Angelus News | March 22, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 6
On the cover: To cap off a nearly five-decades-long career working in Church communications, Francis X. Maier had an ambitious book idea: a ‘snapshot’ of the Church in America at this time in history that captured both its strengths and its sicknesses. On Page 10, Maier shares what he took away from hearing more than 100 “confessions”’ with American Catholic leaders for the project. On Page 20, John L. Allen Jr. offers his own diagnosis of the uneasy relationship between U.S. Catholics and Rome during the Pope Francis pontificate.
On the cover: To cap off a nearly five-decades-long career working in Church communications, Francis X. Maier had an ambitious book idea: a ‘snapshot’ of the Church in America at this time in history that captured both its strengths and its sicknesses. On Page 10, Maier shares what he took away from hearing more than 100 “confessions”’ with American Catholic leaders for the project. On Page 20, John L. Allen Jr. offers his own diagnosis of the uneasy relationship between U.S. Catholics and Rome during the Pope Francis pontificate.
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for this book, which of the two left a<br />
bigger mark?<br />
The abuse crisis. Quite apart from the<br />
damage done to victims by a minority<br />
of bad clergy, the other lingering<br />
wound — innocent priests not fully<br />
trusting their bishops — comes from<br />
the worry that they could be thrown<br />
overboard to protect the institution<br />
based on a false allegation. It’s not<br />
a universal feeling. But as that 20<strong>22</strong><br />
survey of priests from the Catholic<br />
University of America suggested, it’s a<br />
significant issue with a lot of priests.<br />
Somebody might read this book and<br />
dismiss it as kind of a dark assessment<br />
of things. How would you respond? Is<br />
there hope out there?<br />
“True Confessions” is only “dark” if<br />
you over-focus on the words of criticism.<br />
But there’s much more than that<br />
to the text.<br />
Every good Christian marriage has a<br />
framework of love and a spirit of trust;<br />
it also has a boatload of candor that can<br />
sometimes get pretty blunt. A faithful<br />
life in the Church is very much the<br />
same. People don’t invest their lives<br />
and waste their time on things they<br />
don’t love. And the voices in “True<br />
Confessions” are passionate about their<br />
love for the Church: their confidence<br />
and hope and joy in the Church. They<br />
prove it with their lives. In the end,<br />
we’re defined by what we do; that’s why<br />
it’s called the Acts of the Apostles, and<br />
not their big ideas or frustrated complaints.<br />
Every person interviewed in “True<br />
Confessions” confesses Jesus Christ<br />
by the witness of his or her life. I’ve<br />
read the interviews in Chapter 6,<br />
with parents of children with special<br />
needs, more than a hundred times. I’m<br />
moved every time. I don’t know where<br />
that kind of unselfconscious love and<br />
heroism comes from, but I’ve found it<br />
again and again throughout my life in<br />
the Church.<br />
It’s impossible to come away from<br />
such people afraid or discouraged. So<br />
I believe very strongly that if you read<br />
“True Confessions,” you’re going to<br />
finish it with a spirit of hope. Because<br />
people really do believe. They really do<br />
have joy. And they’re committed to the<br />
future of the Church.<br />
IGNATIUS PRESS<br />
Francis X. Maier is currently a Senior<br />
Fellow in the Catholic Studies Program<br />
at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.<br />
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of<br />
<strong>Angelus</strong>.<br />
U.S. Catholics anonymous<br />
Here is a sampling of some noteworthy quotes given anonymously from “True Confessions.”<br />
We can no longer count on the culture to support a<br />
Christian life. What we’ve got now in our country is, at best,<br />
a tolerance of religion as a personal hobby for superstitious<br />
weak people who cling to their childhood dreams. At worst,<br />
more and more, we’re dealing with a real hatred, an outright<br />
bigotry, toward religious faith.<br />
— Bishop, urban diocese<br />
Clericalism has two faces. It’s both the laity sitting back and<br />
expecting the clergy to do everything. And then, obviously,<br />
there’s the clerical hierarchy, which assumes and sometimes<br />
misuses its authority.<br />
— Married laywoman, theologian, and ministry executive<br />
The Church in the United States is much less corrupt with<br />
much more freedom and many more resources than in many<br />
other places. And there are many more opportunities for lay<br />
leadership, including women’s leadership, in the American<br />
Church. We need to acknowledge and take pride in that.<br />
— Single laywoman and ministry leader<br />
Whenever I get down or angry, I compare the good that’s<br />
happening here with the state of the Church in A.D. 1000.<br />
It was a debacle, a disaster beyond belief, and yet we came<br />
through. So, I have a lot of hope.<br />
— Bishop, urban diocese<br />
The political environment in the United States today is<br />
forcing all of us to wake up to the new realities. Men who<br />
were wishy-washy and could hide from some of the hot issues<br />
before . . . well, nobody can hide anymore.<br />
— Bishop, urban/rural diocese<br />
We’re no longer arguing about how to get to a commonly<br />
shared goal. <strong>No</strong>w we have warring goals.<br />
— Bishop, urban/rural diocese, on the spike in anger and<br />
anxiety in the country since 2020<br />
If Christ doesn’t come back and end the whole thing tomorrow,<br />
it’s worth continuing to fight for the ultimate victory.<br />
— Veteran priest in a letter<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>22</strong>, <strong>2024</strong> • ANGELUS • 13
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