A Church in Schism? Engaging Modernity! My Granddaughter in Manhattan!

Our Church may be approaching a serious schism like nothing in recent memory. Divisions within the Church are normal; but an actual schism is very serious. The current division is about communion for the divorced-and-remarried-without-an-annulment. In Germany this is allowed; across the border in Poland it is not. Such a stark divide, within the episcopacy, is unknown in recent Catholic history. The underlying source of division as in most controversies of recent memory, is the confrontation with modernity: the post-enlightenment legacy of liberalism, science, individualism, technology, democracy and global capitalism. The conservative impulse within Catholicism, passionate in its love for the legacy of faith, is averse and anti-modern: pious, clerical, Marian, sometimes triumphalist, often defensive, and counter-cultural. The progressive impulse is eager to embrace all that is wholesome and promising in the emergent cultures. One might be described (to use the imagery of Richard Niebuhr) as Christ-against-Culture and as the other Christ-in-Culture. A third approach (described below) is a more sophisticated, nuanced separation of what is good from what is bad in modernity. The present division was preceded, in recent memory, by two similar divides: the small, clear and defined split by anti-modern groups that rejected the Vatican Council. The other was a hidden, covert but widespread schism from progressives who rejected Humanae Vitae's proscription of contraception. In the half century prior to the Council (1910-1960) the Catholic Church was solidly, institutionally consistent in its anti-modernity stance. The late Tridentine Church built its own separate philosophy and a network of strong institutions, all unified in opposition to Protestantism and the "isms" (secularism, atheism, communism, agnosticism, etc.) that flourished into the 20th century. Below the surface, however, quietly and modestly, intelligent and open-minded Catholic thinkers were in dialogue with the contemporary world and harvesting all that is best therein. This hidden current of thought and conversation flowered in the Vatican Council which can be understood as a turn in direction: an enthusiastic embrace of all in modernity that is consistent with the legacy of Christ and his Church. The post-Council Church was euphoric and sometimes uncritical in the 15 years following and so the more fervently anti-modern groups rejected the Council, declared the papacy to be vacant, and went into full schism. It was a small but significant group. The defining event, however, of this period was the decision of Pope Paul VI to reject the advice of his theological and episcopal commissions and affirm the traditional prohibition of contraception. This decision was rejected or ignored by the critical mass of laypeople, priests and theologians in Europe and America. The bishops acquiesed, without fervor, to the decision. The Vatican and its allies in the episcopacy made a crucial decision: rather than provoke a blatant schism, they took a soft, tolerant approach and allowed the dissent to flourish without discipline. The Church remained united in its public facade, but underneath there was a schism on this crucial issue which related to a host of others (women priests, gay sex, tolerance of abortion, etc.) which modernity hurled at the Church. The dual papacy of John Paul/Benedict is often seen as a revival of the conservative, anti-modern impulse, but it really represents a third, compromising approach. Both were brilliant scholars, entirely at home in the modern academy; both participated in the Council and were recognized for their gifts; both fully accepted the Council even as they interpreted it in continuity with prior tradition; both were gifted with the inclination and the ability to distinguish what is good from what is bad in the complexity and density of modernity. In regard to current culture, they practiced what the tradition calls the "spoiling of Egypt." This pregnant phrase recalls that when the Israelites left Egypt, they took with them all that was best from that society. And so, throughout its history, the Church has been eager to embrace what is best, but reject what is worst in each culture. Which brings us to my precious granddaughter Brigid. She is happily attending a fine Catholic girls academy in Manhattan. Passionate and thoughtful in her Catholic faith, she is nevertheless breathing in the air of that city: exciting, creative, controversial, wild, exuberant, cosmopolitan, sophisticated, diverse, challenging, thought-provoking, boundary-crossing,  She is...bright, inquisitive, passionate...at the age of 14 emblematic of the Church engaged with modernity. With St. John Paul and Pope-Emeritus Benedict, may she absorb what is best and reject what is worst. I am proud of her, excited for her, and gleefully hopeful for her...and her generation!