Professor Proposes Papal Visit Should be a Fact-Finding Mission

Richard Gaillardetz, Murray/Bacik Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Toledo, Ohio has penned the first of what will be a series of essays in anticipation of the Pope's visit published in the National Catholic Reporter. Russell Shaw was one of the first folks to do this. I blogged about his essay here. Gaillardetz proposes that the "listening Pope" use his visit as a fact-finding mission to see beyond the media's "white noise" of disagreements between the Vatican and U.S. Catholics.

"Our American church is not without its faults and pastoral challenges, but these faults and challenges are quite distinct from those of the European church. America does not suffer from the forces of secularization," writes Gaillardetz. "For all of our failings, ours is still a remarkably religious culture."

Gaillardetz addresses the work of theologians, especially that of the Catholic Theological Society of America, concluding that "...the most compelling division in American Catholic theology today is not orthodoxy versus dissent. The most compelling tension is largely generational in character and centers on differences between older Catholic theologians whose work has been explicitly shaped by the agenda of Vatican II and a younger generation of theologians who, without repudiating Vatican II, are more concerned with the need for the church to fashion a more constructive response to the demise of a coherent Catholic subculture."

There are two points I'd like to address.

First, I'd argue that we're further along the secularization path than Gaillardetz proposes. Set aside Catholic universities and colleges for a moment, and look at the secularization of Catholic hospitals and the battles facing Catholic Charities (e.g. Boston, Denver), or the recent findings of the Pew Forum's "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" for evidence of the growing tide of secular encroachment on religion. According to that survey, 25% of Americans have left the faith of their youth for another denomination or none at all.

As for fact-finding, I would argue that Pope Benedict XVI is far more cognizant of the facts facing the Church in America for several reasons. First, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger was presented with the diversity of Catholic thought expressed in the U.S. Second, he's visited the U.S. on at least five separate occasions. Finally, as Pope, Benedict has received numerous U.S. visitors and Bishops to learn of the situation here. I trust that he's far more informed than most of us realize, a fact that would be readily discernible to those who have read any of his many books. In his book "God and the World," Cardinal Ratzinger wrote: "I believe that it is particularly in the American sphere that people are taking up Catholicism as a whole and trying to relate it anew to the modern world." Just like week, the Pope made several remarks about the U.S. during his reception of Mary Ann Glendon as the new U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican.

The Reporter's subsequent essays will include ones written by David Gibson, Nancy Dallavalle, and John Allen.

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. Discuss in the comment boxes.