Q. I am currently reading Paul Likoudis’ excellent but shocking book Amchurch Comes Out, regarding incidents of immoral conduct among our clergy, the cover-up, and the accompanying damage that has been wrought within the Church. I recall being alarmed while involved with religious education in our then parish in the late 1980s and attending diocesan seminars for teachers and hearing such things as, “Conscience is formed by our life experiences — Church, television, movies, society. If the Church says ‘Y’ but your conscience says ‘X’ you must do ‘X’ and it is not a sin. You may be criticized by the Church. We must take possession of our conscience and follow it.”
However, my wife and I are no longer involved in teaching and are members of a parish with a pastor who is faithful to the Magisterium and traditions of the Church. In addition, we are fortunate to have an adult orthodox Catholic teaching ministry in our area, the Institute of Catholic Culture. So our perspective is positive but limited, and I wonder if our personal situation may not be typical throughout the Catholic Church in America.
Therefore, assuming you are familiar with the book and have not recently commented on it, I ask, in your opinion, where you do you think the Church stands today regarding the problems reported by Mr. Likoudis in his 2002 book? Have conditions improved over the last 12 years, are they about the same, or are they worse? — D.M., Virginia.
A. Answering a question like this properly would require much more space than this column allows. It would require a sequel to Amchurch Comes Out, which we know that Paul Likoudis hopes to write once his health improves. But perhaps we could offer a few snapshots of the situation in the Church today, compared to a dozen years ago. It’s a mixed bag, with improvement in some areas, and not so much in others. Consider some examples.
In the field of catechetics, there has been definite improvement in the materials being used, thanks to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the work of the U.S. Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism. Publishers who once put out deficient texts now are compelled to submit their books to the committee for what is known as a “conformity review” to see if the books are in line with the teachings in the Catechism. Bishops in many dioceses will not accept materials that have not been approved by the committee.
Of course, this does not mean that all catechists, whether in Catholic schools or parish religious education programs, are on the same page as the Church. There are those in the classrooms, as well as in RCIA and adult formation programs, or at diocesan seminars, who are still spreading false information. You know, things like Adam and Eve never existed, Jesus’ miracles were not really miracles, women should be ordained to the priesthood, conscience formation does not have to be in accord with the teaching of the Church, and so forth. We still have a way to go, but the landscape is much better than it was 12 years ago.
The same is true of the liturgy. In the first 10 years of writing this column, close to half of the questions dealt with liturgical abuses. That percentage is very low now because of the new translations in the Mass that took effect in Advent of 2011 and because many priests are now saying Mass according to General Instruction of the Roman Missal. The liturgical aberrations have not disappeared entirely, but the situation is much improved.
There is also an improvement in vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life. Some dioceses, usually depending on the bishop, are enjoying an increase in priestly vocations, particularly with second-career men (Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Massachusetts accepted 25 new men this year, its largest class in years). While some of the old religious orders are dying out because they abandoned their principles and practices, new orders are starting up and there is encouraging growth in those orders that retained their religious habits and their community prayer life.
While solid information about the Church is more available than ever today, thanks to such resources as EWTN, Catholic Radio, The Wanderer, the National Catholic Register, Catholic Answers, and publishers such as Ignatius Press, Our Sunday Visitor, and Emmaus Road, too many Catholics still live as if God did not exist. They don’t go to Mass, they ignore the marriage laws of the Church, and they hold views not much different from the secular culture on such issues as abortion, contraception, and homosexual activity. They are woefully ignorant of Church history and Church doctrine and woefully incapable of explaining or defending the Church’s teachings.
Even those who do faithfully attend Mass don’t always get solid food, but rather a watered-down or politically correct version of what the Church teaches. If one of the Scripture readings at Mass comes down hard on sexual immorality in general or homosexual behavior in particular — cf. Mark 7:21-22, Romans 1:26-27 (which is sometimes left out), or First Corinthians 6:9-10, the priest will often base his homily on another, less controversial, reading, or he will speak about health care, immigration, or poverty, sometimes sounding less like the Gospel and more like the Democratic Party platform.
There are many new bishops in this country who are vigorous witnesses to the Faith, but they are still overshadowed by older bishops who seem afraid to take a strong stand because of the negative publicity that will follow. That’s why there is no disciplinary action taken against those pro-abortion and pro-”gay marriage” politicians who brazenly march up to Communion after having publicly rejected the Church’s teaching on these matters. Appearing at public meetings with, or giving honorary degrees to, persons who are trying to marginalize Catholics by restricting their speech to within the four walls of a church building is a scandal.
The situation was exacerbated recently when Timothy Cardinal Dolan of New York disappointed Catholics by agreeing to be the Grand Marshall at the 2015 St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which for the first time in history will feature a homosexual group marching under its own banner. When asked about this, Cardinal Dolan said, “I have no trouble with the decision at all …. I think the decision is a wise one.” He said that “neither my predecessors as archbishops of New York nor I have ever determined who would or would not march in this parade.” Technically, that might be true, but in 1993, when homosexual groups demanded to be included in the parade, Dolan’s predecessor, John Cardinal O’Connor, said that he “could never even be perceived as compromising Catholic teaching. Neither respectability nor political correctness is worth one comma in the Apostles’ Creed.”
When Missouri football player Michael Sam announced that he was “gay” earlier this year, Cardinal Dolan said, “Good for him. I would have no sense of judgment on him. God bless ya. The same Bible that . . . teaches us well about the virtue of chastity and the virtue of fidelity in marriage also tells us not to judge people. So I would say, ‘Bravo.’ ” But what about judging immoral behavior by admonishing the sinner? Isn’t that a spiritual work of mercy?
In October 2012, Cardinal Dolan also defended his decision to invite and sit next to President Obama (and Governor Mitt Romney) at the Al Smith Dinner in New York. He apologized if the invitation had given scandal, saying that “it’s a case of prudential judgment. Would I give more scandal by inviting the two candidates, or by not inviting them.” Catholics seeing pictures of the cardinal and the president chatting amiably might wonder why they should be so concerned about Obama’s anti-life and anti-Catholic policies, just as they will wonder when they see pictures of the homosexual group marching by Cardinal Dolan on the reviewing stand on St. Patrick’s Day. And don’t think that won’t be a photo op.
In a blog posted on the website of the Archdiocese of Washington, Msgr. Charles Pope wrote: “It’s time to cancel the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Al Smith Dinner and all the other ‘Catholic’ traditions that have been hijacked by the world. Better for Catholics to enter their churches and get down on their knees on St. Patrick’s Day to pray in reparation for the foolishness, and to pray for this confused world to return to its senses. Let’s do adoration and pray the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet unceasingly for this poor old world.” The archdiocese took the posting down within hours without comment.
So in brief that’s what we call a mixed bag, and we surely have left out some things that would provide plenty of material for a sequel to Amchurch Comes Out. Bottom line though: It’s still the Church of Jesus, and He will keep His promise to be with us all days even if some of those days involve the harassment and persecution here that our brothers and sisters are suffering in other parts of the world.
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