Church in America Has What Global Catholicism Needs

Is the Catholic Church in the United States dying? The Vatican’s representative in the U.S., Cardinal Christophe Pierre, intimated as much in November. In an interview with America magazine, he declared that “nobody comes” to church anymore, while “seminaries are now empty” and nuns “have disappeared.” It’s true that the church in America faces many challenges, yet it’s uniquely focused on evangelization and in some senses flourishing. Global Catholicism could learn a lot from the U.S. example of empowering everyday Catholics to preach the gospel.

Cardinal Pierre’s comments, which he reinforced at the fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, came amid a broader Catholic discussion of “synodality.” The Vatican is hosting a three-year global meeting on the topic, which is generally understood to mean involving regular, or “lay,” Catholics in church governance. The hope is that doing so will spark a new era of evangelization, but in some regions, such as Germany and other parts of Europe, synodality is being used to weaken Catholic teaching in order to make the Church more “welcoming.” It’s hard to see how compromising on morality will inspire evangelization, which depends on fidelity to Jesus Christ’s inherently countercultural message.

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Tim Busch

Tim Busch is co-founder of the Napa Institute, a Catholic lifestyle organization.

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Is the Catholic Church in the United States dying? The Vatican’s representative in the U.S., Cardinal Christophe Pierre, intimated as much in November. In an interview with America magazine, he declared that “nobody comes” to church anymore, while “seminaries are now empty” and nuns “have disappeared.” It’s true that the church in America faces many challenges, yet it’s uniquely focused on evangelization and in some senses flourishing. Global Catholicism could learn a lot from the U.S. example of empowering everyday Catholics to preach the gospel.

Cardinal Pierre’s comments, which he reinforced at the fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, came amid a broader Catholic discussion of “synodality.” The Vatican is hosting a three-year global meeting on the topic, which is generally understood to mean involving regular, or “lay,” Catholics in church governance. The hope is that doing so will spark a new era of evangelization, but in some regions, such as Germany and other parts of Europe, synodality is being used to weaken Catholic teaching in order to make the Church more “welcoming.” It’s hard to see how compromising on morality will inspire evangelization, which depends on fidelity to Jesus Christ’s inherently countercultural message.