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And that\u2019s my reaction to reports of the Catholic leadership in parts of the world in which Catholic belief has so utterly collapsed, being indifferent or even being, to whatever degree, the cause:\u00a0 the patrimony they inherited, were obliged to be good stewards of, they have simply squandered.\u00a0 To what end?\u00a0 In the United States, and in Chicago in particular, when Cupich yammers on about immigration reform, one feels that his objective is to take the power the church yet has and use it in political ways \u2014 pushing for amnesty for illegal immigrants now, and in the past for health care subsidies (not quite acknowledging that to push for government funding of healthcare was to make a deal with the Devil, as evidenced by new single payer proposals which include government-paid abortions, lawsuits intended to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, and the like).\u00a0 In Europe I don\u2019t quite know the story, except that bishop after bishop acts like its business as usual and is seemingly indifferent to the empty pews.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s my reaction as well to two reports from Europe:\u00a0 the news that the German bishops will have a \u201csynodal process\u201d in which they will have a big Rethink on clerical celibacy and sexual morality as a way of fixing their gigantic f***-up on sexual abuse by clergy as reported back in the fall (which I\u2019ll address more in a follow-up post) and a pair of reports by Rod Dreher about Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium, \u201cThe Decadence of Godfried Denneels<\/a>\u201d and \u201cCdl Danneels, Euthanizer Of Belgian Catholicism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n In the second of these, published on Tuesday, Dreher writes about the legacy of the recently-deceased cardinal, who was Primate of Belgium from 1979 to 2010.\u00a0 Danneels was himself personally implicated in an abuse scandal when he advised a victim of sexual abuse to keep silent rather than report the perpetrator, himself a bishop.\u00a0 The victim had recorded the conversation, which caused great scandal when it was revealed in the press, although Danneels had already retired earlier that year<\/a>.\u00a0 Dreher also reports that Danneels was a part of the \u201cSt. Gallen Mafia\u201d which orchestrated the election of Pope Francis, and was given a \u201cprime spot\u201d in the Synod on the Family.\u00a0 His legacy from Belgium also includes a catechism, and more generally, classes in Catholic schools, which promoted masturbation and sexualized children.\u00a0 And, finally, when Belgium legalized abortion in 1990, Danneels advised the king to sign the law.\u00a0 (According to the National Catholic Register<\/em><\/a>, Danneels denied this, but a further link<\/a> suggests this was in the form of a \u201cno comment\u201d rather than a denial per se.) In Dreher\u2019s follow-up article yesterday, he adds two further details:\u00a0 first, in 1984, seemingly under Danneels\u2019 auspices, a \u201cPedophile Working Group\u201d appeared to encourage acceptance of pedophiles.\u00a0 Second, more broadly, the religious education program in the 70s and 80s did not actually appear to be all that concerned with handing down the Catholic faith, but simply with instructing students on Catholicism as one among many faiths from among which they might choose.<\/p>\n The end result:\u00a0 Catholic membership and practice in Belgium has cratered.\u00a0 As the Register<\/em> reports,<\/p>\n During Cardinal Danneels\u2019 leadership the Church lost many members: Sunday Mass attendance fell from 26.7% in 1980 to just 5% in 2009.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n (This statistic is matched in Wikipedia<\/a>, with a link to a local source<\/a>, from which it appears that 5% of all Belgians attend church of some sort or another.)<\/p>\n Since that point, Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 and gave traditionalists hope that he would revive the church (for instance, in this 2014 First Things<\/em> article<\/a>) but he resigned upon his 75th birthday<\/a> following church law, and Francis lost no time replacing him with someone more liberal<\/a>, Jozef De Kesel, who (according to Wikipedia) has voiced his support for admitting divorced\/remarried couples to communion and the elimination of the requirement of celibacy for priests, and (according to La Croix International<\/a>) supported some sort of non-marital religious affirmation of gay couples.\u00a0 The Catholic Herald<\/em> in the UK<\/a> reported at the time that Leonard simply did not receive support from bishops and others with power in the country.<\/p>\n So what happens next?\u00a0 Will the last Catholic in Belgium please turn out the lights, I guess?\u00a0 Here\u2019s what the Herald<\/em> has to say:<\/p>\n More so even than most European countries, it looks as if Belgian Catholicism has been living off the glories of previous centuries rather than having much to say to modern society. Certainly, most of the country\u2019s nominal Catholics seem to have little interest in it. Unless it rediscovers a sense of purpose, there is a serious risk of the Church becoming little more than a government-funded heritage agency for the preservation of ancient churches.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When the church leadership in such places as Belgium carried on as if it was business as usual, or believed they could adapt to the times \u2014 or even believed that what was of primary importance was preserving the institution and the buildings, they abandoned their responsibility, and left the next generation with \u2014 well, with nothing, really.\u00a0 How long before it\u2019s all gone but the buildings, and they just say, \u201coh, well, that\u2019s how people are these days\u201d?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yes, I get that it\u2019s just a parable, but some years, when the Prodigal Son is in the Sunday readings, I wince at what\u2019s lost.\u00a0 The younger son says, \u201cgive me my inheritance now,\u201d then squanders it in dissolute living.\u00a0 A quick google search tells me that at the time, the oldest son would receive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1207,91],"class_list":["post-13198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-belgium","tag-secularism"],"yoast_head":"\n