Taking The Catholic Church's Pulse: From Vatican II Forward

By James Hitchcock As pope, it has fallen to Benedict XVI to preside over the Church at a time of great scandal -- reports of old sexual abuses perpetrated by priests continually coming to light, with no apparent end in sight. Besides the sufferings inflicted on the victims, the Church has suffered severe loss of moral credibility. But at the same the Church's fundamental health should not be underestimated. The sexual scandals themselves are in large part a legacy of an earlier, disordered time. When John Paul II became pope in 1978, the Catholic Church was in considerable disarray in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council of 1962-5. It was characteristic of his papacy to condemn when he thought necessary, sometimes imposing discipline, but always for the sake of what he considered a higher liberating truth. Perhaps his most important achievement was his theology of human sexuality -- the "Theology of the Body" -- where he directly confronted those aspects of Catholic doctrine that were the most highly contested, exalting the love of husband and wife that culminates in the act of procreation, which is a sharing in God's own creative act. John Paul had considerable success in overcoming the post-conciliar confusion, and no one contributed more to that process than Josef Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office charged with protecting the integrity of doctrine. Ratzinger's election as pope in 2005 was an unambiguous decision by the cardinals to continue on the path of renewal laid out by John Paul -- the greatest philosopher ever to serve as pope followed by the greatest theologian ever to do so. Throughout John Paul's pontificate, Ratzinger addressed the fundamental issues raised by the Council, insisting on the essential continuity between the "pre-conciliar" and "post-conciliar" Church, suggesting, somewhat daringly, that the Council had been excessively optimistic about the state of the world. While acknowledging the achievements of the historical-critical method, Ratzinger insisted that scripture discloses its full meaning only within the community of the Church and advocated a recovery of the exegesis of the early Fathers. Although originally supportive, he became one of the most trenchant critics of liturgical change, arguing that the process ignored the way in which the ritual life of the Church is deeply rooted in the mystical community and therefore cannot be changed by sudden fiat. Perhaps most significant was his expressed belief that the priest at Mass should face ad orientem -- at head of the congregation facing toward God -- rather than facing the people. With regard to Liberation Theology, Ratzinger and John Paul defined the Christian meaning of liberation as including the reform of social structures, but above all as liberation from the bondage of sin, which is rooted in human nature and is the ultimate cause of social injustice. The Catechism of the Catholic Church , which was developed under Ratzinger's supervision, became a major instrument for clarifying doctrinal confusion and making authentic Catholic teaching readily accessible. Read More from: The Future of Catholicism The quality of many seminaries improved considerably under John Paul, with seminarians almost everywhere described as more traditional than their predecessors. The religious communities that attract the most members, like the Missionaries of Charity, also tend to have a traditional understanding of their mission. Lay people also now play important roles in almost every aspect of church life, including the liturgy, the social apostolate, and the intellectual life. Through diocesan and parish councils they exercise various responsibilities, and most of these councils show a spirit of harmony between clergy and laity. John Paul strongly encouraged what he called "the movements" -- predominantly lay organizations that in a sense exist parallel to the hierarchical structure of the Church, welling up from below and promising spiritual and apostolic renewal -- Opus Dei, Focolari, Communione e Liberazione, and the Neocatechumenate. In the United States, the pro-life movement is the single most effective lay apostolate of the post-Vatican II period, working with the bishops but independent of their authority, officially ecumenical and even non-sectarian. Both Eucharistic piety and Marian piety have also experienced major revivals within the lay communities in the past ten years. Benedict now presides over a Church that has doubled in size since the Council. There are well over a billion Catholics in the world -- about 17 percent of the total human population -- the second largest religion after Islam. But many people have noted that the future of the Church seems to lie primarily in the Southern Hemisphere. Europe still accounts for a quarter of all Catholics, but the growth of the Church there falls well short of the overall population growth, while in Latin America it barely keeps pace. By contrast, while Catholics are only 17 percent of the population of Africa, their number has multiplied fifteen times since Vatican II and, while they are only 3 percent of the population of Asia, their number has tripled during the same time. The Church also appears to have more spiritual vitality in parts of Asia and Africa, especially as measured by religious vocations. Although India by no means has the largest Catholic population in the world -- Catholics are barely 1 percent of its huge population -- it has the largest number of seminarians and female religious in the world and far more Catholic schools and hospitals than all of North America together. Yet, in many places in the Third World, Catholics are subject to violence, murder, and systematic persecution, as bishops protest but also remind their flocks that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians. The dramatic resurgence of Islam puts it in conscious rivalry to Christianity, a rivalry potentially as formidable as Communism once was. A major theological issue is Vatican II's statement that Muslims, like Christians and Jews, "adore the one merciful God." Massive Muslim immigration to Europe, combined with a very low birth rate among nominal Christians, seems likely, in time, to make Islam the majority religion in what was once called Christendom. Benedict, who perhaps chose his papal name in homage to the founder of Western monasticism, who is also the patron saint of Europe, is especially concerned to remind his fellow Europeans of the religious basis of their civilization. But although the Holy See supported the formation of the European Union, in its constitution the Union refused to acknowledge Christianity as even a historical influence in Western civilization. In the United States, Christian ecumenism has taken an unexpected turn in the encounter between Catholics and the kind of Protestants variously called Evangelical or Fundamentalist, who tended historically to be anti-Catholic. Scarcely noticed at first, Evangelicals have replaced liberals as the dominant element within American Protestantism, and some Catholics were at first surprised to discover that they have more in common with Evangelicals than with many liberal fellow Catholics. The new ecumenism often began with cooperation on practical moral issues like abortion but soon led to the realization that these moral principles are based on traditional Christian beliefs, including the divine authority of the scripture and the unchanging truth of the faith. Ecumenical prayer and Bible-study groups followed. Protestants of this kind are almost invisible in Europe, so that the Holy See has not engaged in formal dialogue with them. But in America there is significant ecumenical activity at the "grass roots" level, without anticipating formal reunion, activity that reveals the paradox that, to the degree that people hold strongly to their own beliefs and are unwilling to compromise, they may also respect others who hold equally strong beliefs. Ratzinger himself was praised by Evangelicals and severely criticized by liberals for issuing Dominus Jesus ("Lord Jesus"), a restatement of the classic Christian teaching that the world is saved solely through Christ. The reality of religious liberty in a pluralistic society has changed in the decades since Vatican II, as some liberals now argue that the Church's stand on moral issues constitutes unwarranted "interference" in what should be a entirely secular society, that religious believers as such have no legitimate voice in pubic affairs. Some even demand that Church leaders, including the pope, be prosecuted for the "crime" of condemning abortion and homosexual activity. But Benedict has strongly reaffirmed the principle of religious liberty, even citing the American Revolution as marking a new stage in its development -- a government that favors no religion at the expense of others but is not hostile to any. The protection of nature -- "environmentalism" -- is now perhaps the principal social and political issue facing the world. Like John Paul's "Theology of the Body," Benedict urges the protection of the environment on the basis of a "theology of Creation" -- the divine act from which the goodness and dignity of the world derives. Nature evolves not by blind chance but according to God's plan, and it is precisely man's divinely given stewardship that requires that nature be conserved and cherished. The frontiers of morality now stand at a point that was mere science fiction at the time of Vatican II. Besides abortion, euthanasia, and suicide, the issues include surgically induced sex changes, artificial insemination, cloning, and the "creation" of life in laboratories. The crisis is metaphysical even more than moral, in that the very identity of humanity is being called into question by a seemingly irresistible, all-devouring technology and by human beings determined to deny any higher moral truth. Since the Enlightenment, secularists have accused the Church of being anti-humanist, because it subordinates man to God. But many secularists now reject humanism precisely because it places man at the summit of nature. At its root, Benedict proclaims, the culture of death is nothing less than a refusal to accept the divine invitation to participate in the work of creation. James Hitchcock is Professor of History at St. Louis University and a Senior Editor of Touchstone Magazine. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life. He lives with his wife, the editor and writer, Helen Hull Hitchcock, in Saint Louis, Missouri. They have four daughters.

Taking the Catholic Church's Pulse: From Vatican II Forward