Despite the imperfections of all individual Catholics - including popes, prelates and priests - it is this body of believers that claims to fully and authoritatively maintain and teach the truth about Christ.

The mandate to the Apostles and their successors could not be clearer:
"Go teach all nations, baptising in the name of the father and the son... and I shall be with you until the end of the world.""He who listens to you listens to me...whose sins you shall forgive are forgiven, whose sins you shall retain are retained."
Mighty power indeed, if you believe that Christ is God incarnate.

It is no wonder that believers throughout two millennia have hesitated to oppose those who quoted such authority, even when priests and bishops began to think it their duty to organise every aspect of everyday life. No wonder also that a number of those who wielded such power failed to realise their own limitations, and the limitations of the authority given them, and slipped into the imperious mode of the ‘rulers of this world’.

Such church leaders (and sycophantic followers) must be forgiven of course, but even now there is a hankering among some in the Church for a return of such power, to a certainty of faith and obedience to perceived norms of Christianity. It would make such a tidy world, easier to manage.

There is a failure among those who generally regard themselves as orthodox (i.e. right) in that they appear to be unable to recognise the limitations of the commission given by Christ. Some appear to believe that Christ - true God and true man and possessing "all authority in Heaven and earth" - has passed on this absolute authority to His Church.

Sinful, wayward humanity, such people believe, mistakenly rejects this untrammelled, limitless authority - which the Bishops, as successors of the Apostles, share fully with Christ, through his gift.

I am a believer, a daily Mass goer who accepts the authority of the Bishops as successors of the Apostles. I do not, however, accept that bishops and priests have total authority over me, or anyone else for that matter. Such an attitude beggars belief!

The real authority the church has is to feed humanity with the truth about creation and redemption - Christ’s saving power for good and against evil, including the ultimate evils of sinful rebellion and death, and the sublime fulfilment of bodily resurrection to eternal life. The central magisterium of the church on earth cannot have power to legislate and rule over and direct every aspect of individual life.

Teaching authority within the church is finally vested in the church magisterium (which I understand to be all of the bishops in conclave - nothing more or nothing less). These are the successors of the apostles, to whom Christ said, "He who hears you hears me". Everything that is taught by this body I accept as truly authoritative.

[The "Catechism of the Catholic Church", provides an exhaustive and somewhat overwhelming summary of Church teaching. Should only really be used for reference and enquiry.]

FREEDOM

The magisterium is not a special elite with insight, placed on high, with an unruly, illiterate mob below. No. They have been told by the Lord God incarnate that they, individually and collectively, are to be servants of the people. Even should individuals be in error they must be treated gently. Churchmen are not to sit in judgement and have been specifically instructed not attempt to root out the weeds from the productive crop " ...because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it." (Mt.13:29)

Isn’t it a curious and dreadful thing that some who wish above all to be servants of Jesus could forget this injunction? The horrors of the mediaeval Inquisition would never have taken place if those in authority had heard what Jesus said, listened to Him and obeyed Him.

Hopefully the proud and thoughtless spirit of dogmatic certainty and intolerance that instigated such pogroms will never be repeated, but there are no guarantees that ecclesiastical power will never again be abused. Vigilance is necessary - especially in the minds and hearts of priests and bishops.

God has given individuals the gift of freedom, and even where beliefs are mistaken this great gift must be respected. Error must be refuted, truth clearly stated and consistently argued, but browbeating force and coercion is anathema. My God-given freedom to think, to search after truth, to grow in understanding, to freely love my Creator, could be so obstructed (despite beneficent intentions) that the tendency would be to negate the purpose of God’s creation with respect to me.

I am not an empty vessel to be filled by sets of propositions by which I am to be saved. I am a person made in the likeness of God, in that I have a capacity to know and love. These capacities are capable of being enlightened and enlarged through loving faith in a man who is also God. Forceful imposition is quite contrary to love, for love is essentially a free gift of self. Should a man think that he understands perfectly and require people to see things in an identical manner he runs the risk of living in grave error, and thereby diminishing himself. We are not to be remade in the image and likeness of any pope, prelate or priest.

We are to be directly remade by Christ Himself, in His own living likeness. The Christian’s main job is to indicate that this is so and how it may come about. His job is not to rule or control or demand total conformity with the norms that he perceives. As the first pope wrote "Never be a dictator over any group that is put in your charge...." (1 Peter 5.3)

It is the job of a responsible and knowledgeable believer - be he bishop, priest, layman or woman - to reassure his fellows that God, perfectly expressed in Christ, loves each one of us with undying and powerful love.

The individual who would seek to impose conformity with a prescriptive and exhaustive list of moral and theological notions runs the risk of being mistaken, as well as ineffective. Even in Ireland, where I live and where an old fashioned concept of Church Authority is still uncomfortably and residually present, priests and bishops are beginning to return to the fundamental necessity of calling for a personal love and understanding of the person of Jesus, rather than insist that priority be given to an exact and detailed interpretation of Church and Canon Law.

The revised attitude is healthy. It is the only way that people stand a chance of being refreshed by the living truth, God Incarnate.
A holy and loving priest speaking the truth he understands in a personal way has much greater effect than a dutiful, impersonal ecclesiastical civil servant who is perhaps fearful of distorting an abstract compendium of truth, and is unaccustomed to revealing his own personal faith and understanding.

Personally I am much impressed when I hear someone admit that his understanding is limited, and then attempt to lead me to knowledge of what he does and does not understand. It stimulates thought, clarifies the limits of human knowledge and deepens my faith and understanding.
I should add here that I have a great respect for the highly motivated men who have given up much to follow Christ. Faults all priests have, as every Catholic knows, but their intention and devotion is clearly seen in every parish throughout the world - certainly in every part I have visited. Together with the people of God they are the light of the world, a city seated on a mountain top, reminding people of the existence of God, of the person of Christ. Don’t misunderstand me! I do not think that all Catholics are great. Quite the contrary. It is amazing that, despite personal inadequacies and idiocies the light of Christ shines through such a body of people. It is God’s doing that there is one visible body, directly traceable to Him.

I would simply implore priests to more readily reveal their personal love for and understanding of Christ - to the same extent as they express their obedience to the magisterium of "The Church".

OBEDIENCE

The man who abandons all personal thought, and the prayer that flows from it, makes a poor servant of Christ.

In fact, had anyone been independent enough and courageous enough to speak out against inquisitorial activities in the Middle Ages he would have been doing a great service to Christ and the Church. No doubt he would have been castigated, judged by his superiors to be lacking in obedience - perhaps accused of heresy and suffered imprisonment, and possibly a brutal death - conceived in hell and executed by those who believed themselves to be Christ's servants. But such a man would have been obedient to the truth of Christ and his merciful love.

Blind obedience is a ridiculous thing. It is not what Christ practised. He clearly understood what he was doing when he was obedient to the truth, to his destiny, to his unseen Father. It is the same Father that Christ wishes us to know, in Him and through Him, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Anything less than this will not do. We have to recognise Jesus in the beggar as well as the bishop, in people rather than precepts.

A TRUE GUIDE

I have made much of the dangers of empty-headed obedience to church authority. I would fail the truth, run the risk of doing great disservice, if I failed to point out the genuine authority the church possesses and the great benefit of the magisterium.

Christ Himself has guaranteed that He will be with His church until the end of time "... make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.' (MT 28:20)

By the blessing and with the authority of Christ the Church will teach the truth without fail.

From this comes the doctrine of Papal Infallibility: that Peter (formerly Simon) in union with the rest of the Church, will never fail to teach the truth about Christ. "....I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail, and once you have recovered, you in your turn must strengthen your brothers." (Lk. 22:32)

Individual bishops, including successive bishops of Rome, are as prone to error as anyone else. As individuals we are liable to make mistakes, be unsure of certain aspects of Christian teaching.

Reference to the teachings of the Church as expressed and defined through the magisterium of the Church during the past two thousand years is a clear aid to understanding the great truths about the nature of Christ, the inner being of God, and all aspects of His dealings with us. 'Anyone who listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects me, and those who reject me reject the one who sent me.' (Lk. 10:16)

DAY TO DAY MINISTRY

Almost without exception I have discovered the priests I have consulted to be ready to help in whatever way possible. The trouble is, occasionally, as I have mentioned above, that there is a tendency to follow a party line, to fear revealing any possible personal confusion or inadequacy, or lack of clarity in Church teaching.

Such men, such priests, must, I believe, be prepared to reveal their doubts as well as their certainties - the fact that they too are human and frail - if they are to give an adequate lead to fellow members of the Body of Christ. All must come to know the reality of the person of Christ, in Spirit and in truth, not merely repeat Church dogma. It is vital that all believers to be converted heart and mind towards loving and understanding the living person of Christ in a deep and personal way, and to be ready to reveal this understanding - and its limits - clearly and unequivocally.

Mere lip service and quotation of abstract authority is not enough.
When priests use such referential terms as "the Church" there is a temptation to think only of the magisterium of the Church.

The magisterium, i.e. the Bishops in conclave, is only one section of the Church, and cannot be separated from the Body of Christ, those already in Heaven as well as those struggling for virtue.

Jesus is my God and saviour. I owe faith, obedience and service to Him. Peter is my guide and my mentor - as long as his name is not Borgia!

Membership of Christ’s body is a great privilege, a great gift. The demand is that I always look for truth, be ready, even, in brotherly love "to withstand Peter to his face", should it be necessary.

I am not another Paul. I have no special mandate from Jesus. I simply know that, in common with all who have learned to believe, been given the full gift of faith, I will be taken by Him into Himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and be burned free by His love.

I depend entirely upon Him, fed by His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, through the ministration of his priests. This does not mean that I have to close my mind to the fact that a few priests are idiots*, all are limited, some are ecclesiastical zombies, and in common with all humanity - every single one of us - all are prone to sin and error.

In the deep darkness of the faith that He has given to believers - a darkness that is sometimes full of light and joy - the living Lord Jesus leads us into the Way, the Truth and the Life that is fully summed up only in Him. May He and His Father send forth their Holy Spirit, the burning fire of love, the whisper in our conscience, to enlighten our minds and lead us out of the blinding and debilitating effects of sin.
Amen. So be it! Christ will do exactly this, provided we rest in the Faith that He has given, do the good work that we see, and allow His Spirit to take charge. It ain't easy - but it is a fact! Thanks be to God!
To whom else should we go?

* I thought of modifying this, to be polite. But then I asked myself, "Why should I?" "There are clergy who are idiots." Ask any Bishop!