The Plight of American Catholicism

Many years ago, when I first began to devote special attention to the Roman Catholic Church and community in this country, and came to admire its many strengths and permanences, I found that what I most appreciated in the Church could be summarized somewhat along these lines: 1) its resistance to the pervasive religious liberalism that was corroding religion in America, Protestant and Jewish alike; 2) its resistance to the non-ethic, or perhaps the anti-ethic, of fun, sociability, and power that was undermining the foundations of traditional Christian morality; 3) its resistance to the all-pervading ersatz religion of secularism and to the so-called “progressive” (secularist) social policy that was threatening the most basic of all social institutions, education, on the one side, marriage and the family, on the other; 4) its resistance to the new totalitarianism, Communist and fascist alike, on the firm ground of the natural law and the Christian understanding of society and the state; and 5) its resistance to all disintegrative sectarian ideological movements, even where such movements found some lodgment in its own ranks (for example, the Catholic Worker movement).

Today, a quarter of a century later, I find all of these points of Catholic strength seriously challenged, imperiled, and, in some cases, actually eroded within the Church, all in the name of Vatican II and the spirit of aggiornamento.

WH

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Will Herberg

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Many years ago, when I first began to devote special attention to the Roman Catholic Church and community in this country, and came to admire its many strengths and permanences, I found that what I most appreciated in the Church could be summarized somewhat along these lines: 1) its resistance to the pervasive religious liberalism that was corroding religion in America, Protestant and Jewish alike; 2) its resistance to the non-ethic, or perhaps the anti-ethic, of fun, sociability, and power that was undermining the foundations of traditional Christian morality; 3) its resistance to the all-pervading ersatz religion of secularism and to the so-called “progressive” (secularist) social policy that was threatening the most basic of all social institutions, education, on the one side, marriage and the family, on the other; 4) its resistance to the new totalitarianism, Communist and fascist alike, on the firm ground of the natural law and the Christian understanding of society and the state; and 5) its resistance to all disintegrative sectarian ideological movements, even where such movements found some lodgment in its own ranks (for example, the Catholic Worker movement).

Today, a quarter of a century later, I find all of these points of Catholic strength seriously challenged, imperiled, and, in some cases, actually eroded within the Church, all in the name of Vatican II and the spirit of aggiornamento.