A Papal Visit
by Father John McCloskey
Pope Benedict XVI will be visiting the United States from April 15-20th in the midst of the most historic and hotly contested presidential electoral campaign in decades. Although cultural exports from the largely secular media would seem to prove otherwise, Americans are a religious people. Renowned sociologist Peter Berger has captured this relationship between a basically religious populace and its secular elites by describing the U.S. as "A country of Indians governed by Swedes," referring to what some consider the most and least religious nations.
The expectations for the papal visit are high and the excitement grows, both among the mass of the American people, and even more so among the 70 million or so at least nominal Catholics in the U.S. (where Catholicism is by far the largest religious denomination). The official purpose of the trip is to honor the bicentennial of the nation's five oldest dioceses. However, the papal visit has been carefully planned to address directly the neuralgic points of the United States as a world power (and home of the United Nations) and the Catholic faithful, who are still recovering from the "Long Lent" (as Fr. Richard Neuhaus put it) of the sexual abuse scandals affecting the Catholic clergy during the first years of this century. These scandals placed an exclamation point to the 40 years of post-Conciliar confusion among the faithful in liturgical, moral, and catechetical matters. What follows is a statistical picture of the devastation that took place during this post-Conciliar period.
In 1950, a Gallup poll showed that three out of every four American Catholics attended Sunday mass regularly; by 2000 the figure was closer to one out of four. With Mass attendance as the leading indicator, every other statistical index of Catholic practice showed a similar decline between 1960 and 2000. During this period nearly half of the Catholic and elementary schools closed. The number of Catholic marriages solemnized in churches fell over 30 percent, while the number of marriages annulled by diocesan tribunals skyrocketed from about 30 a year to 50,00. The number of priests fell by about 20 percent, while the number of ordinations dropped by about 65 percent. Two-thirds of the country's seminaries closed. Teaching nuns, who once formed the backbone of the massive Catholic educational system, nearly disappeared. The total number of women religious fell by over 50 percent, but the population of the teaching orders suffered an even dizzier decline, from 104,000 in 1965 to about 8000 today.
A recent survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that about one-third of Catholic respondents said they no longer identified as such. Based on the data, the survey showed, "this means that roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics." That amounts to some 30 million "Fallen away or non-practicing Catholics." By my estimation that would make non-practicing Catholics the second largest "denomination" after Catholics in good standing in the nation.
To be fair, the situation is considerably worse in almost every category in Europe, with the exception of Poland, which had the advantage of Communist persecution and of being the homeland of Pope John Paul II. Nevertheless, even after this difficult and traumatizing recent history, the Church is nonetheless quite well appreciated in the U.S.
Americans have a strongly positive view of Pope Benedict XVI, according to a new poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus. In a recent survey conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion [58 percent of respondents reported a favorable opinion of the Holy Father; only 13 percent held a negative view. Nearly two-thirds of those polled—65 percent—held a favorable view of the Catholic Church in general, with 28 percent reporting a negative view. Close to half of the American people (42 percent) and two-thirds of the Catholics would like to attend one of the public events that have been scheduled for Pope Benedict's April visit to the U.S. The poll results show that most Americans (64 percent) would like to hear Pope Benedict's guidance on how to increase the spiritual strength of their society. Even higher proportions of the respondents wanted to hear the Pontiff talk about finding spiritual fulfillment and bringing God into their lives.
Inevitably there will be critics, but their voices will probably be muted. The well-known theologian dissenters have almost disappeared from the print media and are largely ignored, while most of the contracted commentators, such as George Weigel and Fr. Thomas Williams, are faithful Catholics. Nonetheless, some will make mention of the "divided" Catholic "opinion" on such matters as married and/or women priests. Others will rail about the sex abuse scandal that is rapidly receding into history. There will be mention of the universal availability to the faithful of the Mass of Bl. John XIII (aka the Tridentine Mass) and the strong restating of the Church's teaching on salvation through Christ and his Church. However, the overall reception will be hugely positive.
The Pope will speak to the world at the United Nations; to the American people as a whole at the White House; to ecumenical leaders in New York; to Catholic educational leaders in Washington; and to the 70 million Catholics as a whole during his homilies at Yankee Stadium in New York and at the Nationals Stadium (the brand new baseball stadium in Washington D.C., which offers spectacular views of the nation's Capital).
As mentioned earlier, the U.S. is in the midst of the longest and most intense presidential campaign in decades, with the Democratic Party nomination up for grabs between a woman (Hillary Clinton) and a man of color (Barack Obama). The Democratic nominee will then face the oldest nominee in history, septuagenarian and former Vietnam prisoner-of-war Sen. John McCain of Arizona, in November's general election. Moral issues such as abortion, civil unions between homosexuals, and both the beginning and end of life will be debated during the campaign in the months ahead, as well as the justice of the ongoing war against terrorism, particularly as it is taking place in Iraq. Without doubt, the Holy Father will clearly but delicately address these issues, perhaps drawing more on natural-law reasoning than on the Church's moral teaching. The debate over the environment will no doubt also be addressed, most particularly at the United Nations.
Benedict most likely will also refer to the slowly fading though far from forgotten sexual abuse crisis, particularly when he speaks to the American bishops on April 16th on the campus of Catholic University. There he will likely underline the crucial importance of careful selection of future priests, demanding thorough seminary formation and the ongoing formation of those already ordained. Holiness in prayer and behavior and evangelization will be his prescription for a healthy priesthood and a creative Catholic minority that can have an impact on the religious life of the United States way out of proportion to its numbers.
Perhaps the address most anticipated for its potential aftershocks will be that given to the heads of the over 200 nominally Catholic universities in the U.S. and also to the directors of Catholic elementary and secondary education in the almost 200 dioceses in the country. The Cardinal Newman Society has estimated that only approximately ten percent of these universities are in accordance with Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the Vatican document on Catholic University education. Here we can expect a clarion call for an authentic faithfulness to the totality of Catholic teaching, putting the Faith first in every aspect of Catholic institutions, while at the same time pursuing secular excellence. Given the likelihood that some and perhaps many nominally Catholic educational institutions will continue resisting compliance with the requirements of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, we may see some bishops moving to de-list such universities as "Catholic."
All in all, The United States remains in a "Catholic Moment" (to use Fr. Neuhaus's piquant phrase) as it has for many decades. A prominent French Sociologist has given his astute analysis. No, it is not Bernard Henri Levy, or some decades back, Raymond Aron. Rather it is Alexis De Tocqueville in still the best book ever written about the United States: "Democracy in America" based on his travels in America during the decade of the 1830s.
"At the present time, more than in any preceding age, Roman Catholics are seen to lapse into infidelity, and Protestants to be converted to Roman Catholicism. If you consider Catholicism within its own organization, it seems to be losing; if you consider it from outside, it seems to be gaining. Nor is this difficult to explain. The men of our days are naturally little disposed to believe; but as soon as they have any religion, they immediately find in themselves a latent instinct that urges them unconsciously towards Catholicism. Many of the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church astonish them, but they feel a secret admiration for its discipline, and its great unity attracts them. If Catholicism could at length withdraw itself from the political animosities to which it has given rise, I have hardly any doubt but that the same spirit of the age which appears to be so opposed to it would become so favorable as to admit of its great and sudden advancement."
