Should the Church be Saving Souls or Saving Society?

As I read and hear about all the issues facing the Church it is a quandary to focus on what appears to be most important. There is the problem of fidelity by our leaders as seen in the clergy abuse scandal. There is the ongoing challenge of evangelization and how best to do it. There are the issues of the Church’s response to immigration, abortion, transgenderism, the environment and a whole host of other social concerns. Then there is the issue of the Church remaining true to dogma and doctrine as reflected in the problems raised by the Amazon and German bishops’ synods and the debates over paganism and relativism creeping in the Church.

In exploring and assessing these kinds of issues and what’s important a basic question can get raised – What is the purpose of the Catholic Church? A simple answer can be that of saving souls and saving society. Where problems arise is when decisions are made as to where to place priorities and efforts and how to act on that purpose.

Saving Souls and Society

A priest friend of once noted in a homily that the purpose of the Church could be summarized as building the Kingdom of God here on earth to develop unity between God and mankind. In that respect, those aims could be further broken down into three main areas of focus:

• To evangelize – bring all into communion with God through Jesus Christ by preaching and practicing the Gospel. This can be seen as “saving souls”.
• To reconcile – repair our ruptures with God, with our true selves, with others and with creation – To fulfill our obligations to our faith and to God. This can be seen as also “saving souls”.
• To bring charity (love) to the world with the priority being the poor. This can be seen as “saving society”.

The Church’s unique purpose

Underlying those three areas of focus is that the church is to always proclaim the truth and to always support the dignity of the human person. The Church serves the key function to provide what we cannot do for ourselves by answering four questions:

• What are we to believe? The Church provides instruction and direction through proclaiming the gospel and its expanded doctrine and dogma.
• What are we to do? How are we to act? The Church provides instruction and direction for morality for serving God, neighbor and for interacting with the world.
• How can we experience God? The Church provides grace through providing the sacraments.
• How are we to survive in a secular culture that is often anti- Christian? The Church provides a supportive faith community.

The Church’s answering of those four questions helps to provide the “way’ for our faith journey.

Preferences and Priorities

The various issues previously mentioned highlight what appears to be debated in the Church over the priority given to saving souls or saving society. To be sure it is not an either-or dichotomy but one of continuity. However, the recent United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) meeting illustrated differing viewpoints on what are the priorities. A major debate arose over the wording of a short letter they intended to send out, as a supplement to “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” their 2015 document on voting and public life. One viewpoint expressed the “seamless garment” social justice viewpoint that all the various social justice issues deserve equal attention while the other noted that the threat of abortion remains the preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself. In reading about the debate, it seemed to reflect that protecting the child in the womb would be analogous to “saving of souls” while all the other social concerns would be analogous to “saving of society” dichotomy.

I am reminded of the Declaration of Independence where it talks of the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Life is primary because without first guaranteeing the protection of life, it is impossible to fully protect the other rights. Placing the right to life first was clearly seen as the preeminent priority for the founding fathers. So how does all this fit into the purpose of the Church?

It is not an either-or issue but one of the distilling priorities. I see the Church’s mission to provide instruction and direction as a critical factor. Without knowing doctrine/dogma that teaches the truth and respect for the unborn as a lynchpin issue for the dignity of the human person, the various social justice concerns make the Church just another social service agency.

We have to know what we believe before we can talk about all the social justice concerns. That is an evangelization issue to “save souls”. The doctrine and dogma taught by the Church provide the frame of reference and base for interacting with the world. The social justice concerns grow out of that faith. That’s the difference between Church based efforts and those of secular NGOs. We are obligated to serve God and neighbor out of our faith in Jesus and his commandments. “Saving society” starts there. In many respects, the faith is fundamentally a revelation of dogmatic truths to which we must agree, or it is nothing at all.

Following a Spiritual Path to Apply the Church’s Purpose

Bishop Robert Barron in a recent speech before members of Congress highlighted that that there are three steps to following a spiritual path: First, know your center through a sense of God through Jesus Christ (saving souls). Second, know you are a sinner (also part of saving souls). Third, is to recognize that life is not about me so accept the challenge that God gives us me to go out and build the kingdom of God (saving society). This little summary helped to put the issue over saving souls or society in perspective for me.

To know our center and that we are sinners involves knowing the doctrines and dogma of what the Church teaches and practices. The issue of prioritizing efforts can be put into perspective only if we have that basic knowledge. Consequently, what is required to evangelize and serve our neighbor is to teach and follow the truths that we confess.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,    (Matt 28: 19-20)