What happens...

if someday, somehow, everything comes true? External audits, diocesan Bishops, decentralized and conciliar administration, transparency, all the things we claim we want. What happens?

Someone once said "Be careful what you ask for because you may get it."

If we are indeed in a time of change we should be preparing ourselves now for the time of responsibility that is to follow. The sad truth, of course, is that much of what we are experiencing now might not have happened if we all had taken real responsibility earlier but that's history now and hopefully we'll not repeat it. Still we have to face what will happen when the walls fall and the castle is laid bare.

Because its easy to cry "Revolution" and get caught up in the spirit of the moment but much more difficult to run the country you've now taken. Once the glow is faded and the banners stowed away bills still need to be paid, paper has to move from place to place, phones have to be answered, and questions addressed. For years we've said "That's the Priest's job." "That something for the Bishop." "Send it on to New Jersey." Then we expected problems to magically vanish, money to come us without strings, and truth to flow without effort.

Could this be part of why we're where we are now?

Yes, our hierarchs, our trustees, our structures, our systems, they all need to be, as best as sinful humans and things can be, transparent, effective, moral, holy, and right. But what about us? The truth is that "speaking truth to power" is much easier than speaking truth to ourselves. Holy Bishops come from holy churches full of holy people. A living Church cannot be made of dead stones. If we chafe with the idea of being treated like children then perhaps we also need to tend to our own maturity as well.

In this lies the difference between revolution and revival. In a revolution people demand that the powers that be change. In a revival the people change as well.