Denver Catholic

22 NOVEMBER 9-22, 2019 | DENVER CATHOLIC Perspectives I once knew a Congregationalist minister — Yale Divinity School graduate, decorated World War II chaplain, veteran campaigner for then-unpopular liberal causes — of whom it was said (sometimes by himself ) that "David Colwell so fears God that he fears no one else." It was a striking statement, redolent, perhaps, of the Jonathan Edwards ("Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God") School of American Protestant Homiletics. But the source of this man's fearlessness was rather di€ erent than that of a man I was just coming to know when David Colwell and I were friendly jousting partners on questions theo- logical and political. That man was Pope John Paul II. The dissident Yugoslav Marxist, Milovan Djilas, who had seen a lot in his life, once said that the Polish pope impressed him as a man utterly without fear. As I wrote in Wit- ness to Hope, however, John Paul's fearlessness was neither stoic nor driven by concerns about post-mor- tem divine retribution. Rather, it was a fearlessness rooted in John Paul's rock-solid faith that God's Kingdom had broken into history in the death and resurrection of the Son of God. Because of that, those who became friends of the Lord Jesus and entered the communion of his Church could live beyond fear, here and now, because they had been empowered to live the life of the Kingdom, here and now. That faith-based fearlessness might well inspire the bishops of the United States on their upcoming ad limina visits to Rome and the "thresh- olds of the Apostles:" the pilgrimage that every bishop in required to make on a regular basis, during which the Americans will meet in regional groups with Pope Francis and o¤ - cials of the Roman Curia. Why ought the bishops display fearlessness in Rome? Because their task during the ad limina cycle that begins this month and concludes in February 2020 will be to correct the cartoon view of the Church in the United States that is widespread in the Vatican these days. According to the cartoon, U.S. Catholicism is dominated by a rigid, legalistic cast of mind, more eager to condemn than to convert, warped by imports from the evangelical Protes- tant "prosperity Gospel" and beholden to wealthy Catholics with a hard-right political agenda. As any serious stu- dent of U.S. Catholicism knows, this is a vicious lie. But it has been suc- cessfully sold in the Vatican (and then broadcast by the more hard-edged mouthpieces of the present pontif- icate), despite the fact that an early version of the cartoon was propagated in Rome in 2013 by the now-disgraced Theodore McCarrick. The developed cartoon was then used to bully Third World bishops at Synod-2018, where warnings were issued against forming alliances with the Americans, who were "against the Pope." That, too, was a lie. With the possi- ble exception of the Italian conference, no bishops' conference in the world has been more deferential to the Holy See than the U.S. conference. But then the people propagating that lie are over-the-top ultramontanists — papal absolutists — whose idea of the range of the Pope's teaching authority, and the deference due it, might make even Pius IX blush, at least a little (and on his better days). To such minds, even respectful challenge is infi delity. The cartoon view of the U.S. Church was most ludicrously limned in a 2017 article, co-authored by a close papal adviser, Father Antonio Spadaro, SJ, in the Rome-based Jesuit journal, La Civiltà Cattolica. Had I been given that article as a paper by a college freshman in American Religion 101, I would have returned it with an o€ er to the poor student-author: try again and do much better, or take an "F" for your paper. Yet a few weeks ago, while speaking with Jesuits in Africa, the Holy Father commended that very article; and while I would like to think that he com- mended it as a cautionary tale against publishing nonsense, I fear otherwise. For all its faults — and they are many — the Catholic Church in the United States lives the New Evange- lization better than any other local Church in the developed world. More acute minds in Rome know that, though many are afraid to say it lest they be labeled "enemies of the pope." All the more reason, then, for the U.S. bishops to correct the cartoon, respectfully but fi rmly, so that a seri- ous conversation between Rome and America about the Catholic future in the United States can begin. The Catholic Di¬ erence George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. GEORGE WEIGEL Fearlessness and the American bishops in Rome "O ne has to accept sorrow for it to be of any healing power, and that is the most difficult thing in the world … A priest once said to me, 'When you understand what accepted sorrow means, you will understand everything. It is the secret of life.'" —Maurice Baring, Darby and Joan Chris- tianity is a faith that welcomes life and is welcom- ing to the disabled because it is a faith that welcomes su€ ering. It is the Christian's acceptance and embrace of su€ ering that is at the heart of his acceptance and embrace of the suf- fering of others. This is the "secret of life" disclosed by the fi ctional priest in Maurice Baring 's last novel, from which the above quote is taken. The acceptance of sorrow or su€ ering is indeed the secret of life. When we understand that we will understand everything, or, if not everything, we will at least understand the hollow- ness of the lies and delusions with which the world tries to seduce us. Maurice Baring, a bestselling Catholic novelist and great friend of G. K. Chesterton, wrote these words about the acceptance of su€ ering as he was struggling with the debilitat- ing e€ ects of Parkinson's disease, the a· iction that would eventually kill him. They were, therefore, intensely personal. Equally personal was the poem that he wrote as he struggled to cope with the onset of his illness: My body is a broken toy Which nobody can mend Unfi t for either play or ploy My body is a broken toy … My soul is an immortal toy Which nobody can mar, An instrument of praise and joy; My soul is an immortal toy; Though rusted from the world's alloy It glitters like a star; My soul is an immortal toy Which nobody can mar.* In seeing his broken and mortal body in the light of the permanence of his immortal soul, Baring learned to accept his a· iction. Such acceptance is, however, much more di¤ cult for those who have no belief in the soul or its immortality. Although acceptance of su€ ering is a choice, su€ ering itself is not. We are all doomed to su€ er, whether we like it or not or whether we choose it or not. Su€ ering is not a choice, it is a gift. It is given to each of us. Most of us, to be sure, would rather not have it. Most of us do our best to avoid it. Since, however, it is unavoidable, the wise learn to accept it. It is, however, only the holy who openly embrace it and seek it out. It is the holy who understand the true secret of love as well as the true secret of life, which is not merely the acceptance of suf- fering but the joyful embrace of all su€ ering, not simply our own but that of our neighbor, and of Our God. This is the ultimate secret that is revealed by the Su€ ering Christ and by those of his disciples who take up their crosses to follow him. Su€ ering, properly understood in its Christ-like simplicity and complexity, is to be not only endured but enjoyed, not in any sordid masochistic sense but in the liberating sense of the lessons it teaches and the riches it bestows. Scripture is awash with examples of souls being ennobled and enriched by the experience, acceptance and embrace of su€ ering. One of the most powerful is the example of the two thieves crucifi ed either side of Christ on Golgotha. These two thieves can be said to represent the whole of humanity. Both are sinners who have harmed their neighbors through acts Guest Colum A native of England, Joseph Pearce is Director of Book Publishing at the Augustine Institute and an internationally acclaimed author of many books, which include bestsellers such as The Quest for Shakespeare, Tolkien: Man and Myth and more. JOSEPH PEARCE A faith that welcomes su ering

• Cover