Many believed that the last three elections were an existential struggle for America’s soul, reflecting a struggle for the soul of Christianity in this country—not just evangelical Christianity but of the Catholic Church too. Unfortunately MAGA won and the gospels lost.
Rebecca Bratten Weiss discusses this in her latest column in NCR. She has an interesting background. She graduated from Steubenville but eventually rejected much of the right- wing Catholicism of that college. She suggests that Trump’s assault on Pope Leo is creating a split between white MAGA Catholics and white evangelicals. Agree?
“The MAGA movement has deep roots in a culture of nativism and xenophobia that was long hostile to Catholics. …
"Many are realizing that the soul of MAGA is viscerally anti-Catholic," Austen Ivereigh told NCR last month in a piece outlining a broader fracture in the Catholic-evangelical MAGA coalition over attitudes towards Israel. His sentiment is shared by others, who are positioning the Trump and Leo conflict as the latest entry in a "MAGA evangelical vs. Roman Catholic" saga….”
The growing split seems focused on views of the role Israel plays in American foreign policy. It is a growing conflict between extreme right- wing Catholic media and podcast “stars” and evangelicals. The Catholic “ influencers” also seem to include a disproportionate number of recent converts to the RCC ( one reason for concern at the recent influx of young male converts).
“ The right-wing Catholics finally detaching themselves from the MAGA movement are not waking up to justice. They were fine with the Trump administration's many assaults on the vulnerable. They just are upset that anyone, especially the leader they thought they had in their pocket, would dare to defy them. ..
…Catholics are not a persecuted minority in the United States. We are a powerful political force. This force can be wielded for justice or for injustice,…
For the Christian church as a whole, this is one of those crucible moments, where we are tested to see whether we will be true to Jesus or succumb to the lure of amoral powers. Will we be the church of the papal princes like Alexander VI, the church of bigoted influencers like Fr. Charles Coughlin? Or, conversely, will we be the church of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Oscar Romero and Servant of God Thea Bowman? That's the question we need to address. Leo is showing us the way. But let's not pretend it's the way the church has always taken.”
NCR also has the latest Pew findings. I think that one reason for the continued losses of adult Catholics in the US is the now years long swing to the right - both politically and religiously (such as the rise of Barron’s stuff in parishes, and converts from evangelical Christianity like Scott Hahn, the Alpha programs etc). Progressive Catholics have been effectively pushed out of the pews by the cohort of conservative priests (and those they attract) now running parishes. They don’t feel at home in the RCC anymore because of the bishops emphasis that abortion is the only thing that matters when voting, which is broadcast from pulpits everywhere while the bishops and priests ignore most of the church’s Social Justice teachings. Mention climate change? No way- “ too political”. Talk about Matthew 25:31-46 or the Beatitudes? Nope - too political. Talk about the sin of racism— even without specifically pointing to this administrations openly racist policies? Nope - can’t talk about those either.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ncronline.org/news/pew-us-and-other-countries-catholicism-loses-more-members-it-gains
My feeling is that the church was here long before MAGA and will be here after it fades into history. Unfortunately some Catholics have gotten sucked into the Evangelical/ fundamentalist part of MAGA. End times and apocalypticism are a big part of that, and one of the reasons why they are fixated on the middle east.
ReplyDeleteMy reaction to this quote from Bratten Weiss' article, "...this is one of those crucible moments, where we are tested to see whether we will be true to Jesus or succumb to the lure of amoral powers", is that it isn't the first time, and won't be the last time when we are tested.
I think the extreme politicization is to a degree dependent on region. I would say that here we are sort of center right. Both our previous archbishop and the present one have spoken out strongly for the immigrants in our communities, and have prayed for peace, and are supportive of Pope Leo's efforts. But the clergy don't say much about things like climate change. Which is fine with me.
We have spent the better part of last week being in Omaha for some milestone occasions of our granddaughters. I came away feeling optimistic about their future, and the future of the church. Wednesday we attended a "grandparents' breakfast" for graduating seniors and their grandparents, at our oldest granddaughter's school. She showed us around the classrooms, and we met some of her teachers. These kids studied things that we didn't get into until college, and sometimes not even then. Her generation are definitely not unfocused slackers!
ReplyDeleteThere were some discussion questions for the kids and grandparents, things such as "What is something you would tell your younger self?" And for the students, "What subjects are you most interested in?" And "What subjects did you not like?"
Friday evening was Confirmation for our middle granddaughter, who is 14. They confirm 8th graders here. It was a nice ceremony, and she seemed happy. The archbishop spoke about the church needing the confirmandi now, not just when they are adults.
Afterwards I told her that I had been nine when I was confirmed, and we had to memorize 90 questions. Back then part of the ceremony was a symbolic "slap" on the cheek. I was worried about that, but our bishop just tapped our cheeks lightly. She was glad they didn't do that anymore. One thing I remembered was the sweet scent of the chrism, they add balsam to the oil. She said she noticed the scent too.
Then Saturday night was Confirmation at St. Anthony's, at home. I was in the choir, and Kelly assisted at the altar. We had Emeritus Archbishop Lucas. Our granddaughter's group had Archbishop McGovern, who is the present ordinary. We like both of them.
Our senior granddaughter's high school graduation is May 17, and the middle one's 8th grade graduation is May 16. I'm glad they scheduled them both on the same weekend!
DeletePope Francis talked a lot about climate change and our moral responsibility to care for the environment. But priests don’t like to mention it. The only social justice issue they mention is immigration. I do wonder if they would even do that if the 11 million slated for deportation weren’t mostly Catholics, but Muslims or Hindus.
ReplyDeleteThese stories are lovely, but are a micro view. The article isn’t addressing lovely family events like confirmations. She’s talking about the reality that most white Catholics have turned away from Jesus’s teachings to support MAGA. Are the confirmation kids going to change that? Or will white Catholics (including bishops and priests) continue to embrace the “ amoral powers”? Did you see any evidence that the kids at these events reject MAGA views and are embracing the gospels?
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Well no, but the Confirmation kids said their Baptism promises and rejected "...Satan and all his empty promises" MAGA is pretty empty. The high school grads are more focused on what comes next in their lives. I didn't get the idea that they were thinking much about politics. I believe MAGA is already starting to burn itself out. Of course we can't take that for granted and have to do our part to make sure that happens.
DeleteIt may be worth mentioning that neither the high school where the breakfast was held, nor the Confirmation group were particularly "white" . Both were very multicultural, with probably a third of the kids being Black (a lot of Sudanese in Omaha), Hispanic, or Southeast Asian. Emma (our senior granddaughter's) friend group was mixed, there didn't seem to be a lot of self-segregating. So it doesn't seem like these particular kids are internalizing white supremist values.
DeleteI hope your optimism is warranted. But I’m not as optimistic. I haven’t checked how the vote went in Omaha. The urban areas in red states do tend to vote blue. But I’m not convinced that repeating baptismal vows means much to many people. The majority of white Catholics have not rejected trumpism - and it’s empty promises. Like trump, they seem to dig in their heels and double down on their support no matter what he does or what policies he promotes.
DeleteOmaha is the home of that notorious "blue dot". Nebraska along with Maine are the only two states which aren't " winner take all" with electoral votes. Our governor absolutely hates that. MAGA absolutely hates that. Because theoretically that one electoral vote could swing a very close election. I say that Nebraska and Maine are the only states doing it halfway fair.
DeleteThe blue dot - if the events were actually in that area, it could explain your experience. We really need a more representative form of elections.
DeleteI don't think climate change is viewed as a bipartisan question, at least in the US. it's viewed as a radioactive partisan issue. It also polls poorly.
ReplyDeleteWe may be a generation away from clergy who are comfortable talking about it in the context of church moral or social teaching.
Jim I think you are right that it seen as a radioactive partisan issue right now.
DeleteIf it’s a “ radioactive issue” then there is even more reason to follow Francis’s courageous example and talk about it in church. The church is supposed to teach about these issues—not hide in a locked room trembling in fear of the Roman soldiers (MAGA). Isn’t conversion of minds and hearts part of the church’s job?
DeleteI think the church sees hatred as the most pressing issue right now. Hatred of immigrants and the "other". The hatred that causes wars and sees the other side as having no rights.
DeleteYes, hate and war and peace are obviously important.There has never been a time in church history when those evils weren’t present. Too many times the church itself sponsored hate and wars - not just the Crusades either. The church locked itself into a room during the Nazi years and didn’t rock the boat. . Individual bishops, priests, and nuns acted against the Nazi regime at personal risk to their lives. But mostly the institutional church did not - it feared reprisals from the Nazis - it locked itself in a room. It turned away when thousands of Jews in Rome were sent to the death camps from its own neighborhood. The American bishops have not mentioned the racism of this administration - the war on DEI, the disproportionate firing of blacks from the federal government and high level military—even the Head Chaplain of the Armed Services. Why was he fired? He was black. They haven’t mentioned the literal whitewashing of history in the parks, museums and historic monuments - removing the history of slavery, the massacres of native Americans etc from historic sites. The red states are doing the same. Trump made the Park Service remove Martin Luther King Day from the free admissions days of the parks, while adding June 14th - his birthday. They said nothing about the promotion of hate towards immigrants and refugees until the lawlessness and violence of the efforts became apparent. Plus, Vance might be right - Catholic Latino immigrants under 25 outnumber white Catholics under 25. The church desperately needs the Latino Catholics in the pews. So the bishops finally started speaking up.
DeleteClimate change is controversial. I was a doubter for a long while. But now, in my view there is no doubt that it is happening. The arctic ice didn’t use to melt as it is does now. There are legitimate differences in opinion about the causes. But there’s is no doubt whatever that emissions from cars and factories pollute the air and hurt vulnerable people.This administration is rolling back all efforts to create clean energy which would actually be a good thing to have right now - so the world wouldn’t be so dependent on mid-east oil. This administration is gutting all regulations meant to preserve the environment - including trying to sell national parklands and forests to oil, gas, mining and logging interests. They are getting rid of regulations against polluting air and water. They are gutting regulations to protect wildlife. It’s all about greed. Wars are all about greed too. Is the church all about greed too? Don’t offend the parishioners by teaching the gospels. They might cut their donations. At the same time they are looking for tax money to support their failing schools. Because Catholics in parishes are no longer willing to support them.
Caring for the earth is in the Bible. Abortion and contraception are not. But what is the focus in the US—abortion, abortion, abortion—and condemnation of members of the gay community, especially trans people.
Jesus suffered and died to teach us that to save ourselves we might have to suffer also when standing up to power. Few Catholic clergy seem willing to do that. They stay in their comfortable, locked rooms.
There is another election this year. Let's see how Catholics vote in November's election, and assess where Catholics and the MAGA movement stand in respect to one another in 2026.
DeleteTrump may have launched us into the fossil fuel free future earlier and more painfully than we otherwise would have been. 20% less oil, 30% less natural gas, 30% less helium, reductions in fertilizers. If nothing else, it’s a preview of our future. Only this bumbling idiot and his coterie of jesters could have made this vast mistake.
DeleteStanley, perhaps it’s the silver lining. Sane countries are accelerating their efforts to develop alternative energy, and EV sales are way up ( Chinese cars, not American).
Delete"Trump may have launched us into the fossil fuel free future earlier and more painfully than we otherwise would have been."
DeleteI've had the same thought! Wind and sun don't care about the Strait of Hormuz.
An item in our local daily newspaper reports that the Trump administration has streamlined the approval process for nuclear power plants. That may be his vision of an alternative to petroleum.
Jim -“
DeleteThere is another election this year. Let's see how Catholics vote in November's election, and assess where Catholics and the MAGA movement stand in respect to one another in 2026”.
It would be hard to get any worse.
I just think it's hard to know what is in the minds of people coming into the church. I can only speak about those coming in through our parish's program - and really, do I actually know what they're thinking? From my observation and conversations with them, they're not particularly political.
ReplyDeleteOur suburban parish has some MAGA types (including a guy who sits next to me in the bass section :-)), but they're not very numerous or vocal, from what I've seen. But it's been a longtime observation that suburban areas are not hotbeds of MAGA support. By and large, I don't think we're his kind of people around here.
The statistics in our county are that 77% of registered voters are Republicans, 20% are Democrats, and 3% are Independent. I imagine that pretty much holds true for our parish. We have lived here 30 years and I can count on the fingers of one hand the times that politics even came up in conversations with fellow parishioners, including some that are close friends. That's the way I like it.
DeleteThese days I am mostly Independent but still am registered Republican because we don't have an open primary. I want to be able to vote against some bad unqualified candidates. Of course Democrats have some bad unqualified candidates too, but I'm not too worried about them because they won't get to first base anyway.
DeleteThough I do believe on the national scene things will change in November
Delete“ can count on the fingers of one hand the times that politics even came up in conversations with fellow parishioners, including some that are close friends.”
DeleteYour parish is an echo chamber it seems and I’m guessing that most of the people in your parish never hear much about the lies, corruption, violence etc promoted by trump. They listen to Fox (or worse) and think everything is hunky dorey and that Dems are all evil and afflicted with TDS.
Hit “ publish” too soon. This echo chamber reality is one reason priests and bishops have a moral responsibility to educate their parishioners on the gospels - specifically the church’s official, social justice teachings. They are failing in their mission - because too many of them also find that the church’s social justice teachings make them squirm also, and they would rather not face their own consciences. Better to stick with abortion, abortion, abortion.
DeleteI don't think the parish is an echo chamber. I have no idea if they watch Fox News, probably a lot of them do. What it is, is a place to pray and worship. I remember reading that some of the medieval churches had a place for people to lay down their swords outside before they went into church. I think metaphorically speaking it's important to "lay down our swords" before we worship together. I can pray beside someone who watches Fox and they can pray beside me who doesn't, we both believe in the same articles of faith. Conscience formation starts with listening to the Gospel. And there is a diocesan website and a lot of publications to become better informed.
DeleteAnne, you have shared that it's hard to find a parish in your area which isn't MAGA oriented. I would be uncomfortable with that too. But how would someone who is in that right wing milieu feel about being harangued about what they consider to be partisan issues? They probably wouldn't come back, any more than we would want to attend a partisan church from the MAGA point of view.
Katherine, you and I disagree then about Catholic Social Teaching being only partisan issues. I see them as practical examples of Jesus’s teachings in the gospels. If the church is to be a positive moral influence in America then it must lead - by openly teaching the gospels and linking them to official Catholic social justice teachings. If the church is to be silent in the face of these issues instead of following its mission to lead people to transformation, to matanoia, then it’s nothing more than a feel good exercise of a particular expression of religion. Coffee and doughnuts and fish fries and don’t say a word about the evil policies of this administration.
DeleteMAGA teaches the opposite of what Jesus taught. But it seems the church that focuses on Jesus’s bloody death as a way to redeem us from our sins from the anger of a vengeful God is ignoring what Jesus really did to be tortured to death - he died in order to teach his followers - he spoke truth to power and took the consequences. The majority of the bishops in the US are afraid to do that, as are most priests and deacons who give homilies. The bishops are after taxpayer money and cash from rich MAGA Catholics (and exemption from civil rights laws, which are rapidly being destroyed) and the pastors are after pew-sitter donations. In the meantime, it keeps closing parishes and schools. I have no desire to give money to the RCC anymore except the groups like CRS and Jesuit Refugee Service. But a monthly donation is automatically charged to one of my credit cards to benefit the Washington National Cathedral - because Bishop Maryann Budde does speak truth to power. She isn’t afraid to confront trump. She is what a bishop should be - setting an example for the members of her church and the priests of her church to follow by teaching the gospels without fear. I doubt she will be invited to any WH events to rub elbows with the rich and powerful - unlike Barron and Dolan and several others.
Very few are willing to risk the money by teaching the gospels.
I started paying attention again to the RCC because of Francis - but the American church rejected him. Pope Leo might have better results - but I doubt it once the joy of having an American baseball fan as Pope wears off.
I continue to be upset with the RCC because it’s a tragedy that it is not using its potential to be the most powerful force for good in the world - by teaching the gospels openly and not hiding in a locked room until the Roman soldiers are out of power. Let us pray that someday the horrors of MAGA will be gone. In the meantime, the reality that more than 60% of white Catholics support it is one of the biggest scandals in Catholic history, and there have been plenty. A total failure of the church in America.
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