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VERBAL QUESTION OF THE DAY

In order for intransigence to give way to change in the ecclesiastical politics surrounding the Society of Jesus, a pair of conditions has to fall into place. The first and most important pertains to the guardians of orthodoxy, the second to the advocates of reform.

Sooner or later, the costs of maintaining the status quo have to be perceived as greater that the risks of change. The principal cost is the steady drain on personnel and the cumulative reduction in the capacity to provide spiritual services. The major risk is that of hastening this seepage to the point where the clerical establishment disintegrates altogether. Immobilism stems from anxiety that tampering with a bad situation will make matters worse. Far from looking like an improvement, the alternative to paralysis is seen as tantamount to suicide.

Nevertheless, there is some indication that change in one area may not act as a trip wire setting off change all the way down the line. The tightly knit system of beliefs linking sexuality and authority in Catholicism is at least as much a human construction – a combination of revocable "disciplines" with core tenets – as it is an impermeable trove of universal truths. Once this frame of mind is recognized as an artifact, either-or thinking may lose its spell.

The second condition that would have to obtain for reform to get rolling also involves a cost-benefit calculation, this time on the part of proponents of change within the clergy. What are the inducements and payoffs for investing in systemwide changes, compared to the personal rewards that can be had from making do within the system or simply leaving it?

[McDonough, Peter and Bianchi, Eugene. Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits. Los Angeles, CA. © 2002 pp 302]

1. According to the passage, what conditions must be present for change to take place in the Society of Jesus?
a. A reduction in the capacity to provide spiritual services and immobilism.
b. Beliefs regarding sexuality and authority in Catholicism must change.
c. Proponents of reform must make do within the system or leave.
d. The cost of the status quo must outweigh the risks of change and the payoff for investing in change must be understood.
e. The clerical establishment must disintegrate altogether and either-or thinking must be recognized as an artifact.