“The Church can only be resurrected,” says Canadian spiritual writer, Jacques Gauthier, a 72 year-old Catholic author, preacher and retreat master. Gauthier says that not even the mess the Church is in now, can kill the good news of the Gospel.
‘The Catholic Church is up to its neck in crap,’ says Jacques Gauthier. Actually, the French-Canadian spiritual writer and retreat master uses a stronger word than that, but adds: “You have to accept it, because through that the flowers will grow.”
Gauthier has written some eighty books on spirituality during a lifetime marked by something he’s called his “hippie” period, followed by several years in a Trappist monastery and, finally, a long and fruitful marriage with children and grandchildren.
He reflected on his life, especially how it has been marked so clearly by God, in a recently released autobiography in French. Gauthier spoke about the spiritual influences on his life and his hopes for the Church in an interview with Clémence Houdaille from La Croix magazine.
What can we change in the way we live to help purify the Church? “I believe that the main thing is simplicity. We must be simple with others. And with the Lord, we must not wait for the censer. We must also welcome the humiliations in our lives. To believe that everything is good, beautiful, smooth and perfect smells bad. This is one of the traps of clericalism, along with the taste for power. Any aggression is an abuse of power! This is the danger when you are in a position of authority.
“I see it when I speak to young people and when I preach retreats to them. It is very stimulating because they have a great innocence, with no ulterior motive. The only thing that interests them is that we are true when we speak.
But this is also where there can be a danger, because they are very malleable. When we start to be the centre of attraction for people in search of affection, and therefore vulnerable, we have to remember our imperfection, to redouble our simplicity.”
The rigidity and clericalism that the late Pope Francis denounced can also exist among the laity – the need to give oneself a title, a role or a function… That’s why I never wanted to be a deacon, even though I was often asked. I am baptized, called to holiness and that is enough.
It has happened during some of the retreats that I lead that bishops or priests have asked me to read the Gospel during Mass. I’ve always said no. I am willing to offer a comment, but within the framework of the liturgy each one has his own role.
This man sounds like a prophet to me. We need more men and women like him to bring about the radical changes needed in the Catholic Church.
Why would someone refuse to read the Gospel during Mass? The Church has survived two thousand years, does anyone actually believe it would survive another decade without it’s strict clerical structure? He sounds like a good and holy Catholic but I wouldn’t take his word over the Pope’s.