Church & Culture
Off the Reservation
This blog has defended Pope Francis. He told us to go out into the Church and the world to make a mess. His pontificate has certainly achieved that objective. The Vatican’s moral abdication on China is disconcerting. Over a million ethic Uyghurs arbitrarily detained in concentration camps, and the Vatican said nothing. The Chinese Communist Party’s insistence on Sinicization of religion and even the accord allowing the CCP to co-appoint bishops adds to the concern. In addition to issues on the world stage, Pope Francis has regularly minimized the primary troubles of our day to include marriage, family life, and abortion.
To be fair, Pope Pius XII was publicly silent during the atrocities of World War II while privately coordinating resistance to the regime. It is at least possible that Francis has chosen to follow in this mold.
Pope Francis is right to highlight other issues of our faith, such as the plight of migrants. His emphasis on the theological virtue of charity is evident and a timely reminder.
The problem with highlighting these new areas is that they are of lesser moral weight than the core teachings of the Church. Further, his confusing and nuanced statements sow confusion, even among the well catechized faithful. How do we reconcile the Catholic intellectual tradition with off the cuff remarks that so clearly contradict 2,000 years of established teaching from the most brilliant minds in the Church?
It’s clear that these aren’t little slips of the tongue, loose words, or errors. When Pope Francis speaks, he knows what he’s doing, and he’s doing it on purpose. Unfortunately, it’s the definition of scandal: speaking to cause confusions. How are we to respond?
We must start with humility. While he does not offer these remarks under the principle of Papal Infallibility, Francis was elected pontiff for a reason. It may not be clear to us now, but there is some message that the Holy Spirit is trying to send to us. Perhaps the message is that we should not be so narrowly focused in our own spiritual lives, but to embrace the wholeness of loving each other. Perhaps we’ve become too comfortable and spiritually selfish, caring more about our salvation than the salvation of others.
Next, we must resist the urge to cancel Pope Francis. I don’t subscribe to a cancel culture. I understand people to be complex, so I take their good and set aside their bad. He is still the supreme pontiff, entrusted with the care of the Church.
In our lives, we must stand up for truth. The most damaging part of all of this scandal is that it’s a weak attempt to sugar coat the truth. Truth is always hard to hear, but it’s the most loving word to share. The family is vital to the survival of society and humanity writ large. To recast the family is to weaken and denigrate it. Our world widely accepts immorality in the vain attempt to make everyone feel good about themselves. Only this acceptance comes with reducing the dignity of the very people it aims to support. Our world needs to continue to hear with absolute clarity the saving message of the Church and an unequivocal advocacy for the absolute dignity of the human person.
Finally, don’t give up. Not even the gates of Hell will prevail against the Church, so we shouldn’t fret about a few poor comments to the media. The wedge of schism drives people away from grace, and that’s why it is so effective. If a media quote is enough to get a person or a family to leave their faith behind forever, that’s a victory for darkness.
Be patient, be humble, and stand in truth.
Election Eve
Election day is finally here. What a cycle it’s been! In many respects, this election cycle has been just as dramatic as any other. It’s the biggest, most contentious, most important election of your life! We’re either going to have a country or a civil war starting on Wednesday morning. At least that’s what we’re told. The truth is, people have predicted the downfall of America since its beginning. Yet, here we are.
It’s easy to give into the stress and fear. There’s a real chance that we won’t have a result tomorrow night, a replay of the 2000 election. It’s even easier to let our stress get out of control amid our lockdown.
This entire cycle of manufactured drama and crisis is a perfect reminder for us. The media and politicians need our eyes, need our clicks, and need us to be terrified. They need to shut down our rational minds and tap into the fight or flight emotions to achieve their commercial and political objectives. If you step back from the hype and look at the record of the candidates, you’ll have a much more boring electoral decision-making experience.
What’s the reminder? The reminder is two-fold. First, we already have a Savior. Regardless of which party holds power come January, Christ still reigns. History also tells us that in four years, the opposite party is likely to be in power. So getting worked up in the emotions is an exercise in futility.
Second, the Church has been persecuted since its founding. Our faith runs counter to the culture, and this Pax Christianity that we’ve enjoyed over the past couple of decades stands opposed to the history of the Church. I like being comfortable as much as the next guy, but our faith speaks out against the cruel injustices of the World. Should we be persecuted, we can at least know that we’re in good company.
We are a people of hope. We are called to live in this World, to speak Truth, and to love our neighbor. Be an active, faithful participant in civic life, but don’t place your hope in a transient political movement. Place your hope in the God who has always loved you, and who has never fallen short of His word.
The New Evangelization Stumbles
Getting to Mass on a weekday is hard for me, and that was before the pandemic. The difficulty is not handling my four kids by myself for half an hour. It’s getting everyone up, dressed, fed, and in the pew by 8:30am. Lately our parish switched Mass times for the weekday liturgies to 5:00pm, another challenge for parents of little ones.
The Mass is central to our Catholic faith. The lockdowns earlier this year highlighted just how big of a role that weekly liturgy plays in the rhythm of our weeks. Without the Mass and the Eucharist, we’ve been marooned in a spiritual desert.
During those difficult weeks, with tremendous gratitude to the ministries that stepped up to the plate, our separation was more bearable. Like many businesses, parishes used their creativity to help us all cope. Parish rosaries have been prayed over teleconference, new homily podcasts have been published, Eucharistic Adoration has been live-streamed on YouTube, and the Mass, that sacred celebration, recorded and uploaded for viewing on any schedule.
This pandemic continues to reshaped our lives in new and different ways. It’s a disruptive event, and I was glad that it shook the Catholic Church awake. All of these new ways to experience and express our faith, in community while apart, enriched my family’s life. We were more connected than we had ever been to the daily life of the Church.
I quickly keyed in on the Word on Fire Daily Mass. A ministry started by Bishop Robert Barron, Word on Fire is a digital education and evangelization platform that teaches topics of faith. They’re uniquely suited to record and publish the daily Mass because they’re a digital first organization.
My family attended Mass with Word on Fire for two main reasons. First, we knew that Bishop Barron is a legitimate Catholic priest, so the Masses we attended were valid. Second, since they’re so experienced with video production and distribution, the production values were very high. The camera angle, lighting, and audio were all carefully considered so we could focus on prayer and not poor lighting or distant audio.
Imagine my disappointment when Word on Fire announced at the end of May that they would stop uploading their Daily Mass. Weekend liturgies would have 144,000 or more views while the weekday Masses averaged 65,000 views.
The average Catholic parish in America would be lucky to have 50 people attend Mass on a weekday, and here Word on Fire was touching tens of thousands of people every single day.
In their announcement, Word on Fire cited that public Masses were resuming in California and that they never intended for their Daily Masses to be published on an ongoing basis. They also expressed their desire for people to return to their parishes. Their points are taken.
Even so, no matter how justified, what a terrible mistake.
The lesson for us to take away from the pandemic is that we need more avenues for expressing our faith. The Domestic Church, that idea that the family is at the core of the spiritual life of a person, needs the support of external resources. We harnessed new technologies, quickly, and started praying together in new ways.
Further, I wonder how many lost Catholics, or even just Catholic-curious people, were drawn to the Church through these new and modern methods.
Sadly, as the lockdowns lifted, many parishes and ministries ceased these operations. It was a heartbreaking stumble to watch. The New Evangelization demands that we use new methods and the technology that we have to spread the Gospel. This pandemic was the perfect excuse for us to try new things and experiment. When you try something novel and half a million people show up every week, you don’t just turn it off because it took some extra effort.
Safety and Stability
We live comfortably, but that’s rarely the experience of Catholics. Many, if not most Catholics throughout history lived very rough lives. They’ve been outcasts, despised, reviled, jailed, tortured, and killed. In this pandemic, we too share in this experience of discomfort. How will we respond?
In the midst of this chaos, it’s plain to see our misplaced reliance on ourselves. Our failure to place total faith in God is made quite plain. This is an invitation to get back into the sheepfold. It’s an opportunity to let God do as He promised, and to concern ourselves with the spiritual welfare of our families.
We seek safety and stability, two concepts rarely experienced in the Salvation History by God’s people. Be bold enough to live out the faith that you proclaim. Seek God.
Spiritual Bankruptcy
I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the mass shootings gripping our society. Young men, disaffected and isolated, suffering from mental illness, take up arms and attack unsuspecting victims in acts of extreme violence. These events are things that we’re used to seeing in Europe, Asia, or the Middle East. We’re not accustomed to hearing about them happening in our schools, offices, and shopping centers.
A deeper look at the profile of these killers provides a stunning indictment against the culture that we’ve built. We live in this golden era of consumerism, where few of us want for our basic necessities. We have a bustling economy at full employment and our lives are inundated with abundance. Yet, in this era that previous generations could have never imagined, a group of young men find themselves hopeless. In their hopelessness, they’re radicalized, and then they act out.
We’ve learned that they’re not only loners, but some had a history of violence. They’re young and many of them didn’t have their father in their lives. They have weak ties to the community, and don’t participate in society. Many of them spent inordinate amounts of time in the darkest places of the Internet.
We’ve had acts of domestic terrorism before, but never at this scale. We watched ISIS target Europe, but with a certain aloofness. We’ve pontificated and conjectured about why those young Arab men were radicalized. We’ve opined about how their communities could better interdict them and de-radicalize them. All of this time, while we’ve been academic about the problem, the very same evil has taken root here at home.
This violence must stop. There are many policy ideas being proposed. Red-flag laws that allow courts to remove guns from the people deemed to be a risk are starting to be enacted. Other policymakers suggest a different mix of gun regulation or perhaps more funding for mental health services.
This is a complex problem with no simple solution. We need to be doing all of these things, and more. If we throw some money at mental health treatment, pass a few token laws, and call it a day, we’ll have missed a huge opportunity. We must address the root cause that’s driving these men to their breaking point.
These are young people without hope.
In our rush to self-actualize, we’ve made God irrelevant. We’ve collectively dismissed the importance of our spirituality. We’ve demeaned people of faith as radical or stupid. We’ve insisted that we are enough unto ourselves, with no need for any religion. We’re smarter than all of that fantastical theology.
The data speaks for itself. In the midst of abundance, we’re a nation that’s spiritually bankrupt. Suicide rates are accelerating, families are in tatters, drug abuse and overdose rates are a public health crisis, and domestic terrorism is taking hold. We’ve found a problem that cannot be solved by ourselves.
But what is hope?
“Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.” Catechism of the Catholic Church 1817
Hope is the understanding that we have a real and active connection to our Creator. Hope is the acknowledgment that our spirit is an integral part of our humanity. Neglecting our spiritual wellness has the same negative effects as neglecting our physical or emotional health. Hope is the virtue that tells us that what God has promised, He will deliver.
Faith, hope, and charity are the virtues through which we should interact the world. We’re here to know God and Truth. God has revealed to us the reality of Heaven, and that He desires us to live there with Him forever. And while we’re here on Earth, we need to serve and love one another.
This is the cure to the despair that underpins our spiritual bankruptcy. A reminder of our true reality and our true purpose for being. Nothing soothes the soul more than service. Perhaps that’s where we should start.
The Scandal
Many Catholics in the United States felt in the opening years of the millennium that we had stared down our inner-demons. The uproar over the sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy was justified, even if justice was never truly served. Consider the fate of Cardinal Law. He was ejected from his leadership role in the Archdiocese of Boston and lived out his final days in Rome, where he reportedly had an outsized influence over the governance of the Church. After all, he had nothing to do but go to meetings and lend his suggestions.
Sadly, the moral courage and leadership among the Bishops in the United States was largely absent from these past two decades. While they confronted abuse by priests, they conveniently sidestepped any equally grave matter, the accountability of the bishops. Perhaps they were just overwhelmed with it all, or their focus gave them tunnel vision. The unfortunate result of this oversight is now we’re in a second phase of scandal, surrounding the same abhorrent evil.
This is a societal issue, yes, but it is also a very Catholic issue. We aren’t grappling with it as the American Church, but as the universal Church. Pope Francis rightly wants to apply a universal standard of justice so that all of these cases, no matter from what corner of the globe them emanate, are dealt with in the same manner. The problem is, his track record is checkered, even as recently as two episode this year. Theodore McCarrick was defrocked, but he refused the resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin who was convicted in French criminal courts. Pope Francis is rightly concerned about a mob-mentality, but he cannot seem to balance the rights of the accused with the demands of justice.
Perhaps what is most confusing in all of this are the moral judgements made by clerics in position of authority. While I hesitate to apply my 2019 worldview to decisions made in the past, it is eminently clear that the sexual abuse of a minor is a criminal act of the most serious degree. It has never been acceptable and it never will be. Allegations must be fully reviewed and, if there is a guilty verdict at the end of due process, justice must be meted out to the fullest extend of the law. Should the statutes of limitations have expired, then canon law must step in to fill that void. If there is no remedy or relief under codes of law or conduct, the priest or bishop must be permanently removed from ministry. This is not hard.
We’ve suffered under the flippant approach that Pope Francis has taken since the first days of his pontificate. In recent days, Pope Benedict XVI, with the permission of Pope Francis, published an essay in which he comments on the crisis. In his essay, he blamed the sexual revolution and an overemphasis on the rights of the accused.
There are many causes and factors that lead a predator to abuse a child. The sexual revolution and the era of relaxed morality is counted among them. Predators are mentally disturbed individuals who manipulate those around them for their own ends. They move from victim to victim and only stop when they’re removed from society and jailed. There’s no cure for this type of mental illness, and by their actions, they have relinquished their rights to live in civil society.
Pope Benedict raises a very good point in his article, we are placing too much emphasis on the rights of the accused. There needs to be due process to filter out baseless claims; the presumption of innocence must be maintained. The criminal courts need to be given first rights of refusal on any accusation before canonical tribunals are allowed to conduct an investigation. Throughout this process, out of an abundance of caution and with a profound sense of humility, the priest or bishop needs to be removed from public ministry. Once the process is concluded, if an allegation is proven to be without merit, the cleric should be immediately restored to office with a public acknowledgement of his innocence. If, however, the process concludes with a substantiated claim or guilty verdict, they must be immediately and irreversibly dismissed from the priesthood.
My view is not shared globally. However, in a matter as serious and potentially destructive as this, there can be no safe quarter in the clerical state for the very wolves we were warned against. They must be caught, uprooted, brought to justice. Only then, if they so choose, through the ministry of the Church, can they be reconciled to God.
Jehovah’s Witness
There are many things that I’m getting used to now that I live in a house in a neighborhood. Living in an apartment or in a rural community, there aren’t that many door-to-door solicitors that bother. Nowadays, whenever anyone knocks on my door, they’re either selling a home security system or their religion.
I’m the first to admit that when I’m not expecting anyone, I don’t answer. I’m under no obligation to open my door, unless its the police, and they tend to do a nice job of letting people know who’s at the door.
Last Fall, two Mormon missionaries came by to chat. For whatever reason, a few weeks ago, there was a knock at the door, and I opened it. It was Jehovah’s Witness. I indulged for a few minutes, but made my exit as soon as I could.
I have to say, although there’s no way I’m jumping off of the Catholic ship, I really appreciate the courage of conviction that these missionaries have to knock on doors in hostile territory, not knowing who’s on the other side. I think it shows a depth of faith that not even I have. After all, sometimes I struggle to lead the prayer before meals when we’re out to eat.
There’s nothing to be ashamed of as a Catholic. Perhaps I can follow the example of the missionaries of other denominations and be more courageous in public. I never know on whom that small act of public witness I might make an impression.
Build Your Parish Community
A few years ago, my parents’ parish redesigned their website. I have an interest in these sorts of things, so I complemented my mom one day on its beauty and usability. As it turns out, in a parish full of technologists, they were paying a 3rd party company to build and run their website. My mom expressed dismay that no one had stepped forward to take on that responsibility.
Alison and I love our parish. It’s a small community in mission country, which I think binds us closer together. It’s a parish like any other, with many jobs that need to be done, all requiring a time commitment and volunteer help. We’re all busy and there can be a struggle filling those needs.
Now that we have three small children, but truthfully even when we just had two, there were many volunteer opportunities that we had to decline because of our commitment to raising these children. That’s especially true of liturgical roles. I wouldn’t want Alison to leave me alone in the pew with the kids while she went up to lector.
Web design is one of my skills, and I noticed that our parish website could be doing so much more for our community. So I volunteered to take it on as a project, to convert it to modern standards, and expand it as a tool for our community. It’s a volunteer role, but one that I can easily manage to fit into my schedule.
We each have skills that could benefit our parish community. When we contribute, we all get to enjoy the fruit. Our parishes should be so much more than a physical space where we go to Mass for an hour a week. They should be a hub of our family’s spiritual and social life. By contributing in the ways that we can, we build stronger parishes— places that we will want to gather.
Pro-Life with Credibility
The modern pro-life movement has focused on the issue of abortion. It would seem that is an appropriate focus given the scope of abortion and the opportunity for change. There have been 59M abortion deaths in the United States since 1973. Yet, to be pro-life requires that we be more than just anti-abortion.
The entire movement starts with the belief that every life is worthy of dignity. This idea is one that requires pervasiveness. We must apply it to every person in every situation, not just in the context of elective abortion. This is where the trouble with our credibility begins.
First, we’re going to have to address the issue of contraception. This is our biggest hurdle. Hormonal contraception, by design, is abortifacient. It may be abortion at the earliest stages of life, but it is nonetheless abortion. Other forms of contraceptives, such as barrier methods, are wrong because they stem from the same hostile mindset. The widespread usage of contraception poses a direct threat to the credibility of the pro-life movement.
Next, we have to move to constrict the death penalty. There are situations in which the death penalty is licit from a moral perspective. The criteria for meeting that moral exception are high. Rarely in the United States do we see these criteria met by any inmate. We have correctional facilities that can safeguard society from even the most dangerous offenders.
Finally, we have to be more serious about advocating for the respect of the elderly. Euthanasia is now becoming an acceptable resolution to the difficulties of life. This viewpoint is troublesome because it advocates the destruction of life as a solution. Presented as a humane way of ending suffering, it targets the most vulnerable. The truth is that euthanasia tells people that they are nothing more than a burden. Instead of experiencing the beauty of a journey’s end, life comes to an unnatural end. We’ve made great strides in the field of palliative care so that pain can be well managed in the final stages of life. Hospice has matured as a concept bringing much-needed resources to patient and family. The dignity of the human person is not contingent on one’s health.
Somewhere in those three points, members of the pro-life movement will find a hang-up. The truth is, if we want to be credible on the respect for any human life, we must insist on the respect for all human life. Only then will our message reverberate with those who hold an opposing view.
What will it take to move the pro-life movement to a place of wholistic advocacy for the respect of life? A lot of things that will make many of us uncomfortable.
Impeach Francis
I seldom take the time to read editorials. While the premise is good, the execution scarcely follows through. They tend to be pejorative, one-sided, and offer little intellectual value to the conversation. Instead, they simply validate those who already agree with a particular viewpoint and shut out the rest. I came across what ended up being a rather amusing editorial in which the author suggested that Pope Francis should resign. Of course, should he decline such an enticing offer, the faithful should force him out of office.
Nope.
Now that we’ve clearly answered this ridiculous call, let’s take a closer look at what is actually happening, and why it’s making some of us uncomfortable.
Pope Francis comes from a nation of tremendous turmoil. Argentina is a land very different from the one we know in the United States. For nearly half of a century, it was a nation embroiled in violence and instability on a scale unimaginable to us. Out of that crucible came the man we now know as Pope Francis. Consequently, we can’t reasonably expect him to think, act, and reason as we do. In his time, he spoke out strongly in support of those issues to which the Catholic Church holds most dear, especially on human rights and life issues. His record is without question, and not even quotes ripped from the headlines can undo that witness.
We should consider, for a moment, how Pope Francis is mirroring very closely Jesus’ life. While we have the excellent stories from the Gospels, and a rich tradition, what we tend to overlook are the minute details. Jesus was a very shocking figure, challenging the comfortable and the religious and welcoming in the outcast and destitute. He challenged the religious because they let the rules become their religion, and bore little fruit. He welcomed in the outsider because they were in desperate need for attention, compassion, and love. Francis challenges those of us who consider ourselves Catholic. We’ve become so vanilla that we share the same divorce rates as our non-Catholic neighbors. We use contraception, we’re materialistic, and we’re extremely judgmental.
Francis, like a loving father, challenges us to do better, because we are better than this. We don’t like how it comes off, and many of his one-liners can be confusing, but we need to take in the totality of his life, mission, writing, and works in order to grasp this simple message he has for us: come back. His outreach to refugees, victims, and those we routinely ignore is a painful reminder of just how much room we have to grow in our faith. We need to live our faith.
Time has a way of bringing clarity, and I think that years down the road, we’ll look back on his papacy as a reminder of the importance of charity, along with faith and hope, as Benedict and John Paul brought to us. God has a way of placing what we need in our lives at just the right moment, even if it makes us uncomfortable. Pope Francis just may be what we need, right now.