Tomorrow and Tomorrow

“They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” —Jeremiah 6:14

More than 210 of the 360 American Catholic bishops have been made bishops since 1965, the year the Second Vatican Council concluded. This was the era in which the “pastoral”—that is, not scholarly, not organizational—talents of candidates for the episcopacy were emphasized, and Thomism was abandoned for Scripture studies. Bishop Leroy Matthiesen of Amarillo explains that being in this new generation makes a difference: “I’ve seen a noticeable change in the hierarchy. The old-timers—there are less and less of those. I guess you can almost describe them as almost the hawkish kind of bishop.”

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Michael Novak

Michael Novak was a Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat.

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“They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” —Jeremiah 6:14

More than 210 of the 360 American Catholic bishops have been made bishops since 1965, the year the Second Vatican Council concluded. This was the era in which the “pastoral”—that is, not scholarly, not organizational—talents of candidates for the episcopacy were emphasized, and Thomism was abandoned for Scripture studies. Bishop Leroy Matthiesen of Amarillo explains that being in this new generation makes a difference: “I’ve seen a noticeable change in the hierarchy. The old-timers—there are less and less of those. I guess you can almost describe them as almost the hawkish kind of bishop.”