The National Catholic Register Has Gone Woke?

The online Catholic publication The National Catholic Register has now gone WOKE.

The same folks who have given us recent articles such as

• How a Parish Play About Carlo Acutis Inspired Love for the Eucharist
• Beauty and Order: New England Catholic School Uses Classical Architecture to Form Students
• Cardinals Burke and Sarah Back Global Push for First Saturday Devotion at 100 Years

In a homily at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Wisconsin on the first Saturday of June this year, Cardinal Burke underscored the importance of the devotion, saying that Our Lady’s “insistence on the devotion of the First Saturdays is a wonderful expression of her unfailing maternal love.

Despite these Catholic sounding articles the NCR has gone WOKE.

Or has it?

Judging from commentators on social media, Catholics (namely American Catholics) are very divided  in matters of expression of faith and culture. It seems after scrolling through facebook, Twitter now X and Bluesky that politics shapes many Catholic’s faith as opposed to their faith shaping their politics. If a tribe hates or supports a particular political position the whole tribe does also. If a certain unmentionable person is talked about in anyway but trashing them, then the source that mentioned that person is seen as suspect and in this case has probably gone Woke.

Being woke is good in some Catholic circles, The Case for Woke Catholicism – Where Peter Is, and bad in others The Sadness of the Woke| National Catholic Register. The point of this essay is not to explore this issue, but only to point out that in conservative circles to say something has gone woke is an insult. That’s important to the overall point I will be making.

If you want a really good analysis of woke movement, Fr. Casey Cole gives a good breakdown.

So is the NCR now Woke?  Some commentators went on the Facebook page of the National Catholic Register after publishing an article about a certain celebrity that was not conservative and Catholic enough for some of their readers to voice their opinions on the matter. Some of the reactions to this article were…

• The Register has gone woke.
•  I just removed myself from this site, this nasty attitude man has nothing to do with Catholicism.
• “Register” this should be a Reporter article
• The Register has lost its way even implying that this man should be recognized as a symbol of our Catholic Faith.
• He is a woke hater. Hates & has no respect for our President & uses his fame to spread his hate. He hurt many Republican fans.

The author of the piece in question was Father Raymond J. de Souza who has penned such articles as

• Sacred Voices: Vatican Choir Marks Palestrina’s 500th in New York
• A Castel Gandolfo Encounter With St. John Paul II
• The 7 Last Words and the Nicene Creed: ‘It Is Finished’

Jesus lies in the tomb. We know now that something mysterious and marvelous was at work. The Shroud of Turin, venerated as the burial garment of Jesus, is being miraculously imprinted. Even today, with the most advanced scientific techniques, we cannot explain that image. Work was being done in the tomb.

With this latest article people responded with…

• I’ve lost all respect for Fr. Souza
• I  don’t understand what happened to him. He was terrific at explaining and defending the Faith. But not lately.

You may be wondering at this point, when is he going to get to the point, and tell us what this Woke piece of writing is.

Well it is this…

An article about Bruce Springsteen

Springsteen Wouldn’t Be Springsteen Without the Catholic Faith

This album was released on August 25, 1975, my wifes 1st birthday.

In the article despite the accusations Fr. Souza isn’t declaring the Boss a saint. He is not saying he is a model Catholic or even a practicing Catholic. He is simply saying that he is a cultural icon that was shaped by His upbringing in the Catholic faith and that influence has stuck with him regardless of his rejection of it.

“Once you’re Catholic, there is no getting out,” the Irish-Italian (his father the former, his mother the latter) has often said. Perhaps Springsteen would prefer to get out, but if he did, he would not know how to look at the world.

His songs are filled with references to “sinners” and the images of Catholic redemption. He sings of the “lonely pilgrim” (Brilliant Disguise) who “believe[s] in a promised land” (The Promised Land).

Fr. Souza goes on to say…

Any account of Catholicism’s cultural impact must take account of the large majority of baptized Catholics who are not observant, and yet are shaped somehow by the Catholic faith. That majority, after all, is the primary field in which the seeds of the new evangelization are to be sown.

Notice again what he said.

Any account of Catholicism’s cultural impact must take account of the large majority of baptized Catholics who are not observant, and yet are shaped somehow by the Catholic faith.

A reader asks “Is there not more relevant Catholic content and catechesis to share to guide the faithful in Truth?” and another “Just stop and actually report on something that’s of note.”

A young adult addresses a proper response to this type of thinking from America Magazine.

Bruce Springsteen’s iconic 1975 album “Born to Run” turned 50 years old this week. But despite its age, its exploration of faith remains relatable to young adults like me.

The album is appealing to young people for a good reason: Springsteen himself was only in his 20s when he wrote the title track to “Born to Run.” He was also at a major crossroads in his life.

Much has changed since 1975. But I would guess that young adults half a century from now will continue to relate to this album and find comfort in its honesty and emotional complexity. Some things will always ring true. “Born to Run” is one of them
Brigid McCabe , Fifty years later, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run’ still speaks to young people –(August 25, 2025) America Magazine

Brigid is not the only one to address Bruce and his Catholic roots.

In his memoir published last year, Bruce Springsteen says that while he is no longer a practicing Catholic, he never quite left the faith.

He “came to ruefully and bemusedly understand that once you’re a Catholic you’re always a Catholic.” He adds “I don’t participate in my religion but I know somewhere … deep inside … I’m still on the team.”

In his book, The Grace of God and the Grace of Man: the Theologies of Bruce Springsteen, Yadin-Israel finds Springsteen coming to both the Old and New Testament again and again in his songs.

Zelda Caldwell ,Bruce Springsteen taps the Bible for inspiration (November 17, 2017) Aleteia

And from the very unwoke Word on Fire

An authentic Catholic worldview is one that does not blink, but has both eyes wide open to the fullness of the real world, in all its horror, beauty and mystery. Bruce Springsteen, a lapsed Catholic with an undeniable Catholic worldview, released a new record earlier this month titled “Wrecking Ball.” Springsteen has a seasoned understanding of the Catholic both/and principle. He knows that the only way to really see the world as-it-is is to keep two contradictory truths alive and well inside of your heart and head at all times.
Fr. Damian Ference Springsteen Can’t Hide His Catholic Past (April 9, 2012) Word on Fire

And here is Bruce’s impact on a Catholic musician.

If someone takes the time to actually read Fr. Souza’s and the other Catholic author’s article on Springsteen and not just the titles, and can get past the fact that he mentioned a person that they have an immediate dislike for, they would find that they are commenting more on the power of the transformative power of the  Catholic faith and not the person itself. The Catholic faith leaves its marks on a person even when the person themselves has formally rejected it. The spirit lurks inside waiting to ignite smoldering wick. Perhaps prayer could make it into a blazing fire.

Another commentator sums up the reactionary reactions to this article who think the Register has gone all Woke for daring to mention something positive about Bruce Springsteen .

I’m not a massive Springsteen fan by any stretch, but I always look forward to watching some of y’all losing your damn mind every time his name pops up on ncr.

Another reader on the NCR site seemed to get the gist of Fr. Souza’s article and said this…

I say that we’re looking at a deeply Augustinian soul longing to be chaste but “not yet “

I predict that the required heat to anneal him to Christ on the cross will be on Bruce’s final cross when he says “Lord remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

He has plenty of time to suffer.

Cancer, betrayal , death of loved ones can be used by our Loving Father to bring him back. Wealth fame and fortune and the world’s glory exempts no one from redemptive suffering.