Ross Douthat recalls the satisfaction enjoyed by us conservative Catholics toward the end of the Benedict pontificate: even a left-leaning if reasonable observer like John Allen declared the Catholic Progressive Project to be dead. Subsequently, we were horrified to see it surge back, under Francis, like a zombie in a bad horror movie. Sagely, Ross sees that the compulsion to accommodate to the broader culture is unavoidable, virtually intrinsic the Church. A cult or a sect can erect clear, firm, impervious boundaries against the outer world. Not so the Catholic Church! We are in the world but not of it; in constant intercourse, affirming all that is true, good and beautiful ("catholic") and striving to share with ALL the revelation of Good News we have received. Such a delicate, deep and intimate interaction does not lend itself to absolute, simple, binary, certain clarity.
We might view the Church as a multi-layered onion: at the center a "hard core" that defines its identity as distinct from the world; toward the exterior are layers that interact with the world, absorbing (hopefully) the good, and sharing our own graces. We might consider the core to be the more (capital C) Catholic elements: bridal surrender to Christ in the holiness of Mary and the saints, sacramental communion, infallible Scripture-Tradition-Magisterium, ordained hierarchy, religious orders (especially more contemplative), intensive renewal movements, devotional life of retreats, pilgrimages, and religious practices. Toward the exterior, closer to surface, are the layers in which Church and world interact: missionaries, works of mercy, dialogue, and (largely lay) engagement with culture-politics-society.
Within the Church and in her intercourse with the world there surges an infinity of centripetal and centrifugal dynamics: continually the Church retreats to her core, in Christ and the Trinity, worshipping in liturgical and personal prayer, receiving the Word of God mediated by Scripture and Authority, renouncing the world-flesh-devil, remembering the works of God, longing for the coming of the Kingdom. Renewed with Eternal Life, she then surges outward, urgent to share this light with a world in darkness, zealous to rescue all that is worthy in a Creation wounded but yet radiant with the Good.
And so, at the core of the Church, we have our liturgical life, presided over by our priests and bishops, as well as specialized communities including monasteries, renewal centers, lay movements. Some of the more intensive of such groups are: Latin Mass communities, Neocatechumenal Way, some charismatic communities, a number of new and intensively Catholic colleges (Benedictine, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ave Maria, Dallas, etc.) These cherish, protect and develop the precious pearls of our faith that are often despised by the broader culture. In their passionate "Catholicism" they can be tempted to an anxiety, defensiveness, rigidity, and moralism that diminishes their "catholic" capacity to welcome all that is good in the society.
On the other extreme are those bodies that intensively relate with non-Catholic society and are eager to welcome all that is compatible with the faith. These are prone to the opposite temptation: to imitate prestigious, elite society and disparage elements of our Catholic faith that have become unfashionable or even odious. This would include our larger, more respected universities as well as progressive journals like America, Commonweal, and National Catholic Reporter.
Ordinary parish life would be layers between the core and the outer shell: a negotiation between the two. There is a spectrum of the more "Catholic-conservative" and the "catholic-Progressive." On the whole, however, there is a remarkable consistency about parish life and our priests, even across cultures and continents.
Balancing "Catholic" and "catholic"
Where in the Church can we engage a wholesome balance, not without tension, between the centripetal and centrifugal forces?
John Paul II and Benedict XIII, as well as Vatican II and the theology that formed it (Balthasar, DeLubac, Congar, Boyer), combine a passionate love of Christ, a rootedness in the past, an openness to all that is good in our world along with a critical renunciation of error and evil.
Monsignor Luigi Giussani similarly exemplified an evangelical positivity and a confident engagement with society and culture. The form and forms of the movement he left, Communion and Liberation, reflect his serenity, fluidity, and openness. In the two decades since his death, however, they have tended to a softness and a disinclination to forcefully engage and contradict the error and darkness increasingly prevalent around us. This has inclined to a disposition to accept and tolerate forces subtly hostile to our Catholic faith. And so the community finds itself currently in a crisis of identity. We hope for them to recover the inspired charism of Giussani.
Intimacy with the poor, Eucharist and Mary, as modeled for us by the saints (Mother Theresa, Dorothy Day, Catherine Doherty, Madeleine DelBrel and so many others) is the sweet spot which draws us most deeply into union with Christ and his mission in the world.
Catholic Supreme Court Justices, especially Barrett but also Alito, Roberts, Thomas, and Kavanaugh all apparently practice their Catholic faith (Sunday mass at minimum) while engaging in the secular profession of law with its own integrity, autonomy and finality. The domains of faith and law are distinct but subtly infuse each other.
Ecumenism
This image of a layered onion also illuminates the Church in her ecumenical richness. At the core is the fully "subsistent" Church of Rome, in close relation to the Orthodox and Coptic churches, which retain all the fundamental elements of the primitive Church of Christ. Moving outward, we have other bodies which retain many elements. The mainline Protestant branches (Anglican, Lutheran, Calvinist, etc.) were moving closer to Rome after the Council but were simultaneously drawn away as they accommodated to the Cultural Revolution. Meanwhile, evangelicalism and Pentecostalism, reactive against sexual liberation, have drawn closer to the Catholic core in many respects.
Other groups retain major elements of the Gospel but are heretical in fundamental ways: Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and Moonies. Islam itself can be understood as a form of Arian Christianity in its strict monotheism and acceptance of the Ten Commandments, despite its rejection of the Incarnation, Trinity, monogamy, and its irrationalism, voluntarism and jihadism. And so we might imagine these bodies at the outer edge of the onion, vulnerable to the world and the devil but still accepting aspects of Divine Revelation.
Judaism is a special case of course. In a sense it is the inner core of the core of the Church. At the same time, in its rejection of the messiahship of Jesus it is directly contradictory of this inner core. There continues, however, a deep, rich intercourse between the two as we see Messianic Jews, the Hebrew Catholic Fellowship, and the influence of the Gospel on figures like Buber and Heschel.
Conclusion
Catholic life is a dizzyingly dense, complex, rich confluence and interaction of dynamic movements between Church and world: drawing away to be set aside for God; surging outward to share the Revealed Love; suffering persecution; engaging in Culture War; affirming all that is good, true, beautiful and holy.
Come Holy Spirit! Draw us into the Trinitarian Event of Love! Send us into the world to cherish, protect, rescue and enhance all that comes from your creative will!
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