Clericalism

[PoliSciProf]

Is therre a sin peculiar to the clergy called clericalism? Some of my lay friends think so and a priest I know very well was non-committal. I am inclined to think there is such a sin, given human fraility. The issue seems to have arisen with the handling of the sex abuse cases by the Church. If there is such a sin, how might it be defined?

 

[rwoehmke]

I have never heard of the term as neccesarily being a sin. I suppose in some cases it could be. Clericalism is the situation where the opinion/rule of a Cleric trumps all other authority. For some time before nationalism became a strong component of government, clerics could only be tried for crimes in a church court.

 

[IoA]

“Clericalism” itself isn’t a sin, I wouldn’t think, but in a lot of place it might point toward something that really is a sin: pride.

Some seminarians I’ve met in the past (not at the theologate level, God be praised) see clergy as being “better” than the laity, as if it’s a kind of exclusive club that makes you more Catholic than Peter. These guys are all well-intentioned, but filled with the hubris typical of so many college age guys.

 

[Petergee]

Clericalism is by no means an error committed only by priests. There are innumerable lay people today who for some reason have the idea that to be an effective and “real” member of the Church, one has to be a priest. Hence the common misinterpretation of Vatican II’s call for the laity’s “full, conscious and active participation” in the Liturgy, thinking it means everyone must become a mini-priest and usurp the proper functions of a priest; and the silly idea that women and married men must be allowed to become priests, otherwise they are not as “equally valued” by the Church as celibate men.

 

[FightingFat]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clericalism