Here Comes Everybody - Benedict and American Catholics

By Colman McCarthy

“Here comes everybody.”

James Joyce

When the Irish writer, taught by Jesuits and Christian Brothers and author of “Ulysses” and “Finnegan’s Wake,” offered that definition of Catholicism the varieties of saints and sinners he had in mind were still in a united Church.

Were that true today.

In his six day visit this week to Washington and New York, the 80-year-old German-born Pope Benedict XVI is tending to a flock that includes a trove of everybodies, from the devoutly obedient to the impiously rebellious: Catholics all, and here they come. It may take a saint guided by a host of angels to bring American Catholics together and leave them in a state of contentment.

With the era of schisms and heresies long past, now there is fractiousness. Four years ago, for one example, Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs warned the 120,000 members of his diocese: “Anyone who professes the Catholic faith with his lips while at the same time supporting legislation or candidates that defy God’s law makes a mockery of that faith and belies his identity as a Catholic.” Voters who defy church teachings, the bishop said, “jeopardize their salvation.” He had in mind supporting pro-choice Catholic politicians.

Not to make light of this, but it’s to be wondered how many Catholics went to confession after the 2004 election and whispered penitentially to the priest, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I voted for John Kerry.”

It can be wondered, too, how many Catholics still go to confession at all. In February the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reported that the U.S. religious group with the largest loss in membership is Catholicism. Pope Benedict may or may not be troubled by the decline--a similar exodus of priests and nuns has occurred since the second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s--but it’s certain that the orthodoxies of Catholicism based on dogmas and doctrines hugely differs from the varieties of faith practiced by members who, out of stubbornness or hopefulness, are not leaving.

To cite only a few:

--Dignity USA, the country’s largest organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics.

--Pax Christi USA, the lay and clergy group that champions nonviolence and pacifism and is asking Benedict to condemn the Bush administration’s occupation of Iraq.

--the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a collective that works to win a measure of accountability and justice from an institutional church that long overlooked its pedophilia crimes.

--the Women’s Ordination Conference, which has scheduled a female-led Mass on April 14 at Foundry United Methodist Church the day before the pope’s arrival in Washington.

--Catholics for Choice, which is one with Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights Action League on the issues of reproductive rights and contraception.

To make matters worse--or better depending on your view--those are a small sampling of the loyalists who are staying in the Church, divisions aside. Elsewhere, some of the devout get their news from the liberal National Catholic Reporter, some go with the conservative National Catholic Register. Some are in the Dorothy Day-Daniel Berrigan-Thomas Merton wing of the church, others kneel in the pew with Pat Buchanan, Antonin Scalia and Phyllis Schlafly. Even in Catholic families, splits are found. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend supported the death penalty when running for governor of Maryland, while her sister Kerry has always opposed executions. Catholic Jeb Bush was a pro-life governor in Florida while Tim Kaine of Virginia is pro-choice. Some presidents of Catholic universities allow their students to stage “The Vagina Monologues,” others order a ban.

How does the pope deal with the disorder as he tours Washington and New York? The name he chose at the beginning of his papacy--going from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to Benedict--gives a hint. St. Benedict, a 6th century Italian who founded a monastic order that has endured 1,500 years, wrote a 73 Rules that left little to chance or whim. Regulations covered everything from prayer and manual labor to disciplining disobedient brethren. About the latter, Rule 68 is titled “If a Brother Is Commanded To Do Impossible Things.” Should the brother protest, the remedy is to let him “be convinced that it is good for him and let him obey from love.”

St. Benedict and Pope Benedict, men of obedience, believe that the rules of faith nurture a faith of rules. But with a difference. Sixth century wayward monks who needed a cuffing are of another ilk than today’s dissident American Catholics who see obedience as subjugation. It will be a minor miracle if the pope can convince them to obey him for their own good.

Colman McCarthy, a former Washington Post columnist, directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington D.C. He teaches at Georgetown University Law School, American University and three public high schools.