For too long, Catholics in the United States—myself included—have treated the Church as an extension of our political identities, a sociological distortion that has carried the language, loyalties, and resentments of the culture wars straight into the sanctuary.
The result is a Catholic community that is, I think, no longer a true community at all, one increasingly unable to pray together, disagree together, or even imagine one another charitably. Friendships have fractured within parishes over presidential politics or minor policy disputes, as if our baptismal identity were secondary to the partisan labels we carry.
Both sides bear responsibility for the current climate. A recent essay in the National Catholic Reporter, which claimed to call for a truce, actually ends up demonstrating the very divisiveness it lamented. Unfortunately, the piece could not resist caricaturing one of the Church’s most generous philanthropists as an “avatar” for the Catholic “conservative plutocrats”—a needless swipe that only deepens the resentments it claims to diagnose. And to reinforce the caricature, the author concluded that these wealthy “plutocrats” seem “unwilling to question contemporary spread‑eagle capitalism and its vicious results,” a sweeping claim that substitutes ideological suspicion for genuine engagement.
But to be fair, this same National Catholic Reporter writer has accused those he calls “liberal Catholics” of “following secular liberalism, turning to academic theologians as an alternate source of magisterial authority at a time when academic theology was losing touch with ecclesial reality.” He suggests that “It is easy to find a liberal theologian who is well-versed in the gender ideology of Judith Butler but important work on, say, Augustine, is left to conservative theologians.”
Liberal Catholic academics of the past, such as theology professors Lisa Sowle Cahill of Boston College and Cathleen Kaveny of Notre Dame—who formed the Alternative Magisterium of the past—served on Presidential Candidate Barack Obama’s National Catholic Advisory Committee, advising him on how to present his pro-choice platform in ways that would be palatable to Catholics.
The divisions have not healed, and the polarization will not end until we all stop using the Faith as a proxy for our politics and begin rebuilding the shared Catholic culture that once made disagreement possible without rupture. That culture—rooted in the sacraments, parish life, and a common moral imagination—was never perfect, but it provided a grammar for unity that our current ideological sorting has all but erased. Recovering it is not nostalgia; it is the only path forward.
What this reveals is not simply bad behavior on the left or the right, but the deeper loss of a common Catholic framework that once kept our disagreements tethered to something larger than our political instincts. When Catholics no longer share a thick culture of the sacraments, parish life, and a coherent moral imagination, we inevitably fall back on the only identity structures our society still offers: partisan ones.
In that vacuum, even well‑intentioned commentary becomes an exercise in scoring points rather than seeking truth, and Catholics of every persuasion begin to treat one another as ideological opponents rather than fellow members of the Body of Christ. The problem is not that we disagree—Catholics always have had disagreements—but that we no longer possess the cultural or spiritual habits that once allowed disagreement to coexist with communion.
If polarization is the symptom, the remedy must be the slow, deliberate rebuilding of a shared Catholic culture. And that culture must be sturdy enough to hold real differences without collapsing into suspicion. That work begins at the parish level, where most Catholics encounter the Church. Parishes must once again become places where people pray together, serve together, and learn the faith together across political lines.
This means forming priests who can create liturgies and homilies that draw people into a common sacramental imagination and create spaces where Catholics of different generations and backgrounds encounter one another as neighbors rather than ideological categories. It also means recovering the practices that once shaped Catholic life—regular Confession, Eucharistic devotion, shared meals, corporal works of mercy—because these habits form a moral imagination that politics cannot easily colonize. A Church that prays and serves together is far harder to divide.
In the months after my own recent loss, I discovered the quiet strength of a parish‑based grief support group—a space untouched by the political tensions that divide so much of Catholic life. Sitting with others who were carrying their own sorrows, I was reminded how deeply the Church’s understanding of death, hope, and communion can bind people together when ideology is set aside. That simple, non‑political gathering made me appreciate again the wisdom of a Catholic perspective on suffering and the promise of eternal life—truths that unite us far more profoundly than any partisan identity ever could.
We also have the benefit of a new generation of priests who do not carry the partisan baggage of the Vatican II-era and the past battles over the years that immediately followed. Parishes are increasingly being led by younger priests who tend to be more conservative. The National Study of Catholic Priests by the Catholic Project at the Catholic University of America has shown clearly that progressive Catholicism is producing few priestly vocations.
This is not a cause for conservative triumphalism, but it is a pastoral and cultural reality the Church must take seriously. This newer generation of priests—whatever their political inclinations or instincts—is stepping into a Church marked by fragmentation. And they deserve seminary formation that equips them to be bridge‑builders. They need seminary mentors who can help them read the signs of the times without being captured by the politics of the moment. They need the sort of formation that deepens their pastoral imagination, strengthens their capacity to listen across differences, and teaches them how to shepherd communities where the people in their parishes do not vote in the same way. If they can learn to lead with humility, they can become the kind of pastors who draw people together rather than drive them apart.
Seen through a sociological lens, the polarization tearing at the Church is not primarily a battle over doctrine but a breakdown of the shared culture that once held us together. When Catholics lose the habits, symbols, and communal practices that form a common identity, politics rushes in to fill the void. The task before us, then, is not to win arguments but to rebuild the social and spiritual fabric that makes communion possible: parishes where people know one another, priests formed to lead without partisanship, and communities shaped more by the rhythms of the liturgical year than by the news cycle.
If we can recover that thicker Catholic culture that is rooted in sacrament, relationship, and a sense of belonging that transcends ideology, we will rediscover what it means to be one Church.
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Reclaiming the culture that made us Catholic, requires that we are Faithful to The Deposit of Faith. Those Catholics who no longer respect the Sanctity and Dignity of the marital act within The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony and thus God’s Desire that we respect the Sanctity and Dignty of all human life from the moment of conception , have, due to their rejection of Divine Revelation, rejected the Culture that makes us Catholic, the culture of being Faithful to God’s Divine Law.
It is not possible to build a bridge from the unfaithful to The Faithful, without rejecting Divine Revelation and thus Divine Law. Our Call to Holiness is a Call to keep our Baptismal Promises, and not reject them, and thus remain Faithful .
The culture that makes us Catholic is the same culture that makes us remain Faithful.
No durable or “thick” bridge-building at the local parish level—the living quarters— unless, firstly, at the “bridge” of the titanic Barque of Peter?
The hour is late.
I once read a comment, I think was attributed to Thomas Aquinas: “we must love and respect them both, that is those with whom we agree, and those with whom we disagree in the faith all are sincerely looking for truth with a pure heart”
Sorry
Aye, there’s the rub. A pure heart. How many of us can claim that, I wonder? And being “true” to Catholic culture: for example: abortion, is every bit as political as Catholic teaching often becomes. The moment abortion, sexual aberrations,—so much of it, or sadly,hatred of our current policy makers and government –the moment any of these things come up–even “global warming” charity and civility flies out the window. First of all, we need charity. But it would be lovely, and Catholic, if we could discuss those things calmly with courtesy. As it is, people often are afraid to
discuss anything controversial for fear of setting off a firestorm of wrath, name calling and even the most obscene remarks. We have a long way to go. And the media is responsible for a good amount of the animosity. A little respect would go a long way.
Amen! And AMEN!
Thank you, dear Anne Hendershott for such a passionate & benevolent article.
You discern our sickness:
“When Catholics lose the habits, symbols, and communal practices that form a common identity, politics rushes in to fill the void.”
A perfect analysis of our ‘losing the plot’ but continuing with the habits ?
Where is GOD in this?
An OT-prophet might say: “GOD is shaking The Church.”
Shaking us, until all the extraneous stuff falls off!
The unshakeable, unbreakable, unbeatable core (or karygma) that every good Catholic, since apostolic times, has clung to is not The Church as such, not even ourselves, but Jesus Christ: GOD enfleshed, living/teaching, crucified, risen, ascended, crowned and made familiar to all who love Him by the dear Holy Spirit of GOD.
Some unpaid, Aussie volunteers sing an inspired, utterly beautiful, and theologically-sound song about Christ and us, that millions have loved and been edified by –
CityAlight – Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwc2d1Xt8gM&list=RDkHLUvUtbp2I&index=13
Once our Catholic hearts are all united in this again, the inevitable human intellectual & political differences will matter little. We will be deeply united again. GOD has promised it.
Correction: for ‘karygma’ please read ‘kerygma’ (= the core message of our Faith)
Great article that is worth a family discussion – thank you.
It might be best to avoid discussing politics with Catholics, focusing instead on the many important topics centered on Jesus Christ. There should be a shared pursuit of truth within the community. If someone chooses not to accept the Church’s teachings, it’s a personal matter that calls for love and patience as we all seek eternal truths. Our daughter-in-law is liberal, so we approach the catechism with gentleness but firmness. We aim to plant seeds rather than expect an immediate harvest, understanding that much groundwork is needed before growth can begin.
We have a similar problem. I believe and hope that example will finally have a positive effect also. But how do you discuss abortion with a ‘liberal” without telling her it’s murder?
Right to the point! Your reply zeros in on the essential problem. Our political point of view overshadows our faith, hope and charity.
Missing from all this is the core of seeking and finding union with God and union in God, all the rest only aids to that union.
Without that union, it becomes purely only a social and ethnic construct, subject to the same upheaval as any social and ethnic construction.
The basics such as the first and greatest commandment to love God more than all other things with all our ability, and even our purpose as stated in the catechism, to love, know, and serve the Lord are essentially ignored.
And then people wonder why all the problems and all the division, when all their true love lies elsewhere on externals.
http://www.mysticprayer.blogspot.com
Both Anne Hendershott ‘s and ND’s response have merit. Being very active in the Pro-life movement, I believe that people have been swayed by the never ending rhetoric of pro abortion advocates with very little of the sanctity of life coming from the pulpit ( only place where most Catholics get their Catholic teachings). If testimonies from woman who suffered from their abortion choices were allowed to speak and other sources (short videos of the growth of a human being from conception in the womb to birth ) shown in our churches,
would help to give a true perspective of that issue. The lack there of has also left too many Catholics also seeing “assisted suicide “
( camouflaged as help in dying ) as a compassionate choice. These as ND mentions are not political, they are our Catholic truths.
Spot on commentary, but I would add that the Democrat Party has intentionally infiltrated archdioceses and parishes over many decades. I have personally experienced that in several states, coast to coast. Political activists in one church forced my husband and my departure when an outreach endeavor became an opportunity to distribute “Vote for Obama” flyers. this was one of many similar examples. The Pastor just stood by. Our clergy would do well to discourage–even prevent–such secular intrusions that contradict Church teaching often discussed in charitable motivation and movements.
I would also suggest that maybe former Democrat Catholics who left that Party because of abortion and other previous positions consider rejoining but standing their ground for Truth and Love. At the time we may have thought our exit an effectual and moral”statement,” but look who came in the back door.
Agree 100%. And it’s no use pretending it isn’t critical to the life of the Church and the life of the country, because more and more those who speak the Truth about the sanctity of life and the evil of sexual immorality will have to fight to speak that Truth. So in the end, it’s political too, sadly. Look around and see what’s happening to free speech in Europe.
Liberalism is the antithesis of culture, and we are all a little too liberal in America. Culture implies a sharing of spiritual goods; because culture implies what is shared, it serves as a check on my individuality. Liberalism is the political order that emphasizes the personal over the collective. Our two political parties merely emphasize two different forms of liberalism: one economic, the other moral.
Liturgy instantiates our shared values through ritual participation. Thus, the more liberal we are, the fewer shared values we have, and the less we are able to participate in the liturgy. In a liberal state, liturgy loses its internal essence and becomes merely a flattened plaything or a reified image of the past.
I am a seminarian. In my estimation, we are not forming priests with a sacramental and liturgical worldview. The reasons for this are complex, but one underlying factor is that young men enter the seminary as liberals (in the broad sense), and their formation caters to them as such. In order to enter into the liturgy, we must be dispossessed of our individuality so we can enter into something larger than ourselves. This is more than intellectual formation; it is moral and cultural formation.
The Catholic spiritual tradition has always aimed at the loss of self for the sake of incorporation into Christ. This needs to be retrieved fully and holistically. However, this requires, in my estimation, a recovery of the vision of formation.
A concrete example of breaking individuality to enter something larger than ourselves is learning the language of the Church: Latin. While we do take Latin in the seminary, it is not a priority, despite official declarations to the contrary. Latin is difficult to learn and takes years. In this way, it is like the spiritual life: over time, one gradually begins to understand what was once obscure. This vision gives you access to a whole new world—a new mind—the mind of the Church.
Moreover, a common language is the very building block of a shared culture. As I struggle to learn Latin, I have this growing suspicion that the Church cannot retrieve its cultural identity if its pastors are not once again immersed in the latin language. To quote John Paul II:
“We address especially the young people: In an epoch when in some areas, as you know, the Latin language and the human values are less appreciated, you must joyfully accept the patrimony of the language which the Church holds in high esteem and must, with energy, make it fruitful. The well-known words of Cicero, “It is not so much excellent to know Latin, as it is a shame not to know it” [Non tam praeclarum est scire Latine, quam turpe nescire (Brutus, xxxvii.140)] in a certain sense are directed to you. We exhort you all to lift up high the torch of Latin which is even today a bond of unity among peoples of all nations.
Pope John Paul II, 1978
But alas, because the individual does not experience immediate fruits, the cultivation of Latin is abandoned. It is rationalized away as rigid, archaic “cosplay.”
This diatribe is simply an example of the behemoth called liberalism that is in the water we drink. It will take many saints to help us filter it out. Lord, give Your Church saints.
God bless you, James! May the angels, and dear St John Paul, as well as beloved Benedict watch over you, pray for you, and make you an
exemplary priest. You are the future and it’s plain that you understand these deadly problems that plague the Church. Again, may our Lord bless you richly.
“As I struggle to learn Latin, I have this growing suspicion that the Church cannot retrieve its cultural identity if its pastors are not once again immersed in the latin language. To quote John Paul II:”
I suspect you are correct in this proposition, however:
Have you considered the possibility that impediment is a feature, not a bug=that there are those who want to incorporate all sorts of novelties and to do so requires an Orwellian erasure of the past?
People often forget that languages are not bijective.
In English, we call a parent’s sister (or wife of a parent’s brother) “Aunt”, but in some languages there is a distinction when that female relative is the father’s sister as opposed to when she is the mother’s sister. It was important for those cultures to understand that. In English, we assume that’s unimportant, unless specifically required, and then we attach an adjective.
Latin used to be taught in high school, as it made the language of the law and medicine much more apprehensible. Society lost when it was disposed of as a useless artifact.
The Catholic Church damaged its relationship with Catholics when it embraced the Covid lockdowns and denied Catholics the sacraments. For two years they shuttered the Churches and the schools. They broke their bond with practicing Catholics.
I agree, Allen, but you must be talking about the clergy because “the Church” is the assembly of the faithful – and I never promoted lock-downs, masks or hysteria at all. My house was open the entire “pandemic.” 🙂
Having grown up in the 1950’s, it seems to me that in fact the Democratic party in the north was very much in line with the social teaching of the Church. The Republicans were unwilling to finance the social welfare ideas of Catholicism with the taxes it would require, but aa the Democratic party moved away from Catholic teaching in a number of areas like abortion, it was logical for Catholics to move towards the Republicans, and that is what happened. This will be more true in the future as older knee jerk Democrats die and can no longer vote the way their parents did. The unique style and ideology of Trump might be a bump in the road for some Catholics, but he won’t last forever. Moreover the brainwashing of the media will weaken as the internet provides more opportunities to find the unbiased truth just as we see conversions mounting among yuonger voters.
Polarization is not the root crisis here; idolatry is.
The elegy for a lost “shared Catholic culture” delicately avoids the obvious: the culture that fractured was built around dominant white comfort with power, war, and capital, thinly veiled by sacramental language. To lament that Catholics now treat the Church as an extension of political identity without naming how white U.S. Catholicism fused itself to Trump, MAGA white christian nationalism, and radical Zionist justifications for mass killing is to describe smoke while ignoring the fire. The sanctuary was not invaded by politics from outside; it was long ago remodeled to fit the needs of the American right.
The evidence is stark: Catholics in positions of influence blessing a project that dehumanizes Palestinians and Iranians, absorbs war propaganda about “flattening” peoples, and looks away when Catholic churches, hospitals, and children are hit, so long as the administration remains ideologically and judicially useful. The same milieu that denounces “seamless garment” Democrats for betraying human dignity tolerates, excuses, or stays silent before indiscriminate violence and annihilationist rhetoric abroad. That is not a neutral breakdown of “thick culture”; it is a catechesis in selective humanism.
The call to “rebuild” a pre‑polarized Catholic culture therefore rings hollow. What collapsed was not a neutral common grammar but a long‑standing pact: Christ in exchange for access to empire, racial hierarchy, and partisan favor. The real task is not refurbishing that arrangement with better manners and more pious language. It is public repentance for having sold Christ for Trump, for having enthroned ideology where the Gospel should stand, and only then daring to speak of communion.
Hey Carl, I don’t think this fellow contributes in any way to your site. Doubt he’s a deacon, and people who have this “advanced” of a liberal worldview usually aren’t capable of telling themselves the truth even after repeated attempts by critics or well-wishers. I know because I’ve tried in the past — they are just too far gone.
When you come to the point where you are wrapping up your baloney in high-sounding language and your real goal is the destruction of what you claim to believe in, you are more of a little, propagandist devil than you are somebody trying to get the Truth.
I’m not sure he is even good to generate drama and interest in the comments section. Surely most people see through his baloney.
So, all this to say — why don’t you just kick him and stop letting him waste people’s time? With most other people here, you at least get the impression that they are arguing in good faith. With this guy, not so much…
You can hit me at the email provided if you want to agree or fuss at me.
Amen. Couldn’t agree more. “Pure in heart?” Not likely, but I
won’t judge him. God will.
“the culture that fractured was built around dominant white comfort with power, war, and capital, thinly veiled by sacramental language…”
As opposed to the culture that has been built around fornication, homosexuality, “gay marriage,” abortion, contraception, trans-insanity, destruction of basic religious freedoms, radical secularism, antifa, and such, Deacon Woke?
The (anti) “culture” has been built around those two camps, Democrat and Republican, left and right, woke or pretend anti-woke. They live off each other. It’s a Marxist dialectic that the system is standing on. Their purpose is to polarize people etc
A very solid comment, Deacon Dom.
And of course one can always bridge the partisan divide with with histrionic and inflammatory partisan denunciations. If a lack of self awareness was an Olympic Sport, you’d make people forget about Michael Phelps’ collection of medals.
Dear Deacon Dom: “Take heart!”
Some of us are planning to organise a collection to pay for your air ticket to Tehran, so you can join the IRGC. Rejoice! What fun it’ll be for you to help develop nuclear long-range ballistic missiles so as to terrorise the entire world with Islamic jihad. Then there’ll be the opportunities to torture many young women for not wearing ‘the right’ clothes . . .
We’re looking for an airline that will allow you to choose to fly to China, instead, if you want, so you can be part of Xi Jin Ping’s Marxist ‘catholic’ church. That should be very instructive. A hard choice.
Hope your passport’s up-to-date. We’ll all miss you!
Ever in the joy of King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
Youre the Winner of the comment boxes today Dr.Marty.
😊
I’ll happily contribute to paying for his airline tickets, as long as they are one-way only!
The very best. Thank you for that. Long ago there was a wonderful comic strip called “Pogo.” In it was a character called “Deacon Mushrat,” who inveighed very much like this Deacon. Reason and reality never entered his world. Hate is too strong.
I would take a few of your protestations a bit more seriously if your malevolent anti-White bigotry and anti-Western society false characterizations did not stand out as overarching themes of your rantings.
The author writes: “If we can recover that thicker Catholic culture that is rooted in sacrament, relationship, and a sense of belonging that transcends ideology, we will rediscover what it means to be one Church.”
I disagree. What we need to recover is a critical discernment of Truth and the resolve to proclaim it unabashedly. Knowledge of the Truth is possible as we have had it handed down to us through Revelation and the Church’s Magisterium. It’s when Truth becomes fungible that Catholics wind up substituting things like politics, social justice, economic theory, environmentalism, synodalistic meetings, radical feminism, population control, etc.
If we were to do be intrepid seekers ans spokesmen for Truth all else would fall in place.
I usually like Anne’s articles, but I am going to have to disagree with this one: When somebody thinks it’s OK to kill their baby, cut off their body parts to call themselves a different gender, protect criminals while jailing the innocent, promote pornography, promote drug use, and celebrate the murder of decent people — those people really aren’t Catholic, I don’t want them in my community, and I don’t want any communion with them. It’s not even a partisan issue.
If you read this, Anne, please know that I like you and I know the grief of losing my first love (outside my original family.) You will eventually smile again, but it will likely take a while.
That being said, there has been too much emphasis in recent decades about being “one” with other Catholics instead of faithful to the life Jesus called us to live. We should try not to nitpick other Christians (including the Prots.), but liberal Catholics long ago turned their back on Jesus in ways so big that no sane Christian would ever want to have anything to do with them — even in their darkest hour. It’s not even a question anymore.
We can send missionaries to the liberals, but our first priority has to be stopping them from destroying our families, our countries and the Church.
What shared Catholic Culture?
What shared “Catholic culture”? Yesterday there was an article about the Spanish woman who was euthanized. Not a single comment. There’s been articles about the attacks on Christians in Africa, no comments.
But mention the (latest) war in Iran, its etiology and the comment section goes supernova. There are a couple of posters who patrol the comment section looking for deviations from their political view that is a curious amalgam of Dispensationalism and AIPAC propaganda and one even responded to another commenter with the accusation that antipathy was being cloaked under legitimate criticism-because apparently this individual is telepathic.
Another poster attacked and dismissed Carrie Boller based upon the recency of her entry into the Church, citing his degree from a Jesuit University as his “bona fides”-apparently unaware that’s not the imprimatur he fancies it to be. One of the said she’d vote for Ted Cruz “any day”, apparently ignoring his blatant anti-Catholicism.
I’m sorry, but I don’t think this is Catholic, and I’m not sure there’s common ground with people who think God made Adam and Steve, that there’s a right to kill a child in utero, or that with a little physical and chemical mutilation one can become a member of the opposite sex.
The “culture wars” are like any other war. You may not be interested in the war, but the war is interested in you. Worse, they are not merely superficial temporal conflicts. Increasingly, they are epistemic threats.
We read: “What shared “Catholic culture”? Yesterday there was an article about the Spanish woman who was euthanized. Not a single comment. There’s been articles about the attacks on Christians in Africa, no comments.”
Perhaps you can remind us of your comments…
“Perhaps you can remind us of your comments…”
For that article, none. I can’t always be the first or only commenter.
But there are others:
See this article:
Nigeria ‘continues to bleed endlessly,’ archbishop concerned about ‘senseless massacres’
I offered the first and only comment.
“Loyola University mourns student killed in Chicago shooting: ‘We are heavy with grief’”
I had the only two comments.
As you failed to comment in any of those three of those articles are you sure you are in a position to complain?
Mine was carefully worded as a question, not a complaint…
Yours is a predictable accusation. Even the unrecovered Nigerian students kidnapped ten years ago remain in my daily prayers. I enter two or three careful CWR comments, which surely receive your sovereign attention, and which I’m sure are an irritant to probably most other time-limited readers.
But, sir, please continue with your tally sheet! The world is a better place for your efforts. And it’s just possible that other readers simply thought that in your postings you had said it all far beyond “our poor power to add or detract.”
Or, otherwise, we moral underllngs genuflect before you as one who, by his recent shotgun condemnation, surely possesses the Godlike gift of reading souls.
Cluttered not omniscient. Scatter-shot not “reading”. Agitated not “beyond adding and detracting”. I wonder if he (she) can handle it.
If the whole nylon line reel is involved in its own a great tangle with knots etc., the whole reel is there but it’s just a nylon line! In other words some things don’t need commenting on, they already passed that.
Showing good-naturedness at times but not given to calming.
Elias— thank you for your lines, the knotty “reel presents,” as you here untangle the Pitchfork Rebel.
There is no culture either in this country or in the church. Let alone, a Catholic culture!
Dear Agnieszka – spoken with the bile of a true old-school comrade.
The despots in Russia, China, N. Korea, and Iran will be proud of you!
They too find our ‘chaos of freedom’ so irritating.
Then again, there’s always the possibility of repentance, conversion, loving obedience, and The Christ’s infalible promise of Eternal Life.
While there’s breath there’s always hope. Your choice . . .
Thanks for your kind advice, Dr Martin.
You should ditch the news for a while and go out more. Overseases. It’s not as scary out there as they tell you).
Agnieszka, I don’t know if you are referring to the States or if you’ve traveled widely here but there’s a great deal of diverse cultures to be found in the US and Catholic culture too.
We live in an unique cultural area that international tourists visit because of that.
“Seen through a sociological lens, the polarization tearing at the Church is not primarily a battle over doctrine but a breakdown of the shared culture that once held us together.
But I believe that it is a battle over doctrine. See CARA studies on Catholics who believe in cohabitation, abortion etc. If we discount the doctrine differences we are just pretending, like ecumenical meetings with the Anglicans. It’s a feel good enterprise which accomplishes nothing of substance. Just this week we have had a Cardinal saying he intends to ordain married men in 2028, another Cardinal saying if we did not ordain women the Church would fall apart, and we have had bishops calling for a change in the catechism on the immorality of homosexual acts. Our country is divided, and our Church is divided. Some of that division is reflected in politics, but it is a doctrinal divide.
You’re talking about the higher levels of the Church. It trickles, rather flows, down to the laity. I have a sister-in-law who divorced her husband less than a year ago and told me today she’s ready for a boyfriend. Absolutely typical attitude of Catholics these days. And, of course, I offended her by telling her it’s not supposed to work that way. sigh
Dear ‘Fred’ & dear ‘TPR’ you’re both right-on about our current catastrophe.
But I think Anne is correct in longing for a common culture.
Hoping she gives us a follow-up article showing how a revival of passionate faith in King Jesus Christ and unswerving devotion to lovingly obeying all His commands will work the cultural transformation we all long for.
With GOD nothing is impossible!
My own special take on it is: IF WE SING TOGETHER WE WILL CLING TOGETHER!
A good example:
CityAlight – “We Too Have Overcome” – YouTube
Bing Videos
All Things New Again
The Lenten season wanes.
The Garden and the Via Dolorosa loom.
Yet, the Almighty wisely reminds
The divine beauty of Filial sacrifice.
The Bloody Gore of the Incarnate One
Is called to our attention
By a little tree that now blooms
With exquisite buds colored by his blood.
Yet softened by the kindness of God
Into a delicate shade that instructs
He will make the painfilled sacrifice into a Thing
Both Good and Beautiful.
Then He follows these sanctified blooms
With the precious flowers of another little tree
Praising the Resurrection.
Four starkly white petals bright, yet
With bloody wounds at their lengths,
Therein the Risen One depicted.
By the Red Bud and the Dogwood,
The Glory of the Cross,
The Triumph of the Risen One,
Whose Love opens the gates of Heaven.
Every spring forever, the Father glorifies the Son.
As regards US President Donald Trump, we get contradictory perspectives here, Down-Under.
This Aussie observes that:
1. His morality is questionable; yet Catholic morals are respected;
2. He won the election with a huge swing;
3. He is as rich as Croesus;
4. He showed immense bravery under fire;
5. He is an exceptional man-of-action, not afraid to take-the-bull-by-the horns;
6. He’s a specialist in mind-bending contradictory news releases;
7. Despite that he seems to know what he’s doing and usually wins.
As regards Iran: the US under Trump deserves the highest thanks from every concerned citizen of the world.
The psychotically fanatic Ayatollahs of Iran have been building a festering source of world terrorism, exploiting the worst aspects of Islam, to subjugate us all. Given even one more year they clearly intended to hold us all to ransom with their intercontinental nuclear missiles and world-wide subversive terrorist cells.
All the nations of the world owe a debt to the US for identifying the imminent danger and then promptly decisively acting to save us.
Once this war is won, all the nations should contribute a multi-trillion dollar “Thank You” to the US economy for preserving us from all being forcibly confined inside a giant Iranian Shiite mosque.
I might be wrong but that’s how it looks to me, in this place, at this time.
Dr. Rice, I applaud your assessment. Unfortunately, there are far too many “influencers” across the globe who are feckless cowards.
Thank you Dr Marty and God bless you. 🙏
Can we really identify the true enemy? Or, is the enemy us?
I think Pope Leo struck paydirt. “The pope stated, “We don’t need kings. We need leaders who care about the truth and the people they serve — as well as the future of this planet.” On March 28, hundreds of thousands of protesters are marching across the nation, saying the same message that we do not need a King
Phony, dangerous, extreme right-wing radicals are espousing “Christian nationalism,” targeting any perceived enemy.
Ex: Texas Democrat State Rep. James Talarico, who won the primary to represent Texas as a US Senator. The radicals said he should be “crucified.” James Talarico is known for advocating for inclusivity and diversity in his community. He represents a diverse constituency, reflecting a range of beliefs.
Excerpt… There must be a remedy, must be the slow, deliberate rebuilding of a shared Catholic culture.” Work-in-progress?
I see politics running rampant with the likes of arch Evangelist and Trump syncophant House Speaker Mike Johnson. He who idolizes a convicted criminal sitting in the 24 Carat gold-clad Oval Office. Johnson knows of Trump’s autocratic madness, shown by his profuse lying, hatred, threats, and disparagement of “enemies”. “Joe Biden is a walking corpse, a lunatic.” I’m glad Robert Mueller is dead.”
Pope Francis: “Build a bridge, not a wall.”
Perhaps we Catholics are the change agents who don’t know our protocol and challenge. I struggle with many mythological positions. In today’s dichotomous, splintered society, we must gather as an army for Catholic survival.
Well Mr Morgan, political preoccupation seems the enemy for many of us. Christianity isn’t political and we need to turn off the media occasionally. No matter which side we may follow. It just manipulates us through anger and outrage and divides the Body of Christ.
“Phony, dangerous, extreme right-wing radicals are espousing ‘Christian nationalism,’ targeting any perceived enemy.”
Yep. I remember when those right-wing, Christian nationalists took away my excellent and affordable (how ironic!) healthcare back in 2009.
And how they went after Catholics who wanted to adopt children. And then after the Little Sisters of the Poor for refusing to fund contraceptives.
And who can forget how the right-wingers shut down the country in the spring of 2020 and then tried to burn down several cities that summer?! Total Nazis.
Oh, and then how they have encouraged children and others to mutilate themselves and bow low at the altar of transgenderism. Fascist!
Plus, those same Christian nationalists keep shooting up schools and killing children. And what about their many assassination attempts on Trump?
Yep, you’re onto something. Don’t relent!
“Yep. I remember when those right-wing, Christian nationalists took away my excellent and affordable (how ironic!) healthcare back in 2009.”
My former family physician left general practice to run a weight-loss clinic because he grew tired of arguing about $20 co-pays and trying to help people who thought that they could down a couple six-packs as long as they took a Metformin.
“This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies. Okay, so it’s written to do that. In terms of risk rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in — you made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed… Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical for the thing to pass… Look, I wish Mark was right that we could make it all transparent, but I’d rather have this law than not.”
Jonathan Gruber, PhD
The ACA architect. Economist. Department Head MIT
“Can we really identify the true enemy? Or, is the enemy us?”
Or maybe someone should look in the mirror for the true enemy?
Dear Athanasius, surely you don’t think ‘self-hatred’ is good?
Our Sandgate Sacred Heart Primary School has the theologically-brilliant motto: “LOVE GOD, LOVE YOURSELF, AND LOVE OTHERS”.
To love GOD is to put all things, comprehensively, into perspective.
To love yourself is to honor Christ who died out of love for us.
Loving yourself is the basis on which we are able to really love others.
That’s a perfect Catholic Christian worldview we need more of.
Satan/The Devil/Lucifer/The Deceiver/The Accuser is THE enemy.
Being prince of this world means that his evil can be expressed in all 3 aspects: the flesh, the world, and the devil.
So you are right to say we need to watch ourselves. Jesus’ humble, broken, righteous, servanthood must be our model & aspiration. As Saint Paul cried out: “Who will deliver me from this body of death – only Christ Jesus.
In addition, we needs must watch the world as it does the will of Satan and his principalities, powers, dominions, rulers, authorities, governments, thrones and a whole host of evil in the spiritual realm.
Then, individually we have our daily battle to neutralize the deceits and traps of various demons; both unseen in our minds and visible in our ever-changing circumstances.
We’re greatly deceived to think the demonic is limited to possesion requiring exorcism.
Demonic oppression is commoner than the common cold!
If only every parish taught these New Testament truths about the need to put up a good fight against the three different aspects of evil, how much more effective would be our Catholic witness!
Ever seeking to hear & follow King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
Talarico is nothing but a commie liberal masquerading as a moderate democrat. He is pro-choice and goes against most aspects of Texas conservatism. That is hardly a good example of someone who supposedly promotes inclusivity and diversity in his community. Moreover, we should not looking at people like him to safeguard our freedoms and faith in America. On the contrary, we should be guarding ourselves from people like Talarico who are nothing more than wolves in sheep clothing.
Let me restate it: Reclaim Catholic culture? In a culture saturated with Red Hat Catholics, be a Red Letter Catholic. Red Letter Catholics put the teachings of Jesus first. Red Hat Catholics have forsaken Him for Donald Trump and the false gospel of white Christian nationalism.
Deacon Dom: Ditch the hate.
Deacon Dom, respectfully the folks you call ” White Christian Nationalists ” firstly are few in number and secondly tend to not be fans of Donald Trump today.
I’m a Trump voter and a Catholic who reads the black and does the red.
Better to be one of those than a blue-hoofed Jackass who voted for Kamala Horseface in 2024.