The Great Catholic Reformers: From Gregory the Great to Dorothy Day by Anderson C. Colt Ph.D

Author:Anderson, C. Colt, Ph.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-12T03:26:00+00:00

Conclusion

Catherine successfully navigated her way through numerous dangers with her reform rhetoric. As she laid out her expose on the church and the clergy, she followed her own advice and modeled how to employ the strategies she had presented to her disciples. While she identified many sins, she treated them in a general way without actually accusing the people she was trying to reform of personal sin. She mixed in kindness with her admonitions by proclaiming her deep concern for the welfare of the clergy and the religious. Her repeated statements that secular rulers should not assert authority over the church or judge members of the clergy was also a form of consoling the fears of the fourteenth-century clergy. She left judgment to God, which was her second principle. Finally, she resisted the temptation to remake the church in her image.

When Catherine corrected the pope, she provided an example of the exception to her general strategies. The fact that the pope was involved in the sin of simony and was involved in sinful behavior in his attempts to preserve his territory through war was something that was clear to everyone. Before writing The Dialogue, Catherine had privately confronted Pope Gregory XI on these issues. She had also taken the matter to a few others and urged them to confront the pope. So even the direct and public nature of her charges over simony and injustice manifested her reform strategies. Catherine's demonstrated loyalty and concern made this medicine of correction more palatable for the pope.

The rhetoric Catherine employed in The Dialogue is an excellent model for understanding how powerful and passionate and public criticism can be absolutely consistent with deep love and loyalty for the church. However, we must be careful to remember that she did not understand the church as an abstract entity or as simply an institution. For Catherine, loving the church meant loving people; and thus reforming the church begins by reforming the selfishness that prevents us from loving others. Perhaps as a reward for her commitment to charity, she stands out as one of the few reformers who saw their initiatives come to fruition in their lifetimes. Of course, Catherine also lived long enough to see the beginning of the next great crisis of the church, the Great Schism.

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