"The Church became both more accessible and less imposing. It threw itself open to risk"
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The line has the compressed snap of a journalist watching an institution trade mystique for touchability and guessing, correctly, that the swap is never free. “More accessible and less imposing” reads like a before-and-after caption for post-Vatican II Catholicism: vernacular liturgy, the priest facing the people, the loosened collar of ritual authority. Morrow’s phrasing isn’t devotional; it’s architectural. The Church, once designed to awe, is imagined as a building that has removed its gates and lowered its ceiling.
The subtext is that accessibility is a kind of self-demystification. “Imposing” is a double-edged adjective: it signals grandeur and coercion, spiritual shelter and social pressure. When the Church stops imposing, it also stops being automatically believed. It has to persuade rather than command, compete rather than preside. Morrow’s verbs do the heavy lifting. The Church doesn’t “become” open; it “threw itself open,” a reflexive, almost impulsive act that suggests urgency or even panic, like a fortress flinging its doors wide to prove it isn’t a fortress anymore.
Then comes the kicker: “It threw itself open to risk.” Risk of what? Not just doctrinal dilution, but the modern exposure that follows transparency: scandal travels faster in a world where authority is no longer protected by distance. Risk of fragmentation too, as a universal Church meets local languages, local politics, local expectations. Morrow’s intent is to capture the bargain of modernization: a bet that relevance can replace reverence, and the uneasy truth that once you step down from the altar, you’re in the crowd.
The subtext is that accessibility is a kind of self-demystification. “Imposing” is a double-edged adjective: it signals grandeur and coercion, spiritual shelter and social pressure. When the Church stops imposing, it also stops being automatically believed. It has to persuade rather than command, compete rather than preside. Morrow’s verbs do the heavy lifting. The Church doesn’t “become” open; it “threw itself open,” a reflexive, almost impulsive act that suggests urgency or even panic, like a fortress flinging its doors wide to prove it isn’t a fortress anymore.
Then comes the kicker: “It threw itself open to risk.” Risk of what? Not just doctrinal dilution, but the modern exposure that follows transparency: scandal travels faster in a world where authority is no longer protected by distance. Risk of fragmentation too, as a universal Church meets local languages, local politics, local expectations. Morrow’s intent is to capture the bargain of modernization: a bet that relevance can replace reverence, and the uneasy truth that once you step down from the altar, you’re in the crowd.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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