The Only Hope is Holiness: A Meditation on What it will take to Restore our Culture

Archdiocese of Washington ^ | 9/30/2014 | Msgr. Charles Pope

[markomalley]

There has been a tendency for traditional Catholics to hitch their wagons to the Republican Party specifically, and conservative politics in general. It is demonstrably true that the stated platform of the Republican Party has been more aligned with Catholic teaching on a number of critical issues: abortion, religious liberty, the definition of marriage, euthanasia, school choice, parental notification, etc. And while it is true that some other issues as stated in the Catechism (opposition to the death penalty, immigration reform, care for the poor, etc.) align with Democratic views, most traditional Catholics point out that these issues are either not doctrinally absolute, or are matters about which reasonable people can differ in terms of implementation.

But though it is demonstrably true that the Republican platform hews closely to Catholic teaching on many life and family issues, it is also demonstrably true that there has been an alarming and consistent decline in the cultural adherence to Catholic, biblical, and traditional teaching in these matters. And this decline has occurred despite significant periods of Republican ascendency in the past 60 years. There have been many Republican presidents during the years since the cultural revolution of 1968. And there have been periods of significant Republican control of Congress as well, especially since 1994. At best, traditional values held their own during these periods. But it is hard to argue that Republican or conservative majorities reversed the rising tide of abortions or euthanasia, reduced the levels of fornication, diminished the number of divorces, or curtailed support for same-sex unions.

What are we to learn from this? A thoughtful article by Yuval Levin over at First Things offers some insights. I am generally less optimistic than he is, but I would like to share what I think are some of his better reflections. The full article is here: A Pessimistic Case for Hope.

Yuval Levin, who is at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and is editor of National Affairs writes (my remarks are in red),

Ten years ago this fall, it seemed for a moment like social conservatives might be ascendant in our politics. Immediately after the 2004 election, some analysts on the right and left alike said George W. Bush’s reelection signaled a rising tide of “values voters” who would yield an enduring nationwide advantage for Republicans on social issues … Many social conservatives now look wistfully upon that moment and see in the decade that followed … a sorry decline. Both politics and the culture now seem increasingly hostile to social conservatism, and religious believers in the public square are fighting for even minimal tolerance. The tide appears to have turned decisively …

So here is well described the traditional tendency of the past thirty years to seek to advance traditional cultural values through political connection. This is not intrinsically wrong and has many historical precedents. For many decades the Catholic Church unofficially aligned with the Democratic Party in order to advance Catholic social teaching related to civil rights, labor conditions, wages, benefits etc. As those issues waned, and Labor Unions become powerful and all too often corrupt, attention shifted to the moral issues in the wake of the sexual and cultural revolution.

The “legalization” of abortion in 1973 did not immediately cause a political realignment. But by the early 1980s the parties largely landed on different sides of the issue. Catholics increasingly found allies among Republicans regarding abortion and other family and life issues that were emerging in the wake of Roe and the 60s revolution.

However, unlike the heady days of labor victories and the Civil Rights movement, the alliance with Republicans has produced only limited victories and little more than a slowing of the erosion of the values related to family, faith, and life. And thus Levin notes here the general pessimism that pervades traditional ranks today. He continues:

But today’s cultural conservatives exhibit the wrong sort of pessimism about all this. They are too pessimistic about their cultural and political prospects because they are not pessimistic enough about the limits of human nature. A clearer sense of those limits should help us see not only why traditionalism never triumphs in the liberal society but also why progressivism can never suffice …

Ah! Here is an interesting reference to our fallen human condition. At the end of the day, Government cannot really remedy our fallen tendency to be obtuse, rebellious, greedy, and licentious. It is really more the role of culture and the presence of a strong, prophetic, organized and effective Church that must, by God’s grace, work to remedy the worst of the ills we face. The notion of a strong government role in creating a just society is too easily a form of utopianism.

Perhaps it is true that government through laws and policies can reinforce good behavior and punish bad or destructive behavior. But if the culture is really heading south (as it is) that culture will ultimately infect the very government some wish to engage as an ally. Why are there so many wicked, corrupt and confused leaders in the civic arena? Why are even the better among civic leaders often weak and ineffectual in boldly addressing the cultural decline? Why do conservative judges on whom some many conservatives have placed high hopes, so often disappoint? Because, at the end of the day, these are the sorts of people our culture produces: deceived and often unscrupulous leaders and/or weak, uncertain, ineffectual and easily swayed leaders.

Sadly the malaise has often reached the Church as well. For while the Church still teaches infallibly on faith and morals and her doctrine and Scripture is a sure light, this guarantee does not extend to all her leaders who are also products of a confused, compromised and darkened culture. Clear and courageous teachers and leaders among the clergy as well as among parents are harder to find, and frustratingly disappoint all too often.

What then are concerned and traditional Catholics to do? Levin offers the following:

[Traditionalists] should live out their faiths and their ways in the world, confident that their instruction and example will make that world better and that people will be drawn to the spark….And it means that traditionalists must be committed to the preservation of spaces for private life that are protected from the perverse shortsightedness of politics.

In other words, it means that we are going to have to persist in our fight to keep government out of our families and Church. Increasingly intrusive government involvement needs to be seen for the danger that it is. Levin continues:

…We should be intensely engaged in the struggle for the soul of our society—knowing we can expect no ultimate victory from politics, but also that we are by no means destined to defeat, and that by persisting in the struggle we make room for another generation to rise and thrive and seek to embody the good.

Many years ago Venerable Fulton Sheen remarked that we have tried every means to change the world but one: holiness. Government cannot save us; only God can save us. And God works through grace and the transformation of world one soul at a time. It is easier to put on slippers than to carpet the whole of the earth. So, it is time to shod our feet with the Gospel of Truth.

And holiness cannot remain an abstraction. It is time for traditional Catholic men and women to get married and stay married; to have larger families and raise them in the fear of the Lord. It is time to stop being greedy and selling our soul to the trinkets of the world, so that we can’t “afford” children. It’s time to pray and fast. It’s time for Eucharistic Adoration and the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy. It is time to stop fornicating, staying silent about the sinfulness of homosexual acts, and making light of any form of sinful rebellion. It’s time to dress modestly and live differently and visibly in a world gone coarse, immodest and cynical. It’s time to heroically care for the poor and not just think the government should do what we should do. And we must link the poor to the gospel, not just be another social service agency. It is time for clergy and parents to be more courteous and clear.

It is time to live differently. Our only real hope is holiness, only then can we bee a real leaven that will lift our culture out of the mess and mire we are currently in.

Therefore gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct;…[Thus purifying your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brethren, love one another earnestly from the heart. (1 Peter 1:13ff)

[markomalley]

While I fully agree with the thrust of Msgr Pope's article, I had some issues with some assumptions he made in the opening paragraph. I penned the following response to him on his blog:

Msgr Pope,

Another great article. We need to hear more preaching on how we should be conducting ourselves as Catholics. Personal holiness is not nearly discussed enough in homilies...

A couple of points in your opening paragraph that I would take issue with. (Note: while you characterize people in your piece as "Republicans" and "Democrats", I prefer not to categorize people by political party, but by ideology)

I will agree that most conservatives (you used the term Republicans) tend to agree with the positions taken by St Thomas Aquinas (e.g., S.Th II-II-64-2&3; SCG III.164) and St Augustine (e.g., Civ. Dei I.21) in regards to the death penalty, rather than the position espoused by the post Vatican II popes and that supported by the USCCB.

Having said that, you state that immigration reform, care for the poor, etc., more closely line up with the Democratic party. I would submit that the position taken by most conservative Christians on those subjects line up far more closely with the Papal Magisterium than those taken by leftists.

I know of very, very few conservative Christians (Catholic or otherwise) who object to immigration. Most of those with whom I associate have absolutely no problem with immigration: most of us object to uncontrolled, illegal immigration. While I acknowledge that most of the US bishops do not distinguish between the two, there is actually a distinction. I do not know of many who object to the terms of CCC 2241.2.

Pope St John Paul II made three salient points in his Message for World Migration Day, 1996:

1. Illegal immigration should be prevented
2. It is also essential to combat vigorously the criminal activities which exploit illegal immigrants.
3. The most appropriate choice, which will yield consistent and long-lasting results is that of international co-operation which aims to foster political stability and to eliminate underdevelopment. [NB: which would lessen the need to migrate for family survival]

While there might be discussion among conservatives as to the State's role in the third point highlighted above, I doubt that there is much argument about the first two points.

As to the subject of care for the poor, there is a profound difference between the attitude of conservatives and leftists. As I understand it, leftists wish for the State to provide cradle-to-grave care for everybody who is either unable or unwilling to work. Most conservatives with whom I speak believe that the Lord's mandate in Matt 25:31ff is an individual responsibility, a corporal work of mercy, as opposed to something that is properly carried out by the State. I know of very, very few conservatives who would argue with the proper "Role of the State in the Economic Sector" as defined in Art. 48 of Pope St John Paul II's Centesimus Annus. I cannot think of any conservative I've ever met who would disagree with the principle of the inviolability of private property as defined throughout Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum. Likewise, the principle of subsidiarity defined in Pius XI's Quadragesimo Anno 79 is just plain common sense to any conservative I have ever met (whether Catholic or otherwise).

As Pope Benedict XVI stated in Deus Caritas Est:

"The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. "

As for how well conservatives actually do with supporting private charitable efforts, I would encourage you to review the chart at this webpage ( http://philanthropy.com/article/The-Politics-of-Giving/133609/ ) to see the amount of charitable giving as a percentage of income by state. With few exceptions, conservative states are at the top of the list.

---------------------

I recognize that the above is going off on a tangent rather than addressing the thrust of your blog post, but the idea that the Church is lined up with conservatives ("the Republicans") when it comes to morality issues but lined up with leftists ("the Democrats") when it comes to social issues is something that seems to be accepted as a truism in Catholic circles; yet I don't see that "truism" holding up to scrutiny when actual leftist policies are scrutinized in the light of the Papal Magisterium. This is especially true when we examine the impacts on society when those leftist policies are put in place over a period of decades.

[markomalley]

Msgr Pope ping

[NYer]

Ping!

[livius]

You made some good points.

I was listening to Spanish radio the other day (from Spain, that is) and heard a piece on Caritas (Catholic charity organization) and all that it does to bring in and support hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from Africa and the ME every year. These people have usually gotten to Europe with people smugglers on boats or even ships from North Africa, such as the one that sank last week, and are in terrible condition. You’d have to be very hard-hearted not to feel sorry for them.

Part of the piece was done in Melilla, the Spanish enclave in North Africa, where they have built a huge border fence and you could literally hear the Africans, mostly from the Sudan or Somalia, throwing themselves against it and screaming to get in. So how can anyone object to the Church helping these people?

The problem is that there is absolutely no way to help every African or Middle Easterner in the world or admit them all to Europe. The thing to do is to improve the economies and governments of the places they live. Bringing them into Spain does nothing but create a huge colony of people who will never become part of European life (most of them are Muslims) and will live in poverty and resentment and even end up attacking the country that has helped them.

But we - including the Church, or perhaps especially the Church - have ignored the duty to encourage the people to demand virtuous, non-corrupt governments in Africa, to demand protection against Islam (something we never discuss is how much economic disruption and lack of development is caused by the relentless attacks of Islam on African countries), and to develop an economic system that is not based either on repressive, vengeful (and usually anti-white) state control or unfettered corruptocracy.

But that would require honesty, something that is in short supply with both parties, and certainly something that seems to be fading from the Church, with its fondness for left-wing policies and its avoidance of any truthfulness about the elephant in the African economy, Islam.

So instead, at times like these, we’re treated to the sight of the foolish Cdl. Dolan out there praying for the groundhog that DeBlasio dropped in February.

[stanne]

Cardinal Dolan did not pray for a dead animal... Tell me he did NOT do that

[livius]

I think he was joking with the first “prayer,” but he promised to come with DeBlasio next Groundhog Day and pray for “Staten Island Chuck,” the woodchuck dropped by DeBlasio.

Cdl Dolan is just a fool, that’s really all I can say about him.

[all the best]

” care for the poor, etc.) align with Democratic views”
Stealing fro some to destroy and enslave others is not at all righteous. Give and it shall be given unto you. Produce, create. contribute. Continually demand that more be given you and you will never have enough. NEVER>
The monsignor and his bishop are part of the problem with their support of the agenda of envy, jealousy, covetousness and theft. This is why they won’t excommunicate their allies such as Pelosi, Biden and Kennedys.

[Petrosius]

Yes, we need to focus on personal holiness but we also need to be involved in the world. The problem with conservatives’ reliance on government to reverse our cultural decline is that the focus is too narrow. All we have been doing is looking at the next election. What we have failed to recognize is that the Left is engaged in a long term effort to change society. While they have used the government to advance their cause, their main tactic is Antonio Gramsci’s “long march through the institutions.” In other words, they have systematically taken over those institutions (education, entertainment, news and the courts) that shape the culture.

It is conservatives focus solely on elected politicians and passivity against the Left’s takeover of these institutions that has doomed our efforts. A case in point is the newest Leftist fade of “transgenderism.” This madness has popped up in our schools overnight but where is the opposition? Why have we allowed our schools to be staffed with personnel that would promote this insanity? Conservatives need to stand up and say “no.” We need to also demand that those promoting this be removed from the schools. We also must recognize that we will have to engage in civil disobedience to achieve our goals. Organize parents to remove their children from school until our goals are met. Organize a tax revolt. Publicly protest. Most importantly, remember that the goal is not just to reverse the policy but to remove the personnel who are promoting it. In any field of life, if a person is charged with racism he is out. We should demand the same for those who seek to destroy traditional Christian values.

Government only reflects the society that produces it. We need to reshape this society and we need to do it in the same manner that the Left has used. It is important to regain those institutions that are the foundations of public thought. These institutions, and the people who staff them, need to be held accountable. Most importantly, we need to publicly advance our values and stop being afraid of attacks from the Left. It is time to start our own march through the institutions.

[left that other site]

Wow! I also caught that in the opening paragraph!

To assume that democrats “care” more about the poor is a meme that poisons the Church, across denominational lines, and including the entire spectrum of our Judeo-Christian Culture.

From the Torah to the Gospels, through the Early Church and to this day, the onus of caring for the poor and sick has been the job of the Church (meaning, in this case, Believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).

Just look at the names of the hospitals, cemeteries, orphanages, etc, and you will see their origins plainly. St. Jude, Beth Israel, Mt. Sinai, Baptist medical center, Holy Cross, St. Margret’s, St. Elizabeth, St. Vincent De Paul, Hebrew Center for the Aged, etc...and that’s just off the top of my head!

Never, in either the Old or New Testament, is caring for our fellow man given over to the government, and then the few working people who are left taxed to death to pay for it.

Mark, your letter was perfect, and respectfully addressed the issues from a Catholic viewpoint, citing actual documents and policies. Not being Catholic myself, I can only share my intuitive reaction to that first paragraph. I am constantly bombarded by people in my own Faith who insist that the left “is for the poor”. Ugh.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Leftists USE the poor to attain their goals. They are doing it in Ferguson, in Nogales, in New York, and in California. They will continue this ruse until they reach their goals, and then we will ALL be poor and there will be no one to help us.

I read Msgr Pope’s column every day, and enjoy his Bible Exposition, but when he gets into politics, his excellent hermeneutic seem to get drowned in the Kool-Aid.

He is SUCH an educated and erudite man! Why can’t he see this?

[markomalley]

“The problem with conservatives’ reliance on government to reverse our cultural decline is that the focus is too narrow...The problem with conservatives’ reliance on government to reverse our cultural decline is that the focus is too narrow. “

I have said that we need to change the culture to reflect Christian values for years. But this means that enough people (individuals) need to repent of their positions and embrace living a more holy life that this becomes the societal norm and is inculcated into societal mores.

That gets done one at a time.

[Bigg Red]

Excellent points.

[Bigg Red]

It is time to start our own march through the institutions.

***
Hear! Hear!

[Salvation]

Great letter to him.

[annalex]

Good article and good comment.

[defconw]

Well said. I concur.

[RBStealth]

I didnt read the article yet, but.
We have lost the culture wars and politics is not our savior. Political science teaches the Democratic Party and the Republican Party to move towards the electorate if they are to be successful at the ballot box. Our electorate is predominantly now, not Christian and pagan. The Republican party is not nor can it be our savior, oh it helped in the past and we are still going to win some elections. But there will be no political leaders that can effect a sea change which is what is needed. Such a Republican political leader either cannot get elected or will affect only temporary changes. The parties, the politics and the politicians reflect the people.

I have been fond of saying to others over the years:
“The Republican Party has served as an ineffectual door stop against a door that is intending to swing wide open.”
Well that door has swung wide open and guess what, we lost!
Further I dont expect some 20 something, 30 something Republican political junkies to get this. Argumentative as they are they dont have the advantage of living this history and seeing things that were unimaginable 50 years ago(some even 10-20years ago) become accepted norms. Even more so, there will be more to come.

Consequently, we have to “rebuild the Church”, we have to become holy, and help to make society more Christian. This will take time and things will only get worse.Its starts with personal holiness and the family, and grows out from there. Society, the culture and the U.S. wont change until the people become more Christian. There is no other way.

[Salvation]

**Consequently, we have to “rebuild the Church”, we have to become holy, and help to make society more Christian. This will take time and things will only get worse. Its (sic)starts with personal holiness and the family, and grows out from there. Society, the culture and the U.S. wont change until the people become more Christian. There is no other way.**

Amen! Pray, pray, pray.

[GOP Poet]

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