- Feb 5, 2002
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One of the most annoying things about the Catholic Church since the 1960s is the frequency with which various bishops, priests, religious and lay people have considered themselves to be “prophetic” by aligning Catholic teaching and Catholic practice with the habits of the culture in which they live—for which they wish to be admired as both visionary and “loving”. Of course, such realignment is hardly unique to our time. If we lived for centuries, I suspect we would notice this in every age, even if some periods are worse than others.
After all, the Church always draws her members, and ultimately her clergy and religious, from the world. Therefore, whenever discipline from the next higher level has been lax, a great many Catholic leaders have made their livings preaching a reconditioned gospel with which the world can resoundingly agree. An even greater number of lay people have commended this practice, though it has never been a source of numerical growth—indeed, quite the opposite. Unfortunately, to have our thoughts and aspirations conditioned by the world’s culture is a constant danger since we humans strive for a favorable response and possess an almost instinctive sense of what is “acceptable” or “unacceptable” in the world around us.
Now on to the theme suggested by my title: At any given moment, these acceptable values and opinions fall into that nebulous category of what “everybody knows” to be right and good.
But we are not everybody
Continued below.
www.catholicculture.org
After all, the Church always draws her members, and ultimately her clergy and religious, from the world. Therefore, whenever discipline from the next higher level has been lax, a great many Catholic leaders have made their livings preaching a reconditioned gospel with which the world can resoundingly agree. An even greater number of lay people have commended this practice, though it has never been a source of numerical growth—indeed, quite the opposite. Unfortunately, to have our thoughts and aspirations conditioned by the world’s culture is a constant danger since we humans strive for a favorable response and possess an almost instinctive sense of what is “acceptable” or “unacceptable” in the world around us.
Now on to the theme suggested by my title: At any given moment, these acceptable values and opinions fall into that nebulous category of what “everybody knows” to be right and good.
But we are not everybody
Continued below.
Beware! The spiritual paradox of not being “everybody”
As Christians, we may not consider ourselves to be everybody, which is to say <em>just anybody</em>. We will always be on a contrary path.
www.catholicculture.org
