Update: A new article has ideas which substantially modify the ideas presented herein.
This new concept of Legitimacy has been applied to Civil leaders, but what then of our spiritual hierarchy? Can this be applied to matters of faith, including the confusion surrounding Pope Francis?
There are two primary concerns, which are distinct but related. First, what is the source of Faith and the object of legitimate spiritual stewardship? This will supplant the implicit civil concept of the common good. Second, what are the duties and responsibilities of our Spiritual authorities?
The Fountain of Truth
The idea of Faith having a source was described by way of metaphor when I was talking about this with my friend. Imagine Christ standing at a well. He dips his bucket in, and pours it out to the buckets of his disciples. They carry that water and pour so me out in their evangelical ministries. Those pour it on and on and on, etc, through time and space. All that water comes from Christ. You cannot add to it, subtract from it, change it, without substantially altering what it is. Our responsibility is to transmit that deposit of faith on, unchanged, through evangelism to those around us, and to the next generation. The common spiritual good is to preservation of the deposit of Faith, which comes directly from Christ.
They can only Move Diagonally
Spiritual stewardship and authority comes in the form of Apostolic Succession. Christ laid hands on his Apostles, who laid hands on the first Priests and Bishops, on and on through the centuries. In thinking about this I realized my definition was missing this valid element: The form of authority must be valid. By which I mean: If a King can only be appointed by an aquatic ceremony, then receiving a sword from the Lady of the Forest is not valid, but receiving an Anchor from the Lady of the Lake would be perfectly fine. In this case, one might be otherwise faithful and accept responsibility, but you cannot be a valid bishop unless you go through the steps. Second element missing from the definition is also the idea of responsibility not just to the subordinate persons but to the ‘common good’.
Lets try this revised definition:[1]
LEGITIMACY – The Acceptance of any authority higher than their own, and acceptance of responsibility for anyone subject to their authority, by a person validly appointed to their authority in accordance with the law, into a structure whose aim is fundamentally the common good.
Therefore: A Bishop must be validly appointed bishop, accept responsibility for preservation and propagation of the deposit of faith, and accept their subordinate status to the next highest in line.
But what if it breaks?
What recourse do we have if the chain of spiritual authority breaks? Lets take an extreme example and say a priest has begun preaching heresy. Our responsibility is to link up back with the proper authority as soon as possible, and to take our family and friends with us if they have not become aware of the heresy. Said another way: The chain of authority breaks, we have been validly placed in command as we are responsible for those subject to our own personal authority. We are obligated to re-forge the link to the primary spiritual authority as soon as practicable; that is to say, we are in error if we recognize the chain has broken and do nothing to repair it.
What if the break is higher? A Bishop, for example? We are subject to the priests, and the priests have a responsibility to protect their flock. We have the responsibility to listen to our priests. They are still valid authority, and they are the one tasked with reforging the link to the primary spiritual authority.
What if the break is at the highest? A Pope? We are subject to the priests, the priests are subject to the Bishop. Our obligation is to them, their responsibility is to us. They must work to maintain authority from God, and reforge the chain through the Petrine See. In any case, at all times, our immediate obligation is to our priests. In modern times, with concern with deeply rooted spiritual problems, the best thing we can do is align ourselves with a valid, legitimate priest, who will protect his flock.
God is the ultimate authority, and a link to Him will never be broken. Using the principle of subsidiarity, we must work at the smallest possible level to resolve problems up stream. We live in a world of instant gratification. We can see bigger issues than we ever could before. But we cannot change anything that is not immediately around us. We can change our home parish. We can speak to our neighbors, our friends, our families. We cannot change a Bishop without a major transplantation; we definitely cannot change a Pope. We must Pray, and we must trust in God, and we must do all that we can in the space in which we can do it.
AMDG
[1] – After writing this, I realized there were two concepts being crammed into the same definition. I’ve since separated ‘Legitimacy’ and ‘Validity’ as different definitions. An Authority must be valid to be legitimate, but validity applies to more things than just legitimacy, so is worthy of separation.
Times-Dispatch of Vichy Earth 