The Catholic Church and the latest

I'm sure we all have heard the news.  Pope Francis said that clergy can now bless same sex unions under certain circumstances and for certain reasons. 

It's funny.  Protestantism's biggest failing was not preventing the endless splits and divisions that arose after the Reformation.  Protestants would look at an issue, say they disagree with an issue, and it was off to start a new denomination.  

But Catholics are now doing the same thing.  Perhaps they have been for a long time. I don't know.  But there are clearly different Catholic Churches out there.  Just look at how people are reacting to this.  The news media aside, some are saying this latest development is wonderful. It's a major change in the right direction.  Others are saying it is no change at all. Still others are saying it is a change, but in the wrong direction. Some are saying the blessings have always been there, and in no way suggest the union is being blessed.  Others say this has always happened and is nothing new, that the Church has always been able to bless people in same sex unions.  While others are saying it is merely pastoral, which I suppose is meant to cover a multitude of sins. 

The only difference is, they aren't rushing out and starting their own denominations.  But the difference in how the Church is understood today between rival factions within it is no different than the difference between Baptists, Presbyterians and Lutherans within Protestantism.  Sure, there were some core agreements.  But the understanding of how the Faith actually should look and work were radically different.  Just like we see today in the Church. 

In September of 1999, while I was in the PhD program, I decided to take a big chance.  This was during the Mohler Revolution, and one of the developments of that movement was putting the kibosh on all that lovey ecumenical friendliness with Catholics that had happened in previous years.  That's what I reference when I point out Russ Moore's statements of endless adoration for Catholicism.  If he did have such high opinions of the Catholic Church back then, he kept them to himself as far as I know. For obvious reasons.   

It was a rainy September afternoon, and it was during a break between two seminars.  I went to a Catholic church that was just down from where we lived in student housing for families.  By then my two oldest were around (we would soon find out about our third son).  I went into the office and asked to talk to someone about the Catholic Faith. 

No clue just who the individual was.  She had her own office, I suppose something to do with education.  As is not uncommon, the church had a school attached.  I asked her to give me the skinny on just what Catholicism really believes.  What she said set me back for about a half dozen years.  

She said, in the end, Catholics believe all sorts of things.  It isn't something where you have to believe one thing.  The Church looks mighty different, depending on who you talk to. What one believes about Catholicism can be very different than what another believes, but that's just fine.  I was taken by that.  Why become Catholic?  I could stay Protestant and just denominationally window shop if that's the case.

Years later, after I came into the Church, I was working with the Coming Home Network.  We were at EWTN studios for reasons I can't recall.  It was there I met Kevin O'Brien, Mark Shea and several others.  They invited me to an after broadcast soiree.  While sharing wine and chocolates, Mark Shea sort of put me in front of the crowd and asked me to tell my tale.  When I got to the point above, I remember Mark's quip.  He said nobody works harder to keep people from becoming Catholic than Catholics.  And he was right in that regard.

He also would be correct now, if  he was commenting on the latest from Pope Francis.  It isn't that we are seeing people say Pope Francis just declared something and they think he is wrong.  They don't agree on what he declared. And increasingly they don't agree on what the Church has been doing about this topic since forever.  Even though it's right there for us to look at.  And Pope Francis is right here to clarify.  Yet we are seeing more divisions over this than any brawl between Methodists and Baptists from days gone by. That's supposed to be Catholicism's biggest selling point.  Unlike Protestants who endlessly quibble and divide over this and that core teaching, Catholics have a definite Magisterium with definite teachings that you can reject or accept, but which can't be denied.  Well, that isn't the case now, is it.  

I noticed something this year as we head into the Holidays.  At our local grocery store, the Salvation Army kettle has already been taken down.  I notice some stores, even days ago, are already tearing down the Christmas displays.  Halloween had a longer shelf life.  But is it any surprise that I noticed that the Salvation Army bell-ringers have already taken down their stations?  That some stores began days ago to take down their the Christmas sections?  

Either Christmas, and more to the point Christianity as a whole, is true or not, and our yes should be yes and no should be no in that regard.  When we don't just disagree on a statement, but disagree on what a statement says and what the Church is and has always been about, don't expect the result to be a society that is beating a path to the doors of the Church.  Just ask any Episcopalian or United Church of Christ pastor. 

Rather, expect what we are seeing, and that's a society that is tired of the whole Christmas season.  Not because of the noise or the toys, but because they no longer believe it is true.  That's because we in the Church can't agree about what is true that is right in front of us, and increasingly, what has been true for the past two thousand years. In an age of aggressive secularization and converting the faithful against the Faith, that's as good as hanging a 'Closed for Business' sign on the doors.