Amoris Laetitia in a Protestant Eyeby S. M. Hutchens
Most of the Catholics my wife and I have known are not the serious, knowledgeable sort encountered in Touchstone circles, but "average," and by this I mean something like "kind of nominal," and a bit different from anything encountered in the Protestantism with which I am familiar. If a modern Protestant is inclined to go to church, he finds one that he likes, and goes there. Denominational loyalties, while not entirely a thing of the past, tend to govern first tries rather than form pre-commitments. But a Catholic, once formed, seems more dyed-in-the-wool, and remains Catholic unless he finds a very powerful reason not to be. As a Protestant, I am surprised, even after years of observing this phenomenon, by the level of alienation, even hatred, expressed by Catholics for a church they just can't seem to leave, when I would expect a Protestant in the same position either to change churches or give up on religion altogether.
If one of these Catholics likes his parish, he will typically tell me it is because he likes his priest, whose best quality is often cited to be that he understands and makes allowances for the average person. He shoots hoops with the kids, tells lots of interesting stories in his homilies, and in various other ways assures his parishioners that he, too, is a man of flesh and blood, and has qualified himself for the ministry of reconciliation by being no stranger to anything human.
So far, so good—who would not appreciate such a priest? But then so very often comes the observation of what he is not like: the hidebound, legalist celibate who keeps harping on the rules, who does not make allowances for the ways or opinions of modern people, who has not changed with the times, and who keeps making connections between enlightened opinion, normal human behavior and, ugh, Sin. I have seen evidence that any number of hoops shot with the kids will not atone for the failure to fail in teaching the Catholic faith seriously.
Affirmation & Ambiguity
But now there appears to have been, for my "average Catholic," some cause for relief in the election of "Good Pope Francis," who is perceived to be of a very different, much kindlier temper than his two predecessors in the office (especially that cold, academic fish, Benedict XVI) and who gives off many signs that he is willing to make allowances for the humanity of his flock. As I write, the latest of these is to be found in his papal teaching, Amoris Laetitia ("The Joy of Love").
The question to which this writing on the family was hoped to speak authoritatively is whether divorced and remarried Catholics could be admitted to communion. Understandably, the traditional discipline is that they should be excluded because they are, according to the Lord's teaching, living in flagrant sin. But there was hope among many that a more inclusively minded pope would be of a more practical mind and lift the ban. Effectively, he has.
R. R. Reno of First Things explains:
Francis doesn't actually say that divorced and remarried Catholics can receive communion. Amoris Laetitia explicitly affirms the church's teaching on marriage. But in long digressions into the complexities of moral and pastoral discernment, Francis provides plenty of justifications for others to say that, yes, in particular situations, divorced and remarried Catholics can receive communion. All the while, Francis insists that the Catholic teaching on marriage must be affirmed. The ambiguity seems intentional, designed to increase scope for pastoral discretion. . . . In the tortured material on "irregular" relationships, Francis demonstrates the Jesuit tendency [to make the priest's judgment the arbiter on who can and cannot receive on the basis of their interior spiritual condition] to excess, however. He instrumentalizes the Church's sacramental system. What gets in the way of realizing the "ideal" must be made less rigid. What's helpful—Eucharistic reception—must be made more available.
Ross Douthat observes,
This is not the clear change of doctrine, the proof of concept for other changes, that many liberal bishops and cardinals sought. But it is an encouragement for innovation on the ground . . . [and makes for] a sense that the church's leadership is a little like the Soviet nomenklatura, bound to ideological precepts that they're no longer confident can really, truly work.
A slippage that follows from this lack of confidence is one of the most striking aspects of the pope's letter. What the church considers serious sin becomes mere "irregularity." What the church considers a commandment becomes a mere "ideal." What the church once stated authoritatively it now proffers tentatively, in tones laced with self-effacement, self-critique.
Practical Result
The result of this "on the ground," to use Douthat's telling phrase, can only be an intensification of the good priest/mean priest dichotomy already in the mind of the all-too-average Catholic. If the divorced and remarried wish to receive communion, there will be certain parishes in which it is understood there is an understanding Father—Nice, like the pope—who has no objections, and others in which there is a legalistic priest who insists on cleaving to the insensitive, unpastoral, and un-Christian teaching that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery, as does whoever marries someone who is divorced.
S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone
online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
on the Political Use of Religion by Wilfred M. McClay
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine." —Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal." —Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
Touchstone is a Christian journal, conservative in doctrine and eclectic in content, with editors and readers from each of the three great divisions of Christendom—Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox.
The mission of the journal and its publisher, The Fellowship of St. James, is to provide a place where Christians of various backgrounds can speak with one another on the basis of shared belief in the fundamental doctrines of the faith as revealed in Holy Scripture and summarized in the ancient creeds of the Church.
The Fellowship of St. James is a 501(c)(3) non-denominational, non-partisan, organization that receives no government funding. All gifts are tax-deductible.
