Is Catholicism experiencing a "Cool" moment?

At The Free Press site, Madeleine Kearns has posted an article entitled, "How Catholicism Got Cool".  Its thesis is that the Catholic Chuch suddenly finds itself attractive to young adults, who are flocking to it, if not yet exactly in droves, at least in higher numbers than have been seen in years, perhaps decades.

Good and Bad Sectarianism

 Sociologists have developed the notion of sect and sectarianism to describe religious groups and their behaviors.  A sect is a religious group that develops out of an existing religious group by emphasizing certain beliefs and practices as being more important that the parent group. They typically set themselves up in contrast from the existing group and from the broader society. This contrast is the dynamic that attracts and keeps members.

Pharisees in the time of Jesus were a sect. They had a set of beliefs and practices that set themselves apart from fellow Jews and non- Jews. 

Christianity also began as a Jewish sect; Jesus and his followers had a different set of beliefs and practices from the Pharisees. In a sense Jesus and the Pharisees were competing sects. However, the death and resurrection brought into Christianity a new revelation that became enshrined in the New Testament. Some sociologists use the were cult for all situations in which a new revelation is involved, e.g. the Mormons originated as a cult based on the Book of Mormon. 

Most sectarian movements developed out Christianity as heresies, i.e. certain Christian leaders developed ideas which their leaders saw not as new revelation but as the correct interpretation of Christianity in contradistinction to orthodox mainstream Christianity which denounced them as heresies, false opinions. Protestantism has been a constant source of sectarian movements, each one denouncing existing Protestant churches and their cultures. American has experienced many such revivals. Fundamentalism is one of the most recent. Most of these movements developed around ideas rather than practices. These (bad) forms of sectarianism denounce the people who do not belong to their sect. 

Within Christianity, especially western Catholicism, there has evolved a whole series of movements known as religious life which are also sectarian. They set up Chrisitan lifestyles that also have a high contrast both to their fellow Catholics and to the world at large. While viewing their lifestyle as being superior to that of the average Catholic, they do not criticize their fellow Catholics because they do not practice poverty, chastity, obedience, pray the Divine Office, etc. Religious have been the great engines of attracting people into more committed forms of Catholicism and engaging them in lives that face the challenges of their time and cultures.

Jesuit Author Captures Catholic Fundamentalism in Boston Heresy Case

The Iterations of Catholic Fundamentalism

 Michael Sean Winters has an interesting article on the NCR site today.  Actually it is the second of two articles:  Not merely Latin and lace: New book chronicles iterations of Catholic fundamentalism | National Catholic Reporter

I was unfamiliar with most of the names he mentions, since I don't spend a lot of time hanging around fundamentalist sites.  But the article explains a lot.

Peacemaking

Happy Memorial Day, everyone.  This morning, I engaged in what my wife, half tongue-in-cheek, refers to as my "side hustle", i.e. my way of making a little money on the side.  I say tongue-in-cheek because I do nothing to promote it, and it's seldom that I do it, although it seems to have picked up a little bit in the last few months.  My "hustle" is providing musical accompaniment at mass.*      

In this morning's case, the mass took place at one of the local Catholic cemeteries, and of course the occasion was Memorial Day. 

Leo: Seminary Update, Augustinian Spirituality

 Two posts in the last few days from Commonweal about Leo:

Pope Leo; In Context at CTU

"CTU is attached to no university, but it offers graduate degrees in theology and ministry. It was formed in 1968, after the Second Vatican Council, when men’s religious communities like Pope Leo’s Augustinians responded to the Council’s reforms by combining schools that trained men for the priesthood into CTU. Those schools wanted their candidates to be in a bustling city, near the University of Chicago, in conversation with people from other faiths, and attending classes with laypeople. "

That pretty much summarizes my article on his seminary education. What this article gives is the precise details of what was going on at that time:

Has AI already broken higher education?

Occasionally I amuse myself, and perhaps others, by posting homilies which are generated by the free versions of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) services ChatGPT and CoPilot.  The group consensus here seems to be that the AI-generated homilies, at least when considered as reading material, are better, tighter and briefer than the offerings of our stressed-out, tired and distracted local clergy.     

Over at the Free Press, Tyler Cowan, a professor of economics at George Mason University, observes that when it comes to higher education, the AI revolution isn't the future, it's the present:

Pope Leo on Social Doctrine versus Indoctrination

 Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation 

Dear brothers and sisters, welcome!

The theme of this year’s Conference – “Overcoming Polarizations and Rebuilding Global Governance: The Ethical Foundations” – speaks to us of the deepest purpose of the Church’s social doctrine as a contribution to peace and dialogue in the service of building bridges of universal fraternity. This is not something that happens by chance but is rather an active and continuous interplay of grace and freedom, one that our meeting today seeks to respect and support.

Pope Leo XIII, who lived in an age of momentous and disruptive change, sought to promote peace by encouraging social dialogue between capital and labor, technology and human intelligence, and different political cultures and nations. On such important issues, the Church’s social doctrine is called to provide insights that facilitate dialogue between science and conscience, and thus make an essential contribution to better understanding, hope and peace.

This doctrine helps us to realize that more important than our problems or eventual solutions is the way we approach them, guided by criteria of discernment, sound ethical principles and openness to God’s grace. You have the opportunity to show that the Church’s social doctrine, with its specific anthropological approach, seeks to encourage genuine engagement with social issues. It does not claim to possess a monopoly on truth, either in its analysis of problems or its proposal of concrete solutions. 

This is a fundamental aspect of our attempts to build a “culture of encounter” through dialogue and social friendship. For many of our contemporaries, the words “dialogue” and “doctrine” can seem incompatible. Perhaps when we hear the word “doctrine,” we tend to think of a set of ideas belonging to a religion. The word itself makes us feel less disposed to reflect, call things into question or seek new alternatives.

In the case of the Church’s social doctrine, we need to make clear that the word “doctrine” has another, more positive meaning, without which dialogue itself would be meaningless. “Doctrine” can be a synonym of “science,” “discipline” and “knowledge.” Understood in this way, doctrine appears as the product of research, and hence of hypotheses, discussions, progress and setbacks, all aimed at conveying a reliable, organized and systematic body of knowledge about a given issue. Consequently, a doctrine is not the same as an opinion, but is rather a common, collective and even multidisciplinary pursuit of truth.

“Indoctrination” is immoral. It stifles critical judgement and undermines the sacred freedom of respect for conscience, even if erroneous. It resists new notions and rejects movement, change or the evolution of ideas in the face of new problems. “Doctrine,” on the other hand, as a serious, serene and rigorous discourse, aims to teach us primarily how to approach problems and, even more importantly, how to approach people.  Seriousness, rigor and serenity are what we must learn from every doctrine, including the Church’s social doctrine.

In the context of the ongoing digital revolution, we must rediscover, emphasize and cultivate our duty to train others in critical thinking, countering temptations to the contrary, which can also be found in ecclesial circles. There is so little dialogue around us; shouting often replaces it, not infrequently in the form of fake news and irrational arguments proposed by a few loud voices. 

Deeper reflection and study are essential, as well as a commitment to encounter and listen to the poor, who are a treasure for the Church and for humanity. Their viewpoints, though often disregarded, are vital if we are to see the world through God’s eyes. Those born and raised far from the centers of power should not merely be taught the Church’s social doctrine; they should also be recognized as carrying it forward and putting it into practice. 

Individuals committed to the betterment of society, popular movements and the various Catholic workers’ groups are an expression of those existential peripheries where hope endures and springs anew. I urge you to let the voice of the poor be heard.

Dear friends, as the Second Vatican Council states, “in every age, the Church carries the responsibility of reading the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel, if she is to carry out her task. 

In our day, there is a widespread thirst for justice, a desire for authentic fatherhood and motherhood, a profound longing for spirituality, especially among young people and the marginalized, who do not always find effective means of making their needs known. There is a growing demand for the Church’s social doctrine, to which we need to respond.