Hey, Catholics, Stop Navel-Gazing. Help Our Country

By Peter Wolfgang Published on September 28, 2018

“Nothing,” I told him. The reporter for the Catholic news outlet was shocked. He wanted to know what grassroots Catholic activists are doing in preparation for the midterm elections. I explained: “Catholics are distracted by the Church’s scandals and are paying very little attention to the upcoming elections.”

He was shocked. I wasn’t.

Absorbed Catholics

Catholics tend to be so absorbed in the internal drama of the Church that they lose sight of their responsibilities in the wider world. It’s a form of clericalism. The laity is called to evangelize the secular world. We are not called to spend the lion’s share of our energy on the Church itself. The laity’s lopsided focus on internal Church affairs has crippled the Church’s ability to evangelize the world in the entire half-century since Vatican II.

The Church’s liberal dissidents first went down that road. They have entire publications whose main purpose is to move the Church itself in their direction, like the National Catholic Reporter.

But in more recent years I have seen my own conservative brethren do the same thing. In the Spring of 2007, Connecticut’s legislature was considering a law requiring our state’s four Catholic hospitals to provide the “Plan B” abortifacient drug to pregnant women. The ecumenical organization I run, Family Institute of Connecticut, worked with the Catholic bishops in fighting against it.

The bill passed overwhelmingly. Some of the most otherwise pro-life, Catholic-friendly, legislators voted for it. Why? Because the response from the Catholic laity was dismal. Hardly anyone came to the state capitol that Spring when the bishops issued a call to arms.

I understand the anger with the bishops. What I don’t understand are Catholic laypeople who did not join the fight against the state but saved all their anger for the bishops.

That autumn, after the law was passed, the Bishops announced that they would no longer fight it. The Catholic laity exploded in anger. Not at the legislature for passing the law, but at the bishops for ceasing to fight it.

Laity Make the Difference

I understand the anger with the bishops. What I don’t understand are Catholic laypeople who did not join the fight against the state but saved all their anger for the bishops. My phone rang off the hook for about two and a half years after that incident, with laypeople expressing to me their outrage at the bishops. If they’d directed a fraction of that anger at the legislature before the vote, the bill might never have become law.

Because it is the laity that makes all the difference. When they did rise up in 2009 against another attack on the Church in Connecticut, the legislature quickly withdrew the bill. But the lay activism of 2009 seems to have been an exception. More common is what I saw in 2007: a laity that is not roused to anger unless and until they are roused against their own bishops.

I don’t fault the laity for their legitimate anger at the state of the Church. I share it. But the Church’s problems aren’t the only problems Catholic must face in 2018. The bishops aren’t the only villains.

Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.

Catholic lay activists already focused more on the ups and downs of the Church itself than on winning the world. The scandals will, quite understandably, make them even more focused inward.

When I get a text on the day of Connecticut’s 2018 primary from a homeschooling activist asking about the Archbishop’s response to the scandal, and she informs me that she and her husband are not registered to vote in the primary, something is wrong.

When an employee of a conservative religious order texts me that same day that he accidentally voted for a pro-abortion candidate for governor because he somehow missed three months-worth of messages from our PAC, something is wrong.

Fix the World

Yes, by all means, let’s fix what is wrong with our Church. But let us not lose sight of our responsibility as Christians to fix what is wrong with our world. To fix the world Jesus died for.

Yesterday I prayed in front of Hartford’s abortion clinic. It was the first day of the 40 Days for Life. I was alone.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Like the article? Share it with your friends! And use our social media pages to join or start the conversation! Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, MeWe and Gab.

Inspiration
The Scarcity Mindset
Robert Morris
More from The Stream
Connect with Us