Mother Church has a vastly inclusive embrace. She is large enough to welcome people of all races, nations, economic strata, and personality. Her lap is capacious enough to hold opinions and theologies and spiritualities of many stripes, all within the creed-professing, Bible-reading, Pope-honoring holy Roman Catholic membership.
However, there is an unfortunate contingent of Catholics who think that the embrace of the church should be more restricted. Specifically, she should weed out those who do not believe precisely the way they do. Most parishes seem to have a few of this unhappy group. They take upon themselves the role of God’s constables, alert to any sign of straying from the narrow way. When they detect a whiff of transgression, they rush to point it out, sometimes in the least courageous way, to the bishop rather than to the offender.
I notice that I am saying “they”; however, I must recognize that none of us is exempt from the temptation to exclude others — usually for what we see as the holiest of reasons. Otherwise Jesus would not have had to warn us against judging. Even with the best intentions, over-alertness to the sin of others is itself an offense against the love of Christ. There is a difference between a town that has, say, healthy enforcement of traffic regulations for the sake of the welfare of both residents and visitors, and one that is a speed trap, hyper-vigilant to the least infraction.
It is true that whenever there is as much diversity as we have in the Catholic family, there is likely to be some error. For that reason, dialogue is important, as well as sound teaching and preaching and continuing education for all ages. But there is a heresy which pops up every so often in church history (most famously under the name of Donatism) and into which it is all too easy to fall: the claim that church membership is reserved to the pure. Unfortunately, there is no one who fits that requirement, either in the realm of morality or of thought.
We are a church of sinners, dependent at every moment on the mercy of God shown to us in Jesus Christ. I am convinced that Christians who are aware of their own need for mercy and who are humble before the mystery of the incomprehensible God — these are the ones who make the best teachers of sound doctrine, while being unlikely to take on the role of orthodoxy’s constables.
‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)