The Avuncular Episcopacy

Some bishops have shown themselves to be true leaders in the Church’s recent crises, but too many bishops seem content to be spiritual uncles and not true spiritual fathers.

U.S. bishops attend a prayer service in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at Mundelein Seminary Jan. 2 at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Illinois, near Chicago. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

By now we’re all familiar with “Uncle Ted,” the nickname Archbishop Theodore McCarrick gave himself. We now know of the sinister association that epithet had—McCarrick would refer to the priests and seminarians who were the objects of his attention as his “nephews” and asked them to call him “uncle,” a nauseating metaphor that rendered the arrangement unnatural in a number of ways. Indeed, the association of terms would be familiar to those of a certain vintage who knew the term “funny uncle” as code for an abusive family member.

But the then-Cardinal was known as “Uncle Ted” publicly as well. With his trademark grin and wink, he was regarded in many circles (especially fundraising circles) as a kindly cleric who was eager to shake hands and make everyone feel good about themselves. Essentially, like an uncle.

“Avuncular” describes the likes of McCarrick very well. Someone who wants to engender or project closeness without responsibility, enjoyment without discipline—fun but never firmness. The sort of figure you want to have around because he might buy ice cream for everyone. And indeed, when one looks at the career of McCarrick, one sees many dollar signs but not many conversions—courting popularity but not calling others to holiness.

Such an attitude plays right into our desires. C.S. Lewis wrote, “We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven—a senile benevolence who, as they say, ‘liked to see young people enjoying themselves’ and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, ‘a good time was had by all.’” One could very well replace “grandfather” with “uncle” and the effect would be much the same. Too often that’s what we want, and too often that is what we are given. And the wicked by adopting such an attitude are able to aggrandize themselves, whether by staying in the good graces of the wealthy and influential or oppressing others with their advances.

We see this same avuncular attitude manifest, in a very different way, in certain members of the episcopate. Some of our bishops seem averse to teaching tough truths or administering just penalties. This is the work of spiritual fathers, of teaching and guiding and forming their spiritual children into holiness. Too many bishops seems content to be spiritual uncles: happy to appear at fundraisers and perhaps scold the fold for not giving sufficiently to the poor, by which they mean the diocesan appeal—much as your uncle might complain that no one ordered enough pizza for the big game. Perhaps that is too snarky, but there is a reason that most Catholics know their bishop simply as the man in the funny hat who came for Confirmation and appears in an annual video asking for money.

The case of Governor Andrew Cuomo has brought this reality into stark relief. Here is a Catholic politician who speaks proudly of his unity with the Holy Father on the subject of the death penalty, who has also spearheaded his legislature’s effort to put into law one of the most extreme abortion regimes in the country—and who ordered the major landmarks of New York to be lit up pink in celebration. And while there have been some expressions of “disappointment” and even a battle of words in the press from some of New York’s bishops, Cuomo has yet to face any canonical penalty—no excommunication, no interdict, nothing.

That may well be forthcoming, but the point remains: Your uncle might tell you he’s disappointed. Your father will ground you.

To be sure, some bishops have shown themselves to be true leaders, true spiritual fathers, in the Church’s recent crises. Two bishops from my own area, Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth and Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, come to mind for their strong words of condemnation of McCarrick at the November assembly. The bishops as a body can feel like an easy target in these difficult days, and it’s important not to issue blanket judgments and ignore the brave and prophetic work that some of our pastors are doing. Critique should be offered in a filial spirit that seeks the good of the Church, and not an anti-clericalism fueled by real pain but which would, to adapt a phrase, cut off the spiritual heads to spite the Body of Christ.

Let this be a plea to our bishops, then, to be fathers and not uncles. To take their paternal duties seriously, knowing the their own souls and the souls of their flocks depend upon it. They should not fear to rock the boat, for they should trust in the Lord who calms the storms, who walks on the waves, and who calls his apostles to come to Him, if only they have faith.


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About Nicholas Senz 30 Articles
Nicholas Senz is Pastoral Associate at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Fishers, IN. He holds Master's degrees in philosophy and theology from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, CA. Nicholas lives with his wife and three children.

11 Comments

  1. Well said, sober and prudent. I will push the card a bit further and posit that we had better make a deep examination of the pathology of the avuncular character of the entire post-conciliar enterprise and particularly of its quintessential presentation in the Bergoglian event.
    We are as sheep without a shepherd; indeed a flock stalked by wolves camouflaged in fleece.

  2. ” Some of our bishops seem averse to teaching tough truths or administering just penalties”
    Yes, and also include the bishop of Roma.

  3. Perhaps many have been raised to the episcopate precisely because, along with demonstrated bureaucratic skills, they also clearly project that they will be uncles and not fathers, thereby being safe in the eyes of their promoters.

  4. The use of the term ‘nephew’ in the above context ought to have set alarm bells ringing.
    Truly we must avoid the slide into anticlericalism, but it is easy to see how the attitude occurs.

  5. This report ignores the deeper issue of the value of bishop’s conferences entirely. The consultative meeting have little authority, the sessions are prepared by staff (many of whom appear to be 1970s liberal priests) not the bishops, and these costly junkets usually accomplish little or nothing, garnering the usual attacks by the hostile media and further damaging the Church’s public image. Let the bishop fix his diocese, where his authority lies, and face his Maker to answer for the trust and authority with which he is entrusted.

    • THST… is exactly correct! Bishops’ conference wring their hands and vacillate to no end. Our dioceses keep sending a portion of our collections to keep afloat a bureaucracy that has no governance in history. Since VAT II most of usccb leadership has been from dioceses that have/had near closed seminaries, wildly liberal “catholic” colleges, gay parishes.

  6. Howdy Neighbor. I’m in Ft. Worth a member of St. Patrick’s. I’m coming to Catholicism from a protestant background. Your article makes me think of many of the pastor’s I’ve known in my life. Fortunately I was raised in a church with a VERY good Pastor. So many pastors today are merely self-help teachers in disguise. I cannot tell you how long it’s been since I’ve heard somebody call a sin a sin. Thank God led me to Catholicism.

  7. Yes, those who are bishops are members of an “old boys clubs.” The price of admission is in the fact that in their previous assignment that have proven trustworthy in keeping secrets. This is how they are made bishops.

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