31 May 2013

Perilous Sensibilities

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[Theological modernism] was little more than the result of a rather puerile desire of Christians, especially clergymen and theologians, to avoid being counter-cultural, to retain the same status and “relevance” in a secular age as had been accorded them in a Catholic age. Therefore, by the mid-20th century, Modernism had become the quasi-spiritual and theological doorway through which a profound secularization entered into the Church, as Catholics at every level embraced the opportunity to reinterpret their faith and values in ways which made them more compatible with the larger surrounding culture—a culture which was no longer shaped in any significant way by the Faith.
 
The result was a rapid shift in Catholic sensibilities, beginning with a rejection of authority in favor of the zeitgeist (spirit of the times or cultural spirit). Where in 1930 parishioners would likely have been shocked if their priest undermined or contradicted a clear statement of the Holy See, in 1980 parishioners could very easily be moved to applaud the courage and vision such a contradiction seemed to them to embody. This broad infection of secularization in the Church led to countless abuses in preaching, in the liturgy, in catechetics, in theology classes, and even in social action and politics. In fact, as both the attitude of relativism and the power of the State grew during the same period, Catholics began to see things more and more in merely political terms. Every disagreement was understood to be essentially a partisan struggle.

In some universities and religious communities, these attitudes continue unabated even now that dioceses and parishes have begun to heal. Efforts by the Holy See to correct the wayward are a perfect example. The Holy See inevitably speaks in terms of the objective and absolute truths Divinely revealed through Jesus Christ, and the Holy See is inevitably dismissed as a bunch of old, celibate, white European males making a power grab for a party whose relevance has long since vanished from the world stage.

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5 comments:

  1. I think the author of this article stole his thesis from Timothy Radcliffe's "What's the point of being Christian?" Only Radcliffe called them Kingdom Catholics and Communion Catholics.

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    1. Maybe. But I doubt Friar Timothy agrees with his diagnosis!

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  2. Father, thanks for linking to this for us. Being both annoyingly introspective and one who prefers to observe rather than interact with people, I had noticed these tendencies both in myself and those around me, but couldn't put words to what I was seeing.

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  3. Where in 1930 parishioners would likely have been shocked if their priest undermined or contradicted a clear statement of the Holy See, in 1980 parishioners could very easily be moved to applaud the courage and vision such a contradiction seemed to them to embody.

    Too many of us now don't even recognize a heterodox statement when we hear one.

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    1. Exactly. Once the standards for orthodoxy have been undermined, deviations from orthodoxy are impossible to recognize.

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