He may not have been thinking about it at the time, but Pope Benedict, in the course of his recent U.S. visit may have dealt a knockout blow to the liberal American Catholicism that has challenged Rome since the early 1960s. He did so by speaking frankly and forcefully of his “deep shame” during his meeting with victims of the Church’s sex-abuse scandal. By demonstrating that he “gets” this most visceral of issues, the pontiff may have successfully mollified a good many alienated believers ”” and in the process, neutralized the last great rallying point for what was once a feisty and optimistic style of progressivism.
The liberal rebellion in American Catholicism has dogged Benedict and his predecessors since the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65. “Vatican II,” which overhauled much of Catholic teaching and ritual, had a revolutionary impact on the Church as a whole. It enabled people to hear the Mass in their own languages; embraced the principle of religious freedom; rejected anti-Semitism; and permitted Catholic scholars to grapple with modernity.
But Vatican II meant even more to a generation of devout but restless young people in the U.S. Rather than a course correction, Terrence Tilley, now head of the Fordham University’s theology department, wrote recently, his generation perceived “an interruption of history, a divine typhoon that left only the keel and structure of the church unchanged.” They discerned in the Council a call to greater church democracy, and an assertion of individual conscience that could stand up to the authority of even the Pope. So, they battled the Vatican’s birth-control ban, its rejection of female priests and insistence on celibacy, and its authoritarianism.
Liberal Catholicism is not dead, but it has lost it’s biggest point of traction. Mr. Van Biema can say “over-hyped” as many times as he wants to, but that won’t change the fact that the majority of new priests are more inclined to “get back to where they once belonged” than to work for Revolution. If you see a guy who wears a cassock outside mass and sings the Canon, he’s probably under 35.
The end of the article states that the young conservative Catholics are being over-hyped. But I wonder. As Mark Steyn says, if you want to control the future, you have to show up, and young conservative Catholics are the ones who are having kids. So, twenty years from now….
One can but hope.
If, as alleged, the “liberal” reform movement is over, how stable is the resultant structure? Does anyone seriously believe the majority of U.S. catholics are about to follow the official teaching on birth control, or that the priest shortage is about to disappear? What appears to be happening is not a mass return to the Vatican’s version of orthodoxy but a “truce” in which a very large proportion of the church’s members can feel faithful to the institution while disagreeing vehemently with much of its teaching. This situation seems inherently unstable, awaiting only the next controversy to break out into open warfare, and failing to provide any long term solution to the gulf between official positions and the actual behavior of the average pew-sitter.
[i]Is Liberal Catholicism Dead?[/i] Yes, it is. It’s a symptom of a larger trend – that “liberal” Christianity is dying as well. And I say this as someone the usual suspects around here would curse as a “liberal Christian.”
So celebrate while you can, as it won’t turn out quite the way you expect. That’s because the real juxtaposition in the West now is [b]not[/b] liberal vs. conservative Christian – it’s “politically conservative Christian” vs. “middle of the road to progressive secularism.”
You lot have done such a great job tying the Christian faith to extremist conservative politics, that they are now inseparable (see the latest Barna polls and such). Congratulations. Hope you like the “secular Europe model” of society, because it’ll be here in the next generation. Considering the alternative, I’m rather looking forward to it myself…
Well, Shipley, my parish has five men in seminary right now, and it’s not at all the biggest parish I have been in.
Planonian, I’m sorry you feel that way. The situation is in large part the fault of the Democratic party, which for decades has brooked no meaningful dissent on the abortion license. To all intents and purposes, if you don’t stand foursquare for an absolute right to abortion all the way up to 8 months, 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 45 seconds, you should not bother with their presidential primary, or almost any of their Senate primaries. You will have no hope.
I hope it’s dead. Vatican II, whatever the reality of its intentions or teachings, has proven to be a cataclysm for a venerable institution. Here, as elsewhere – and I’ll apologize up front, but I think it’s largely true – we’ll be better off when the boomers’ malign grip on the Church is released. In ECUSA’s case, that grip strangled the place stone cold dead; fortunately, the foundation of Catholicism is made of stronger stuff.
[blockquote]Does anyone seriously believe the majority of U.S. catholics are about to follow the official teaching on birth control, or that the priest shortage is about to disappear?[/blockquote]
But here is the key… the American Catholics who are following official teaching on birth control are the ones who will fill the pews 30 years from now. It is their sons who will resolve the priest shortage.
To second what Ed the Roman said, I was raised in a Democrat’s household and would vote that way if it didn’t mean I would be furthering abortion politics. While the party has made some superficial ‘room’ for dissenters, it is clear there is no real room for those who are anti-abortion/pro-life in the Democratic Party.
This article seems to confuse political and theological liberalism. The Roman Catholic Church has never been very friendly to either type of liberalism. Over the last hundred or so years, it has moved toward an understanding and appreciation of both traditional, socially oriented conservatism and Christian socialism. The church would have no problems with the individuals mentioned by name if they were not theological liberals. Their leftist Christian socialism is not a big issue these days. In that light, Benedict’s acknowledgement of the strength the American tradition of individual liberty brings to the church is a significant act of reconciliation.