In the course of an insightful essay on Vladimir Putin’s challenge to civilization, Italian historian Roberto de Mattei, observed that, amidst the general decline of the West, “the Church…. appears as a wasteland.” That certainly seems to be the case with institutional Catholicism in Germany and Belgium, where bishops violate the profession of faith they made before their episcopal ordination by declaring that the Church has been teaching falsely on certain moral matters, and by suggesting that settled doctrinal questions are not settled.
And it’s not hard to see how Rome-based Dr. de Mattei could feel as if he were living in an ecclesiastical desert: the priest in charge of catechesis in the Diocese of Rome, Father Andrea Camillini, recently said “It’s time to give up the delusion of omnipotence, of evangelizing Rome, and abandon the idea of making Rome into a Christian city. It’s no longer our objective and it never was.”
But what about the Church in these United States? To be sure, ours is a chiaroscuro landscape, with both shadows and light. But a wasteland? I think not.
Consider the following.
Seminaries. In the main, U.S. seminaries today are in better shape than they’ve ever been. The seminary reforms mandated by John Paul II in the 1987 apostolic exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobishave taken hold, and while there is still hard work left to be done — not least in inculcating the art of preaching — seminary rectors and formators in many North Atlantic countries marvel at what they see here and hope to imitate it.
Catholic Colleges and Universities. Some of these are, indeed, Catholic wastelands. In others, there is a continual battle over sustaining a vibrant Catholic identity that prepares young men and women for missionary discipleship. Still others, however, are set firmly on the path of fostering intellectual rigor in an environment that supports ongoing and ever-deeper conversion to Christ. To name but a few, in alphabetical order: Thomas Aquinas College, Belmont Abbey College, Benedictine College, the Catholic University of America, Christendom College, the University of Dallas, the Franciscan University of Steubenville, the University of Mary.
Catholic Campus Ministry. We are in a Golden Age of Catholic campus ministry, evident in what some might regard as surprising places like Texas A&M University and North Dakota State University. The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), a direct outgrowth of World Youth Day-1993 in Denver, now sends 980 young missionaries, recent college graduates, to 202 campuses in six countries for peer-to-peer evangelization and catechesis. A high percentage of 21st-century vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life are nurtured by participation in on-campus FOCUS programs, and the number of fine Catholic marriages and families that FOCUS and other excellent Catholic campus ministries have nurtured is incalculable. The Thomistic Institute, run from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, brings high-octane Catholic content to campuses from sea to shining sea, challenging wokery with truth.
Adult Catechesis and Formation. Here, too, the Church in the United States is a global leader. The Word on Fire ministry created by Bishop Robert Barron goes from strength to strength and has now developed a first-class publishing program to extend the work done by Ignatius Press and other premier Catholic publishers. The FORMED program of the Augustine Institute makes quality evangelization and catechetical materials available to parishes that take adult formation seriously. The Catholic Information Center in downtown Washington, D.C., is the heart of the New Evangelization in the nation’s capital. Then there is the work of intellectual and spiritual formation done by Legatus, the association of Catholic CEOs and professionals, and the Napa Institute.
The Reform of Consecrated Life. Vibrantly and joyfully orthodox American religious communities of women are growing: the Nashville Dominicans, the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist, the Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, and the Sisters of Life are but four examples. The Dominican Province of St. Joseph is arguably the most dynamic religious congregation of men in the world.
Parishes and Schools. These have been the pastoral bedrock of U.S. Catholicism for over two centuries. They still are, and they have a vitality unmatched elsewhere. Moreover, our inner-city Catholic schools are likely the most effective anti-poverty program in the country.
Lent is an annual invitation to reflect on how well the Church today is living the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. Thus, a suggestion for a different kind of Lenten fast: give up Catholic bad news-mongering. The Holy Spirit is animating good things among us. They should be celebrated and supported.
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Agreed, the USA is replete with works of God. Could add several more, but won’t. Why draw more attention in this environment of petty persecution? How many of these feel free to say the truth about the heteropraxy of this pontificate? None are embraced by the Jesuits of Georgetown, et al. Even some Cardinals, like Demos I &II believe that it is more prudent to hide their name in this environment.
Such works of God grow slowly (miracles excepted). Hence, all were founded before this pontificate. New forests of faith are threatened by the world-wide wildfire of heteropraxy begun in the Vatican. Like children in the womb, we must do more than name them. It’s time to protect the children of God from wolves in sheep’s clothing. There is no St. Pollyanna.
I was geared up to respond to Pollyanna George’s infatuation with the appearance of numbers, but you stole my thunder.
It’s great to hear that distinguished fellow George Weigel sounding so upbeat 😊!
While Church life and mission may be in decline in the West (not due to Vatican II but due to the historical-cultural phenomenon called secularization!), on the contrary it is actually growing in the Rest. For example, consider the top three countries with the biggest Catholic population: Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines. The U.S. comes as the fourth only. Just look at from where priests are imported by U.S. bishops to help staff parishes. In the early or late second half of this century, we can look forward to the 22nd Ecumenical Council not as Vatican III but as Manila I or Mexico City I or Rio I.
I’ll take Manila I.
🙂
But Vatican II wanted to become better acquainted with secularism instead of fighting it.
I agree with your main point, but must respectfully disagree with what you said about Vatican II. Secularization is but one of the facets of modernism, which also infected Vatican II. If that Council had only come out strongly emphasizing Catholic doctrine and issued anathemas against modernism, the Church would be in much better shape today. When the Church needed to be a bulwark against modernism and its associated secularization, it buckled and adopted it. I remember it well as I lived through it. People simply stopped going to Mass because they thought the Church was giving up (especially on them), relaxing all the rules, and changing the Mass. When things that had been held sacrosanct for centuries were just suddenly thrown out, I don’t think you can only blame secularization for the result. The way Vatican II was implemented showed its complicity with modernism.
And its willingness to turn a blind eye or tolerate theologians who aided and abetted the mass murder of abortion made the entire Church complicit. Many left for that reason alone. And a convert like me hesitated before entering.
Currently, we are back to appeasing the culture of death, and few are willing to condemn the sophistry from high places. How will we explain this at our final accounting?
Excellent points, Mr. Weigel. Thank you for reminding us that there is hope.
Bergoglio is not the head of the Church, after all. Jesus is. (Remember Him?).
Thank you George. Truly there is much new growth in the burnt out forest. Praise be to god! I might add that the Catholic Extension Society is also adding to this new growth.
Yes, there is good news from the USA. Comparatively speaking to Roma. And most of Europe. Although not close to Nigeria and most of Africa. If I may add rather than object to this article, African bishops are taking the orthodox doctrinal lead, which we should hope America will join.
Insofar as Putin and Russia, whether we like it or not, the imperialist dreaming Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church are now a vanguard for traditional Christian morality [despite of, although not absolving Putin’s misdeeds] while a disaster for world fraternity and peace. Power and influence centers are changing. If Russia were to reassess its foreign policy and convert to a viable Christianity even Rome may recover.
In comments today, we can foresee likely pushback to this positive profile, e.g., even a blind squirrel can find a few acorns…
But, unmentioned in this upbeat article is the existence (at least) of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (English version, 1994). Yours truly remembers from throughout the turbulent 1980s, the near impossibility of teaching Confirmation when this Catechism did not yet exist, and when the mentioned Ignatius Press was not yet well under way (1978—). And, in a bellwether archdiocese where most of the current ambiguities-and-worse were already extending their tentacles out from the swamp.
The model for today might be St. Francis de Sales (a quite different Francis) who succeeded even in Geneva because of both his pastoral and engaging focus AND the fact that he also clarified (!) ambiguous stuff with the Church’s new Catechism of Trent well in hand.
Both, rather than a signaling and rhetorical wedge between the façade magisterium and what is portrayed as pastoral including the lone Cardinal Fernandez’s capstone Fidudia Supplicans.
This is an interesting piece. Mr. Weigel once referred to Notre Dame as the ‘flagship of American Catholic Universities’. I notice here that he no longer thinks of her that way, which is sad, but not surprising.
We will get through this.
The are truly so much to be thankful for in this Christ’s Catholic Church.
Truly alas, we have no St. Pollyanna. With such hope, optimism, and a couple of miracles, Mr. Weigel could become like her be-sainted brother.
The essay claims the RCC in the US is not a wasteland. But without solid evidence, stats or facts, credence is hard pressed to agree. Terence notes that UND was once upon a time, but no longer, posited as the flagship of American Catholic Universities. Maybe the good news in this essay too shall pass.
Inner-city Catholic schools are “likely the most effective anti-poverty program in the country.” Some religious communities are ‘vibrant and joyfully orthodox,’ and adult catechetics have gone from ‘strength to strength,’ etc. By what yardstick and from what baseline have those conditions been measured?
St. Paul said that suffering leads to perseverance, perseverance to character, and character to hope. I spy a wasteland. I trust more in earthly suffering than in the earthly Catholic Church-in-the-U.S.-Triumphant. Call me melancholy.
I find it interesting that EWTN is not on Weigel’s list of why the Catholic Church is not a wasteland in the USA. Almost everyone and everything else he lists including Weigel himself only became known to any kind of broad audience here or abroad is thanks to the exposure EWTN gave them. And EWTN’s resources are not only extensive, but as Christ instructed the disciples He sent out to spread The Faith – do not charge $$ for The Word. While FORMED, for example, takes in approx. $10,000,000 from parishes alone charging them approx. $2,000 each. EWTN runs strictly on donations.
A very timely encouragement that the faith is still strong in the country, maybe even getting stronger, at least compared with the iconoclasm of the post-conciliar period. I can’t help but contrast this article and my experience with Cardinal Pierre’s comments that made it sound like the Church in the US was a hollowed out husk clinging to dusty manuals from the 50s.
You mean Vladimir Putin’s DEFENSE of civilization.
Exactly so. Putin is challenging the corruption & totalitarianism of Biden, Zelenskyy, the satanic WEF, the pagan EU, and an expansionist NATO.
And how wouuld Putin challenge the corruption and totalitarianism and moral rot of Putin?
The good news is that Weigel is a niche journalist with no authority and little influence. He’s in the peanut gallery along with the rest of us, though he sometimes shows signs of thinking that writing a pope’s biography gives him authority comparable to that of a pope.
To be fair, though, the peanut gallery is full of people who overestimate their importance. That’s the fallen human condition, and even people with real accomplishments, like surgeons, or real authority, like popes, think more of themselves than they should.
Still, it’s good to know that John McCain was never allowed in a position from which he could start WW3, and Weigel has never been in a position from which he could do more than write an opinion.
Now you know one of the reasons why I do not subscribe.
I agree with George Weigel’s assessment of the Church in the US. There are shadow areas, but there are also bright spots. The Northeast, from a parishional standpoint, is not so great, with parishes closing, and with the ones that have remained open losingSunday and Holy Day Mass attendance, especially after COVID. However, even here, there are bright spots. Those parishes that either have a traditional Latin Mass, and/or have pious Novus Ordo Masses do much better with attracting Mass attendance, especially with young people. South of the Mason-Dixon Line, this is much more evident. Once considered “mission territory” for the Catholic Church, both traditional and Novus Ordo parishes see Sunday congregations packed. Why is that? I think it lies with different approaches. Many parishes are very traditional, even Novus Ordo ones. Others adopt a preaching style and music ministry much more like evangelical churches have. But all of them show great reverence for the Eucharist and are not afraid to preach solidly orthodox Catholic doctrine.
Sorry to say that most of the aspects he invokes to encourage us are left overs from the past two pontificates and not on the Vatican’s priority list. Further, it’s disappointing that he didn’t mention the rising and resilient TLM community. Disappointing but not surprising for Mr. W.
“Vladimir Putin’s challenge to civilization”
This is frankly silly. Zelensky cancelled elections, and banned elements of the Orthodox Church the Chinese are monitoring us with everything from balloons to cheap Android set boxes and its not Putin who is submissive to militant homosexuals.
I have no doubt that Putin is an amoral product of the KGB; but Joe Biden is evil, treasonous and mentally deranged. Trudeau, Sunak and Macron share all of those attributes save the senility.
I enjoyed George Weigel’s overview of ‘the good news’ found in USA Catholicism, Inc., and certainly didn’t expect him to give a comprehensive view of things. However, with monastics a bit underrepresented, perhaps he’d like to get to know the Common Observance Cistercians in Irving, TX @ http://www.cistercian.org and enjoy a view of our abbey’s vitality and our school’s Catholic monastic excellence. Readers, too, of course, are welcome.