Polarization is a growing issue in our Church and world, and friend of the show Dr. Charles Camosy offers ways to heal divisions in his new book, “One Church: How to Rekindle Trust, Negotiate Difference, and Reclaim Catholic Unity.”
Dr. Camosy is a professor and author, and Father Dave notes that this new book is a departure from his other works on medical ethical issues. In discussing his inspiration, Dr. Camosy says, “Over the years on your show, one of the things we’ve talked about in the context of those big issues seems to be this divide between the pro-life side of the church and the social justice side of the church. And I’ve tried to make my work very intentionally about trying to breathe out of both sides of our lungs on those questions.”
He continues, “The more I became interested in that, the more I became just interested in division and the Church more broadly, and how to think through ways for us to be one Church, but not erasing the diversity, not erasing the arguments that differences are important to have.”
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Dr. Camosy’s goal for the book is to “drop anything that looks remotely like political idolatry” that has seeped into the Church, and instead focus on what unites us in Christ. He says, “What unites us foundationally is way more powerful than any of this. It’s our baptism, our becoming a new creature in Christ…becoming part of an extended family throughout the ages, but also the family now. Fellow Catholics are, in a very real sense, our siblings, our brothers and sisters. So that doesn’t mean that families don’t have fights, of course they do. But our fight should be different, they’re with family, they’re not with people that we should just castigate as the other.”
The book digs into numerous causes and kinds of division that are specific to the Church, from generational differences to worship preferences. “There are debates to have, let’s not paper over them. But let’s have them in the right context,” Dr. Camosy says, “In most families, you can have a real debate, knowing that those bonds are not going to be broken.” His solutions focus on the idea of “unity in diversity,” and he offers principles of dialogue that we can use to work towards that ideal.
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“Whoever we’re engaging with, whoever we’re arguing with…is somebody who’s made the image and likeness of God, the divine is there. And some of the ways we talk about folks in our debates within the Church, not only don’t reflect that, they don’t reflect anything about even basic humanity,” Dr. Camosy reflects.
Another principle of dialogue he discusses is how we should name what we are for, rather than what we’re against. “When you lead with what you’re for, you can find common ground, you can say, we’re both Catholics, we both share, presumably, some of these things in common,” he says, and notes that we miss out on this opportunity when we villainize those we disagree with. “That’s a lesson for all of us, I think in the whole country in our politics, but especially for Catholics. We need to focus on where we are foundationally together first.”