Neil Darragh describes how Christian beliefs such as participation, collaboration, justice and transparency will help us change the clerical culture of the Church.

“Clericalism” is a term that has been tossed around a good deal recently, usually as an accusation. In Catholic circles, this is partly perhaps a result of Pope Francis’s frequent attacks on the “danger/scourge/plague” of clericalism as a terrible evil in the modern Church. Partly, too, in society at large, the abuse of power has become less acceptable and more often reported.

Broadly speaking, clericalism refers to the abuse of power by any person with authority in the Church. Behind it lies a false sense of “entitlement” and an attachment to power and privilege. It encourages an obsession with ladder-climbing and obedience. Since nearly all ordained priests in the Catholic Church are male celibates, it also encourages male chauvinism.

Claims to power and privilege are not of course confined to priests. It is a kind of elitism that was inherent in the idea of belonging to an upper class. In more recent times we have learnt how it has infected the extravagantly wealthy, celebrities and government ministers, as well as the medical and legal professions. Likewise, clericalism is the particular form of elitism that we find in the Church. The tragedy here is that it has become increasingly common, or at least increasingly obvious, among ordained clergy today.

The best definition of clericalism that I am aware of is that of American theologian Raymond Helmick. He describes clericalism as the sense of privilege of ordained clergy, the sense of being set apart, better than those one deals with, entitled to deferential treatment and even submission from others. This sense has often been inculcated from the beginning of the priest’s training and is an expectation built up in the actual life of the priest.

A Pyschological Personality Problem

The issue of clericalism is often treated as a psychological problem. It is regarded as a personality dysfunction that appears in some priests once they have been placed in leadership positions which normally attract respect from other people. This personality dysfunction may come out in the form of authoritarianism, bullying, an inability to cooperate with other people, a sense of belonging to a superior caste and a lack of insight into one’s own limitations. The clericalist priest has an urge to control; especially to control the conduct of worship of which he sees himself as the guardian. He also sees himself as the controller of the beliefs and practices of his congregation. “I am the parish priest” is a statement intended to conclude any arguments. This sense of identity with a superior caste comes out not only in overbearing human relations but also in a preference for distinctive dress fashions, both everyday (clerical collar and suit) and liturgical (splendid, flowing vestments).

An Institutional Problem

Yet clericalism is not just a personality problem. It also has an institutional character as embedded in the structures of the Church itself. We are dealing here, then, not just with personality disorders but with a clerical “culture”.

Most of the time, the priest himself (unless he has some good, honest friends and relations) doesn’t even notice the operations of this clerical culture. Many years ago, when I was a young priest involved in a youth group of the time (when priests were younger and youth groups older than today), the youth group leaders organised an end-of-year celebration in a local eatery. Like all such youth celebrations there had to be an element of novelty which in this case was that the priest (me) wore ordinary street clothes while two of the more mature-looking male youths wore clerical collars and suits. One of the things that surprised me (I was young and innocent in those days) was how much deference the restaurant staff (with no known church affiliations) paid to the two clerically-dressed youth. They were treated as spokesmen for the group and their opinions regarded as group decisions. The two young “clerics” enjoyed enormously all this attention and deferment. This was an unconscionably false presentation to the restaurant but none of us was alert to that at the time.

This clerical culture is fed by a theology which exaggerates the priest’s (and even more so the bishop’s) role as “another Christ”. It emphasises the importance of the ordained priesthood while diminishing the priesthood of all the baptised. Empowered by this superior rank, his special training and the power of the clerical brotherhood, the clericalist priest overrides or suffocates nearly all the normal, varied ministries of a Christian community. He closes off opportunities for church members to exercise their ministries or else he fails to provide any adequate information or training. Attempts by lay members of the Church to exercise a liturgical or pastoral ministry within the Church (they can do it outside) becomes a threat to the “priesthood” of the ordained priest. He feels his priesthood “diminished” by other people doing what he does, especially if they do it better.

A clerical culture is clerics self-absorbed. The solution to clericalism requires much greater participation of the laity in all aspects of the Church’s life. It requires a commitment to collaborative ministry rather than line management. A priest’s success in his role is measured, then, by his ability to empower a variety of other ministries, liturgical, pastoral, educational and administrative within the local Church. It means, too, that the local parish as a whole is focused outwards towards social justice and an integral ecology rather than inwardly absorbed by its own survival and the salvation of its own members.

Lay Support of Clericalism

Clericalism, however, is not just something that afflicts priests, bishops and deacons. A clerical culture embedded in the structures of the Church survives because other people, lay people, approve or collude with it. It is a sociological or cultural phenomenon which even those priests who disapprove of it often fail to see in their own congregations.

Once we are alerted to it, it is not too difficult to recognise whether or not our own parish (faith community) is submerged within a clericalist culture. We can try a simple test here by responding “yes” or “no” to the following statements:

• In our parish, the priest (or deacon) is the only one who gives the homily at Sunday Eucharists

• Our parish liturgies almost always refer to God as if God were male (Lord, Father, he, his, etc.)

• Our parish priest reminds us from time to time that he is our shepherd and we are like sheep

• The priest is in charge of everything in our parish

• We always call our priest “Father”

• We do not have any “lay presiders” who can lead liturgies (funerals, house blessings, weekday liturgies, etc.) in our parish

• There are no regular in-service training programmes for lay ministers in our parish

• We have no parish pastoral or mission council, or, our parish council is ineffective

• When our parish priest is away on a Sunday he always calls in an outside priest to say Mass

• Our parish priest is too busy with his church obligations to become involved in social justice or environmental issues.

Real Change Necessary

If we say “yes” to most of these propositions, then we are thoroughly entrenched in a clericalist Church. We may prefer it that way of course. If not, the way out of it is, in principle, quite well established. It lies within the basic Christian beliefs about participation, collaborative ministry, justice, honesty and transparency.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 234 February 2019: 12-13