I wonder whether the idea of a process of spiritual evolution makes a lot of sense. Looking around the world today it is not easy to see that there has been any progress. The last century has probably been more violent and destructive than all those preceding it. Yet there is a growing consensus that violence does not provide a lasting solution and certainly not a just one. The world is becoming a smaller place in that it is now possible to know, more or less instantly, what is going on in the most remote places. The fact that we are moving towards becoming a global village and that, partly as a result, the various cultures are losing their distinctiveness is sad, even tragic, but, I am just beginning to realise, it can also be liberating. Every culture, however rich and benign, imposes conceptual limitations which inhibit our freedom to think new ideas. If we can avoid being seduced – it may already be too late – by the attractions of the trans-atlantic, consumerist ‘culture’ imposed by the media machines of multi-national corporations we may be able to use that freedom. I don’t know how long it will take before the consumerist froth of this pop-culture is seen for what it is. There is plenty of evidence that its shallowness and its inability to meet our deepest needs are already being realised. The factors that attract Muslims and many non-Muslims to Islamic fundamentalism are operative everywhere. This is a push-pull process – repulsion from consumerism and attraction to Islam. The repulsion is everywhere and widespread. However, the attractive alternatives, apart from Islam, are not there, or are not seen as viable.
This is a wonderful opportunity for the Church, an opportunity all the more within her grasp because of the crisis she is presently enduring. As an institution the Church has lost, or is in the process of losing, credibility. Its structures do not fit in with our present day society. Bishops are not accountable to their flocks and too many politically sophisticated prelates pursue an agenda dictated by the putative needs of the institution rather than those of the Gospel. That the institution might be damaged was once the nightmare scenario which inhibited change and innovation, growth and development. We have now woken up. The nightmare has become a reality. The institution is seen for what it is and the world has not come to an end. The institution is not the Church. It never was. Forty odd years ago the Second Vatican Council gave the bishops an opportunity to demonstrate this. In spite of some inspiring documents and much enthusiasm at the time very little changed. Will there be any Ambroses, Augustines, or Gregorys in this millenium, I wonder.