Denver Catholic

14 JANUARY 9-22, 2016 | DENVER CATHOLIC Perspectives Liberal racism bares its fangs G iven the politically-correct hys- teria that typically surrounds any discussion of racism these days, I hesitate to use the term. But it's hard to fi nd another that fi ts certain reactions to Synod- 2015 from the port side of the Barque of Peter. Exhibit A: Shortly after the synod concluded, the website of the German bishops' con- ference posted an article by one Björn Odendahl, proposing that the great suc- cess of the New Evangelism in Africa is "because the people are socially depen- dent and often have nothing else but their faith." Moreover, Herr Odendahl wrote, this "romantic, poor Church" is growing "because the educational situation there is on average at a rather low level and the people accept simple answers to di cult questions." As for all those African vocations, well, "the grow- ing number of priests is a result not only of missionary power but also a result of the fact that the priesthood is one of the few possibilities for social security on the dark continent." Exhibit B: In the aftermath of the Synod, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, archbishop-emeritus of Mechelen-Brus- sels, looked down his nose, cleared his throat, harrumphed – and then told the Church in Africa that it ought to stop criticizing the infi delity and rampant individualism of post-Christian Europe, because "it is possible that the crisis we have had here will spread there, too, with all this entails. Africans may also experience a situation similar to ours. Then they might call us up to see how we dealt with it." Exhibit C: Five weeks after the synod, Paul Vallely, author of an admiring biog- raphy,¤Pope Francis: The Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism, took his subject to the woodshed in a¤New York Times¤op-ed column entitled "The Pope's Failure in Africa." What was that failure? Pope Francis didn't challenge what Vallely regards as African homophobia. And that,¤pace¤Mr. Vallely, was a missed opportunity, because Africa must "embrace" a "message of love, mercy, and inclusion" if it is "to become an accepted member of the universal Church." Well. To Herr Odendahl: It may be unfash- ionable in German Catholic circles to read the New Testament as any sort of reliable record of early Christianity, but do give it a try. Then, you might fi nd out that the Lord Jesus himself chose apos- tles of a "rather low" educational level, and that many people, perhaps simple by your standards but not by the Lord's, fl ocked to him, and later to his apostles, because they found in the community of the friends of Jesus new forms of "social security." (P.S. The term "dark continent" has certain malodorous connotations. Do try to avoid it in the future.) To Cardinal Danneels: If we begin from the fact that Sunday Mass atten- dance in your country is something on the order of 4% (as I'm told by one of your brother-bishops), it does seem somewhat cheeky, and perhaps down- right preposterous, to suggest that Africans take lessons in churchmanship from their putative Belgian betters. African Catholics are not interested in learning what to do with empty churches, convents, and seminaries. As for blaming the ambient cultural environment for Euro-Catholicism's collapse, that's bad form, especially among those for whom learning to make an examination of conscience was an integral part of their sacramental formation. Please consider another possibility: that Belgium, and other Catholic wastelands in 21st-century Europe, did not hear the Gospel and reject it because of cultural pressures; might it be that these faith-free zones haven't heard the Gospel preached for quite a while? To Mr. Vallely: You and those of your ideological tribe do not determine who is "an accepted member of the universal Church." Moreover, if such acceptance requires retrofi tting the Gospel, ignor- ing the Magisterium, and diving into the quicksand pits of moral subjectivism, I don't think you'll fi nd too many folks interested: in Africa, or elsewhere, for that matter. And for you to describe Cardinal Robert Sarah as an exponent of "bigotry" because he doesn't accept the¤New York Times'¤view of the moral life and cautions against the dictator- ship of relativism borders on calumny. Thus a proposed new year's resolu- tion: no more of these Stepin Fetchit knockoª s from progressive Catholics, or indeed any Catholics, in 2016. George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. The Catholic Di¡ erence GEORGE WEIGEL At the heart of the tragedy of addiction A ddiction can be extremely harm- ful, and in some cases, fatal for those individuals ensnared by it. It can be seriously disruptive and damaging to those around them. Who is to blame when it comes to addic- tion? Family and friends may think to themselves, "Why can't Jane just stop drinking?" Or, "Doesn't Joe understand that his gambling addiction is bankrupt- ing the family?" Or, "Can't Bob see how his pornography habit is destroying his marriage and his relationships?" For those facing addiction, it seems they ought to be able to recognize their behav- ior as harmful, and turn away from it by a resolute decision. Family and friends, however, can face years of frustration when they see their loved ones fall into a slow motion "crash and burn," spiraling downwards as they remain unwilling or unable to step away from their addiction. The individual caught in the web of addiction objectively falls prey to a loss of personal freedom. His will becomes weakened, and he becomes enslaved in a way that limits his ability to recog- nize the right order of goods in his life. By repetitively choosing the addictive behavior, it becomes ingrained, and the ability to choose better, alternative behaviors becomes enfeebled, if not seemingly impossible. For these rea- sons, there is almost always diminished personal responsibility in situations of addiction. To be accountable for our acts, we must freely choose those acts, but the internal pressure and downward spiral of the addiction may have already co-opted the individual's ability freely to choose otherwise. Eventually this bond- age can appear to be permanent, and addicted individuals can imagine them- selves pathetic and hopeless to such a degree that they almost give up. In the words of a formerly-addicted individual: "I believe that I did not have a choice to stop…. It never became clear to me that I could live another way until a medical intervention from my physician and friends took place. Willpower plays a small role here, but it too cannot work if one has a malfunctioning brain. I speak for myself here… I could not stop. Period. Now, I have stopped. Not just because of the intervention, but because I have turned my life and my will over to the God of my understanding. That is something 12 step programs have taught me." This radical loss of freedom lies at the heart of the tragedy of addiction. Because we are creatures of habit, the choices we make, either for good or for evil, form us in one direction or the other, so we become individuals who are either capable or incapable of choos- ing the good freely. Virtue is a habit of good, while vice is a habit of evil. Early choices leading down the road towards addiction, freely made, can quickly snowball into vice, addiction and a loss of freedom. As one recovered addict graphically described it: "My beef is with those who claim that they never chose to become an addict or never chose to hurt their families…. While we likely didn't intend to end up helpless, dysfunctional people who [hurt] our loved ones, the choices we made put us at risk of ending up in a sorry state where we were capable of doing things we would have never dreamed of. Unless you were raised on Mars, we all deep down knew the risk of our choices, especially if you're talking about coke, crack, meth, or heroin but we chose to roll the dice anyways. At a certain point, when I was starting to do coke almost every weekend, I knew that it would be wise to stop, but I chose not to because I was having fun and I told myself it will never happen to me. By the end, I was going on solo three day benders with alcohol and cocaine, and I landed in treatment.… my point is that I made the choice to try the substance, the choice to begin to use the substance more regularly, and the choice not to quit when I could have." While there may have been signifi cant moral culpability at the beginning of an individual's descent into addiction, it is still critical for us to never stigmatize, patronize or abandon those who are in the throes of addiction. They may feel they are defi ned entirely by their addiction, unlovable and wretched, rather than seeing that they are, in fact, human beings who are precious to God and those around them, and even now endowed with some tiny space of remaining freedom. That tiny space will become key to determining whether they ultimately choose the behavioral changes needed to improve their situ- ation and recover the human freedom that is rightfully theirs. We should sup- port, encourage and love them in ways that will help lead them toward those good choices and successful outcomes. Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D., serves as director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, www.ncbcenter.org. Making Sense of Bioethics FATHER TADEUSZ PACHOLCZYK, PH.D.

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