Denver Catholic

14 JULY 11-24, 2015 | DENVER CATHOLIC Perspectives The Church and the "New Normal" I n the wake of the Supreme Court's marriage decision, these sober thoughts occur: (1) The Supreme Court of the United States [SCOTUS] has rendered a decision that puts the Court at odds with the Constitution, with reason, and with biblical religion. (2) SCOTUS has gotten it wrong before. It got it wrong on race in Dred Scott and Plessy v. Fer- guson (which upheld segregated public facilities). It got it wrong by concocting a constitutional "right" to abortion-on-de- mand in Roe v. Wade and doubled-down on that mistake by getting it wrong on abortion again in Casey v. Planned Par- enthood. Now SCOTUS has gotten it wrong on marriage. There are remedies to SCOTUS getting it wrong; one of them is a careful re-examination, during the 2016 campaign, of the theory of "judicial supremacy," which holds that the Consti- tution means whatever a majority of the Court says it means. (3) The marriage battle was lost in the culture long before it was lost in the courts. The founda- tions of our culture have eroded; now, the "New Normal" insists that literally everything is plastic, malleable, and subject to acts of human will. The result is a moment of profound moral incoher- ence in which understandings of human nature and human happiness that have stood the test of expe- rience for millennia are being discarded as mere rubbish – and those who resist trashing the moral patrimony of humanity are dismissed as irrational bigots, religious fanatics, or both. This New Normal is willfulness-on-steroids, especially when that willfulness involves human sexuality. Nothing, it seems, constitutes aberrant behavior—except the public defense of traditional virtue. (4) The Catholic Church in the United States bears its share of responsibility for this incoher- ence. It was clear 60 years ago that the old mainline Protestant cultural hegemony was fading, that an alternative cultural foundation for American democracy was necessary, and that a new cadre of citizen-leaders, capable of articulating the moral truths on which the American democratic experiment rests, had to be raised up—and the prime candidate for doing all that was the Catholic Church. It might have happened. But too much of the Church's clerical and lay leadership lost its nerve after Humanae Vitae; the window of opportunity closed amidst the maelstrom of the 60s and the decadence of the 70s; and the forces of incoherence won the day. (5) The New Normal will not leave the Catholic Church alone. Like everyone else who contests the New Normal's ideology of Anything Goes, the Catholic Church will be aggressively attacked for daring to oppose that ideol- ogy. So the Church must learn, fast, how to play good defense, defending the right of our institutions to be themselves and of our people to be themselves; it will do a service to America in the process. (A good primer for thinking through these issues is the recent pastoral letter by Car- dinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, Being Catholic Today: Catholic Identity in an Age of Challenge.) (6) The long-term answer to the New Normal—and to the dic- tatorship of relativism the New Normal is trying to impose on the universities and professions (without encountering much resistance), on traditional religious communities (less successfully, so far), and on individuals (through reprehensible but e– ective bullying and shaming) – is the re-con- version of the United States to right reason, moral truth, and a biblical way of seeing the world. This is a multigen- erational project; it will necessarily be ecumenical and interreligious. From the Catholic point of view, the only pos- sible response to the New Normal is a robustly evangelical Catholicism: one that displays true happiness in lives of solidarity with others; one that links that happiness and solidarity to friend- ship with Jesus Christ and the truths his Church teaches, inviting others to consider "a still more excellent way" [1 Cor 12.31]. (7) And that means a thorough cat- echesis of the Catholic people of the United States, not least through preaching: preaching that forth- rightly challenges the too-often-typical Catholic shrug at the New Normal; preaching that calls Catholics to deeper friendship with Christ, meaning deeper conversion to his truth. George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. The Catholic Di¡ erence GEORGE WEIGEL I 'll never forget when the fi rst Krispy Kreme opened in Denver. The line started forming the eve of opening day—donut lovers from near and far camped out to be among the fi rst to dig their teeth into its one- of-a-kind, hot, glazed, decadence. You might say that Laudato Si' (LS) is my version of Krispy Kreme. Having served an organization that writes small-group study guides for papal encyclicals, I was thrilled about the publication of Pope Francis' work on the environment from the moment it was fi rst announced. These jewels enlighten me to a broader dimension of my faith. I con- sider them the "special sauce" of my journey with the Lord: not always nec- essary to my relationship with him, but they add a unique fl avor that enhances the teachings I already accept to be true. As expected, Laudato Si' garnered heavy attention in the media the day it was published; I relished seeing it play out on my own social media streams. Friends who wouldn't normally take to Church news were captivated by it and participated in the banter. That an encyclical could capture so much attention simply delighted me. As it should; this is a document that impacts all people, Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Pope Francis highlights a myriad of issues that are relevant to our com- plex ecological crisis—he touches on everything from climate change to pollution to poverty to abortion, among others—all symptoms of what he refers to as a "throwaway culture." To reduce Laudato Si' to any one issue as some have attempted to do is to trivialize the breadth of its meaning and beauty, and to miss what the Holy Father challenges us to see in ourselves as participants in this crisis. He unpacks the underlying ethical, cultural, and spiritual dilemmas that contribute to today's ecological crisis, elevating the barometer beyond the cafeteria-style approach to such issues by calling for a determined, wholly-inte- grated perspective. But what strikes me most about the pope's work is his personal call for me to consider the disorder in my own relationships as relevant to the healing of this complex issue. This includes my relationship with myself, with those around me, with my environment, and with God. "Our relationship with the environment can never be isolated from our relationship with others and with God." (LS, 119) In God's economy, everything is con- nected. So when I misuse any of his creation, when I sin against my neighbor, when I assume the role of god in my life, there are negative consequences to "our common home." The Holy Father is bold in his call for me to look inward, to grow in holiness, and to restore myself to a properly-ordered relationship with God. He is the Creator, and I am a recipient of the gifts of his creation. These gifts are to be used for his glory, not my own. Timing is never accidental for those of us who see life through a spiritual lens. That I would receive this call from the Holy Father just days before a legal decision that would redefi ne marriage, one of God's beautiful sacraments, is a gift. What better time for me to pray for a properly ordered relationship with my Creator than now—a time of heightened emotion and opposition among friends, when disagreements can so quickly turn disrespectful. Pope Francis a¦ rms that ". . . every- thing is interconnected, and that genuine care for our own lives and our relationships with nature is inseparable from fraternity, justice and faithfulness to others." (LS, 70) Laudato Si' certainly is an encyclical for this climate of change. A Climate of Change Gina Warner, wife and mother of three, considers herself an everyday Catholic in the pew. View from the Pew GINA WARNER

• Cover