Vatican II: The Catholic Revolution
Vatican II: The Catholic Revolution, Part IIReview
Once again, I welcome you to our panel discussion on Fr. Andrew Greeley’s book: The Catholic Revolution: New Wine, Old Wineskins, and the Second Vatican Council.
This evening I will offers some summaries of Greeley’s book and our distinguished panelists will be asked to address some questions based on these summaries. As was our practice last week, each person is asked to limit their talk to 2 minutes. At 2 minutes a bell will sound. You then have 15 seconds to wrap it up. Following the 5 panelists, we will invite members of the audience here this evening to come forward and share their own thoughts. We ask them, too, to be aware of our time limitations.
The purpose of tonight’s panel discussion is to listen to each other’s experiences and thoughts. This is not a debate nor is it a question and answer time. We ask you not to feel you have to rebut what others are saying. This is a lesson in open listening. Each of us has thoughts and opinions about our faith experience. All are valid. Thank you for being attentive to this once again.
Last week, our panelists shared their thoughts about the Church they remember prior to Vatican II— the Church that Andrew Greeley calls “the church of rules.” We heard them share memories about some of the rules they remember in their youth which defined them as Catholics: everything from fasting before Communion, marriage to non-Catholics, dress requirements at Church, birth control, attendance on Sundays and Holy Days, the Latin Mass, and more. Those in attendance also shared their thoughts about these and other rules of Catholicism.
Greeley states, early in his book, that the Second Vatican Council really was a revolution in that it led to some profound changes in Catholicism but, especially, in the way Catholics thought of their faith. He demonstrated this change in thinking with a table outlining the change of attitude from 1963 to 1974 on the part of Catholics with regard to various issues. According to Greeley nothing less than a change in the structures of Catholicism occurred with power shifting away from the hierarchy to the hands of the local bishops, priest and laity.
We ended our discussion by commenting on the two major shifts that have occurred on the part of Catholics. A shift away from rules to following one’s conscience and a sense that one can still be a Catholic and in good standing with God despite dissenting from some church teachings.
This evening, we are going to look at Greeley’s assessment of the negative consequences of the Second Vatican Council. Greeley notes that in the years following the Council, large majority of laity and lower clergy participated in and celebrated the changes in the Church, but there were other groups that were busily engaged in destroying other elements of Catholicism that they didn’t like. He cites various powerful movements that took leadership in the years following the Council in imposing their views on many parishes. He indicts ecumenical, liturgical, educational and feminist movements who reshaped their parishes without consulting the rest of the membership. As a result, he believes that much of the richness of the Catholic imaginative and communal tradition were thrown out and resulted in a “beige” Catholicism— a colorless, odorless, tasteless, unimaginative variety of Catholicism in which ill-trained and frequently emotionally immature prophets spread across the land, clinging to their small fragment of truth as if it were the whole truth.
I’d like to ask our panelists, based on their reading, what some of these abuses were, according to Greeley and whether or not they agree with his rather harsh assessment.
Altars were stripped, statues were banned along with stained glass windows, votive candles, crucifixes. Popular devotions were rejected like May crownings, processions, First Communions, incense, classical hymns. They rejected rosaries, angels, saints and the souls in purgatory. Even Mary, the Mother of Jesus was downgraded in these post-conciliar movements. Guitar music vs. organ; sacramental dimension of the faith was being destroyed. New-found experts in Scripture, liturgy, do-it-yourself pastoral counseling. He even talks about various renewal movements like cursillos, encounter groups, parish renewal groups, RCIA and others which emphasize the psychological dimensions of a person to the exclusion of one’s religious needs. Little dignity or concern for the rights or dignity of the participants. This was a new authoritarianism which replaced the old authoritarianism of the Church. Catholics are amazingly tolerant in remaining in a Church that has been largely stripped of its beauty. Beige Catholicism is another brand of Protestantism.
In light of these changes and the dumbing down of Catholicism, Greeley poses a question: Why do Catholics stay in the Church? Why don’t those who are unhappy leave? The reason he gives is simple: Catholics like being Catholic and they are willing to tolerate the abuse of the post-Conciliar Church just as they were willing to tolerate the excessive rules of the old church. The question is often posed to us: How can intelligent and well-educated people want to be Catholic in these difficult times?
34 percent of Americans were raised Catholic, but only 25 percent are presently Catholic. 1/3 of the defectors are unmarried people who have drifted away. However most return when they marry. Another third of those who have left live in the mountain and west coast states where there are fewer Catholic schools which were instrumental in forming a sense of community within the Church. The final third is distributed among the divorced and remarried and those who marry non-Catholics who choose not to practice any faith.
Still, approximately four out of five people who were raised Catholic remain Catholic. Even though many of these have disagreements with the Vatican about various issues and may not like the way the Church is today, they remain. Despite the fact that the Church continues to operate in an authoritarian way, discriminates against women and homosexuals, still seeks to regulate the bedroom behavior of married men and women, tries to impose the Catholic position regarding abortion, birth control on everyone. Bishops and priests are insensitive, Laypeople are not involved or consulted. Sexual abuse and more. Why do people remain Catholic?
Catholics remain, he says, because Catholics like being Catholic. Why?
1. Americans are simply loyal to their religion. Religious practice is still important to Americans and is increasing while atheism, agnosticism and skepticism are not increasing.
2. Catholics like their “stories” and “metaphors” which speak to the meaning of human life. This is sacramentalism at its best— the belief that God can be experienced in the objects and events of ordinary life. Catholicism is remarkably able to adapt itself to everyday life and culture. It embraces the whole of human life (look at the celebration of the Sacraments). Rich ceremonies embedded in mystery and ritual. Devotions to choose from. Prayer forms which are all acceptable. The Eucharist. God and grace are to be found everywhere.
Table indicates what Catholics find most essential to their faith [page 112]
I’d like to have our panelists address this issue in their own experience. What is it about Catholicism that keeps you in the Church?
Finally, in the section of his book entitled, “Recovering the Catholic Heritage” Greeley writes that it is not too late to recapture and rediscover the beauty of the Catholic imagination and story. He does not espouse a restorationist view— one that is often hoped for by those on the extreme right or in the Vatican but a respectful and balanced appreciation of Catholic heritage which has largely been rejected.
He offers examples of Gregorian chant and the use of Latin and Greek in Catholic music. While we don’t want to return to the Latin Mass he advocates the recovery of the beauty of great Catholic song which utilizes the classical languages. He also advocates for the recovery of traditional devotions--although we must avoid the extreme of superstition and Catholic folklore, there is a middle ground that can be found which best celebrates devotions. Friday abstinence, statues, holy days, purgatory, devotion to Mary, and more are all part of the Catholic story that should be preserved in a healthy way.
Greeley writes that even if all these things are swept away, the Catholic imagination will create new sacramentals and symbols because this is what we are about and this is how people come to experience the divine. We are Catholics and these things define us. We should not pretend that we are not Catholics.
Recapturing a sense of beauty in Catholicism which is, in his opinion, the strongest asset of Catholicism: art, music, celebration of artists, ritual. Authority must move in the direction of charm. Jesus was the most charming man who ever lived. People were drawn to him by his sense of beauty. Christianity spread because it was so attractive. Christians were good people. Authoritarian control does not work anymore. Blind obedience to doctrine does not draw people. We must present and live our faith in all its attractiveness so as to draw people and welcome them into the beauty of our Catholic faith.
Staff (he singles out liturgists, RCIA directors) need to be less attentive to the rules which lump everyone together. Rather, they must be attentive to the individual needs of their people and congregation. They shouldn’t deprive people of what they want in the name of what is liturgically correct.
In closing, Greeley, while valuing the Second Vatican Council also decries the abuses that have occurred in the years following by those who are creating a beige Catholicism. This was not the intention of the Council even though some changes were well intended. Still, Greeley sees hope for the reformation of the Church to continue. His closing paragraph sums it up.........
Panelists: In your opinion, what are some areas that should be addressed to make Catholicism a more vital experience?