Call to Synodality: Are we living through the 1970s again?
The differences between then and now are obviously very real. Then it was the Vatican that nixed national pastoral councils; now it’s Pope Francis who is the moving force behind synodality.
Detail from synodal artwork on the Vatican's Facebook page for Synod 2021-2023. (Image: www.facebook.com/synod.va)
People fretting over the pros and cons of synodality should seek enlightenment in the story of “shared responsibility” half a century ago. History doesn’t literally repeat itself, but what happened then suggests why we need to move ahead carefully now while avoiding new mistakes.
Shared responsibility—the Synodality Lite of the 1970s, you might call it—was all the rage in the heady days right after Vatican Council II. Meetings were held and documents published promoting the idea, and preliminary steps were taken by setting up pastoral councils of clergy, religious, and laity in dioceses throughout the country.
As planners saw it, the capstone of this burgeoning superstructure would be a National Pastoral Council where bishops, priests, religious, and lay people could hammer out policy for the Church’s socio-political program at the national level.
According to the plan, this national body would be a fusion of the United States Catholic Conference (created after Vatican II along with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops) with the National Advisory Council recently created to counsel the bishops.
But the Vatican stepped in and, in a letter to bishops, essentially said: No, not now. The reason seemed to be that a National Pastoral Council in the Netherlands was held to blame for the dismaying implosion of Dutch Catholicism then taking place.
Rather than go away quietly, however, shared responsibility made a noisy comeback via a boondoggle with the provocative name Call To Action. Who were called and to what action were left unstated. Promoted as the crown jewel of the American bishops’ contribution to the U.S. Bicentennial and preceded by “hearings” staged in several parts of the country to whip up interest, Call To Action brought together 1,340 delegates in Detroit for three days in October of 1976.
And who, you may ask, were those delegates? Conservative writer Russell Kirk, there as a journalist, called them “church mice.” Most were chosen by their bishops and, as later investigation determined, half were on the Church’s payroll.
Among the 218 recommendations produced by this highly unrepresentative body were proposals for ordaining women and married men, taking an open attitude toward homosexuality, approving contraception, and giving communion to divorced and remarried Catholics whose first marriages hadn’t been annulled.
The conference of bishops promised to study the proposals. Not surprisingly, that was the end of it.
The differences between then and now are obviously very real. Then it was the Vatican that nixed national pastoral councils; now it’s Pope Francis who is the moving force behind synodality.
But the Call To Action of 1976 unquestionably has a family resemblance to the recent “Synodal Path” in Germany with its much discussed set of proposals that, while bearing the imprint of 2023, nevertheless sound remarkably like the Call To Action laundry list of 1976. Is this perhaps a case of what Yogi Berra memorably called “Déjà vu all over again”?
The Vatican shelved Synodality Lite at the national level half a century ago. But now the Holy Father wants universal synodality, and the synod of bishops that meets this October (and again, for reasons not clear, in October next year) will undoubtedly give it to him.
Moreover, just as in 1976, so now there really is a case for greatly expanding the participation of loyal, competent lay people in setting directions for the Church. But the experience with Call To Action is a disturbing reminder that there also are excellent reasons to hope the big winner doesn’t turn out instead to be today’s woke Catholicism.
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Dainelys Soto, Genesis Contreras, and Daniel Soto, who arrived from Venezuela after crossing the U.S. border from Mexico, wait for dinner at a hotel provided by the Annunciation House on Sept. 22, 2022 in El Paso, Texas. / Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
CNA Staff, Sep 9, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Long a champion of immigrants, particularly those fleeing war-torn countries and impoverished regions, Pope Francis last month delivered some of the clearest words in his papacy yet in support of migrants — and in rebuke of those who turn away from them.
“It must be said clearly: There are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants,” the pope said during a weekly Angelus address. “And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin.”
“In the time of satellites and drones, there are migrant men, women, and children that no one must see,” the pope said. “They hide them. Only God sees them and hears their cry. This is a cruelty of our civilization.”
The pope has regularly spoken out in favor of immigrants. In June he called on the faithful to “unite in prayer for all those who have had to leave their land in search of dignified living conditions.” The Holy Father has called the protection of migrants a “moral imperative.” He has argued that migrants “[must] be received” and dealt with humanely.
Migrants aboard an inflatable vessel in the Mediterranean Sea approach the guided-missile destroyer USS Carney in 2013. Carney provided food and water to the migrants aboard the vessel before coordinating with a nearby merchant vessel to take them to safety. Credit: Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Catholic Church has long been an advocate and protector of immigrants. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) notes on its website that “a rich body of Church teaching, including papal encyclicals, bishops’ statements, and pastoral letters, has consistently reinforced our moral obligation to treat the stranger as we would treat Christ himself.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that prosperous nations “are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”
Popes throughout the years, meanwhile, have expressed sentiments on immigration similar to Francis’. Pope Pius XII in 1952, for instance, described the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt as “the archetype of every refugee family.”
The Church, Pius XII said, “has been especially careful to provide all possible spiritual care for pilgrims, aliens, exiles, and migrants of every kind.”
Meanwhile, “devout associations” throughout the centuries have spearheaded “innumerable hospices and hospitals” in part for immigrants, Pius XII said.
Implications and applications of Church teaching
Chad Pecknold, an associate professor of systematic theology at The Catholic University of America, noted that the catechism “teaches that nations have the right to borders and self-definition, so there is no sense in which Catholic teaching supports the progressive goal of ‘open borders.’”
“There is a ‘duty of care’ which is owed to those fleeing from danger,” he told CNA, “but citizenship is not owed to anyone who can make it across a national border, and illegal entry or asylum cannot be taken as a debt of citizenship.”
Paul Hunker, an immigration attorney who previously served as chief counsel of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Dallas, agreed.
“States have to have responsibility for their own communities, they have to look out for them,” he told CNA. “So immigration can be regulated so as to not harm the common good.”
Still, Hunker noted, Catholic advocates are not wrong in responding to immigration crises — like the ongoing irregular influx through the U.S. southern border — with aid and assistance.
Paul Hunker, an immigration attorney and former chief counsel of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Dallas, says Catholic advocates are not wrong in responding to immigration crises — like the ongoing irregular influx through the U.S. southern border — with aid and assistance. Credit: Photo courtesy of Paul Hunker
Many Catholic organizations offer shelter, food, and legal assistance to men, women, and children who cross into the country illegally; such groups have been overwhelmed in recent years with the crush of arriving migrants at the country’s southern border.
“It’s the responsibility of the federal government to take care of the border,” he said. “When the government has created a crisis at the U.S. border, Catholic dioceses are going to want to help people.”
“I completely support what the Catholic organizations are doing in Mexico and the United States to assist people who are there,” Hunker said. “The people responding are not responsible for these crises.”
Latest crisis and legal challenge
Not everyone feels similarly. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation of multiple Catholic nonprofits that serve illegal immigrants in the state. Paxton alleges that through the services it provides to migrants, El Paso-based Annunciation House has been facilitating illegal immigration and human trafficking.
A lawyer for the group called the allegations “utter nonsense,” though attorney Jerome Wesevich acknowledged that the nonprofit “serves undocumented persons as an expression of the Catholic faith and Jesus’ command to love one another, no exceptions.”
There are considerable numbers of Church teachings that underscore the need for a charitable response to immigrants. In his 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris, Pope John XXIII argued that man “has the right to freedom of movement and of residence within the confines of his own state,” and further that “when there are just reasons in favor of it, he must be permitted to emigrate to other countries and take up residence there.”
In the encyclical Caritas in Veritate, meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 acknowledged that migration poses “dramatic challenges” for nations but that migrants “cannot be considered as a commodity or a mere workforce.”
“Every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance,” the late pope wrote.
Edward Feser, a professor of philosophy at Pasadena City College in California, noted that the Church “teaches that nations should be welcoming to immigrants, that they should be sensitive to the hardships that lead them to emigrate, that they ought not to scapegoat them for domestic problems, and so on.”
Catholic teaching does not advocate an ‘open borders’ policy
Yet Catholic teaching does not advocate an “open borders” policy, Feser said. He emphasized that the catechism says countries should accept immigrants “to the extent they are able,” and further that countries “may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions.”
There “is nothing per se in conflict with Catholic teaching when citizens and politicians call on the federal government to enforce its immigration laws,” Feser said. “On the contrary, the catechism backs them up on this.”
In addition, it is “perfectly legitimate,” Feser argued, for governments to consider both economic and cultural concerns when setting immigration policy. It is also “legitimate to deport those who enter a country illegally,” he said.
Still, he acknowledged, a country can issue exceptions to valid immigration laws when the moral situation demands it.
“Of course, there can be individual cases where a nation should forgo its right to deport those who enter it illegally, and cases where the manner in which deportations occur is associated with moral hazards, such as when doing so would break up families or return an immigrant to dangerous conditions back in his home country,” he said.
“Governments should take account of this when formulating and enforcing policy,” he said.
The tension between responding charitably to immigrants and ensuring a secure border was perhaps put most succinctly in 1986 by the late Father Theodore Hesburgh, who served as chairman of the U.S. Select Commission for Immigration and Refugee Policy that was created by the U.S. Congress in the early 1980s.
“It is not enough to sympathize with the aspirations and plight of illegal aliens. We must also consider the consequences of not controlling our borders,” said the late Father Theodore Hesburgh, who served as chairman of the U.S. Select Commission for Immigration and Refugee Policy that was created by the U.S. Congress in the early 1980s. Credit: Photo courtesy of University of Notre Dame
Writing several years after the commission, Hesburgh explained: “It is not enough to sympathize with the aspirations and plight of illegal aliens. We must also consider the consequences of not controlling our borders.”
“What about the aspirations of Americans who must compete for jobs and whose wages and work standards are depressed by the presence of large numbers of illegal aliens?” the legendary late president of the University of Notre Dame reflected. “What about aliens who are victimized by unscrupulous employers and who die in the desert at the hands of smugglers?”
“The nation needn’t wait until we are faced with a choice between immigration chaos and closing the borders,” Hesburgh stated nearly 40 years ago.
Vatican City, Jul 23, 2017 / 05:07 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis said good and evil are often entwined, and that as sinners, we can’t label any one group or institution as bad, since we all face temptation and have the ability to choose which path to follow.
“The Lord, who is wisdom incarnate, today helps us to understand that good and evil cannot identify with definite territories or determined groups of people,” the Pope said July 23.
Jesus tells us that “the line between good and evil passes through the heart of every person. We are all sinners,” he said, and asked for anyone who is not a sinner to raise their hand – which no one did.
“We are all sinners!” he said, explaining that with his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ “has freed us from the slavery of sin and gives us the grace of walking in a new life.”
Pope Francis spoke to the crowd of pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday Angelus address, which this week focused on the day’s Gospel passage from Matthew, in which an enemy secretly plants weeds alongside the wheat in a master’s field.
The image, he said, shows us the good seed that is planted in the world by God, but also the bad seed planted by the devil in order to corrupt the good.
It not only speaks of the problem of evil, but also it also refers to God’s patience in the master, who allows the weeds to grow alongside the wheat, so that the harvest is not lost.
“With this image, Jesus tells us that in this world good and evil are totally entwined, that it’s impossible to separate them and weed out all the evil,” Pope Francis said, adding that “only God can do this, and he will do it in the final judgment.”
Instead, the parable represents “the field of the freedom of Christians,” who must make the difficult discernment between good and evil, choosing which one to follow.
This, the Pope said, involves trusting God and joining two seemingly contradictory attitudes: “decision and patience.”
Francis explained that “decision” in this case means “wanting to be good grain, with all of it’s strengths, and so to distance yourself from evil and it’s seductions.”
On the other hand, patience means “preferring a Church that is the leaven of the dough, which is not afraid to dirty her hands washing the feet of her children, rather than a Church of the ‘pure,’ which pretends to judge before it’s time who is in the Kingdom of God and who is not,” he said.
Both of these attitudes are necessary, he said, stressing that no one is perfect, but we are all sinners who have been redeemed by Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross.
Thanks to our baptism, Jesus has also given us the Sacrament of Confession, “ because we always need to be forgiven for our sins,” Francis said, adding that “to always look at the evil that is outside of us means not wanting to recognize the sin that is also within us.”
Jesus also teaches us a different way of looking at the world and observing reality, he said. In reflecting on the parable, we are invited to learn God’s timing and to see with his eyes, rather than focusing on our own, narrow vision.
“Thanks to the beneficial influence of an anxious waiting, what were weeds or seemed like weeds, can become a product of good,” he said, adding that this is “the prospect of hope!”
Pope Francis closed his address praying that Mary would intercede in helping us to observe in the world around us “not only dirtiness and evil, but also the good and beautiful; to expose the work of Satan, but above all to trust in the action of God who renders history fruitful.”
After leading pilgrims in the traditional Marian prayer, he voiced his sadness over “serious tensions and violence” in Jerusalem over the weekend, which have left seven people dead.
The deaths were the result of protests that were prompted by the placement of metal detectors at the entrance to the compound housing al-Aqsa mosque in the city, and have prompted world leaders to call for restraint on either side before the situation boils over.
Pope Francis invited pilgrims to join him in praying for a deescalation of the violence, and that “the Lord inspires in all proposals of reconciliation and peace.”
Vatican City, May 31, 2018 / 12:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a letter to Catholics in Chile on Thursday, Pope Francis said he is ashamed of the Church’s failure to listen to victims, and urged all the baptized to make a commitment to ending the culture of abuse and cover-up.
“Here resides one of our main faults and omissions: not knowing how to listen to victims,” the pope said in his May 31 letter.
Because of this inability to listen, “partial conclusions were drawn, which lacked crucial elements for a healthy and clear discernment,” he said, adding that “with shame I must say that we did not know how to listen and react in time.”
The need to investigate the Chilean abuse crisis, he said, “was born when we saw that there were situations that we did not know how to see and hear. As a Church we could not continue to walk ignoring the pain of our brothers.”
Francis stressed the importance of prayer and the role that the People of God have in the Church, saying that to distance oneself from the People of God “hastens us to the desolation and perversion of ecclesial nature.”
“The fight against a culture of abuse requires renewing this certainty,” he said, and urged all Christians not to be afraid of being protagonists of change in the Church.
Francis then thanked the organizations and media outlets which he said took on the issue, “always seeking the truth and not making this painful reality a meditative source for increasing the rating of their programming.”
He also said the process of purification the Church is currently living is due not just to recent events, but the whole process is possible thanks to the effort and perseverance of those who, “against all hope and stains of discredit,” did not tire of seeking the truth.
“I am referring to the victims of abuses of sexuality, power and authority and to those who in this moment believe and accompany them. Victims whose cry rose to heaven,” he said, voicing gratitude for the “courage and perseverance” they have shown.
The “never more” attitude in front of a culture of abuse and the system of cover-up, he said, “demands working among everyone in order to generate a culture of care which permeates our ways of relating, praying, thinking, of living authority; our customs and languages and our relationship with power and money.”
Pope Francis then stressed the urgency of generating spaces where a culture of abuse and concealment is not the “dominant scheme,” and in which a critical and questioning attitude is not confused with “betrayal.”
He then urged all Christians, especially those who work in educational and formational entities and institutions, to pool their resources with civil society in order to find strategic ways of promoting a culture of care and protection.
Abuse and cover-up, he said, are “incompatible with the logic of the Gospel since the salvation offered by Christ is always an offer, a gift which demands and requires freedom,” adding that all attempts against freedom and the integrity of the person “are anti-evangelical.”
The pope then invited centers of religious formation, faculties of theology, and seminaries to launch a theological reflection capable of rising above the present time and promoting a “mature, adult” faith in the Church.
Communities that are able to fight against abuse and which are internally capable of discussion and even confrontation on the issue are welcome, he said, adding that “we will be fruitful in the measure that we empower and open communities from within and thus free ourselves from closed and self-referential thoughts full of promises and mirages which promise life but which ultimately favor the culture of abuse.”
Referring the popular piety practiced in many communities in Chile, which he called an “invaluable treasure and authentic school of the heart for the people of God,” Francis said that in his experience, expressions of popular devotion are “one of the few places where the People of God are sovereign” from the influence of a clericalism which tries to control and limit the laity.
Francis then pointed to all the laity, priests, bishops, and consecrated persons in Chile who have faithfully lived their vocations in love, saying they are Christians who know how to cry with others, to seek justice, and to look with mercy on those who are suffering.
Pope Francis closed his letter saying a Church that is wounded is capable of understanding and being moved by the wounds of today’s world and of both making these wounds their own and accompanying and healing those who bear them.
“A Church with sores does not put itself at the center, it does not believe itself to be perfect, it does not try to conceal and disguise its evil, but puts it before the only one who can heal wounds and who has a name: Jesus Christ.”
This certainty is what will prompt people to look for the commitment to ultimately and in time generate a culture where every person “has the right to breathe an air free of every kind of abuse.”
He urged the entire People of God not to be afraid to get involved and walk, driven by the Holy Spirit in search of a Church “which is increasingly more synodal, prophetic and hopeful,” and which is ultimately “less abusive because it knows to put Jesus at the center in the hungry, in the prisoner, in the migrant, in the abused.”
Francis’ letter coincided with the start of the pope’s second round of meetings with Chilean abuse survivors.
The group, consisting of five priests and two laypersons who suffered either sexual abuse or abuse of power or conscience by Karadima, and two priests who have accompanied the victims, will be in Rome over the weekend to discuss the country’s abuse crisis with the pope.
Francis’ letter comes after a months-long process of addressing the Chilean abuse crisis following an in-depth investigation carried out by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu, from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
The investigation was initially centered around Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, appointed to the diocese in 2015 and accused by at least one victim of covering up abuses of Fr. Fernando Karadima.
In 2011, Karadima was convicted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of abusing minors and sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude. Allegations of cover-up were also made against three other bishops – Andrés Arteaga, Tomislav Koljatic and Horacio Valenzuela – whom Karadima’s victims accuse of knowing about Karadima’s crimes and failing to act.
Pope Francis initially defended Barros, saying he had received no evidence of the bishop’s guilt, and called accusations against him “calumny” during a trip to Chile in January. However, after receiving Scicluna’s report, Francis apologized in an April 8 letter to the Chilean bishops, and asked to meet the prelates and more outspoken survivors in person.
A few weeks, later, Francis held both private and group meetings with three of Karadima’s most outspoken victims – Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Andres Murillo – at the Vatican April 27-29.
Two weeks later, the pope met with all of Chile’s active bishops in Rome, some of whom have also been accused of cover-up, to discuss the conclusions of Scicluna’s report and to share his own reflections on the crisis.
During the May 15-17 meeting, Francis criticized the 34 bishops present for systematic cover-up of clerical abuse in Chile, and urged them to refocus, putting Christ at the center of their mission.
The gathering concluded with all of Chile’s active bishops offering a written resignation to Francis, which he will either accept or deny. So far, there has been no news of the pope’s decision.
The comparison between old-hat Call to Action and the new red-hat Synodality, together with the reference to Yogi Berra, calls to mind a remark made by Yogi’s son, Dale. Said he: “the similarities between me and my father are different.”
Dale is his father’s son, but I think he made the slipery point.
Excerpt: Real confusion… “Call To Action is a disturbing reminder that there also are excellent reasons to hope the big winner doesn’t turn out instead to be today’s woke Catholicism.” WHAT does woke Catholicism mean? Enter Governor Ron DeSantis. He is the WOKE champion. He uses the acronym over and over in his politiacl campaign. I have not seen him or Mr. Shaw explain the acronym, yet.
I am not aware that WOKE is an acronym.To a certain group of pathetic and self loathing people, it means to be THEIR version of “self aware”. It means someone with much less education than you has decided that YOU are the reason they and their family have not achieved success. These people are applauded for their “brilliant” observation as they abscond with millions in donations, intended for others but used by themselves. They are “victims”, you know?? That is in spite of all sorts of minorities working freely in occupations from medicine to politics to astronaut, YOU are the problem, and they are oppressed. Companies jump on this band-wagon for fear of being thought “racist”. Coke, Hallmark, bud Light, the Dodgers. Its the reason mobs can mass shoplift stores and dangerous criminals are never brought to trial or locked up. Its the reason that teachers will now TRANS your kid without telling you, while they are not permitted to offer them an aspirin. And its why if you complain about it at a school board meeting, the FBI will target you as a “domestic terrorist”. Are these crazed activist folks fueled by the DEMs?? Absolutely. They are in the pocket of these activists and have their votes sealed up. Like their friends the teachers unions in blue cities, who have set back our children by years they will never recover. Indeed, if after ALL that has happened in the last two years; deaths in Afghanistan and abandonment of billions of advanced weapons to our enemies, food shortages, closed churches, rising prices for necessities, unaffordable mortgages, and an open border bleeding the worlds poor into our nation on our dime; if you still think things are A-ok, I can only say to all Democrats, your elevator is a few floors shy of the top, and the blood of your country is on your hands.
Right! The death of civilization is no laughing matter. And neither is the unraveling of God’s Church a matter to merely be lamented while we continue to feel obligated to extend formalities towards a man who has clearly aided and abetted crimes against humanity. If there is anything “holy” or “fatherly” about Francis, then let God’s rivers of mercy at his final accounting prevail. In the meantime, his torching of the Deposit of Faith merits no respect at all, certainly not the title traditionally accorded. And no parent who cares about the heart, mind, and soul of their children should let them anywhere near him at any upcoming “World Youth Day”.
Dear LJ. I don’t want to get too far into the political weeds, but your exhusting diatribe attempting to define WOKE in the vernaculure and a toxic ideology needs a retort. You even implies domestic violence… “And its why if you complain about it at a school board meeting, the FBI will target you as a “domestic terrorist””.
That position seeks to incite the “hostile, toxic Right” to destroy the good work of the FBI, our national police force, who protect YOU an me from foreign and DOMESTIC terrorism evry day!
The 1/6 failed coup by Trump flag waving criminals, The Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, etc resulted in the conviction of leaders for Seditious Conspiracy, (treason?). OK’s Tyrants Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Meggs was sentenced to 12 years in prison. A real crime is that we will have to fund their existence and coddle them for those years. The WH command words went from, “you must fight like hell”, to, 3 hours later, “go home, we love you…”. The result of those 3 hours our democracy went dark as a new dangerious ideology arose from the swamp.
Lets get to WOKE the adjective…
Merriam-Webster Dictionary states.
The definition of “woke” changes depending on who you ask.
The term has recently been used by some conservatives as an INSULT against progressive values.
The term, however, was originally coined by progressive Black Americans and used in racial justice movements in the early to mid-1900s.
To be “woke” politically in the Black community means that someone is informed, educated and conscious of social injustice and racial inequality.
Thanks for my laugh of the day, and for confirming the deranged view the left has of J6. I seldom respond to leftists because its a waste of time and they have no general regard for facts. Its hard to imagine AMERICAN people indoctrinated enough to believe any sort of REAL “coup” could remotely be conducted by unarmed people. Seriously? My cat could conduct a more effective coup. How far would that sort of coup get against the US military? These were simply angry Americans, many former military, police, etc, wanting to be heard. Were some people over the top and out of control? Absolutely but much less so than the VERY REAL and deadly BLM riots which occurred over a year long period earlier,in MANY cities, which injured thousands and burned down billions in business establishments, ACTUALLY taking over several police stations and American cities. Or did J6 only matter because it took place in Washington DC? The left went on and on about 5 dead on J6, a lie that has been repeated ad nauseam. The cop who lay in state was used as a shill, as was his family, as his doctor reported he died of natural causes, but Pelosi and gang didnt care. All that matters is the accusation, NOT the truth. The only person who died that day was an UNARMED woman shot by a capitol cop. Nor did Pelosi make use of the National guard offered to her by Trump before the rally. Hardly a good strategy by Trump if you are planning a “takeover”. Why was Pelosi’s role never questioned? Why did the FBI have members in the crowd who helped to incite? The fact is the Capitol building was barely damaged in those couple of hours, and film footage FINALLY released shows most people simply wandering through the building. So much of a nothing burger that several hours later Congress returned to session. A statement which could NOT be made about several BLM riots, including the one which happened directly in FRONT of the White House in which a CHURCH was set on fire, and the President and family removed to a safe room. And what of the J6 “Shaman”, sentenced to jail when film footage withheld deliberately by the govt contained enough exculpatory evidence to get his jail sentence immediately terminated? He is not the only one being held for years without trial, something I thought only happened in third rate gulag nations. Keep telling yourself the problem is with the right, who want fair elections ( fought at every turn by DEMs) and dont want their kids propagandized or sexually groomed.Our churches were closed and now people can be fired for using the wrong pronouns at work, while our girls have to change in locker rooms with men.All while the DEMs applaud. The rot I smell is coming from the left.
I know what you feel, you feel with great passion. God be with the better side of your instincts. I had such passions when I was young. But no one can afford to be simplistic about words like progressive or even progress itself. What do they really mean? Does progress really exist?
If you hold to the omnipotence of God, you know in this sense there is no such thing as a proposed new idea that can be new since truth is the reflection of the mind of God and God knows everything already. God allows us discovery and the talent to articulate truth, but we can only discover and witness what God already knows. Anything we discover must simply complement what we have already received. In this particular and real sense progress does not exist, and revolutions are so much human vanity that almost always do more harm than good.
I met Martin Luther King when I was 14 years old and was proud to join a civil rights demonstration in NYC, but the change he envisioned was for an innate divinely endowed vision of justice. So much of what today’s left seeks are the politics of a venomous hatred and resentment. This is not justice. If there is not a willingness on the part of a reformer to personally suffer with the downtrodden, there is no authentic desire to make the world better.
Thanks for this history lesson.
I think I finally get it.
Thanks to CWR for publishing Russell Shaw’s reminder about the Call to Action. Oddly, I instantly recognized the name, but wasn’t clear if it was from a 1970ish political bumper sticker. Then a few snippets came back: one or two articles in the archdiocesan weekly newspaper announcing the opening session, but never any follow up. It was all “call” no action.
Perhaps for Catholics who are confused by the term “woke Catholicism,” Shaw or CWR can provide something like The Five Telltale Signalings of Woke Catholics. Would the first one be admitting one remains a Democrat?
“admitting one remains a Democrat?” That sounds political. With the current painful self-destruction of my unrecognizable Republican Party, how can I say I will “remain”?
Based on what I read, priorities seem to be synods about this and that, the environment, alphabet-related issues, aligning the Gospel with modern culture, and realpolitik. This has not and will not produce a dynamic evangelizing Church.
It’s good to remember those tumultuous times. The days when churches were gutted of everything that was beautiful and replaced with pastel paints and blandness. The ultimate goal is an architectural cross between a cafeteria and auditorium. First to go was the pulpitum and altar rails. The service itself ceased to be an exchange between the priest and the altar boys with the participants silent observers meditating on the mystery.. It became a service between priests and people proclaiming the mysteries together. Into this interaction stepped the paid music director and modern liturgical music was “Gathered” into a song book. So today’s mass is conducted by the priest and the responses provided by a musician and an opera singer, with no one to control their volume. Painfully loud braying and playing have replaced the altar boys. Once again the people are silent. And for some unknown reason, people are abandoning this mass for the traditional mass. Families, Men, women and children all attend together. I recently attended mass at the new SSPX church in ST Mary’s Kansas. Well over 1,000 people from new born to near death attended the Sunday mass, there were three masses that Sunday all equally full. God gave us his greatest gifts, communion, his son, and the bible. It seems he has left all the churches to our devices.
We needed an update on the Ratzinger Report, not another reason why a new one should be written. Enough with the crises! We still haven’t recovered from the one in the 1960’s, for PETE’S SAKE!
“admitting one remains a Democrat?” That sounds political. With the current painful self-destruction of my unrecognizable Republican Party, how can I say I will “remain”?
When I look back I do not see it as disjointed but as past things bearing their fruit and continuing to add “new dimensions” and crops.
Things don’t inhere in the Church because they are accommodated or worked through with Christian or spiritual language. Spiritual language itself is not Christian just because it wants to be about being “spiritual” or about “being selfless”.
Substitute the word “moral” as it is used say in “moral high-ground” sometimes -you find another confusion.
Unfortunately it would seem many in the the priesthood will have difficulty catching sight of it or just won’t preach/warn against it. They instead get taken up with every kind of awe-things said to be about being “spiritual” or “selfless” or “caring”. Going like this down through those decades.
Shaw’s use of the term “woke” comes from it being topical, I think; and his use of it doesn’t detract from the force of his thought and the lesson he draws from history.
I feel just like Charlie Brown in ‘A Charlie Brown Chritmas’ sometimes and want to shout out, “Doesn’t anyone know the true meaning of Christianity?’ Yes the Christian world could use a Pope Linus right now.
The one good thing that came out of Call to Action, oddly enough, was the Call to Holiness conferences, a reaction similar to what I just read elsewhere on CWR about a pushback group in Germany called Neuer Anfang (New Beginning). The lesson there is that we can’t just sit back and do nothing while others are out to dismantle the Church.
Stephen in Acts openly scolded the particular set of Jews gathered there and they stoned him to death. Nowadays you’re likely to get “talked to death” while everyone “walks together” – instead of a stoning; with no-one to take charge of the situation according on what is true. It still escapes me why either case should be considered necessarily so problematic every time that no-one may ever be reprimanded. If you are afraid to speak as truth demands sometimes, you join up with stiff-necked!
God showed Jonah His care for the people and His solicitude to lead them OUT of their wrong way. He didn’t put Jonah through all the turmoil in order to have him pander to them in His Name. Jonah had to bear out the responsibility of a weighty task naming the wrongs; which as it it happened would come out favourably.
If something will come our unfavourably it is not that God is endorsing milksop preaching etc. The precedents for such business are all on the bad side.
The revolt by Episcopalians across the globe against Welby and his circles, is a serious setback for Pope Francis’ “legalize” homosexual “civil union” idea. The think tanks with that are back to the drawing board, things are not quite what was anticipated.
Meantime those who revolted demonstrate soundness of mind but Pope Francis can’t build an appeal in it, he has “sided with Welby” and made himself appear to join the coronation of King Charles III and to be an establishment-ish suitor to Anglicanism.
I love the Papacy, it’s Christ’s. It is very untoward to be highlighting the misgivings of these times that has to be done because there is not escaping them.
The comparison between old-hat Call to Action and the new red-hat Synodality, together with the reference to Yogi Berra, calls to mind a remark made by Yogi’s son, Dale. Said he: “the similarities between me and my father are different.”
Dale is his father’s son, but I think he made the slipery point.
Excerpt: Real confusion… “Call To Action is a disturbing reminder that there also are excellent reasons to hope the big winner doesn’t turn out instead to be today’s woke Catholicism.” WHAT does woke Catholicism mean? Enter Governor Ron DeSantis. He is the WOKE champion. He uses the acronym over and over in his politiacl campaign. I have not seen him or Mr. Shaw explain the acronym, yet.
I am not aware that WOKE is an acronym.To a certain group of pathetic and self loathing people, it means to be THEIR version of “self aware”. It means someone with much less education than you has decided that YOU are the reason they and their family have not achieved success. These people are applauded for their “brilliant” observation as they abscond with millions in donations, intended for others but used by themselves. They are “victims”, you know?? That is in spite of all sorts of minorities working freely in occupations from medicine to politics to astronaut, YOU are the problem, and they are oppressed. Companies jump on this band-wagon for fear of being thought “racist”. Coke, Hallmark, bud Light, the Dodgers. Its the reason mobs can mass shoplift stores and dangerous criminals are never brought to trial or locked up. Its the reason that teachers will now TRANS your kid without telling you, while they are not permitted to offer them an aspirin. And its why if you complain about it at a school board meeting, the FBI will target you as a “domestic terrorist”. Are these crazed activist folks fueled by the DEMs?? Absolutely. They are in the pocket of these activists and have their votes sealed up. Like their friends the teachers unions in blue cities, who have set back our children by years they will never recover. Indeed, if after ALL that has happened in the last two years; deaths in Afghanistan and abandonment of billions of advanced weapons to our enemies, food shortages, closed churches, rising prices for necessities, unaffordable mortgages, and an open border bleeding the worlds poor into our nation on our dime; if you still think things are A-ok, I can only say to all Democrats, your elevator is a few floors shy of the top, and the blood of your country is on your hands.
Right! The death of civilization is no laughing matter. And neither is the unraveling of God’s Church a matter to merely be lamented while we continue to feel obligated to extend formalities towards a man who has clearly aided and abetted crimes against humanity. If there is anything “holy” or “fatherly” about Francis, then let God’s rivers of mercy at his final accounting prevail. In the meantime, his torching of the Deposit of Faith merits no respect at all, certainly not the title traditionally accorded. And no parent who cares about the heart, mind, and soul of their children should let them anywhere near him at any upcoming “World Youth Day”.
Dear LJ. I don’t want to get too far into the political weeds, but your exhusting diatribe attempting to define WOKE in the vernaculure and a toxic ideology needs a retort. You even implies domestic violence… “And its why if you complain about it at a school board meeting, the FBI will target you as a “domestic terrorist””.
That position seeks to incite the “hostile, toxic Right” to destroy the good work of the FBI, our national police force, who protect YOU an me from foreign and DOMESTIC terrorism evry day!
The 1/6 failed coup by Trump flag waving criminals, The Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, etc resulted in the conviction of leaders for Seditious Conspiracy, (treason?). OK’s Tyrants Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Meggs was sentenced to 12 years in prison. A real crime is that we will have to fund their existence and coddle them for those years. The WH command words went from, “you must fight like hell”, to, 3 hours later, “go home, we love you…”. The result of those 3 hours our democracy went dark as a new dangerious ideology arose from the swamp.
Lets get to WOKE the adjective…
Merriam-Webster Dictionary states.
The definition of “woke” changes depending on who you ask.
The term has recently been used by some conservatives as an INSULT against progressive values.
The term, however, was originally coined by progressive Black Americans and used in racial justice movements in the early to mid-1900s.
To be “woke” politically in the Black community means that someone is informed, educated and conscious of social injustice and racial inequality.
My burnt offering. Watch this space.
Thanks for my laugh of the day, and for confirming the deranged view the left has of J6. I seldom respond to leftists because its a waste of time and they have no general regard for facts. Its hard to imagine AMERICAN people indoctrinated enough to believe any sort of REAL “coup” could remotely be conducted by unarmed people. Seriously? My cat could conduct a more effective coup. How far would that sort of coup get against the US military? These were simply angry Americans, many former military, police, etc, wanting to be heard. Were some people over the top and out of control? Absolutely but much less so than the VERY REAL and deadly BLM riots which occurred over a year long period earlier,in MANY cities, which injured thousands and burned down billions in business establishments, ACTUALLY taking over several police stations and American cities. Or did J6 only matter because it took place in Washington DC? The left went on and on about 5 dead on J6, a lie that has been repeated ad nauseam. The cop who lay in state was used as a shill, as was his family, as his doctor reported he died of natural causes, but Pelosi and gang didnt care. All that matters is the accusation, NOT the truth. The only person who died that day was an UNARMED woman shot by a capitol cop. Nor did Pelosi make use of the National guard offered to her by Trump before the rally. Hardly a good strategy by Trump if you are planning a “takeover”. Why was Pelosi’s role never questioned? Why did the FBI have members in the crowd who helped to incite? The fact is the Capitol building was barely damaged in those couple of hours, and film footage FINALLY released shows most people simply wandering through the building. So much of a nothing burger that several hours later Congress returned to session. A statement which could NOT be made about several BLM riots, including the one which happened directly in FRONT of the White House in which a CHURCH was set on fire, and the President and family removed to a safe room. And what of the J6 “Shaman”, sentenced to jail when film footage withheld deliberately by the govt contained enough exculpatory evidence to get his jail sentence immediately terminated? He is not the only one being held for years without trial, something I thought only happened in third rate gulag nations. Keep telling yourself the problem is with the right, who want fair elections ( fought at every turn by DEMs) and dont want their kids propagandized or sexually groomed.Our churches were closed and now people can be fired for using the wrong pronouns at work, while our girls have to change in locker rooms with men.All while the DEMs applaud. The rot I smell is coming from the left.
I know what you feel, you feel with great passion. God be with the better side of your instincts. I had such passions when I was young. But no one can afford to be simplistic about words like progressive or even progress itself. What do they really mean? Does progress really exist?
If you hold to the omnipotence of God, you know in this sense there is no such thing as a proposed new idea that can be new since truth is the reflection of the mind of God and God knows everything already. God allows us discovery and the talent to articulate truth, but we can only discover and witness what God already knows. Anything we discover must simply complement what we have already received. In this particular and real sense progress does not exist, and revolutions are so much human vanity that almost always do more harm than good.
I met Martin Luther King when I was 14 years old and was proud to join a civil rights demonstration in NYC, but the change he envisioned was for an innate divinely endowed vision of justice. So much of what today’s left seeks are the politics of a venomous hatred and resentment. This is not justice. If there is not a willingness on the part of a reformer to personally suffer with the downtrodden, there is no authentic desire to make the world better.
Thanks for this history lesson.
I think I finally get it.
Thanks to CWR for publishing Russell Shaw’s reminder about the Call to Action. Oddly, I instantly recognized the name, but wasn’t clear if it was from a 1970ish political bumper sticker. Then a few snippets came back: one or two articles in the archdiocesan weekly newspaper announcing the opening session, but never any follow up. It was all “call” no action.
Perhaps for Catholics who are confused by the term “woke Catholicism,” Shaw or CWR can provide something like The Five Telltale Signalings of Woke Catholics. Would the first one be admitting one remains a Democrat?
“admitting one remains a Democrat?” That sounds political. With the current painful self-destruction of my unrecognizable Republican Party, how can I say I will “remain”?
You aren’t a Republican, although you try to pose as one, so the point is moot.
Stick with the Republicans.
Have a look at Edward Feser’s work on “wokeness”, e.g.:
https://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2023/03/how-to-define-wokeness.html
‘ Think! How are you going to think and hit at the same time? ‘
– Lawrence Peter Yogi Berra
That sure looks like a picture of a priestess on the brochure.
Based on what I read, priorities seem to be synods about this and that, the environment, alphabet-related issues, aligning the Gospel with modern culture, and realpolitik. This has not and will not produce a dynamic evangelizing Church.
It’s good to remember those tumultuous times. The days when churches were gutted of everything that was beautiful and replaced with pastel paints and blandness. The ultimate goal is an architectural cross between a cafeteria and auditorium. First to go was the pulpitum and altar rails. The service itself ceased to be an exchange between the priest and the altar boys with the participants silent observers meditating on the mystery.. It became a service between priests and people proclaiming the mysteries together. Into this interaction stepped the paid music director and modern liturgical music was “Gathered” into a song book. So today’s mass is conducted by the priest and the responses provided by a musician and an opera singer, with no one to control their volume. Painfully loud braying and playing have replaced the altar boys. Once again the people are silent. And for some unknown reason, people are abandoning this mass for the traditional mass. Families, Men, women and children all attend together. I recently attended mass at the new SSPX church in ST Mary’s Kansas. Well over 1,000 people from new born to near death attended the Sunday mass, there were three masses that Sunday all equally full. God gave us his greatest gifts, communion, his son, and the bible. It seems he has left all the churches to our devices.
We needed an update on the Ratzinger Report, not another reason why a new one should be written. Enough with the crises! We still haven’t recovered from the one in the 1960’s, for PETE’S SAKE!
“admitting one remains a Democrat?” That sounds political. With the current painful self-destruction of my unrecognizable Republican Party, how can I say I will “remain”?
When I look back I do not see it as disjointed but as past things bearing their fruit and continuing to add “new dimensions” and crops.
Things don’t inhere in the Church because they are accommodated or worked through with Christian or spiritual language. Spiritual language itself is not Christian just because it wants to be about being “spiritual” or about “being selfless”.
Substitute the word “moral” as it is used say in “moral high-ground” sometimes -you find another confusion.
Unfortunately it would seem many in the the priesthood will have difficulty catching sight of it or just won’t preach/warn against it. They instead get taken up with every kind of awe-things said to be about being “spiritual” or “selfless” or “caring”. Going like this down through those decades.
Shaw’s use of the term “woke” comes from it being topical, I think; and his use of it doesn’t detract from the force of his thought and the lesson he draws from history.
I feel just like Charlie Brown in ‘A Charlie Brown Chritmas’ sometimes and want to shout out, “Doesn’t anyone know the true meaning of Christianity?’ Yes the Christian world could use a Pope Linus right now.
The one good thing that came out of Call to Action, oddly enough, was the Call to Holiness conferences, a reaction similar to what I just read elsewhere on CWR about a pushback group in Germany called Neuer Anfang (New Beginning). The lesson there is that we can’t just sit back and do nothing while others are out to dismantle the Church.
There is actually a Spaghetti Western called “All the Brothers of the West Support Their Father” – aka “Miss Dynamite” – aka “Where the Bullets Fly”.
Tutti fratelli nel west… per parte di padre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klg0uEfCYoQ
This tutti frutti Spaghetti western doesn’t play on some platforms of Samsung smart phone and Apple iPhone, “video not available”.
Yogi Beria also said: “It ain’t over till it’s over”
Stephen in Acts openly scolded the particular set of Jews gathered there and they stoned him to death. Nowadays you’re likely to get “talked to death” while everyone “walks together” – instead of a stoning; with no-one to take charge of the situation according on what is true. It still escapes me why either case should be considered necessarily so problematic every time that no-one may ever be reprimanded. If you are afraid to speak as truth demands sometimes, you join up with stiff-necked!
God showed Jonah His care for the people and His solicitude to lead them OUT of their wrong way. He didn’t put Jonah through all the turmoil in order to have him pander to them in His Name. Jonah had to bear out the responsibility of a weighty task naming the wrongs; which as it it happened would come out favourably.
If something will come our unfavourably it is not that God is endorsing milksop preaching etc. The precedents for such business are all on the bad side.
The revolt by Episcopalians across the globe against Welby and his circles, is a serious setback for Pope Francis’ “legalize” homosexual “civil union” idea. The think tanks with that are back to the drawing board, things are not quite what was anticipated.
Meantime those who revolted demonstrate soundness of mind but Pope Francis can’t build an appeal in it, he has “sided with Welby” and made himself appear to join the coronation of King Charles III and to be an establishment-ish suitor to Anglicanism.
I love the Papacy, it’s Christ’s. It is very untoward to be highlighting the misgivings of these times that has to be done because there is not escaping them.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254487/pope-francis-to-sign-human-fraternity-document-with-nobel-laureates-in-st-peter-s-square
Edit my entry above last sentence: ” ….. that has to be done because there is no escaping them.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254504/thousands-of-united-methodist-churches-break-away-over-lgbtq-plus-disagreements