Recent weeks have seen three events provide strong evidence that Americans, and especially American Catholics, need to focus on some key issues that have gotten badly out of focus for too long.
Faith Beyond the Rule Book. On Holy Thursday Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 people, including non-Christians and women, in a Rome detention center. But his willingness to do this sends an important message.
In my work, I continue to meet people who are still haunted by a Catholic upbringing that treated Catholicism as a set of rules (especially, and often, rules about sex). In recent years the US Bishops have often reinforced that old notion with major campaigns against same-sex marriage, contraception funding, and by their juridical behavior in covering up for priests guilty of sex abuse.
In my work, I continue to meet people who are still haunted by a Catholic upbringing that treated Catholicism as a set of rules (especially, and often, rules about sex). In recent years the US Bishops have often reinforced that old notion with major campaigns against same-sex marriage, contraception funding, and by their juridical behavior in covering up for priests guilty of sex abuse.
But the pope’s foot-washing gesture was “beyond the rule book” in three ways. First, it was not the customary location for the Holy Thursday service. Second, by including non-Christians he reminded us that Jesus’s own act (washing the feet of his 12 apostles) was not merely a literal service to them; it was also a symbolic act demonstrating his ministry and mission of service, sacrifice, and love—which was destined for all people. Third, by including women, Francis was breaking a liturgical rule. In all this, he sent the message that our faith is much more than a set of rules, and that sometimes those rules are trumped by more important things, like the symbolic value of including all people in the pope’s own ministry of service.
Recovering “The Common Good.” Jim Wallis, longtime leader of Sojourners magazine and organization, the flagship of progressive evangelism in the US, has returned from his 2012 sabbatical with a new book: On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn't Learned about Serving the Common Good. Catholics need to know this book and Wallis’ argument.
Wallis is promoting his book with an extensive media campaign and a nationwide tour of "Common Good Forums."
Inevitably, interviewers begin discussing the book by asking Wallis to define what he means by “the common good,” and just as routinely Wallis answers this way: He quotes from the 4th century saint John Chrysostom, an early father of the Church.
This is the rule of the most perfect Christianity, Its most exact definition, its highest point—namely the seeking of the common good. For nothing can so make a person an imitator of Christ as caring for his neighbors.
And then Wallis often cites a more modern source:
“I love…Catholic social teaching on the common good: ‘The common good is the whole network of social conditions which enable human individuals and groups to flourish and live a fully genuinely human life. Otherwise described as integral human development, all are responsible for all.’ ”
It just so happens that Wallis is paraphrasing language from the social encyclicals of both Pope Paul VI and Pope Benedict XVI.
CrossCurrents readers have long known that Catholic social teaching is centered on the common good. Now a prominent Protestant activist has spotlighted how Catholicism’s social vision can offer a powerful and wise antidote to the current political deadlock.
As Catholic Americans, we need to applaud and support Wallis’ effort and concentrate on educating our own people and those around us to the central importance of honoring the common good in building a just society.
Afraid of the Dark. Last Friday night, CNN finally devoted a lengthy program-segment to the scandal surrounding Kermit Gosnell’s Philadelphia abortion clinic, but host Anderson Cooper admitted it was the first time CNN had covered the story. CNN is not alone, for this man’s trial went on for more than a month without significant coverage from mainstream media (as noted in this commentary http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/04/10/philadelphia-abortion-clinic-horror-column/2072577/ ).
In retrospect, the horrific story of an alleged murderous abortionist in Philadelphia has acquired three dimensions: (1) the alleged criminal behavior itself and the plight of its victims; (2) the failure of both Philadelphia and Pennsylvania to take any action against the alleged crimes; (3) the failure of US mainstream media to cover the story.
Two questions loom large: 1. Why did no government agency act? 2. Why did media ignore the story? In both cases one disturbing possibility is this: abortion has become so delicate and controversial an issue that neither public officials nor professional journalists have the requisite courage to face a story that disturbs the conventional wisdom about abortion.
For this story exposes the dark side of the Roe v. Wade era. For more than 40 years we have lived with the myth that legalized abortion ends gruesome “back alley” horrors and serves women so safely that we can simply relax about the moral and medical risks that are inherent in abortion itself.
Polls showed that while Americans are generally unenthusiastic about abortion itself, they remain split about whether and how to regulate it. But too many Americans have come to regard abortion lightly, and prefer not to face the real possibility that abortion’s “collateral damage” is (at least sometimes, if not always) the killing of babies.
U.S. Society needs to look long and hard at all three of these issues. We can no longer afford to think that the Christian faith is accomplished merely by obeying rules. We can no longer afford to let the mantra of individual “freedom” trump all concerns about the common good. And we can no longer afford to pretend that abortion, even when legal, is a casual matter that poses no danger to public safety or human rights.
© Bernard F. Swain PhD 2013
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