what clericalism can do to a church

Clericalism was unknown word to me until when I found myself embroiled in a push and pull of the clergy and the lay leadership in a parish I will not mention by name for fear of victimization.

The holy spirit works in amazing ways, and it was through this push and pull that I realized the truth is not we think it is but what some people decide it is.

In my working as the least among the lay leaders was smooth for about 1yr and 3 months until when, I made a post criticism conduct of one young priest, whose behaviour, was neither ‘Fatherly’ nor ‘Christly as he lacked patience and gift of understanding in his conduct.

 Since my criticism was for wanting a better service from ordained minister of the church, there was a break of what was seen as unwritten rule. The rule was the priest was always right[ even if he is clear err] and in case of doubt please leave and never talk about it. 

The real power at play came from the minister who called my Outstation moderator, to put me ‘in line’ with the unwritten rule. What happened after that maiden call was what I call ‘arm twisting’ that forced me among other things to withdraw my criticism, to say ‘I was sorry’ for wanting a better and caring love from a ‘persona Christi. 

So from the above preamble, we will talk about clericalism and why it is becoming a menace in the catholic Church in Africa. 

Clericalism refers to a system where the clergy hold significant power and influence, often Priotizing institutional interests over the needs of the faithful. In so doing, the immense concentration of authority in clergy may precipitate to abuse of power, lack of sufficient checks and conduct and this alone leads to detachment of the clergy from the concerns of the ordinary Catholics.

In my previous write up about trust is everything, I said, ‘Reliability is crucial for trust. It is about dependable and following through on commitments. Jesus wanted to exhibit that the lord was true to his promises and was indeed with them until the end of age. How does that build trust in ones life? First, if you want to be that trusted avoid giving promises you know you cant keep, always be on time for set date and appointment. Communication is key, be actively talking about changes of whatever kind and issues. Sometimes we commit mistakes, own them up and make amends.’

In today’s write up is about the relationship that is tainted by the lack of trust build on by the clericalism that has been a menace in the catholic church and that needs to be addressed or it may make our faith to be cosmetic.  Through clericalism we have been able to sail through the abuse scandals, puppet lay leadership that does nothing in decision making other than idolizing the priests they are elected to help govern the parishes entrusted by the bishop.

In my case, after the incidence, I found myself asking whether I was mad to see what others don’t see? I went into soul searching period . Since Pentecost, I have been praying to understand where it all went wrong. I have been down to my knees, recited the Holy Rosary repeatedly for the holy spirit to give me wisdom to go through this hard period. 

I did a lot of reading on authorities, trying to understand what I had done, was so wrong that had lay leaders blowing my phone to tell me that whatever I did was not allowed yet the guidelines released by the Vatican was clear on conduct on priests serving outstation.

Clericalism can be best understood to be ‘pulling of ranks’ in the civil world, where one can be forced to equate it to religious corruption. In clericalism hierarchical dominance is evident as the clergy disregard the decisions made by the laity. In so doing, limited lay participation[ even in matters that are clearly for them to run] has restricted the growth of the church in actual sense other than dramatization that all is well even if it were not.

 This has been an avenue for the clergy to abuse the power vested in them by the mother church, the universal Catholic Church. If pope Leo XIV apologized for arriving late for ecumenical council, and cited he was only one month on the job, then how could an assistant priest not be apologetic for missing 2 infant baptism which were clearly to lack of proper communication?

To address the power imbalances in the catholic church when it comes to this menace, it is important for the lay leadership to be actively involved in the decision making process. The assistant priest in question was once in charge of Youth chaplaincy in the parish and some of the members in the youth council often complained that he didn’t even listen to them when they were in a meeting. One moderator of one station rhetorically asked me, why would he make us to go for meeting when our opinion didn’t matter at all? 

Power comes with accountability, the local Ordinary, is often critical of the tendency of priests to act like Chief executive Officers. 

“ Its unfortunate that after we ordain you, thinking you are going to serve you go to become masters”, the local Ordinary said, “yes you might be feeling great standing like me and you are never questioned. You are servants and you are ordained to serve the parishes I send you to diligently.”

We are all workers in the lords vineyard, as the the bishop says, everyone baptized is a missionary and this clericalism is an hindrance to the call by the bishop. Servant leadership at the part of the priest is a step closer to cover up and hiding in the collar when one commits a mistake. We all make mistakes but let us admit we made them in order to rectify the mistakes. Cover-up and excuses will be tantamount to clericalism, just because we trust you.

The abuse of power is another problem that is directly born of the clericalism. In my case, cover up and failure of accountability by the assistant priest was disappointing. I remember one day,a certain priest [name withheld] in his homily, said, that you cant let a kid rehearse for a certain event and on material day you tell the kid that it wont happen.

The priest said that the kid would ask you the most obvious question, “aje sasa?”[ how now?]. Am sure of this basic truth, we have been Catholics for long to understand that we follow Jesus every step of the way. It’s hard, we understand, to be a servant as it is in the case of the priest, we just want the clericalism that has been silently consuming the church here in the rural areas is dealt with.

In the jumuiya, it has become very hard for the poor to have masses in their homes. When an old poor lady wants to have a priest visit her home for mass, the first question we ask is, “uko na sadaka ya misa ya kutosha.” 

we are sent to the poor of the poorest and if we focus on those abled to cater for the amount required then who will have a priest come to his/her home? Is this not exploitation that is taking advantage of poorest? 

To sum up, lay leaders in the catholic church have unintetionally promoted clericalism in the church. I say unintentionally because, some of them are not aware of their duties and responsibilities as leaders entrusted to act on behalf of the rest of faithful..

After the christian reformation of 1517 which was started by the disgruntled Augustinian Monk Martin Luther, OSA, the church prioritized reforms within it to address the corruption, to improve the clergy conduct and to enhance spiritual lives of the Catholics.

 This has been on centre of the reforms we silently want from our clergy in this era of digital age. 80% of the Catholics can not access to the priest after they read mass on Sundays, as only the selected few people seem to be on first name basis with some if not all the clergy. The rhetoric is he is your pastor who doesn't want you to talk to him for spiritual guidance.

Clericalism is silently being fostered by the leaders we elect through over relying on the priest to make decisions meant to be done by the laity, accepting veto that is indeed selfish over the best interest of the entire church members. The lay leaders may hesitate to speak up or to challenge clergy decisions even if they know the decisions may hurt those meant to receive pastoral care.

In my case, it was carefully executed. When the aggrieved clergy learned about my complain about his conduct, he did not entirely play directly to me but instead, asked for my number not to call but to show how serious he was mad at me for challenging his authority. In return, the outstation moderator called my moderator at the Small Christian Community who in turn gave him my number. 

Two people called me, first it was the catechist who didn’t  accuse me of anything. Then the moderator of the station and funny enough he knew I was right to complain about the conduct of the assistant priest and he begged me to accept that I was the one wrong to have not been on the radar of the young priest. 

At first I thought of it as an easy thing to do but later on I asked myself, how many people are becoming prey to over zealous prosperity gospel preachers for simply being given a listening ear of the pastor, a thing that rarely happens in our parish and maybe in other parishes?

One person even told me that we need to produce priests from our village to the catholic church for us to demand better services from the clergy serving us in the parish . To me it is not enough as it is the tradition of the church not ordain a priest for a village but the universal church in communion with the pope and all bishops.

We as people are promoting the clericalism in the church and making priest be like gods, an idea contrary to the teachings of the catholic church, that they are chosen among the people to offer a living sacrifice on our behalf . 

I have from time to time reflected that God entrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven to St. Peter despite his shortcomings and peter always raised above it all. When criticized by Paul on his unbecoming behaviour of withdrawing from dining with the gentiles when Jews were present., he didn’t pull ranks on Paul but learned from the mistake. To Paul this was hypocrisy and failure to live out the gospel message of unity and equality between Jews and gentiles.

Paul's criticism is a clear demonstration of the importance of standing up for the truth of the gospel and not cover-up those who find it easy to hide in God given responsibility without due diligence. When one complains, don’t pull ranks to silence that voice as that will amount to hypocrisy and not to practise what you preach.

The purpose of this piece of write up was to help the church proper understand the silent believers who come to church every Sunday to listen to the voice of Christ and say amen to every collect prayer. It is a voice of a person who doesn't want to show off or getting friendly with the priest but to be friendly with the Christ in the priest.

 This write up is a voice of a believer who demands better pastoral care without reserving services just for the who is who in the congregation. This write up is a call for the lay leaders to offer priests second opinions not to merely say yes to every decision despite it not being practical. This is a write up to ask the Kenya Conference Of Catholic Bishops to help fight clericalism in our Dioceses and offer a synodal church as it was in the synod 2021-2023.

We can end clericalism if the ordained become good shepherds not just preaching about it. Pope Francis, of good memories, required the clergy to smell like the sheep not run away after mass or any church event.