Stop Blaming the Laity

I agree with Richard John Neuhaus most of the time (a fact that sets some of my friends' hair on fire) and I agree with most of his article The Coming Kulturkampf. From which I plucked:

Many who do not embrace the Christian faith nonetheless have a high appreciation of the importance of Christianity to the cultural and social order. Theirs is an instrumental view of religion. Edward Gibbon caught the idea nicely, and in his usual caustic manner, when describing the religious cults of the Roman Empire. He says the common people viewed them as true, the philosophers viewed them as false, and the rulers viewed them as useful. Today's political class in America has in recent decades undergone a conversion, so to speak, to the usefulness of religion.

At the level of electoral politics, that conversion moved a large part of the base of the Republican party from the country club to the churches beginning in the 1980s, and more recently the Democrats have been playing catch-up with energetic programs of "religious outreach." Not that it seemed to have helped Senator Obama very much. Church-going voters, both Protestant and Catholic, went with strong majorities for John McCain. What did come as a surprise, although it should not have, is that no more than a third of Catholics are church-going Catholics. In other words, only a minority of Catholics is within the orbit of the Church's teaching and moral influence.

I would LOVE to be "within the orbit of the Church's teaching and moral influence. PLEASE SEND ME A MAP AND VERY DETAILED DIRECTIONS.

Later he says:

The aggressor in the opening phases of this Kulturkampf is the Obama administration. The initial response to the aggression was evident in the meeting of Catholic bishops this week in Baltimore. There were refreshingly bold statements by bishops, and by Francis Cardinal George, president of the conference, on the imperative to protect the integrity of the Church's teaching and to employ every legitimate means to resist the further advance of what John Paul the Great taught us to understand as the culture of death. Some bishops even invoked the venerable tradition of martyrdom, sounding very much like the successors to the apostles that they are.

I could keep my house warm for a year on the "bold statements" the bishops have put out recently. In light of the 54% of Catholics who voted for Obama, please show me how they have worked.

In this contest of coming months and years, it seems certain that cooperation between Catholics and evangelical Protestants will be greatly strengthened. And their efforts will enlist the support of many other Americans who are only now awakening to the fact that the unlimited abortion license imposed by Roe v. Wade and its proposed expansion by its hardcore supporters is indeed unlimited. If President-elect Obama does what he says he wants to do, this champion of national unity will preside over one of the most divisive periods in American history.

Which is why it would have been nice, over the last 30+ years, if our bishops and priests had been talking to us about the sanctity of marriage, the enormous importance of keeping our families strong, and our duty to God's law and the Church's teachings and, oh by the way, here's what they are.

But no. Instead we have heard about the feelings of gays and their families, and the importance of inclusiveness ("Jesus hung out with sinners") and we've sang "Gather Us In" eleventy billion times and learned all about our carbon footprints.

I am as angry as anyone that Catholics put Obama in office. But they don't know any better because they have been listening to their priests and bishops for the last 30 years. Put the blame where it belongs.

Comments

[dymphna]

I blame the bishops primarily but this is the so called age of the laity and it's obvious that the laity hasn't done too well. In the end it's the individual Catholic who will have to justify his or her actions before God.

[Joe]

I think the only fair thing to do is blame everyone.

-J.

[American Phoenix]

I think that the bishops are finally showing signs of life. That said, I don't think that many pastors are doing the same. Until pastors show some spine and support their bishops and instruct their parishioners on their faith, this is only going to get worse.

[Joe]

That's sorta true. BUT...if Bishop X isn't sticking his neck out, that is a disincentive for Pastor Y to instruct his flock on some of the thornier bits of doctrine.

Likewise, a bishop isn't likely to stick his neck out if the pastors and priest in his diocese aren't going to exert themselves in that regard.

-J.

[Joe]

THESE LINES SHOULD BE AIRDROPPED ON EVERY CATHOLIC OFFICE IN THE WORLD, AND SUNG TO THE POP IN ROME:
it would have been nice, over the last 30+ years, if our bishops and priests had been talking to us about the sanctity of marriage, the enormous importance of keeping our families strong, and our duty to God's law and the Church's teachings and, oh by the way, here's what they are.

But no. Instead we have heard about the feelings of gays and their families, and the importance of inclusiveness ("Jesus hung out with sinners") and we've sang "Gather Us In" eleventy billion times and learned all about our carbon footprints.

I am as angry as anyone that Catholics put Obama in office. But they don't know any better because they have been listening to their priests and bishops for the last 30 years. Put the blame where it belongs.