People’s History: Reneta Webb

I first met Reneta Webb in early August 2019, when she expressed interest in CTA’s Re/Generation program and excitement about “a new resurgence of the Spirit in CTA.” She became integral support for our first People's History of Vatican II gathering in Chicago, November 2019.

In a local gathering, Reneta met Lindsey Myers, then a member of CTA’s Chicago chapter and graduate student at Loyola University Chicago’s Institute of Pastoral Studies. Here I reflect on an intimate conversation between Reneta and Lindsey, drawing parallels to our coursework and community discernment. The following consideration is about what it really means to be Church and how we must honor our conscience, even amidst the current structure and hierarchy of the Catholic Church. 

But first, the best (and perhaps most succinct) way I know how to introduce Reneta is by her email signatures:

Your cheerleader,

Reneta

Hooray and applause! May the spirit of God keep hugging you,

Reneta

You are always in my prayers, and remember, you are my joy and my hope,

Reneta

What an absolute gift of love and support. 

Reneta and Lindsey

We are the Church

Reneta describes her earliest memories of the Catholic Church as “a consumer spirituality.” 

“And what I mean by that is that you would buy your way into heaven. You did this by saying certain prayers with the indulgence on it... It didn’t matter what you did to your neighbor, it was all me and God and as long as I can keep my soul clean and buy my way into heaven, that was a great thing.”

But then Vatican II happened and it was “like an explosion!” Reneta recounts that one of the most revolutionary concepts was understanding “Church” as “the People of God... because it says, there was St. Theresa and St. Francis, but there is also you — and you’re in that class. You’re one of the saints and you have a call to holiness just like everybody else.”

You, me, and the saints: we are all “equally holy and wonderful.”

Surely, we’ve all heard this before, that “we are the church.” And yet, as Reneta continues, it is not just empowering language; it is a powerful declaration. If it is to be true, then the very structure of the Catholic Church must fall — or at least change.

“I love the Church. I’ll be Catholic and I’ve always been Catholic and that’s how it is. But I consider myself a dialogical Catholic. I don’t like what's happening in the Church. I don’t like the hierarchy, curia, all of that garbage that developed over time. I am always convinced that if you could go back to the way it was after Jesus died and ascended into Heaven… what was that group of people like? There was no bishop, no ritual of the Mass. They got together to share where they were at and to remember what Jesus did. And if we could get back to that, you know, I would be very happy.” 

I think many of us would be.

“A lot of the trouble that people have with the Church today is all managerial man-made rules and regulations that don’t count… I don’t want to say ‘don’t count.’ They are moral guides I suppose, and that sort of thing, but that’s not — that’s not faith. That’s a structure. And it can be changed, it can be eliminated.”

Conscience

I’m struck by Reneta’s clear differentiation between faith and structure. Surely we believe that the Church is God’s revelation of Godself. But if we put the “law and order” of the Church over the innermost callings of Christ, have we not made an idol of the structure, the building, the man-made and developed tradition? 

And if it is all human construction, can’t we deconstruct it? How do we confront our own idolatry? How do we discern? Reneta offers:

“When Vatican II started talking about freedom of conscience... that was a whole different thing, that was amazing!” 

It’s this small sentence that catches my attention. Our conscience is innate to our discernment and this allows me to think of “we are the Church” in a new way. Reneta’s belief in our capacity as the faithful reminds me of a paper I wrote for an ecclesiology class at Loyola University. I wrote about conscience as defined in Gaudium Et Spes (On the Church in the Modern World). I learned that Gaudium Et Spes was the only pastoral constitution of the Catholic Church and was written during the only pastoral council of the Catholic Church. In other words, it is a document of not only theology but practice, encouragement in engaging with the ‘signs of the times’ in the modern world.

In this document, the notion of conscience is in Part I: The Church and Man’s Calling, Chapter I: The Dignity of the Human Person. Now, I won’t take us through the entire document, but I would like to stress that “conscience” is defined by the following: 

“For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged. Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths” (Gaudium Et Spes).

I would also like to stress the importance of conscience as situated in the context of human dignity. I conclude in my paper that this locale is:

“a revolutionary and paradigm-shifting meaning from Gaudium et Spes to the people of God. This text indicates that each person has conscience as an innate aspect of their dignity. It is an inherent indwelling, God's revelation of Godself in each of us. When actualized, this statement could drastically shift relationships within and around the institutional structure of the church. To recognize intellect, conscience, and freedom of thought as dignity is to promote agency and genuine responsibility within the faithful. Perhaps this is one reason Vatican II is attributed with the empowerment of the laity. It is furthermore a call of church authority to honor and genuinely engage the experience of an individual as divine revelation, the embodiment of church even beyond an established hierarchical structure.”

Reneta explains how this idea of conscience shifted her relationship with the Church:

“I underwent a big change during that time because it was like… well, I never thought of that. And you got to really reorient your whole spirituality. It was very, very different. That God lives in me?! God is not just in that tabernacle out there somewhere? And that’s why I said that the whole concept of people of God was big, you know, that was huge!

“Wherever folks like this are gathered, Christ is there. And the Spirit does not belong to the Catholic Church, the Spirit moves where it will. The Spirit might be in the Dalai Lama…”

…and in you, in me, in us — “equally holy and wonderful.”.

And if we truly believe that we all embody the Church… then what? How does this teaching affect our relationship to the structures of the church?

I conclude in my paper: “Not only... do individuals have a right to follow their conscience, but it is an obligation. One that leads to conversations on both dissent and reform as the faithful embody divine truths and confront what is inconsistent, unjust, and disembodied” within the institutional structures of the Catholic Church.

Today

Given current “signs of the times,” following our conscience — our “most secret core and sanctuary” — might require holding our Church’s leadership accountable for centuries of white supremacy and the patriarchal and deceptive environment of sex abuse. Our conscience might demand nothing less from us than lament and reform. It might also demand that we vote — not  only for a “right to life” but to a life of quality where justice and charity dare to imagine a Kin-dom  come. Our conscience just might call us to get involved, as messy and terrifying as it may be.

Reneta concludes:

“I see great gains by Vatican II. You know, when Pope John said we want to open up the windows and let some fresh air in, I think that is exactly what he had accomplished.

“I have great hope… It’s not even a century since Vatican II and we haven't even begun to squeeze the juice out of that.”

I hear Reneta when she implies that Vatican II is far from over. The truth of this council is still being realized and embodied. Each generation of students, of the faithful, of the hopeful — we are in the process of understanding what it means to truly be Church, to be the People of God.

And so Reneta, when you read this, thank you for being such a gracious teacher. Thank you for being faithful, and thank you for your hope. Because what if — what if the future of the Church isn’t only about where the “new Spirit” takes it, but where our elders have brought it? Thank you for being with the Spirit in the journey to us, in the journey to today — you are my joy and my hope. Amen.