In 2022, the Catholic world will be dominated by significant intellectual and ecclesiastical changes, accompanied by some startling changes between key personnel in the Vatican Curia and at the Council. American Bishop. Francis went on to invite the Church to try to find new approaches in order to restore our traditions more effectively, even in America, where he has met a lot of opposition.
Synodality is possibly the biggest story of 2022. The process has already begun and no one is sure how it will end, but we are already seeing signs of its impact. As Jim Purcell, NCR board member who is an active participant in the parish and diocesan synodal process, notes: “I have repeatedly witnessed the living power of the Holy Spirit. at the heart of the synodal church.” Many times, parishioners feel they are heard, and for many, this is the first time someone has asked for their opinion.
For much of the 20th and early 21st centuries, bishops consulted among themselves, then they told the laity what they concluded was in the interest of the laity. The pattern was established by Pius X in his encyclical Vehement Nos of 1906, in which he stated: "The sole duty of the laity is to let themselves be led and like sheep to follow their pastors obediently."
The funny thing is that for synodality to work, we all need to learn to be docile to the Holy Spirit, and pastors need to learn this too. The American inclination to pragmatism and our contemporary tendency towards activism are barriers to effective synodality as well as the history of hierarchical monopolistic government.
We should also be concerned that the contempt for synodality of some prominent conservatives and of the conservative Catholic media group EWTN risks under-representing the voices of millions of conservative Catholics. player.
The USCCB has done a good job of collecting the report of the diocesan synod as well as the report of Region XVI, which brings together various lay organizations that are not part of the diocese. The final report was overseen by Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, who chairs the Bishops' Doctrine Committee, and who shows he is a conservative thinker with a pastoral, sympathetic heart. with Francis but also comfortable with the cultural ideas and attitudes of previous pontificates.
It is shocking that Bishop Flores did not get many votes in the election for president of the bishops' conference last November. Instead is the worst remnant of the time of John Paul II, who was sponsored by the late Cardinal Angelo Sodano as president. The election of Archbishop Timothy Broglio as president of the USCCB is discouraging, unless you're a right-wing oligarch like Tim Busch or a conservative like Leonard Leo. Mr. Busch recently posted a picture of himself having dinner with Bishop Broglio, Mr. Leo and a group of other missionaries at a fancy Italian restaurant in Washington DC. Between adults they want to eat with whom they please, but Mr. Busch posted the picture. The photo is a telltale sign.
In his post-election press conference, Bishop Broglio deflected questions about clerical sexual abuse when he served as chief of staff to the late Cardinal Sodano, falsely defending the founder's accusations. In founding the Legion of Christ, former priest Marcial Maciel emerged only after Bishop Broglio's departure. Bishop about the Vatican in 2001 and the allegations have been made public since 1997. It is remarkable to see how Bishop Broglio handled sexual abuse cases after he became nuncio to the Dominican Republic in 2001, and then at the archdiocese of the United States Army.
Pope Francis greets Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the new president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, during his meeting with the presidents and regional coordinators of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican November 28, 2022. (CNS/ Vatican Media)The majority of US bishops may be looking to the next pope. As Australian Jesuit priest Bill Uren recently noted in La Croix: “So the US bishops in electing Archbishop Broglio appear to be supporting a restoration agenda not necessarily support a desperate cause. Their fortunes and those of their Republican patrons could be restored overnight, through an election modeled after John Paul II or Benedict XVI rather than Pope Francis. .”
There are many Catholics who continue to hate Pope Francis. He certainly turned the conservative Catholic world upside down, turning religion into morality and then politics.
The clearest examples of this occurred in the second half of the year: Francis received Jesuit priest James Martin, known for his ministry to gay Catholics, and he forced Father Frank Pavone to be demoted to the Catholic Church. people, a pro-life priest and advocate for Donald Trump. We can see the heads of leaders at EWTN explode!
At this time last year, I was hoping for 2022 Pope Francis would go faster. Certainly, the naming of Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego as a cardinal shows his willingness to send a strong signal. As I wrote last year, “conscious of Pope Francis favoring the peripheries, I would expect any new American cardinals to come from a diocese that has never had a cardinal before and perhaps also from a marginal diocese. gender."
Pope Francis presides over the consecration of 20 new cardinals at St. Peter's Basilica on August 27, 2022. (CNS/Vatican Media) In other words, Francis has not pushed his agenda the way his supporters predicted. For Cardinal Marc Ouellet to keep the Congregation of Bishops is a mystery. There have been some good appointments in the American Church: archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky; bishop John Dolan of Phoenix; bishop Jeffrey Fleming as associate bishop of Great Falls-Billings, Montana; and, just last week, two outstanding auxiliary bishops in Washington, DC, and two upcoming bishops, Juan Esposito-Garcia Evelio Menjivar-Ayala.
However, as the vote showed at the meeting of the US bishops, the Franciscan group is still losing about 30 votes in key contests, the same ratio as in previous years. In the Catholic Church, as in the political sphere, personnel is the policy.
Ideas are also important in the Catholic Church, and the most important intellectual development in the life of the Church this year has been the dramatic revival of just war theory as the main ethical approach of the Catholic Church. teaching against violence. When the NCR staff gathered to recommend candidates for Catholic Journalist of the Year, I nominated Saint Augustine, the father of just war theory.
Two years ago, Catholic peace activists defended Pope Francis' concerns about just war theory in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti . The Pax Christi Foundation held two seminars in Rome earlier in the pontificate, advocating a change in authoritative teaching to favor pacifism.
Alas, peace activists were unpredictable. Pacifism, as a theory, did not expect the cruelty that someone like Vladimir Putin could do. The efforts of nonviolent resistance in Ukraine are certainly heroic, but not enough. Claims of pacifism from outside Ukraine are morally questionable or worse.
Pope Francis' ambivalence about the war in Ukraine does not appear to be the result of a divided mind or heart, but of a divided role. The vicar of Christ cannot support the military efforts of any nation, but as a moral leader, any favoritism between the two warring parties is disgraceful. moral side.
There is no right answer to this conundrum. As philosopher John Stuart Mill has observed: "War is evil even when it is just, but war is not the worst."
Intellectual life reveals one of the biggest underappreciated stories of 2022: continuing deviations in theological faculties and mixed feelings of Catholic identity at many of our universities. ta.
With the end of Covid travel restrictions, I can visit universities and every time I visit someone comes to me complaining about the legal intellectual culture and mediocrity in college. learn. Sometimes a student, sometimes a professor, but the chorus is the same: Our Catholic intellectual tradition is being pushed aside.
Sisters hold Polish and Ukrainian flags as they prepare to welcome Pope Francis during the general audience in Paul VI Hall August 3, 2022. (CNS/Paul Haring)We close with a, if not happier, at least less controversial note: 2022 is the year of the Catholic Church as the institution that stands guard at the world's borders, strives to restore human dignity to those forced to reinstate at the border by the violence of poverty and war.
At the national border of the United States and Mexico, Catholic Charities are committed to meeting the humanitarian and spiritual needs of migrants. And, along the border with Ukraine, Poland, Catholics have stood up to accept the refugees of the conflict.
It is moving to see millions of Ukrainians arriving at the border in such a short time, with no tents, no refugee camps. People open their doors. Archbishop Borys Gudziak thanked the American people and clergy for their generous humanitarian support, one of the few points highlighted during the November plenary session of the US bishops.
At a time when nationalism wants to draw Catholicism as an ally, the Church's increasing acceptance of migrants and refugees shows the futility of this manipulation. The Church ceases to take care of migrants and refugees, the Church ceases to be a Catholic or a Christian Church.
Those are the most prominent issues and stories about the Church in 2022.
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