The Holy Father’s Misperceptions – “Last year I wrote a piece that respectfully argued that the Holy Father does not understand the Church in the United States. I wish I could say I was wrong, but the piece has held up.” The Vatican Does Not Understand the Church in the United States (First Things)
South America’s Synod – “In an interview last week, Cardinal Christophe Pierre emphasized a focus in the Church on ‘synodality’ — and focused on a 2007 meeting of South and Latin America’s bishops in the city of Aparecida, Brazil.” By the numbers: Did Aparecida ‘work’? (The Pillar)
Increasing Polarization – On November 7, 2023, The Catholic Project released further insights from the National Study of Catholic Priests. This study involved a census of bishops; a survey of 10,000 priests (3516 responses); and in-depth interviews of over 100 priests. Polarization, Generational Dynamics, & the Ongoing Impact of the Abuse Crisis (Catholic Project)
Connecting Medicine with Faith – Stephen Doran, M.D., is a board-certified neurosurgeon with over 25 years of experience. He is also the author of “To Die Well: A Catholic Neurosurgeon’s Guide to the End of Life,” published this month by Ignatius Press. Could Learning to ‘die well’ defeat the assisted suicide trend?’ (Our Sunday Visitor News)
Chinese Communist Party – “Regardless of what happens nationally, sub-nationally, you have a partner in the state of California…” Gov. Newsom Says California Will Defy Fed Gov to Ally With China (Front Page Magazine)
Being Watchmen – “And Jesus was hardly sugary sweet when he warned his disciples that ‘the world will hate you as it hated me.'” Cardinal Dolan: In Defense of Culture Warriors (America Magazine)
Declining Church Membership – “A record number of Catholics formally disaffiliated from the Church in Switzerland in 2022, according to new figures published this week.” Switzerland sets new annual church ‘exit’ record (The Pillar)
The Coddling Culture – “The same generation offended by comedians has released statements supporting an organization calling for the complete annihilation of Israel.” Why Does Gen Z Protest Everything But Terrorism? (The Federalist)
Identity and Belonging – “Our identity is fractal, hierarchical, subsidiary. Proper responsible participation in all its levels provides life with purpose, meaning, security, hope, and adventure.” Identity: Individual and the State versus the Subsidiary Hierarchy of Heaven (ARC Research)
A Humble Thanks – “At 40, you feel like you can conquer the world and there’s a sense that nothing can stop you. But at 60 you realize the very real fragility of life and temporariness of it all.” (@RobSchneider)
The Diary Entries – “The transgender-identifying killer who murdered six people at a Christian school in Nashville was consumed by leftist racial hatred targeting whites as ‘privileged’ . . . ” Nashville Shooter Decried ‘Crackers’ And ‘White Privilege,’ Leaked Manifesto Pages Reveal (Daily Wire)
Personal Engagement Evangelization – “Bishop Monforton, who on Sept. 28 was named the 32nd auxiliary bishop of his hometown Archdiocese of Detroit and will inaugurate his new ministry on Nov. 7 . . . has a passionate heart for evangelization . . . ” Faith, reason and road trips: How Bishop Monforton sees his mission to evangelize (Detroit Catholic)
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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@ Identity and Belonging
Four meditations on fractals…
Isaac Asimov, the science fiction writer, understood best the wisdom of fractals as microcosms of the real: “I believe that scientific knowledge has fractal properties; that no matter how much we learn, whatever is left, however small it may seem, is just as infinitely complex as the whole was to start with. That, I think, is the secret of the Universe” (Attributed to Isaac Asimov in book reviews by Stratford Caldicott, ed., Second Spring, XIII, Merimack, N.N.: Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, 2011).
And Pope Benedict: as members of the Church and like the incarnate Lord—“I must be personally present in my gift” (Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas est, 2007, nn. 28, 29 31a and b, 34).
And, scripturally: more than linear, the Christian narrative is also analogous to a fractal universe where the one and the many each point to the other: “For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:17).
And, in response to any only immanentist Holy Spirit, might we even say that the historical Incarnation is totally present in each numerically-distinct Mass as a continuation and extension (!) of the singular event (!) on Calvary—and totally present in each consecrated host across history until the end of “the world” (CCC 1374)? A Church which IS Eucharistic by its nature and identity, even before synodal/pseudo-synodal in whatever it DOES or in its “style.”
@ Increasing Polarization
The Catholic Project Graph shows a static level 1960 of far larger progressive candidates until a decline in progressives 1985. Decline remains static 2010-19 until a progressive decline continues 2020.
Static periods indicate stability due to offsetting progressive orthodox assessment. A continuance of progressive decline 2020 -23 indicates a final evaluation in disfavor of progressivism.
A possible interpretation [statistics are always subject to variables] in respect to pontificates shows John Paul II influence beginning to have effect 1985. Decline remains static during the remaining years of the Benedict XVI pontificate into that of Francis I. Another period of potential evaluation of pontifical messaging. Decline commences 2020 indicating a rejection of pontifical messaging.
If the statistics were read hypothetically, as an indication of the popularity of pontifical doctrinal messaging it reveals an upswing during the previous two pontificates and an eventual downturn during the present pontificate. However we interpret the study it remains that there’s been a steady trend toward seminarian orthodoxy. Our problem is that we have so few candidates compared to previous years. The old saying goes, quality is better than quantity. Unfortunately, that quality is extremely limited. Perhaps the realization of Benedict’s prophetic small faithful Church.
Finally, if as the surveyor says the majority of more conservative young priests perceive Francis I as progressive, and more liberal than his predecessors, and anomalously allude to Francis as having a favorable impression on their decision to be priests, that anomaly of favorability has to be considered contextually.
QUESTION: Also having read the report, I’m wondering if the results and the 36% response mask another factor not teased out of the data…
Does the conservative/orthodox trendline also reflect the greater success of such bishops in attracting seminarians? While business-as-usual administration involves a relative inability of compromised bishops to attract seminarians? Example, adjusting for the total numbers of parishioners, how many seminarians are there for the diocese of Tyler, Texas, compared to Chicago?
OBSERVATION: From the internet, Tyler has 19 seminarians drawn from 120,000 parishioners; while Chicago has 62 seminarians drawn from 2,200,000 parishioners. By this simplistic analysis, with the same seminarian/parishioner ratio as Tyler, Chicago should be training 342 seminarians. Or, Tyler, with the same seminarian/parishioner ratio as Chicago, should be training only one (1). Other factors intervene, but we still can suspect that orthodox bishops disproportionately attract convinced seminarians, and that their recruited numbers as a group reinforce the results of the survey.
TRUTH and CONSEQUENCES: And, hence, why must such faithful dioceses be dismissed as “backwardist,” and not quite in step with the “forwardist” synodal illuminati (e.g., Cupich, Gregory, McElroy, Tobin, and hood ornament Fr. James Martin)?
On the other hand (!), however, we should also note in the report the sidebar comment that seminarians felt they were not at all prepared well in the seminary. There are admitted cases, probably legion, that in the 1970s (and beyond?), the actual Documents of Vatican II were never even on the reading list…Lacking precise memory of these starting blocks, how to now prepare priests to remain well-grounded in the Magisterium while also being dunked in the complicated ideologies and politics of the day?
…Including the internal disinterred/zombie “hot-button concerns,” maybe rolled along by the thirty synodal roundtables? Hmmm…White linen and thirty groups of silver place settings?
Your response indicates more pertinent data may be drawn from the initial Catholic Project Graph. With your analysis expertise a research article for CWR is a suggestion.
First Things Oct. edition has a book review of UND’s Provost and professor of history John McGreevey. The ‘narrative hinge’ and perhaps inordinate focus of “Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis” is of course VCII…
The book apparently traces the development of the traditional-progressive intra-church divide throughout the past 200 years, and does so in detail only 528 pages could in justice give.
Published by Norton.
McGreevey’s book sounds interesting.
@ Declining Church Membership
Why would I read the Pillar report anticipating its contents, and with no real expectation of reference to cause or remedy? Perhaps hope of some unforeseen insight. That the St Gallen Group conspirators practiced their witchery there may be a reason. Evil is contagious. Didn’t the Vatican engage in some similar contrivance with their bizarre Amazonian garden ceremony?
Now we can’t blame it all on these events. The trend toward apostasy began much earlier. The two events are symptomatic of the progressive inculturation of evil. Evil that’s taken global preeminence in civil law as well as theology. A form of ancient Zarathustrian mergence of good with evil.
Theologically, Amoris Laetitia the groundwork. We’ve intellectually removed the permanence of features [ conscience v natural law, interior sentiment v manifest behavior, existential realities that are presumed to limit moral judgment] that define intrinsic evil and in instances convert evil to a good. A relatively lengthy process that now requires immediate, radical correction.