We have said that the inferiority complex that afflicts Catholic Pastoral practice uses the well-known custom of throwing the ball out of bounds, or avoiding the real problems –and even more so when the need to face them is greatest; in any case, since it is necessary for them to preach, they talk of trivialities, banal things or false problems that don’t affect anyone because they are not really problems.

            The theme of the Christmas Message for this year, 2009, signed by all the Bishops of Patagonia, is focused on the theme protecting the environment. After this, we can only suppose that all the faithful would envy the situation of Christianity in Argentina, a happy Arcadia where there do not seem to be any problems that affect the life of the Faith.

            In the US, there is the very old practice of publishing joke books geared especially for Sunday homilies. Of course the homily must be adapted to the prefabricated joke so they fit together well, which is what usually happens with products prepared beforehand; in other words, the funny part is adapted to the content of the homily –or is it the homily that has to be adapted to the sense of the joke? Either way, undoubtedly the industrially produced joke, prepared to fill up the homily, is the clearest expression of the lack of value relegated to preaching and the dearth of ideas and feelings on the part of the preacher. The poor attendants to the liturgical function laugh at the jokes –what else should they do!— after all, it is better to laugh than to cry.

            This inferiority complex fears everything: angering those in Power; opposing the world’s criteria (new dogmas that need no definition); the negative reaction of the media; being called conservative or traditional; bothering or not pleasing their listeners; possible reprisals that may compromise the status they enjoy; etc. etc. Evil has much more power than good, at least in the present History of the World (actually, Good seems to have none); and it has always seemed more fashionable to belong to the more secure side. On top of this, a large part of the Hierarchy suffers a strange sub-complex: a reverential fear towards all that the Left in general says or decrees. With things the way they are now, if the Left were to proclaim one day that the Pythagorean Theorem is false, many would start to think that this wise Greek, along with those that have applied his principle has been wrong for centuries. That is why when some believed that the victory of Communism was inevitable, they convinced themselves also of the necessity of assuring the Colossus, by all possible means –including a pre-council agreement— that no one would raise his voice against it.

            The inferiority complex of the Church is convinced that nothing can be done against the growing power of the World. That is why Maritain spoke of kneeling before the world.[1]  And that is why what was announced in the Apocalypse about the end of times seems to be completely fulfilled now:

            And all the earth followed the beast in wonder. And they worshipped the dragon because he gave authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast saying, “Who is like to the beast, and who will be able to fight with it?”^[2]

            And a little afterward it adds:

            It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads, so that no one could buy or sell except he who had the stamped image, either the name of the beast or the number that stood for its name.[3]

            This is where the playing with words that we have mentioned so many times comes from. Words and words without ever getting to the heart of any real problem: who would dare confront the World and the Powers? Even though we are touching here upon a grave problem that was mentioned by Jesus Christ Himself: the necessity of preaching the gospel (Mk 16:15). And we cannot consider it sufficient to be concerned about secondary questions that have little or nothing to do with His doctrine; in other words, we are concerned here with the necessity of preaching the truths of the gospel without restrictions or disguises.

As we know, the Master already warned against those who were ashamed of Him; and not only of Him as a Person, but also of His words:  For if anyone is ashamed of me ‘and of my words,’ of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory.[4] This leads us to some especially delicate aspects of the problem that deserve particular consideration; until now, we have only touched the introduction without reaching the most profound and worrisome part of such a decisive question.