Catholicism: Here Comes Everybody

The following comes from Robert George First Things:

Those of us who are Catholics have had a rough few years. Well, make that a rough few decades. Horrific abuse scandals. Some weak, sometimes feckless, bishops. Wacky theologians. Boring homilies. Dreadful music. Widespread dissent, often rooted in appalling ignorance. I could go on. We envy our Evangelical friends for the vibrancy of faith in their communities. (Causing our Evangelical friends to wonder whether we’ve been hitting the communion wine too hard.) We envy our friends in the historically black churches for their great preaching and singing. We envy our LDS friends for having strong and inspiring leaders. We envy our Eastern Orthodox friends for having a beautiful liturgy. We envy our Orthodox Jewish friends for understanding the value of tradition, instead of throwing it overboard in pursuit of “relevance.” 

We feel sorry for ourselves.

But sometimes, one notices the little things that make it great to be Catholic. Like diversity. Diversity? I know what you’re thinking: “My goodness, Robby really has been hitting the sauce. He’s not usually the sort who goes for this p. c. diversity business.”

But, no, I mean it. Diversity. I was sitting at mass today, listening to the homily (which actually wasn’t all that boring, truth be told) and looking around at my fellow worshippers. I mean to tell you, it was glorious diversity. The Catholic Church really is “here comes everybody.” There were people I know who are Irish, Polish, Italian, Mexican, Filipino, Guatemalan, but also African, Indian (the kind from India), Korean, Vietnamese, Colombian, Russian (why they don’t go to the Orthodox Church, I’m not sure; but there they were), Lebanese, Japanese, Jamaican, Chilean, Ecuadorean—all in the same local parish

And that’s only the beginning.

There were the folks from the Western section of Princeton who work in financial services in NYC and have a net worth in the tens or even hundreds of millions. And there was the guy who owns the local bakery. And the woman who has one of the florist shops and another who has (or works in, I’m not quite sure) one of the few remaining travel agencies. There was the little old man with the amazingly bad toupee. (He’d be better off with some black magic marker.) There were the laborers who work with the local landscapers and builders. They and their families were sitting there alongside the rich people from the Western section and the University professors. One of the professors (who, as it happens, is one of the world’s leading scientists) was kneeling next to the wife of my tailor—she’s an immigrant woman whose simple southern Italian spirituality is of the sort that gets Catholics labeled Mary worshippers by our Protestant friends. Then there was the guy—late 60s or 70s in age, with the classic looks of the 1940s male movie star, right down to the pencil thin moustache—who kneels through the whole mass counting his beads and saying the rosary. He does it every Sunday.

We have the Princeton University undergrads and graduate students headed for big things, and the people with Down’s Syndrome and other handicaps. We have the crying infants and squirming toddlers (not to mention the adolescents who, I’m sure, are giving their parents fits) and the people (mostly women, but a few men) who are certainly in their nineties. My sense is that the congregation as a whole is made up of fairly orthodox Catholics, which I doubt is always the case in university towns. When my former student, Fr. Mike McClane, preaches, only one or two people usually get up and walk out. Given that he often says things that cause massive heartburn to Catholics who strongly dissent from some of the Church’s moral teachings, that’s pretty surprising for a parish in a town like Princeton, but there it is. Anyway, if we’re missing ideological (or whatever you want to call it) diversity we sure have lots of all the other kinds, including, I’m sure, plenty of sinners like me, and even, I would be willing to bet, a few saints.

Era of Comfortable Catholicism Is Over

The following comes from the NCR:

Catholics at the 10th anniversary of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast got a startling wake-up call on Tuesday morning: They have lost the luxury of being comfortable in their faith in 21st-century America. More than ever before, they must embrace the risks of discipleship by encountering others and witnessing to the Gospel.

For the 800 people gathered in Washington, the morning’s speeches were mainly divided between Princeton professor Robert George’s sobering assessment of what Christian discipleship requires in America’s current cultural-political landscape and Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston’s cheerful exhortation for Catholics to embrace the missionary spirit of the early Church.

The breakfast coincided with the feast of Our Lady of Fatima as well as the 33rd anniversary of the near-assassination of St. John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington set the tone for the morning with his invocation, asking God’s blessing “in this time of spiritual renewal and New Evangelization” on the breakfast participants gathered “together here in faith and testimony to the Holy Spirit.”

The cardinal asked that God might “lift our hearts, enlighten our minds and strengthen our souls,” and he asked for the intercession of St. John Paul II and Mary under her titles of Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Guadalupe, as they prepared to “re-propose the Gospel to the world.”

“We ask you to inspire us to be more courageous in responding to the challenges of religious liberty, social justice and to the gift of human life,” he said. “Let us be agents of the New Evangelization, living as faithful followers of Jesus, your Son, in sharing our faith with those around us.”

After a short video introduction from Jim Caviezel about his new film, When the Game Stands Tall, the audience  settled in for the two main speakers.

No More ‘Tame Catholics’

George told Catholics that he had a “somber” message for them: “The days of acceptable Christianity are over. The days of comfortable Catholicism are past.”

He warned that a “price is demanded” of all committed believers, as mainstream America registers its preference for Catholics who might go to Mass but do not embrace the totality of the Church’s teachings — or those who know the Church’s teaching but prefer safety in their silence.

“In other words, a tame Catholic who is ashamed of the Gospel is socially acceptable,” said George, even as he called on his audience to “take risks” and follow Christ’s words to “take up thy cross and follow me.”

The costs of discipleship may be personal, familial or professional, he said. Standing up for the Church’s teaching on the dignity of human life and marriage — teachings which he said are “not fourth-class Gospel truths” and must be proclaimed with all of the Church’s revealed teaching — may lead to charges of “bigotry” or waging a “war on women” or that Christians are an “enemy of reproductive freedom.”

“To believe in the Gospel is to make oneself a marked man or woman,” he said.

Culturally, the Church in America has found itself in “Good Friday,” George observed.

The shifting, more hostile cultural landscape indicates American society’s “love affair with Jesus and his Church is over.”

George reminded his audience that while Jesus Christ has won the ultimate battle, those who live during this time must one day “give an account for all we do” before the “Lord of truth, the God of history.”

“One thing and one thing only will matter: Was I a faithful witness to the Gospel?”

“My friends,” he said, “the Gospel is true, and that is the most important thing to know. … We’re betting our whole lives on it.”

Happy Gospel Warriors

Following upon George’s somber analysis, Cardinal O’Malley livened the mood with a couple of humorous anecdotes. But the cardinal’s levity served to underscore his point that Catholics must embrace Pope Francis’ call to foster a “culture of encounter” and practice “the art of accompaniment” as modern-day disciples of Jesus Christ.

“Our task is to turn consumers into disciples and disciples into disciple-makers,” he said. “We need to prepare people to witness to the faith and not to send people into the witness-protection program.”

Read the rest here.