The US Bishop’s campaign for religious freedom, and the Vatican’s pending reform of the LCWR, have been met with skepticism by much of the mainstream media, and by a good chunk of the Catholic population as well. Why? Would we hear this same outcry against another religious group, however weird and wacky, that sought to assert its beliefs and practices?
We could guess at any number of nefarious reasons for all this alarm at Catholics acting Catholic, but I propose one common thread: No one thinks Catholics really believe this stuff.
(For the record: Yes, we do.)
The American church has spent I’m not sure how many decades wallowing in a lukewarm faith — my entire life, at the very least. Do an exit poll after Mass this Sunday: How many parishioners really believe all that the Church holds to be true? In many quarters, the simple act of asserting that the Church holds some things to be true incites an outcry of protest about rights of conscience, and personal discernment, and accusations of judging other souls*.
And we’re still wallowing.
On one hand I get it: Patience. Pastoral Care. I appreciate all that. I’m certainly glad the CDF inquires thoroughly and charitably before taking action.
But what’s the reality we’re living with, here in the US and elsewhere? Do I have any confidence that my local Catholic hospital (where, incidentally, I first learned NFP) will stick to Catholic teaching in its medical care? No I don’t. I have no idea. I could ask around and get the lowdown, but until I check, I don’t know. Are my local Catholic schools really Catholic? I think they might be, because I’ve known a few good folks associated with them . . . but I don’t know. I don’t know. The brand name is no guarantee. You have to check every institution one by one. Some are excellent. Some are positively shining beacons of the Faith. But you really can’t know until you check for yourself.
My new pastor? Great guy. Fabulously Catholic sermons, right to the point — every reason to believe he’s spot-on in his faithfulness to Church teachings. (And a decent person besides. Wish he had more free time to hang around and have a beer or something.) But there was a tense time wondering — now who have we got? The fact that someone is an ordained priest, or professed religious sister or brother, or DRE, or catechist . . . is no guarantee they actually believe and teach what the Church believes and teaches. You have watch and see.
I don’t mean, here, that you have to watch and see in the normal sense of prudence and discernment about the weaknesses and failings of all men. We all sin. We all struggle with our faith. We all grow in our understanding and practice of our faith over time. What I mean is something more insidious: The Catholic faith as taught in, say, the Catechism, is not something everyone in the Church assumes is the standard.
And those who take the Catechism-optional approach are, in a sense, correct to do so. They are only guilty of believing what the Church practices. The practice of Catholic institutions not following Church teaching is so widespread that those religious orders who do stick with the magisterium make sure they mention the fact in their advertisements for vocations. It is so rare for a homily to explain Catholic teaching on contraception that if it should happen, Catholic bloggers talk about it for days.
This isn’t about pant suits or folk guitars**. The investigation into the LCWR isn’t about legitimate theological or practical disagreements on the innumerable topics about which Catholics are free to disagree. It isn’t about emphasis of ministry — there are topics that might never come up at the food bank, but that matter very much at the hospital, and vice versa. No one expects the ladies sorting boxes of pasta to explain to you the details of licit and illicit fertility treatments. (Also: Don’t necessarily ask your doctor to cook for you.)
This about the fact that a lot of Americans, including a lot of American Catholics, think the bishops are making this stuff up. That noise about birth control and sterilization? Well, that’s not really Catholic teaching, it’s just this optional extra, like saying the Rosary or wearing a hair shirt, that we can do if we feel called, but we don’t really have to, right? This business of Jesus and the Church being the only way, and myriad new age practices being in fact demonic? Oh come on. Yes, Catholicism is a Jesus-Brand spiritual path, but don’t we each have to find our own path? And anyway, who believes in Satan? So 12th Century.
That’s the faith Americans have been practicing. That’s what people really think the Church teaches. The average American has a better idea of what the Amish or the Muslims believe and practice than what comprises the Catholic faith. That is, at the very least they’d be willing to consider the possibility that the Amish have religious objections to birth control, or that Muslims think their faith is in fact the one true faith. Catholics? That birth control and catechism-stuff is just one extremist current in our multi-faceted approach to the spiritual life, right?
I read too much history to worry much. Heresy happens. Jesus wins. We each try to be faithful and do our best. It’s all pretty simple, other than the details. But for goodness sakes, let’s quit acting shocked at the outcry when we suddenly care about this stuff so publicly after so many years of stealth witness.
***
Also while we’re at it: Politicians are creepy. Professional hazard. Quit acting like you think one side or the other is going to suddenly get all Catholic on you, just because of what they said at that speech. There’s a reason we’re told to be wise as serpents, eh?
*The Church does not judge souls. FYI.
**Full disclosure: I like pants suits. And folk guitar. Also long skirts and Gregorian chant. I like everybody.
