His Eminence, Mario Cardinal Grech
General Secretary
Synod of Bishops
00120 Vatican City
Your Eminence:
The “National Synthesis of the People of God in the United States of America for the Diocesan Phase of the 2021-2023 Synod,” prepared by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is a very disappointing document, not least because it largely focuses on what the 1% of U.S. Catholics who participated in these “synodal” discussions find wrong with the Church — a roster of grievances that, unsurprisingly, reflects both the progressive Catholic agenda in American Catholicism and certain dominant (if false) impressions about our local Church in Rome. But rather than amplify others’ critiques of the “National Synthesis,” I would like to share with the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops some good news about U.S. Catholicism: news that might well be of interest to the universal Church as it considers its evangelical future.
Catholic schools in America are a treasure the country is beginning to recognize as such. When America’s state-run schools were failing students and parents during pandemic lockdowns, Catholic elementary schools stepped into the breach, providing on-site and online instruction that government schools were incapable of mounting — thanks in large part to self-interested, unionized teachers. By contrast, Catholic schoolteachers tend to think vocationally, and that made a huge difference. Moreover, Catholic schools in our inner-urban areas, like the new, state-of-the-art Mother Mary Lange School in Baltimore, are the most effective anti-poverty program the U.S. Church has ever devised — and they serve students from many religious backgrounds.
The U.S. Church is experiencing something of a Golden Age in Catholic campus ministry. This encouraging fact of 21st-century U.S. Catholic life has many expressions. There are vibrant ministries on major state-university campuses; the most notable of these, at Texas A&M University, has become a rich source of vocations to the priesthood and religious life while preparing many Catholic couples for marriage and family life. The Thomistic Institute, initiated by the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, is bringing serious Catholic content to 83 college and university campuses this academic year; another Dominican initiative, “Aquinas 101,” has 90,000 online subscribers, and its imaginative expositions of Catholic philosophy and theology have gotten over 5 million views on YouTube. The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), a peer-to-peer evangelization effort, is now present and actively serving on 195 U.S. and 8 international campuses.
Catholic seminaries have been thoroughly reformed. While vocations to the priesthood are down over the past decade — perhaps reflecting the constant criticism of priests from Rome — American seminaries are in their best shape in decades, and in all aspects of priestly formation: personal, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral.
Catholics constitute a core constituency of the vibrant American pro-life movement. Pope Francis has spoken frequently about the dangers of a “throwaway culture.” U.S. Catholics are doing something about challenging that, at both ends of the life spectrum.
Vocations to consecrated life in the United States are increasing where religious institutes embrace the Gospel in full and live a distinctive manner of life. Examples include the St. Joseph Province of the Order of Preachers, the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation, the Sisters of Life and the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan. As in other sectors of the world Church, Catholic Lite is a failure in fostering American vocations to religious life, while “all-in Catholicism” attracts some of our best young people.
Younger Catholic scholars are leading a renaissance of Catholic intellectual life. The most impressive scholarship in U.S. Catholicism today is being done by men and women who have transcended the liberal/conservative dichotomies of the immediate post-Vatican II period, who have embraced the Council’s teaching as authoritatively interpreted by John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and who are engaging a disturbed culture in order to convert it. Theirs is the future, not the warmed-over Catholic Lite that has returned to several pontifical universities in Rome.
Catholic parishes are livelier in the United States than in virtually any other developed country. These parishes have their challenges, to be sure, but they remain the institutional bedrock of American Catholic life and are engaged in a variety of innovative pastoral programs that seek to engage the marginalized and disaffected – often aided by dynamic Catholic associations like the Knights of Columbus, another jewel in the U.S. Catholic crown, and by the creative catechetical materials developed by the Augustine Institute and Word on Fire.
I hope these brief notes help fill out the portrait of U.S. Catholicism you have been sent by the bishops’ conference. They tell a story the entire world Church needs to hear.
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I always thought Pollyanna was a girl.
Heh. Weigel.is comfortable in his bubble.
Weigel fails to mention the growth of the Newman List of Catholic Colleges which are selected on the basis of their authentic presentation of the Church’s magisterium to its students by faithful faculty. That is a glaring omission to any cataloging of bright spots in American Catholicism.
Bravo, Mr. Weigel. He could have added the vibrancy of American TLM communities, especially among the young. For example, the fastest growing parish in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is Old St. Mary’s, home of the TLM here; it is overflowing with large, young families.
And beyond Weigel’s long-needed and more accurate picture of the American scene, Alps on Alps arise! To be or not to be, that is the question! Synodally, whether all that is participates in the Logos, or whether all that is, is simply a transient rearrangement of an underlying chaos? What if, instead of the Triune Oneness, this polyphonic triad:
Not the coherence of faith and reason, but a “pluralism” of religions?
Not binary human sexuality, but poly-amorous “gender theory”?
Not the “hierarchical communion” of the one-holy-catholic-apostolic Church, but facilitated, federated and “continental” synodality, and a likely polygonal (not polyhedral) “Synod on Synodality” without a center?
What if Cardinal Hollerich’s rejection of innate (!) natural law and the incarnated Good News is not “sociological-scientific” at all, as he fantasizes, but instead is what the eminent sociologist, the Russian-American Pitirim Sokokin (1889-1968, a real sociologist! and founder of the Harvard research Center for Creative Altruism), identified as “chaotic syncretism”—the end state of collapsing civilizations?
The tip of the iceberg: how much of ecclesial Synthesis = chaotic Syncretism?
(Herewith, the historic and surely edifying Hollerich Manifesto: “I believe that the sociological-scientific foundation of this teaching [on sexual morality] is no longer true [….and] I think it’s time we make a fundamental revision of the doctrine” https://www.aol.com/news/liberal-cardinal-calls-revised-catholic-135429645-181222377.html)
Well expressed as always. Among all the “vibrant Catholicism”, as Weigel likes to call it, what goes on in the assent of heart, mind, and soul, of the participants and what do they really venerate? Only our Lord knows. It is always meaningless to declare victories. It is not our place. We pray. The late Father Neuhaus, who was a close friend of Weigel, was fond of quoting T.S. Eliot, “Ours is but the trying, the rest is not our business.”
The whole Church groaned, and was astonished to find itself modernist.
Thank you, Mr. Weigel, for holding our “Catholic” (wink, wink; nudge, nudge) leadership accountable.
My amazement at the clown show they’ve instituted begins at its very title:
“National Synthesis of the People of God in the United States of America…”
Ridiculous.
I’m not a synthetic person. And neither is anyone else I know.
We are all individuals, conceived by and of and in our infinite God.
Honestly, whenever leftists open their mouths, I feel insulted.
Can they possibly believe that I’m so stupid that I would ever actually believe their inanities?
Groupthink is a powerful force in this sewer of a culture, no question.
But it’s nothing compared to the truth as Mr. Weigel observes.
Thank God that so many Catholics are holding fast to the faith, regardless of the wolves stalking the flock.
George Weigel’s come to the defense of the American Church v the absurd heterodox 1% survey report is excellent. Laudable. Although, with knowledge [of at least some of us] that the dynamics of the great Synodal survey was bound to arrive at a prejudiced outcome [most of the faithful expectedly wary, unwilling to participate], its process designed to arrive at that result, and the morally weak compliance of the USCCB to submit this ‘report’ – it’s the entire Synod on Synodality machination perpetrated by this pontificate on Catholicism that deserves rebuke.
His Eminence, Mario Cardinal Grech recipient of Weigel’s just response is responsible to a papacy that perceives the American Church, despite the continued insouciance of the USCCB, as the remaining obstacle to complete subversion of Catholicism. Grech with Archbishop Scicluna is responsible for the cowering of faithful Maltese Catholicism imposing submission to the ‘rules’ of new paradigm Catholicism.
Drift toward an all embracing Church as the response to increasing irrelevance is the evident Vatican response, its policies in Europe, China, apparently with increased effort toward the US indicative of that accommodation. A new paradigm Catholicism of acceptance as you are is perceived as a realistic approach – better to embrace all than remain isolated and irrelevant. This, a desperate response to what’s considered an intransigent traditionalism. Instead. Faith in Christ’s eternal word will prove the exclusive true response.
Weigel’s letter may still have merit if only as an inducement, a suggestion to hierarchy abroad, here, to rethink, to change their priorities. To return to faithful witness to and leadership of the faithful.
Some may posit that we have a pretend papa. Yet, who doesn’t want political correctness aka (cultural Marxism)?
However, those who revere Jesus and look to His word as an apt guide, are inclined to differ with a paternoster persuasion!
Let one and all examine the words of our Lord so that we have confidence in Him rather than our own perspective.
Isaiah 29:13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honour me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
James 1:26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
May we humble ourselves before the Lord.
How about considering what the implications would be for a pope to make a mockery of such commandments?
Apologies for not getting back to you sooner. Sometimes I lose my way on the CWR Website. 🙁
Your question might apply to all and we need to examine ourselves in light of God’s word. Perhaps, some hold to the opinion that what you hypothesize is now taking place! The “implications” appear to be no more than a catalogue of complaints against the See of Rome.
Vigano has been a staunch supporter of truth and the value of the church and now finds himself incommunicado.
Other men in high position have been set down or upon.
For all one knows, little will happen unless those of character will pray and affirm their commitment to Christ.
Psalm 1:1-6 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; …
2 Peter 3:3 Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
Isaiah 28:22 Now therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.
God bless you as you affirm Jesus Christ.
Mr. Weigel proudly notes that Catholics constitute a “core constituency of the pro-life movement.” He fails to note that we now have a record number of “Catholic” politicians who boast of their Catholic credentials and promote abortion at every turn. And we have bishops who freely give these individuals Communion and who fail to correct erroneous statements of Catholic beliefs by the likes of Pelosi & Biden.
You can always read these Weigel pieces, which directly address that topic (which was likely beyond the scope of this 650 word syndicated column):
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/11/18/what-the-bishops-really-said-at-baltimore/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/07/28/the-bishops-donatism-and-president-biden/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/01/29/president-biden-and-progressive-catholic-fantasyland/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/01/20/president-biden-and-a-catholic-inflection-point/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/09/22/catholic-beliefs-and-the-abortion-debate/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/08/17/matthew-25-catholics/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/08/03/elizabeth-warren-woke-totalitarian/
There are probably more, but that’s a start…
Carl, I love that you read the comments (on CWR articles) and make responses that thoughtfully expand and enlighten the conversation.
Thanks, Patrick!
I appreciate that also. Thank you, Mr. Olson.
As a former admirer of Weigel, having read all of his books prior to the Francis pontificate, all his pro-life essays cannot undo the damage he did in leading a Catholic movement to demonize Donald Trump in 2016, beseeching Catholic America to not vote for him, contributing to a tide of hangover sentiment that contributed to the campaign of hate weak Catholics adopted to rid America, along with corrupt polling, of the most effective pro-life head of state in history.
I wonder if Mr. Weigel has read this week about the diocese of Madison Wisconsin which at the present time has 102 parishes. Their bishop just announced that he will be closing 70 of them, leaving 32. Not enough priests, not enough parishoners, and therefore not enough money.
Just one current item that shows a little balance.
Weigel’s words are totally wasted on Cardinal Grech, an intellectual and theological lightweight if there ever was one, who simply fawns on Bergoglio and uses his tongue simply to lick his letters and his hands to stamp his dictates.