stayed to evangelize the people and give basic religious instruction. Before long San Miguelito had its own impressive baroque Church and a lively devotional life. The friars baptized, o ff e red daily Mass and celebrated the liturgies for marriages and burials. When political changes took place, the friars were called back to the city. Yet each year on the feast of St. Michael, one of them would make the journey, baptize many babies,
gent and personable. His neighbors recognized his obvious leadership qualities. Pablo, with his wife and children, became the first persons in town to accept the new religion, reading the Bible every day, giving up the potent local “firewater” and leading the prayers and hymns at the Sunday service and Wednesday night Bible study. The Americans then arranged for Pablo to attend an Assembly of God Bible college in
Because of the priest shortage, numerous Catholics find it difficult, even impossible, to receive sacramental absolution for sin, the anointing of the sick, and, most importantly, the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Mass.
hear confessions, solemnize marriages, celebrate Mass, and finally lead a p rocession with the statue of the patron of the town through the stre e t s and plaza. Exhausted, he would then ride his horse back to the city. As the years went by, this holy day developed into a colorful and rowdy fiesta, the religious and social high point of the year. But it was, after all, only one day out of 365. And with fewer vocations to the Franciscans and even fewer to the diocesan priesthood, the possibility of a resident pastor became even more remote. One day, a Protestant missionary team from Texas arrived in the village. They rented a house and went fro m door to door making friends and handing out literature, especially nicely illustrated copies of the New Testament. Since most of the people had trouble reading, they also off e red Christian songs, which they taught to the children and broadcast in the evening over their loudspeakers. But these industrious and vigoro u s young Americans had no intention of remaining in the village fore v e r. They quickly made the acquaintance of Pablo, a young married man, the father of two sons, who clearly was intelli-
22
BOSTON COLLEGE
|
the capital for some intensive courses in scripture and in preaching. A simple but attractive little chapel was built at the edge of town. When Pablo re t u rned with his certificate in Bible studies, he was named the pastor. Thus, a new Assembly of God c o n g regation, one of hundreds, came to be established. With a re s i d e n t pastor who was rooted in the community, educated (but not overe d u c a t e d ) , zealous, and involved in the life of the village, preaching sermons in the local dialect, it is not a surprise that this new Protestant congre g a t i o n quickly grew. When the Catholic priest next came to San Miguelito for his yearly visit, there was a clear lack of interest in what he had to say. Even if a celibate priest could be found to go and live in a remote village like San Miguelito, he comes as an outsider, an “intellectual” with a university and seminary training. He has read Aquinas and Bonaventure, perhaps Rahner or Ratzinger. With whom can he talk? Where is the intellectual stimulus? With neither a wife nor children, how long before boredom and loneliness lead him to alcohol, eccentricities, or sex? Pablo, on the other hand, “fits in.” His ser-
C21 RESOURCES
|
FALL
2004
mons may be rather thin theologically, fundamentalist and naive, but he is accepted and content with his little flock. In Peru and Bolivia, in Guatemala, Brazil, and Mexico, wherever there are few priests or where the priests are arrogant or indolent, the story of San Miguelito has been repeated. The bishops of Latin America meet and discuss this, but they seem powerless to halt the march of convert s into evangelical Protestantism or Mormonism. One Mormon “elder” (all of 20 years old) told me that in the United States their most successful area for conversions is the Southwest. They are finding so many converts among Hispanics that they hardly have resources or time to process them all. In Latin America, even very small villages will have an Assembly of God or other evangelical Church. A town of any size will also boast a large white Mormon “C h u rc h” with a gleaming spire pointed like a needle into the sky, a religious education building, and a tidy sports field for soccer and American basketball. For several decades now, it may well be that the most effective preachers in Spanish or Portuguese are not Catholic. In many places, the Catholic clergy are not only outnumbered, but they seem to lack the fervor and evangelical passion of the Protestants. All this has been the price, a very high price, for the Catholic unwillingness or inability to supply suff i c i e n t and effective pastors for the people. The problem in Latin America, of course, goes back several centuries. Even in colonial times under the Catholic monarchs, with flourishing religious orders and governmental support, there were never enough clergy to preach and celebrate the sacraments. In Europe and North America, the crisis is much more recent. The use of married priests and perhaps women priests has been off e red as a solution and rejected. Rather, the challenge is met by downplaying, in practice, the necessity of Sunday Mass and the recruiting of nonordained men and women to conduct a prayer service in lieu of Mass. Martin Luther and John Calvin dreamed of a Church without holy orders, a sacrificial liturgy, confession, and anointing of the sick. Now, in many places, regular access to the
sacraments is not possible. Will the next generation continue to see them as important? Will even the Eucharist, like confession, become a “disappearing sacrament”? R e v. Wi l l a rd F. Jabusch is chaplain emeritus of the University of Chicago. Reprinted with permission from A m e r i c a, May 12, 2003. Copyright 2003 by America Press, Inc.
CHECK OUT THE CALENDAR OF EVENTS AND WEB ARCHIVE OF THE CHURCH IN THE 21ST CENTURY
The Church in the 21st Century plans lectures, panel discussions, and other events at Boston College this fall. Keep track of these, and view video and audio recordings of past events by visiting our Web site, www.bc.edu/church21.