獨裁？

關神父對教會「獨裁」與「民主」作風之間所作的標籤和對立，令我記起 George Weigel 所講過的一段事蹟：

During the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI suggested that the Council's basic text, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, included the statement that the Roman Pontiff 'is accountable to the Lord alone.' The Council's Theological Commission told Pope Paul politely but firmly that that simply wasn't the case. Any pope, the commission pointed out, is also accountable to God's revelation, to the fundamental structure of the Church given it by Christ, to the seven sacraments, to the creeds, to the doctrinal definitions of earlier ecumenical councils, and to 'other obligations too numerous to mention,' as the commissioners delicately put it.

The Courage to be Catholic, pp 117-118.

從這篇敘述中，我們可以看出：教會內似乎存在著一種平衝機制，促使當家的話事人，亦須照本子辦事。這「本子」，也許就是我們的傳統吧！

古代教父們，常以「monarchy」來形容基督創立教會時所意願的體制。但當中蘊含的「monarch」（君主）卻並不一定指現時中文意義上的「獨裁」（dictator, tyrannos）。古典時期所崇尚的君主理念，重視對傳統價值的承擔與執行。如忽略或凌駕這些價值，則君主往往被評為「tyrannos」，而他的決策和認受性，亦勢將受到損害，更不用說要受到歷史的非議了。

中古時期的士林哲學，亦強調了在一政治群體中，「monarchy」、「aristocracy」、「democracy」元素之間的細緻平衡。若要牽強（重申：是「牽強」）地將這些意念套用在教會的結構中，則「monarchic element」可指普世教會的教宗、地方教會的主教、或堂區的主任司鐸；「aristocratic element」則可指普世教會的主教團（universal episcopate）和羅馬教廷（Roman Curia）、教區內的司鐸聖職班（presbyterate）或主教公署（diocesan chancery）、堂區架構中的修道人士和中堅分子（熱心教友？）。

那麼，在教會中是否有民主的存在？

這裡我記起 G.K. Chesterton 的一句名言：「傳統是死人的民主」（Tradition is the democracy of the dead）。他是這樣說的：

Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead ... Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father.

當我們強調一個團體或組織須具備民主精神時，其實往往就是認同其中的互相尊重、求真和兼收並蓄的精神。不然，即使小數服從多數的制度，亦有可能淪為集體暴力。

誠然，教會本質上是一「神恩」（charismatic）團體，而非「世俗政治」（secular politics）的社團。即使是具有「管治」職權的領袖，到底只是肩負「擔子」（onus）去「服役」（servitium, leitourgia）的「僕人」（servus, doulos）吧！