Yet when the bishops do call upon us to respond to something, too often they are either ignored or castigated.
I recently heard the columnist John Allen speak. He noted that we always seem to be looking to the bishops for “leadership”. But they often come up wanting. Interestingly, he reminded that their charism of preserving the faith is essentially a conservative one and noted that traditionally the best leadership movements within the Church have not come from the bishops at all, but lay or religious endeavors. Perhaps we need to expend less energy on criticizing the bishops for not doing their jobs and expend more on doing what we can ourselves, even without their help.
I herewith take exception to the notion that bureaucracies, whether they are ecclesiastical or government, get much of anything done.
Parish schools are built by activist pastors.
I grew up in a place in which ONE pastor was responsible for not only buiding the parish school, but also two Catholic high schools that served about 20 parishes.
The work of Mother Theresa was the work sparkplugged by ONE person.
I know of a program that started in one person’s living room and grew so large that it spread to a half-dozen parishes. Not a diocesan effort. One fellow started it.
Arguably the largest soup kitchen in a diocese was the work of one priest. No diocesan money or facilities.
I know of another parish/ministry that was totally funded by volunteers and suffered nothing but interference from the diocese.
I’m not mentioning any specifics to avoid “political problems”.
But every effective program that I’ve seen has been the result of the heroic work of one person.
P.S. Two other examples come to mind: Catholic Answers and EWTN. And ETWN was OPPOSED by the local bishop and needed the pope to run interference.
P.P.S. The more I think about this, the more examples I can think of where ONE person took a leadership and pioneering role.
