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BOOK REVIEW
A Voice of Their Own: The Authority of the Local Parish
by William A. Clark, S.J.
Reviewed by Susan Troy, VOTF Boston, MA
In his book A Voice of Their Own: the Authority
of the Local Parish, William A. Clark has written
a powerful, inspiring, contemporary, ecclesiology based
on a rich theological and practical examination of
the life and authority of the local parish, of the
authority of concrete human experience. Clark articulates
the experience of so many Catholics who find the “real” church,
the “genuine” church, to be the church
they experience/experienced at the parish level. Clark
helps us see that the universal Church is embodied
in every local parish, and that every local parish
defines the universal Church. Mutual respect and a
renewed sense of mission should flow from this understanding.
Clark’s theological discourse is grounded in the
real life experiences and observations of three local
parish communities, St. Joseph’s in Biddeford,
Maine, St. Thomas Aquinas in Kingston, Jamaica, and St.
Matthew’s in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Clark states
in his introduction, “As social foundations
for Catholicism, the importance of such local groups
is…perhaps self-evident. To emphasize their theological importance
is the purpose of this book.” These are parishes
of which Clark has been a member, a believer, and an
observer as theologian, priest and as a Catholic. His
thesis is grounded in, and continually underscored by,
his focus on and respect for the lived experience of
specific communities and his personal involvement with
these communities. This contemporary ecclesiology is
grounded in the authority of faith communicated and lived
out in parish community, the authority of the faithful
gathered as church.
Preeminence is given to the “authority” of
interpersonal relationships within the local parish,
relationships that he describes as foundational to any
theology of church, since all “church” is
grounded in the Gospel life of Jesus Christ. The only
models for structure found within the Gospels are the “structure” and “authority” of
faith, a structure of discipleship and of friendship
within community. Think of the defining “structures” of
Jesus’ public life; communal meals, shared prayer,
shared work, instructing disciples and followers under
the stars, on the mountain side, from their workplaces,
in their homes, on the road.
There is an implicit authority in Clark’s own
scholarship. This “authority” is the genuine
admiration and respect Clark demonstrates as he continues
to observe and experience a parish faith community. Clark’s
thesis is that the local parish community is the genuine
embodiment of the universal church; that to understand
what it means to be “church” we must look
to the local parish. It is the local parish that “informs” what
it means to be church in the world. Clark’s theology
of parish, of local community, rests in part on the theology
of Karl Rahner, and the so-called “ecclesiology
from below.” However, this is not a denial of the
hierarchical church or of the universal church. Rather,
Clark offers a hermeneutic of local ecclesiology informing
and enriching an understanding of the universal nature
of the church. The universal church’s reality is
its life lived out in each and every local parish community;
otherwise, our understanding of church would just be
a series of dogmatic proclamations. Church “on
paper” is not church. The local parish community
is where faith is formed, this is where Christ is met
and understood, this is where teachings are received
and incorporated. The local parish is not just one part
of the whole, but, in the real world represents the entirety
of “church.”
Clark’s view comes at an important point in the
history of church, especially in the US. It adds a great
deal to the ongoing discussion of authority–the
sensus fidelium, the magisterium, and the relationship
between the two. We see that one cannot exist without
the other, and that a closer theological examination
of the real life of the local parish community would
strengthen the discussion and strengthen the understanding
in contemporary society of the place of the universal
church. A new found respect for the voice of the people
from within the parish community would go far to restore
trust within the contemporary church after the revelations
of clergy sexual abuse of children.
Clark’s book offers Voice of the Faithful much
reassurance for the strength of its mission statement.
From the very beginning VOTF insisted on being a voice
of the faithful, a voice from within the church. Catholics
have understood intrinsically that the very life of the
church in the world was being threatened by the fact
of the abuse scandal, by the autocracy of clericalism,
by the reality of decades of decline in mass attendance
and vocations. Nonetheless, members of Voice of the Faithful
proclaimed that this church was still their church, and
stepped forward to do the hard work to reform, heal and
go forward together.
In Clark’s case studies, we find that the church
can only be understood as it struggles and flourishes
in context. What does it mean to integrate the next wave
of immigrants into your parish? What does a government’s
social policy have to do with your understanding of your
need to build up the reign of God? What are the gospels
saying to you today as you struggle with relationships,
with basic needs, with crisis? The context for church
is the real world. Given this example, Clark necessarily “elevates” the
importance of the “faithful” in being a determining
factor in defining the universal church and as being
the source of genuine authority. This is not a relativistic
theology. The opposite is true. Foundational for
Clark is simply and profoundly the acceptance of the
truth of God’s radical gift of grace to each person.
Therefore, each person carries that grace and can put
that grace into action in the world.
A Voice of Their Own: The Authority of the Local
Parish should be required reading for all Catholics
concerned about the church, in particular by every
Catholic parish pastor, every seminarian and every
lay minister.
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