The Day the American Catholic Church Died?

April 1, 2009

And in the streets: the children screamed,
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.
“American Pie”, Don McLean

That was a great song back in 1971-72, with lyrics obscure enough to keep fans wondering about their meaning for the longest time, even with the help of mind-altering drugs.  Most knew, though, that the song referred to the February 3, 1959 plane crash that killed three rock ‘n roll pioneers, Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, and Giles Perry Richardson.

While music lost the unique talents of those three, rock ‘n roll did not die. Others followed – there are references to some of the bigger names in McLean’s song – all the way through and beyond Neil Young who would at one point sing, “Rock and roll will never die.”  That may be presumptuous, who knows. Rock and roll did survive that fateful day. Most movements and institutions - cultural, economic, and political –suffer fateful days; many survive but not all.

The Catholic Church in the United States had a fateful day last week when Notre Dame University, maybe the best-known Catholic university in the country, invited President Barack Obama to speak at it commencement this May 17th.  It is unknown what of the American Catholic Church will survive that day.

Let’s face it; the American Catholic Church has not been at its healthiest lately. According to recent polls, the U.S. Catholic Church is in decline as are most mainstream churches.  In my opinion, that decline is not a strictly spiritual phenomenon but more a part of the wider disappearance of community and group identification in the United States. That, though, is a topic for other columns. It is sufficient for now to note the decrease in the numbers of Catholics in most parts of the country.

The weakness of the Catholic Church does not lie, however, in the lower head count.  It can be argued that the integrity, purpose and vigor of any organization is diluted by the addition of members.  Fewer Catholics may actually bode well for the Church.  Are not 20 million committed members better than 80 million lukewarm Catholics?  So, the declining numbers don’t equal decay.  No, the problem is not that the American Catholic Church is dying; the real problem is that we American Catholics have nothing to die for. For Catholics, martyrdom is a near impossibility in the United States of America.  There seems to be no truth or value or belief or person for which Catholics will stake their lives.  There seems to be nothing that will be steadfastly proclaimed in the face of intense opposition; for that matter, nothing is spoken out loud that would even risk opposition. It appears that nothing will be fiercely maintained if it would too strongly distinguish Catholics from the rest of society.  The American Catholic Church has become more American than Catholic.  Faithfulness to the Gospel, devotion to the truth, and the anchoring of human life in the life of the divine have been pushed aside for social legitimacy, cultural homogenization, and a vacuous tolerance that masquerades as intellectual or civic maturity.

The Catholic hierarchy has not helped matters. They long ago made the teaching authority of the Church hollow by their insistence on condemning artificial birth control. Years later, their moral authority crumbled with every new revelation of clergy sexual abuse and the accompanying complicity or incompetence of Church leaders. Is it any wonder, then, that the foundational moral teaching protecting unborn human life and prohibiting abortion would, astonishingly, carry no particular weight with vast numbers of American Catholics?

That seems to be the case, though.  It is apparent that the teaching Church has failed to communicate even the most basic moral reasoning and truths to Catholics.  How else would you explain that so many Catholics claim that while they believe abortion in most instances is wrong and immoral, they don’t want to force their views on anyone and so the decision to abort should be left up to the individual?  What?!!  Can there be a more unthinking and cowardly moral judgment?

How else would you explain that 54% of U.S. Catholics voted for a man, President Barack Obama, who is diametrically opposed to the most fundamental moral teaching of their Church?  Knowing his stance on abortion should have caused Catholics to reject him outright regardless of his views on any other issue. The abortion issue is that fundamental.  It is not one issue alongside many others. It’s not that, “Well, he got 8 out of 10 issues right so we’ll overlook that fact that he advocates abortion at any time and for any reason or no reason.”  Abortion is a “starting gate” issue; if you don’t get that right, there’s no use in going any further.

And now the premier Catholic university in the United States is inviting him to speak at its commencement. Let’s just pull the life supports from the body of the Catholic Church. It was bad enough that at a crucial point of the presidential campaign, a photo of the Cardinal of New York yukking it up with Barack Obama at a charity dinner was plastered across every media outlet in the nation. A picture is worth a thousand words, and those words began, “It’s OK to hold pro-choice views such as his ….”  Now, with Notre Dame’s invitation, every Catholic in the U.S. is confronted with a tacit endorsement of an extreme pro-abortion stance.  “We like the way he thinks,” I guess they are saying.

The faithful and the hierarchy of the Church should bring every pressure to bear on Fr. Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame, and Notre Dame’s Board of Directors to rescind this invitation and to state very clearly that rather than be honored by Catholics, President Obama should be condemned by Catholics. I would expect that every single Catholic bishop in the United States would publicly state their opposition to this invitation. I expect every Catholic association from the Knights of Columbus to the Third Order of St. Francis to protest this invitation.  I would expect that the Pope himself would weigh in with sanctions imposed on the university.

I expect Notre Dame to have enough fortitude to say, “We think Barack Obama is wrong.  We think his extreme views on abortion are morally repugnant. We think that what he advocates is so intolerable that we don’t want him or any politician who promotes those views on our property.  Until he changes his stance, we will not give him university honors, we will not give him a forum, we will not give any legitimacy or credibility to his views, we will not lend him one ounce of support.”  If Notre Dame and American Catholics cannot stand for this most basic good, does being a Catholic in America have any meaning at all? Or is this the day the American Catholic Church died?

Copyright 2009. Fred Sneesby. All Rights Reserved.