"Theological Narcissism" - The evil within the Church

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We have all been wondering how Pope Francis intends to rebuild the Church during his papacy. In a speech to his fellow Cardinals prior to the conclave, he identified “Theological Narcissism” as the source of evils within the Church. The Cardinals must have agreed with him or they would not have chosen him to lead us during this time of crisis.

According to CNS here is what then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio said:

Evils within the church are caused by a self-centeredness and “theological narcissism” that forget to share Christ with people outside of the church, Pope Francis said in the days before his election.

“When the church is self-referential, inadvertently, she believes she has her own light,” he said in a summary of a speech he gave to the College of Cardinals before the start of the conclave that ended in his election.

When the church ceases to be “the mysterium lunae,” that is, to depend on Christ for receiving and reflecting his – not its own – light, the church then “gives way to that very serious evil, spiritual worldliness, which according to (Jesuit Cardinal Henri-Marie) De Lubac, is the worst evil that can befall the church,” said then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

The church then “lives to give glory only to one another” and not the rest of the world, he said.
catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1301406.htm

I have been looking for other sources to help me better understand what the term "Theological Narcissism means. This explanation comes from a Protestant source, which does not surprise me, given the risks and challenges that come from a Protestant understanding of personal salvation.

“Our narcissistic self-preoccupation constantly draws our eyes from the Creator to the creature, from God to self. As a result, we begin to develop our own personalized theology, making for ourself a god in our own image, fashioning him to be everything we thought we ever wanted in a god — a god who loves whom we love and hates whom we hate, a god who is sovereign over all the good things in our lives but helpless and ignorant of all the bad things that happen to us, a god who serves us at our every beck and call as if he were our own personal cosmic bellhop in the sky who comes grovelling at the slightest ring of a bell. Such individualistic theology is, by nature, non-covenantal, non-familial, and non-ecclesiastical. **It’s a theology centered around what makes sense to me, what seems fair to me, what makes me happy, and what makes me feel good about myself. Simply put, self-centered theology sees man as big and God as small. **” - Burke Parsons, Theological Narcissism
ligonier.org/learn/articles/theological-narcissism/

I believe BOTH liberal-minded and traditional-minded Catholics can fall victim to this kind of mentality without realizing what they are doing. I see it in the way liberal-minded Catholics blindly embrace secular notions of truth, pleasure and liberty. I also see it in the way traditional-minded Catholics rigidly and righteously condemn what they regard as violations of law or tradition. I believe it is a feature of what Cardinal George referred to as the “culturally Calvinist” mentality of American society and is something he is trying to combat by supporting Father Barron’s “Word on Fire” ministry.

I wonder whether anyone else see this too, and if so, what does it mean for how we work together to help Pope Francis rebuild the Church during this time of crisis.

Thanks!
 
That is a wonderfully hope inspiring article. I hope that he can help us all to become more soul searching and humble when we look inwards. That hallmark of narcissism is the inability to see sin in a self and an exaggerated sense of the righteousnous of self.

Great post.
 
The man’s right on target, this runs ramped through out the Protestant community and one can see the same in the Catholic community. Its all about “My church” that “I have chosen” and what “I think” is the stand of most self proclaimed Christians. Most conversations that are subject matter in the interest of the Lord quickly become about the posters and what they think and what they think ought to be. No research into what th Lord God says or thinks on a matter. I’ve had people state that the Church is more important then the Truth.
 
What are the real life common examples of someone who can be considered as a theological narcissist?
 
panorama said:
What are the real life common examples of someone who can be considered as a theological narcissist?
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A number of times during this warning that the Pope (as Cardinal Jorge) gave to the Cardinals, he spoke of ‘self-referentiality.’ “The self-referential Church keeps Jesus Christ within herself and does not let him out. “……“When the church is self-referential, inadvertently, she believes she has her own light”.

In secular terms, this self-referentiality maybe sees Global Warming scientists who skew data to fit their predictions. Or you might find a biographer writing someone’s life story using details in a way to give a reader an impression of the subject that the writer wants.

It’s the type of output that is very controlling and obscures any subtle or as yet unrevealed variables that create the memory of a subject (as in a biography) or the many subtle or as yet unrevealed variables that affect hope for the future outcome of change (as in climate).

I would see that as something we could all be guilty of with any level of theological knowledge, which could lead us to be defensive and closed off in the way we spread the message of Christ to others in our own frames of reference. We forget to love above all else and trust in Gods mysterious ways of touching others through us. We need to control our own output basically for our prides sake.
 
bellasbane said:
I believe BOTH liberal-minded and traditional-minded Catholics can fall victim to this kind of mentality without realizing what they are doing. I see it in the way liberal-minded Catholics blindly embrace secular notions of truth, pleasure and liberty. I also see it in the way traditional-minded Catholics rigidly and righteously condemn what they regard as violations of law or tradition. I believe it is a feature of what Cardinal George referred to as the “culturally Calvinist” mentality of American society and is something he is trying to combat by supporting Father Barron’s “Word on Fire” ministry.

I wonder whether anyone else see this too, and if so, what does it mean for how we work together to help Pope Francis rebuild the Church during this time of crisis.

Thanks!
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Major 👍 since as a very traditional-minded person, I fell completely into this mindset for many years, and when people tried to talk me out of it, I could just fall back on the idea that they were trying to pull me away from obedience when they were hoping to move me toward obedience. And it is Pope Francis who, coming at just the right time during this Lent, was able to dissolve this long defect in my will & self-deception in my mind.
 
panorama said:
What are the real life common examples of someone who can be considered as a theological narcissist?
Click to expand...
Some of them become totally obsessed with the legitimacy of a person’s baptism. They often rebaptize and don’t acknowledge any baptism other than that of their own sect, regardless of its legitimacy.
 
Is it “self-referential”, or “self-reverential”? The latter makes more sense with respect to narcissism.
 
The then-Cardinals script definitely reads ‘self-referential’. It is a noted phenomenon of other disciplines as well. “A self-referential situation is one in which the forecasts made by the human agents involved serves to create the world they are trying to forecast.”

Global warming science is rife with it.

In the context of the Church, I recall an attitude emerging when Pope John Paul II made apologies for past sins, as the voice of the Church. Some objected because the Church is sinless, it is the body of Christ and always holy. I would think that objection arose from some form of theological narcissism?
 
A recent example would be from an SSPX editorial on John Paul II quoting Archbishop Lefebvre’s assertion that Bishop Wojtyla was a “philo-communist”. This struck me as very similar to the assertion about his co-beatified pope, Pius XII, who is considered by New Church-style theological vigilantes to be a Nazi sympathizer. In both cases, the animating spirit is that the particular group is more truly “Church” than the particular pope who, in their view, acted to the detriment of the Church. It was the absurdity of the notion that John Paul was a “philo-communist” – in french terminology, the equivalent of “commie-lover” in US slang – that began to let in some perspective of the tradition-oriented narcissism skewing my thinking.
 
LongingSoul said:
The then-Cardinals script definitely reads ‘self-referential’. It is a noted phenomenon of other disciplines as well. “A self-referential situation is one in which the forecasts made by the human agents involved serves to create the world they are trying to forecast.”

Global warming science is rife with it.
Click to expand...
That would cast Benedict XVI, who made sure that the Vatican functioned as a carbon-neutral state, as a theological narcissist. As well as Pope Francis, who is in concurrence with the Pope Emeritus on the matter.
 
Jaysuitical said:
That would cast Benedict XVI, who made sure that the Vatican functioned as a carbon-neutral state, as a theological narcissist. As well as Pope Francis, who is in concurrence with the Pope Emeritus on the matter.
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I’m not referring to the responsible environmental attitude all should take such as regarding the conversion to solar energy and other localised initiatives.

Rather the problems uncovered in the lauded University of East Anglia Climate Research Centre. Deliberate data manipulation and such. And others such as the research of Tim Flannery here in Australia who was made Aussie of the Year in 2007 for his prophetic research claiming that Queensland would never again have flooding rains. How wrong can one be. We’ve had century record flooding rains in 2011 and now again in 2013. How much more wrong will he prove to be.

We are obliged to be environmentally responsible for the God given planet and universe we live in of course. We could do without the God complexed climate scientists who can’t get tomorrows weather right let alone the future.
 
This is very interesting, and I’m trying to wrap my mind around it.

As a convert some 40 years ago, there were lots of strange words and practices in Catholicism that no one explained and everyone just took for granted. Catholicism seems very closed and formidable to non-Catholics (e.g., Protestants). I think if I had not been called so strongly (and was marrying a Catholic) I may have slinked away in intimidation. Catholicism is an unwelcoming religion. That has been my experience in general and in each parish we join. (There are Protestant churches, by contrast, that are really warm and open-armed).

Another real turn-off is the conservative/traditionalist turn in recent decades, away from social justice – I think that pushes a lot of Catholics with (bleeding) hearts away from the Church. I find the anti-environmentalism and climate change denialism the most demoralizing – it champions a culture of death, while its purveyors insist self-righteously there are no environmental problems and they are striving to keep the faith pure from unCatholic paganism and pantheism.

Of course, Catholicism is a very strict religion and towing the Catholic line is difficult, esp by its going against the modern culture and society. That was actually the one thing that was most appealing to me, since I was pretty disgusted with modern Western culture.

So perhaps we might understand Pope Francis’s initial themes in terms of him wanting to get the Church past “theological narcissism.”

What he has stressed most is protecting creation and helping the poor. These are issues that bring us outside of theological narcissism and also appeal to nearly everyone around the world; it is like soft rain on a drought-parched earth. They are open and inviting themes. Except perhaps to the anti-environmental and anti-social-justice Catholics who stand like gargoyles, neither going into the fullness of communion with God, nor allowing others in – but then they are the elder brothers who have always been with the Father, and never gone prodigally astray, so they won’t be leaving.

Maybe later we will hear about abortion and gay marriage, etc, – the sins that so many front-pew Catholics love to hear about and feel self-satisfied that they are not the sinners, but those sinful others are to be railed against. Pope Francis will surely address these tougher issues; I’ve heard he fought against abortion and gay marriage vigorously in Argentina. However, I’m thinking he may be able to deal with them in ways that make people desire wholeheartedly to eschew them. For instance, if a person is drawn to celibacy because of this great pope we now have then both these issues become moot points for that person.

But for now Pope Francis is opening wide the door with issues we can all (except the persnickety few) agree on and that draw us to the Church, to Jesus. It is a wonderful and beautiful “strategy,” and I hope it will lead many souls to salvation.
 
Bellasbane, this is extremely interesting! I have never read about this idea of theological narcissism.

I read in another article about the Pope that he said that we need to get out of our parishes and reach out more to others. He talked about outdoor activities in places where people gather. This on the heels of listening to a description of the 100th anniversary of the completion of the cathedral at Cologne, where cardinals from all around the world, the mayor in full regalia, the bishop of Cologne, all the religious in the area… all these people processed around Cologne–I remember when Catholics used to have processions in Europe when I was a child.

Anyway, theological narcissism. I sooooo wanted to join the Legion of Mary for a long time, but couldn’t work it out. Along the way I casually asked a member of a church located in a bad area of town if they had done anything in the neighborhood, and she just looked at me in shock and said nooooo.

So, yes, I think this Pope may have hit the nail on the head. We *aren’t *going out. We actually don’t talk about our Faith much among ourselves! (Which is why LynnVic had a problem, perhaps?)

We do need shaking up. I’m not saying no one is doing anything; we are but… what are we doing? It’s like after the turmoil of the 60s and 70s, we each found our confortable spot and now we are just hanging out in it. We aren’t stepping out of our comfort zones. All the “liberal Catholics” go to one parish, all the “conservative Catholics” go to another, and if there’s a place with only one parish, the people all complain to the pastor, but there is no dialogue between the different groups–we all stay separate. As Catholics, we keep to ourselves, and within the Church we find those with whom we are comfortable and keep to ourselves.

Surrounded by people who agree with us and never being challenged nor challenging ourselves and our own belief systems… is that theological narcissism? Staying comfortable and only looking for reflections of ourselves in others?

Pope Francis’s pontificate may be very different from anything we might have thought of, very different for *everyone. *
 
Oh, for goodness sake! Theological narcissism: wanting a pope who will reflect our ideas… not wanting a pope who will challenge all of us to conform to God’s ideas.
 
panorama said:
What are the real life common examples of someone who can be considered as a theological narcissist?
Click to expand...
It’s unfortunate, but I think there is a very strong strain of theological narcissism among traditional catholics, particularly the diehard TLM goers who criticize the novus ordo, in contradiction to the Church’s own stance on both forms being valid.

I started attending the TLM years ago after the moto proprio. I grew to really love it and found my faith deepening, but as I grew to know the people attending the Mass better, I found them to be intelligent and faithful, but really judgmental about everyone not into the TLM. Soon the pastor was engaging in the same behavior. There was this undercurrent at the parish that treated the novo ordo crowd as secondclass citizens. Basically the message was that if you were a serious catholic, you were attending the TLM, and if you were still going to the novus ordo, you were a cafeteria catholic. I tried switching parishes in order to attend the TLM, but found the same attitude. From my experience, theological narcissism has spoiled the Tridentine Mass; the Mass is not simply appreciated for itself, but has become a means to prove a point.
 
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