By REY FLORES
A Wanderer reader recently contacted me about his concerns regarding the way the Church in America has become more political than spiritual in the last few decades. He certainly isn’t the first, nor will he be the last, reader who has these same concerns and preoccupations.
In my opinion, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation if we all kept our eyes and our hearts on the eternal reward. We are taught that while we are in this world, we are not of this world. Our Kingdom is up in Heaven with God, but, nevertheless, we are born into the world to serve our Lord and to bring as many other souls into the Kingdom of Heaven with us.
Whenever people argue about the often misunderstood concept “separation of church and state,” they often come at it from a secular political perspective. My perspective is that an element in the “modern” Church has actually become more of a political entity than a moral one. The modernist Church leaders are the ones who misguidedly have chosen to embrace secularism for a host of terrible reasons.
In my research, I found a 2017 article from CruxNow.com titled, “Growth of U.S. Hispanic Population a Blessing for Church, Says Speaker.” The piece was about a speech given by Hosffman Ospino, an assistant professor of theology and religious education at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry.
Ospino’s presentation heralded the changing face of the Church in America. This is true — the faces in the pews of some the churches continually change, but this is not what Ospino was saying. “We become the church we serve, that’s why the U.S. church has become a Hispanic church.” What is that supposed to mean?
Ospino is quoted at the end of the article again with this remark: “We have to change the concept from a church that serves Hispanics to a church that is Hispanic, because Hispanics ‘are’ the church.”
I take extreme exception to this professor’s divisive declarations that mirror the polarization of our modern secular society. How dare he define the Holy Roman Catholic Church in terms of race or ethnicity?
The Church has no race, ethnicity, or any other worldly identity. One would think that a professor of theology would know that the word “Catholic” means universal.
Should we ignore the cultural, ethnic, and human differences of the members of the body of the Church? Absolutely not. But although these physical differences and characteristics may apply to secular social dynamics and geopolitics, they certainly do not apply to the universality of our Catholicism.
We are taught first and foremost that we are made in the image and likeness of God, meaning we are spiritual beings. Differences in our souls occur according to whether we choose to do good or evil in our earthly state — but these differences have nothing to do with ethnicity, race, or gender.
Why would we segregate ourselves in terms of earthly social constructs? This is the classic “tail wagging the dog” scenario where instead of our lives being focused on and led by Christ, His Church, and His teachings, we are allowing the Godless heathens of this world to dictate what we should be doing with our Church, our lives, our resources and how we should follow their iniquitous agendas.
It’s no secret that the growing number of Hispanic immigrants entering the country, legally or not, tend to be Catholics — or at least some garden variety of Christian. There’s nothing wrong with the Church reaching out to any and all people who are seeking God, providing them with their spiritual needs first and foremost, and then addressing any charitable human needs, provided they do not violate Church teaching.
It does not bode well, however, when many of the parishes in the growing number of Hispanic enclaves are mostly led by activist social justice warrior priests who have more in common with Che Guevara than with Jesus Christ. It also does not bode well at all when many of the Hispanic Catholic newspapers tout the importance of global climate change activism and illegal immigration over moral virtue and eternal salvation.
One of the worst publications is El Pregonero of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. The name in Spanish means “the crier.” While searching for anything “pro-life” on its website, I found nothing. Instead, readers are regaled with stories about flamenco performances and even a Japanese ska music orchestra. This is beyond fake news, this is simply embarrassing and irrelevant.
In our country, there are many people of all stripes who identify as Catholic — some are born here, and others are immigrants. Many of these same folks are often ignorant of, or deliberately malformed in, the teachings of the Church. This leaves them completely vulnerable and wide open to the people who exploit that ignorance.
Isn’t it the job of our shepherds to stop this insidious and diabolical balkanization of our Church? The Body of Christ is one, not many.
+ + +
(Rey Flores writes opinion and book and movie reviews for The Wanderer. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress