries-old or millenary cultural and religious traditions – think of Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Judaism, Islam and indigenous cultures like ours, Mapuche or Aymara – there are very deep truths about the origin of life and evil, about how to live and what to expect after death, that can hardly be considered false. Even if the years go by, they will always have something very important to contribute.
Thus, Christianity is not necessarily anachronistic. There may be versions of him that are, it is true. But it is possible to think that in the future there will be other ways of organizing churches, of rethinking their beliefs and of renewing their symbols, all of which should make attractive to contemporaries the cross-cultural value of love that, for Christianity at least, is decisive. Love is a universal anthropological requirement. If any culture dispenses with it, it certainly dehumanizes. Traditionalism is anachronistic, it lives on relics, on fetishes; but the Tradition of the Church continues to this day because there have been Christians who in a creative way have been able to prove their historical relevance for two thousand years.
For now, Christianity does not have a monopoly on love – it is a matter of reviewing history, because in the name of Christ barbarities have been committed – nor does it have a monopoly on the concept of love – because other traditions and cultures, including today’s culture, have transmitted to the following generations a wisdom about how one authentically loves. In the case of Christianity, the Catholic Church is in crisis because her ways of expressing and representing her faith in the God of love (“God is love”: 1 Jn 4:8) are not in keeping with the times, are not understandable or have proved dehumanizing. The historical viability of the Church, I think, depends on whether there are Christians who, so to speak, reinterpret in the current cultural keys the parables of the Prodigal son (Lk 15:11-32) and the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37). The first speaks of a father who, like God, loves his children unconditionally. The second teaches that nothing can be gained by declaring oneself religious if one does not love one’s neighbor. Selfless, free, free, radical, extreme love like that of Jesus, in both cases, deserves to be taught until the end of the world. That there are evangelizers who narrate these stories to children in the future and, above all, who represent that father and this Samaritan with deeds rather than words, is fundamental.
Will it be enough for today’s culture to achieve the same results with other concepts and practices?
It is a fact that it does, although not in a sufficient way. Christianity contributes to this task and, therefore, its decline must be considered a loss for humanity. Stories are goodWe allow young boys and girls to fall asleep. Jesus’ parables serve both to dream and to awaken.
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The content expressed in this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
