The fire at Notre-Dame cathedral (see photo) in Paris on 15 April, 2019 is a symbol of the church that burns in secularised Europe and, more generally, in the globalised world.
Andrea Riccardi’s book, La Chiesa brucia: Crisi e futuro del cristianesimo (The Church Burns: Crisis and Future of Christianity) (Bari-Rome: Laterza, 2021) starts with the evocative image of the burning Notre-Dame. Riccardi is well-placed to bring forth his analysis, being professor of Contemporary History at the University of Rome III and a biographer of John Paul II. His is an insider’s and scholarly voice on the inner dynamics of Roman Catholicism.
A Church in crisis
The Notre-Dame cathedral is in the centre of Paris, in the heart of Europe, embedded in its history and an emblem of its culture. It burned and, by burning, it represents the state of profound crisis in which (Roman and institutionalised) Christianity finds itself. This is not fake news, but a factual observation. Practitioners are declining across the continent, vocations are collapsing everywhere, traditions are eroding and entering the tunnel of oblivion, adherence to belief and morals are plummeting, and local parishes are in an identity crisis. The processes of secularisation seem unstoppable and are dismantling the bricks of institutional religiosity one piece at a time. The church is certainly experiencing a period of decline. Does it even risk disappearing?
In painting this fresco in dark colours, Riccardi documents the indicators of the crisis of Roman Catholicism, and he does so keeping in mind the various national quadrants (France, Italy, Spain, Germany) with their particularities. He also dwells on the forms of ‘national-Catholicism’ (Hungary and Poland) which are attempts to intertwine religion and national identity to make Roman Catholicism and cultural Christianity a sort of religious-civil bulwark in the face of contemporary disorientation.
A warmer Church is enough?
As a Catholic scholar, Riccardi talks about the crisis and points out some ideas for a different future. He takes up the argument by French sociologist Hervieu-Léger that Roman Catholicism has characterised itself as a ‘cold religion’ (top-down and moralistic) and should melt, learning to become ‘war-mer’. This means, for example, living in the contemporary world with ‘multiple ecclesial presences, capable of charismatic, diversified, close encounters, and in dialogue with the people’ (p.207).
The analysis of the crisis suggested by the book is honest and without reticence. And yet, the imagined way out remains within the intangible framework of the pillars of Roman Catholicity. It seems that, for Riccardi, in the face of the ongoing fire, the answer must be at the level of a ‘pastoral’ attitude, without providing for a doctrinal rethinking of the self-understanding of the Church of Rome.
A deeper issue
The Church is burning, to borrow Riccardi’s language, but in the end is untouchable in its core elements. The hierarchical structure, the sacramental framework, the theology founded not on Scripture alone but on tradition (that both includes Scripture and is bigger than Scripture), the non-Biblical dogmas, the absorbed spurious devotions, etc., all this cannot be changed. In the end, faced with a very serious diagnosis, the imagined cure seems to be a placebo. If the Church burns, the best minds of Roman Catholicism (and Riccardi is one of them) are not compelled by the need to go deeper into understanding the reasons for the crisis. They are not open to a Biblical reformation.
For all churches and for all Christians, the turning point is not a greater pastoral attention nor a new missionary strategy (however important these factors might be), but a return to the word of God accompanied by repentance from sin and a response of faith ready to call into question all the compromised structures built over time. The ultimate issue is not to switch from a ‘cold’ to a ‘warm’ religion; it is to faithfully respond to the Biblical gospel of Jesus Christ in truth and love.
