One hesitates to begin the civil new year on a critical note, when hopes of a brighter future run high. But when reality is being falsified, duty calls. So, let’s begin the Year of Our Lord 2024 with a critique of the MAD magazine-like caricature of U.S. Catholicism currently being propagated.
During his years with the London-based Tablet, Christopher Lamb never evinced a serious understanding of the Church in the U.S. or its relationship to American public life. My personal experience of this involved his suggesting in early 2017 that I might be Donald Trump’s ambassador to the Holy See; Mr. Lamb was evidently unaware that I had publicly opposed Mr. Trump’s nomination and had begun my post-2016-election column with the lede, “The good news is she lost; the bad news is he won.” Such foolishness mattered little in the real world, though, given the Tablet’s relatively limited reach.
Now, however, Lamb is a Rome correspondent for CNN, with a global audience of far greater bandwidth. And he continues to display a cluelessness about U.S. Catholicism that is, in its way, breathtaking. Exhibit A was his recent article, “Pope Francis takes on unprecedented attacks from American opponents.” There, we “learn” that the Pope who has peremptorily removed bishops from their sees, denied devout Catholics a form of worship they find spiritually enriching, excoriated priests, criticized the sartorial interests of seminarians of whom he knows nothing, and warned the media against coprophagia is, at bottom, the Pope “who insists on a merciful Church open to everyone.”
And according to Mr. Lamb, it was to advance that program of spreading divine mercy that Pope Francis recently took punitive action against Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Joseph Strickland (who, along with traditional Latin Mass devotees — of whom I am not one — may well wonder about the range of papal inclusivity).
To make matters worse from a journalistic standpoint, the only witnesses cited in defense of today’s papal autocracy were such acolytes of the pontificate as Austen Ivereigh, David Gibson, and Massimo Faggioli — the functional equivalent of Tucker Carlson writing a piece entitled, “Donald Trump takes on unprecedented attacks from his opponents” and sourcing it with quotes from Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and Lauren Boebert. This isn’t journalism; it’s blatant advocacy. And it should be named as such.
2024 will see an intensifying debate over the complex legacy of Francis’s pontificate. That discussion will be stillborn if the cartoon of the merciful, open-minded Pope versus close-minded, anti-Vatican II U.S. Catholics becomes the dominant storyline.
So, let’s get a few things straight about the Catholic Church in the United States.
First, the U.S. bishops are among the most loyal hierarchies in the world — an order of magnitude more loyal to Pope Francis and the Apostolic See than the German episcopate, which is currently defying the Pope’s orders to cease-and-desist with implementing a new and heterodox form of ecclesiastical governance.
Second, for all its difficulties and challenges, the American Church is the liveliest, most vital local Church in the developed world. Period. It is the local Church that has taken most seriously the Second Vatican Council, as authoritatively interpreted by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Its seminaries are the best in the Western world. U.S. Catholicism’s intellectual life is robust, dynamically orthodox, and culture-enriching — unlike Catholic intellectual life in those large swathes of western Europe where “Follow the Zeitgeist to Mordor” is the order of the day.
Third, U.S. Catholicism is evangelically vibrant, living what Mr. Lamb describes as the Pope’s call “to bring the Christian message to the world” far more energetically than the Church in Italy — or Argentina. Catholic campus ministry in the U.S. is experiencing a golden age, and FOCUS missionaries (a fruit of World Youth Day 1993 in Denver) now bring Christocentric evangelical dynamism to 193 campuses in six countries. Catholic schools in our inner-urban areas are effective instruments for empowering the poor (another priority of the Pope’s). Catholic crisis pregnancy centers extend divine mercy in a very tangible way. And anyone who has experienced the doldrums of parish life in other parts of the world must be impressed by the vitality of U.S. Catholic parishes, even as they struggle to claw back the ground lost during the Plague.
American Catholicism is striving to live the missionary discipleship for which Pope Francis called in the 2013 apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium. It’s doing so through dynamic orthodoxy, not Catholic Lite. If it’s too much to ask for that to be understood in Rome, perhaps it could be understood at CNN?
(George Weigel’s column ‘The Catholic Difference’ is syndicated by the Denver Catholic, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Denver.)
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Better late than never. Trump is the most pro-life president we ever had. Biden and PF both have the unique ability to be almost completely wrong about everything.
True. There is only One Body In Christ, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque).
Perhaps the local Church in America?
One cannot be, in essence, Pro Life, if one denies The Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament Of Holy Matrimony, and claims that protecting and securing our inherent Unalienable Right To Life, Endowed to us from God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, at the moment we were Created and brought into being, is a State’s Rights Issue, and not, in essence, a Human’s Rights issue.
One cannot secure and protect our inherent Unalienable Right To Liberty and The Pursuit Of Happiness without first and foremost protecting our inherent Right To Life that is Endowed to us from God, not Caesar, King John, or John Locke.
Shawn,
Your observation about PF and Biden being almost completely wrong about everything is spot on correct in my opinion. But to put a finer point on it, when every decision or action that a leader executes does harm to the very organization for which he is responsible, there is a word for that. Malice. Incompetence will get it right at least some of the time but that is not what we are dealing with in PF and Biden. They are malicious men, both of them.
I’ve often thought that I’m currently living through the worst presidency and the worst papacy of my 70 years. Perhaps I should consider it a blessing that I’m experiencing them simultaneously.
Perhaps a higher-level narrative might contemplate episcopal faithfulness to the commands of Jesus, instead of the “low arts” of “loyalty to the Pontiff Francis?”
And perhaps Christopher Lamb and the Pontiff Francis could just trade places?
And with regard to “getting a few things straight,” while I may fail to appreciate the “inherent goodness” of “national bishops conferences,” is the essay mistakenly suggesting that “the American Church” is a “local church?” I may be under the influence of Pope Benedict XVI and other “dead white popes,” but I thought that (both before and after Vatican 2) “local churches” were governed by individual diocesan bishops (and not by the national conference of bishops)? Perhaps I am “insufficiently reformed?”
Mr. Weigel is right, as far as he goes.
But he neglects to connect the dots. Leftists inhabit an entire cartoon universe, where global warming and Donald Trump are the boogiemen, where X and Y chromosomes are meaningless, where feelings dictate reality, where morality equals judgmentalism, etc.
Like Chris Lamb, Bergoglio also inhabits the leftist buffooniverse. His comments about his own Church prove it.
Chris,
Perhaps instead of “the American Church” you might think of it as “the Church in America,” i.e., where she, the universal Church, exists and operates locally. I believe that’s what Mr. Weigel is trying to convey.
Thank you for this, Mr Weigel. Evidence is inconvenient to many today, especially those who have made up their minds absent evidence.
Yes! Agree!! I pray with all that I am that we, the United States of America, will be Her Heel that crushes his filthy head! But we must have hearts consumed on Fire with the Holy Spirit. May the Lord use us as He sees fit. “Allow us to praise you O Sacred Virgin. Give us strength against your enemies!!!”
Moderator, It’s good to see that you allow George to legitimately and somewhat mercilessly criticize other commentators like this (and not that it matters, but I heartily agree with George about Lamb). I only wish you weren’t so quick in jabbing your delete button on reader comments here with legitimate criticisms about a couple of CWR writers who deserve it. OK – go ahead…….
Both of your comments were put through. And I responded to one of them. So…
What both Christopher Lamb and, I dare say, George Weigel don’t seem to understand is the George Bergoglio is irrelevant. Bergoglio occupies the Petrine Chair but increasing numbers of Catholics don’t take any notice.
As a coda to my earlier comment, I think it’s fair to observe two things about the essay’s narrative about the Covid era of what the author calls “the American local church,” as follows:
A. it’s a overdoing it to label the Covid hysteria as “The Plague;” and
B. our “loyal bishops” of the “American-local-church-of-dynamic-orthodoxy” didn’t “lose ground” during the Covid hysteria, they “ceded territory” because they abandoned their posts and ran away from the battle confronting them.
Every time I read Weigel, my imagined compulsion seizes control. Weigel and I stand, facing each other.
He wears outsized eyeglasses with plastic frames. Their neon-blends of primary color cover the sun’s spectrum, rainbowing a la Elton John. Lenses are nothing but Rose-tinted. Weigel believes his eyes. Yet over-sized beady ego-eager and heavy-lidded scales block his vision, and the perspective encompasses only yesterday.
I, dressed in knightly armour up-dated with technologically advanced, unflinchingly accurate accoutrements, wield my sword. The swift slash of the sharpest and finest blade nicks his specs. Surgical micro-precision slits his lids. He has been healed! Meet the knight. Meet Weigel’s salvific action hero, opened up and into 2024.
Chris in Maryland,
I’ve re-read the “Plague” reference and I believe that Mr. Weigel was simply being facetious with the use of that word. Nothing more. I saw the humor in it.
Regarding your point B., you are correct to make the distinction between ‘didn’t “lose ground”‘ and American bishops without a fight abandoning their posts during COVID. “Run away! Run away!” from Monty Python and the Holy Grail comes to mind.
While “the Plaqgue” could refer to the COVID hysteria, another potential (and more apt) reference is the sexual abuse scandals, which did indeed unleash extraordinary, harmful, and long-lasting effects on the Church here in the United States.
In summary, only members of The Church Militant, residing In Christ, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost(Filioque), who have “The Courage To Be Catholic”, and defend The Deposit Of Faith, will be instrumental in ushering in The Triumph Of Our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart.
Anyone Remember the classic
sketch comedy television series
Mad TV (stylized as MADtv) The series premiered on Fox on October 14, 1995, and ran for 14 seasons. Its final episode aired on May 16, 2009. The series was excellent and loosely based on the humor magazine , the series had some sketches about Catholicism
Is it a source of pride for us that the U.S. bishops are among the most loyal hierarchies in the world? The harsh treatment given Bishop Strickland and Cardinal Burke should have evoked some protest and defense of these clergy from their fellow bishops. And Fiducia which blesses sin, revokes a previous decree from DDF of 2021, minimizes sodomy, adultery, fornication, opens the door to all manner of abuses including same sex marriage, – all is
blandly accepted by U.S. bishops. Is this loyalty – or passivity or lethargy or just cowardice? Yes, I find myself admiring bishops – in Africa. Would that we here had half a dozen with the faith and courage of these African bishops. God bless them.
Well said Francy.
Having Weigel on your side is a bit like having Fidel Castro join your critique of capitalism, i.e., more harm than good. Weigel is so tainted with neocon money and his support for the Iraq War I’m amazed he still has an audience. My suspicion is that this essay is motivated more about his anger and jealousy about his diminishing role as a pundit and less about Lamb’s reporting. It’s so obvious the youth of today are looking for the truth and not the the soundbites and platitudes Weigel regurgitates about VII and JPII.
Yes, the Church in America.
I, too, admire more and more the bishops of Africa. Their clarity and willingness to stick out their necks are refreshing. May their tribe increase.
Love reading George Weigel’s take on the current state of affairs in the Church. The fact that the Church in the United States is being maligned must mean we are on the narrow road Christ spoke about.
So what is the point George? Do you really believe Francis will be impressed to learn that American Catholics are more engaged with the discipline and witness of the Catholic faith than in other locations in the world? I mean you’re supposed to be an intelligent man. Are you seriously unaware that this is precisely what he hates about the Church in America? Or anyplace else for that matter? Are you still not aware that he’s a clone of the late Cardinal Carlo Martini theologically? How many capitulations to the Christianity hating progressive elitist establishment does he have to make before his actions scandalize you personally? Does he have to order up wrecking balls to St. Peter’s before you might consider that he’s suffering from something deeper than cultural misperceptions? Are his passionate renunciations for the very idea of immutable truth atheistic enough for you? Is his Kasperian insistence that even God must be subject to the process of learning from the new age of man that the old Catholicism, which consists of museum pieces for the mentally ill as only his fondness for crudeness can express it, simply cannot address anymore?
Good. Very good. Your yeast has proven to be very fresh. Thank you, Mr. Baker.
Was it necessary to get the digs in on all the Republicans that Mr. Weigel dislikes? Like it mattered in this essay on the Catholic Church in America and CNN’s reporting..I found it irritating.
A good observation.
GW habitually mixes his secular political commentary with his church commentary. The result is that his church commentary is diminished, at the level if a politician giving a homily at the National Prayer Breakfast.
And the effect is that GW typically diminishes his own commentary on the Church, often never getting above the basement level of PR optics and Church politics.
It’s actually a nonsensical observation, as Weigel was specifically referencing a dopey remark Chris Lamb made about him (i.e. that Trump would make him ambassador to the Vatican). And if you’re whining about Weigel making a passing dig at MTG, Gaetz, and Boebert – politicians of low intellectual and moral character – after he just made a dig at Gibson, Prof. Beans, and Austen Schlesinger Jr. (which I doubt bothered either of you at all) then you’re just being overly-sensitive, partisan lemmings.
Glenn,
I must admit that having political views myself, I am very partisan, unlike so many “non-partisan” essayists commentators.
And while I appreciate being called over-sensitive, my wife thinks I’m not sensitive enough.
WRT lemmings, it could be understood as irony that “followers” of Mr. Weigel show their own “partisan sensitivities” by suggesting that those who don’t “follow after” Mr. W are somehow labeled as the “lemmings” by “those following Mr. W.”
Perhaps it may all be unintended irony.
And Happy 12th Day of Christmas…
What – me worry?
Vince:
I mis-named my reply, so re-addressing it to you.
I must admit that having political opinions myself, I am to be considered a partisan, unlike some essayists and commentators of the self-signalling “ritually pure, non-partisan” platoons.
And while I think all decent people can agree that Ms. Boebert is a moral hypocrite, being the partisan that I am, it it would be high-handed of anyone to tar with the same brush the other politicians you named just because you disagree with them.
I also appreciate your sense that I might be over-sensitive, though my wife thinks I am not sensitive enough.
WRT “lemmings,” perhaps, contrariwise, it could be the case that the “partisan sensitivities” of those persons “following after Mr. Weigel” compel them to project their own characteristics on those who don’t imitate their parade.
Or it could all be a matter of unintended irony.
In any case, Happy New Year Vince.