The Church vs. the Culture: the Score Thus Far
By Archbishop John J. Myers

Pundits from every background have suggested a plethora of quick fixes in response to the scandals that have afflicted the Church. The ordination of women, an end to celibacy, changes in the structure of Church governance, “openness” to questions of human sexuality, and more “democracy” in the Church—we’ve heard them all. But these nostrums have little to do with the scandals and have instead been brought forth to advance already existing agendas in a time of perceived weakness in the Church.

Avery Cardinal Dulles writes that today, as always, “the Church must be herself, and must not strive to become what non-believers might like her to be” (First Things, August/September 2003). To this I would add that the Church should not strive to become what some believers might like her to be. As in every period of her life, the Church must reform herself to show the life of Christ that dwells within and to put aside that which obscures Christ. This isn’t accomplished by following the ever-shifting sands of popular opinion, adjusting to the continually changing values of the culture, or worrying about the latest polls. This is accomplished, on the other hand, by paying even more attention to Jesus Christ and His teachings, by uniting ourselves collectively and individually more closely to Jesus Christ abandoned, crucified, and risen.

But we must also keep our eye on the culture and how it affects the Church. Francis Cardinal George of Chicago spoke to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) last June about the dialogue between faith and culture:

It is a necessary dialogue because both faith and culture tell us what to do…. “Everybody’s doing it,” children say to their parents, especially when they are young teenagers; and the “everybody” is the culture…. It is a normative system. So is the faith. If the faith and the culture clash or disagree, as they always do to some extent, it is because faith is a gift from God and culture is a human construct. There will be tension in us because the faith and the culture are both inside us.

Undeclared War

Our culture today is—despite some residual trappings of an unofficially established generic Protestantism—thoroughly secular. This might be surprising to some. One could cite as evidence to the contrary statistics that point to a large number who claim to believe in God, a fairly large proportion of Americans who belong to a religious body and attend religious services (at least as compared with other industrialized nations), the frequent reference to God in public discourse (“In God We Trust,” “Under God,” “God bless America,” etc.), and the prominent presence of clergy at most public events or institutions. But these facts mask the reality: Our culture is thoroughly secular. And the particular form that secularism takes in America is in an undeclared war with our faith.

Sadly, the timing of a Catholic move into the mainstream of American culture coincided with the abandonment by that culture of its generic Protestantism. Beginning in the 1950s with such radical groups as the Beatniks and those associated with the humanist manifesto, these movements culminated with the cultural upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s. Of course, there was some good involved in this cultural shift. Every culture has its strengths, and the secular culture of America is no exception. Long-needed reforms in the structures of power, the area of civil rights, and the treatment of women are particularly noteworthy.

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-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), May 10, 2004

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-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), May 10, 2004.