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Shaun Rieley, Ph.D.
By now the world knows that Jorge Mario Bergolio, better known as Pope Francis I, has passed on to his eternal reward. As many have already [ [link removed] ] commented [ [link removed] ], Francis’ legacy is an ambiguous one. On one hand, certain moves signaled momentous changes to the Church while on the other, those moves were always carefully couched in sufficient ambiguity to avoid overt charges of breaking with Church doctrine or tradition.
In one sense, the ambiguity is understandable given Francis’ preferred emphasis: he generally wanted to be understood as moving the Church in a more “pastoral” direction, meeting people where they are and “accompanying” them in their walk. Early in his pontificate, he famously exhorted young Catholics to not be afraid to “make a mess [ [link removed] ]”, a prompt that he reiterated in 2023 [ [link removed] ] at World Youth Day.
And, while the story was nearly always more complicated [ [link removed] ] than much of the media preferred to report, the overall impression is one that prioritized “openness [ [link removed] ]” (read: friendless to modern progressive-liberal pieties) to doctrinal clarity or traditional Catholic teaching.
Of course, the Catholic (from the Greek katholikos, meaning “universal”) Church has always understood itself as “open” in that it is inclusive of everyone—in principle if not in fact. But the Church’s pastoral mission of “openness” cannot be placed in opposition to its duty to proclaim truth. Far from jettisoning truth, any pastoral (from the Latin pastor meaning “shepherd”) approach must maintain its reference to truth, or risk leading the sheep astray.
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Furthermore, any pastoral approach must rightly read the times—after all, pastoring is an aspect of the cardinal virtue of prudence [ [link removed] ], the function of which is to apply truth to concrete circumstances. While more “openness” and laxity may have been appropriate in a previous generation, the current generation is drowning in openness and laxness. Young people today are desperately flailing about, looking for something—anything—solid on which to stand.
As R.R. Reno compellingly argues in his book The Return of the Strong Gods [ [link removed] ], the post-World War II project of ever-increasing openness—undermining strong attachments to family, nation, and religious commitments—has led to widespread alienation, especially among young men. There is a cost to making a mess [ [link removed] ]. Many young people—and especially young men—are turning to traditional [ [link removed] ] religious practices [ [link removed] ] and beliefs [ [link removed] ] both as a means to navigate the modern world and to challenge themselves to something higher than video games, porn, drugs, casual sex, and the other petty pleasures with which modern culture encourages them to satiate themselves.
What they are looking for, it seems, is a taste of something more substantial and authoritative than the shallowness and disenchantment that modern culture offers. They are looking for what conservative philosopher (and Catholic convert) Russell Kirk called the ”permanent things [ [link removed] ]” and what Saint John Paul II called a “sign of contradiction [ [link removed] ]”. They are looking, in other words, not for easygoing softness but something to encourage them to improve themselves and strive for something transcendent.
Given these trends the moment is ripe for a reaffirmation of the deep sources of Church practice, the mystery of faith, the rigors of doctrine, and the call to holiness.
I was confirmed into the Catholic Church 10 years ago this past Easter, in part because I saw the cultural trends and considered the Church to be one of the few remaining xxxxxxs against total cultural decay and because its authority and beauty offered something robust to belong to. As the oldest institution in existence, the Catholic Church represents a crucial source of life for many cultures, including in [ [link removed] ]Africa [ [link removed] ] and Asia [ [link removed] ] where the Church is rapidly growing, and it remains the beating heart [ [link removed] ] of Western Civilization. In this sense, questions surrounding the future of the Church should be of interest to more than practicing Catholics—they have serious implications for the future of the West and the future of humanity at large.
However, I became a Catholic most of all because I came to believe that it is true. The Church is one of the few places in the modern world that has historically been is unafraid to pronounce Truth confidently—resisting, as Pope Benedict XVI put it, the dictatorship of relativism [ [link removed] ] that the modern world has imposed.
This confidence has, unfortunately, been eroded by a lack of clarity around certain matters.
What is needed next is a pope who is able to offer unity combined with clarity of purpose, to provide a compelling vision for the future of humanity. A recovery of confidence, tradition, and beauty are the most necessary things for the next occupant of the Chair of St. Peter—these are the things that will draw in the next generation and maintain the Church in its crucial role as a xxxxxx of civilization and, more importantly, the source of salvation for all comers.
About the Author:
Shaun Rieley is Director of Educational Programs & Teaching Fellow at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C. campus. He holds a Ph.D. in political theory and American government from the Catholic University of America.
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