Currently the Pope and his hierarchy is attempting to turn the clock back to a more medieval usage in which the term refers only to the highest organs of doctrinal control. This is an issue which Wills identifies as underlying many of the problems which the current Catholic Church is having. By limiting the "Church" to a few people in charge of the Vatican, guilt for past and present sins is mostly eliminated.
Wills does a good job of summarizing the problems with claims that the Catholic Church bears no responsibility for what happened during the Holocaust. Catholic apologies for the actions - and inactions - of Pius XII are examined and revealed as being entirely inadequate to the task of excusing the Vatican.
Another major area where the Church is sinning by deceiving people is in the area of sexual morality: abortion, contraception, homosexuality, masturbation and celibacy. In all cases, Wills find major defects with how the Church justifies and explains their position:
- "The arguments for much of what passes as current church doctrine are so intellectually contemptible that mere self-respect forbids a man to voice them as his own. The cartoon version of natural law used to argue against contraception, or artificial insemination, or masturbation, would make a sophomore blush. ="
Abortion is something which the Catholic Church is especially adamant about opposing, but Wills offers strong and credible arguments demonstrating that it is possible to support limited abortion rights without abandoning Catholic tradition. He shows that one of the key ideas behind the Church's opposition to abortion, that ensoulment occurs at conception, was not shared by important Catholic philosophers like Aquinas and Augustine. If a person were to agree with them on that point, it would be possible for them to accept that abortion, at least at certain times, is not murder and a permissible, even if not ideal, action.
Wills shows a special interest in the problems of celibacy in the priesthood. Tremendous numbers of men have abandoned the priesthood in order to marry, leaving their Church with a group of priests who are largely older, largely gay, and too few in number.
Even a large percentage of those who have remained believe that marriage should be an option for priests, and this may account for the fact that so many get involved with emotional and sexual relationships which they cannot maintain and which are ultimately destructive.
Wills also helps address the question of why so many Catholics, especially those in America, ignore Vatican directives. Usually this is blamed on things like hedonism or willfullness, but Wills argues that it instead represents a failure of the Church to retain moral authority among its members. This, as he argues, is a result of its failure to be truthful and honest.
So long as the Church fails to hold a position of genuine moral authority which people can respect, they will inevitably start working to find their own way, thus creating a new Church which is at odds with the "Church" that the hierarchy is attempting to maintain.
Wills traces the Vatican's resistance to the truth - in this case, the truth of what the Catholic Church has done in the past - to the harsh challenges posed to Catholicism in the nineteenth century by things like science, modernism, democracy, and skeptical scholarship.
Papal Sin: The Structures of Deceit, by Garry Wills
It is the legacy of this resistance to everything non-Catholic which still lives on in the halls of St. Peter's.
It should not be assumed that Wills is anti-Catholic. Quite the contrary, Wills has been a devout Catholic for decades and loves his Church. He does not, however, love the actions which have become characteristic of the Church's spiritual hierarchy. By pointing to alternative sources in Catholic tradition who valued the truth - people like St. Augustine, John Henry Newman, John Acton and John XXIII - he hopes to demonstrate that a righteous path is still open.
Wills does not want to create a new church-within-a-church, although his writings are certainly useful for people moving in that direction. He does not want there to exist two churches - one of the laity following their consciences and Catholic tradition as they best understand it, and one of clergy attempting to support a very narrow and unhelpful version of Catholic tradition, whether they agree with it or not. But while the laity may be swayed by his arguments, it remains to be seen if the Church hierarchy will ultimately be swayed by the laity.
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