Joy and Hope for Today and Tomorrow / Ken Ogorek

Listening, decision-making and decision-taking as disciples of Christ

What does it mean to be a listening Church? How should decisions be made within our Church? And how might we embrace decisions made by Church leaders—even if the path chosen wouldn’t have been our own, personal first choice?

While these questions are timeless in a sense, they’ve become prominent in recent years. How we address these questions will help determine our Church’s path on her pilgrim journey throughout time and history.

A listening Church

We are a listening Church—much more so than many folks realize. Archbishop Charles C. Thompson, for example, consults with various individuals and groups before making significant decisions.

But there’s room for improvement in how we listen. We can listen better to more individuals and groups; for example, the poor, the imprisoned, our young adults and Christians not in full communion with the Catholic Church, as well as people of faiths other than Christianity.

And we can listen better to each other generally speaking. A way of having table discussions, called “Conversation in the Spirit,” can help us listen without interrupting or getting distracted by our own thoughts, ensuring that each participant has a fair opportunity to share her or his thoughts and feelings. Basic information about “Conversation in the Spirit” can be found here: tinyurl.com/ConvInSpiritEng (case sensitive).

Decision-making

It’s important to distinguish between governance and leadership in our Church. Jesus definitely endows specific people—for example, bishops and pastors of parishes—with decision-making authority.

But many Catholics can show leadership in our Church in various ways, and all are called to participate in the life of faith—including decision-making processes.

When Church authorities arrive at decisions that differ from advice they’ve received, it can be helpful to offer a brief explanation of the reasoning or rationale behind the decision. This sort of transparency, combined with the fact that advice given by several individuals and groups often demonstrates internal conflict, helps give the faithful assurance that they’ve been heard—even if a final decision wasn’t their initial idea.

Can you live with a well-made decision?

Decision-making is one side of a coin. The other is how well—or poorly—we accept decisions made by those with governance authority in our Church.

Do you only feel heard when every decision aligns with your individual will? Or when you’ve had a chance to share your opinion and the reasons behind it—to make your case—can you accept an alternate decision discerned via a prayerful, consultative process, trusting that the Holy Spirit sometimes moves in directions not of your choosing?

Strong parishes, deep communion, healed divisions

Our archdiocesan pastoral plan asserts that “Strong parish communities facilitate healing, reconciliation and charity in order to repair the divisions among us and strengthen our unity as Missionary Disciples of Jesus Christ.” In our parishes, schools and agencies we should see steps taken to “facilitate healing, reconciliation and charity to repair division and strengthen communities.”

By growing together as a listening Church, our processes for decision-making will be better. And we’ll be more docile to the Holy Spirit, as all of us—from pope to Joe Parishioner—are called to be. We’ll be better decision-takers, embracing ownership and responsibility for helping to implement decisions that might diverge, at least initially, from our personal, individual will.

May God’s holy and perfect will be done, always.
 

(Ken Ogorek is executive director of the archdiocesan Secretariat for Evangelizing Catechesis. His monthly column explores how the Gospel takes root within our everyday lives and communities, especially through the lens of our archdiocesan pastoral plan, “Go Forth in Joy and Hope as Missionary Disciples.” E-mail him at kogorek@archindy.org.) †