Catholic Bishops Meet In Secret To Discuss ‘Culture War’ Issues: What Does It Mean For The Church?
(ANALYSIS) While Pope Francis was presiding over a ceremony at the Vatican to consecrate Ukraine and Russia on March 25, a group of high-ranking American bishops met in Chicago.
The gathering at Loyola University — entitled “Pope Francis, Vatican II and the Way Forward” — was co-sponsored by Boston College’s Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life and Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture. Its aim was, according to news coverage, to create a dialogue between theologians and bishops.
“We want to show that opposition to Pope Francis — not universally, but to a large extent — is opposition to Vatican II,” said Mark Massa, a priest and historian of the American Catholic Church, to describe the goal of the meeting. “Francis is trying to cash the check that Vatican II wrote — synodality was the big thing.”
READ: Press Uses Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' Catholicism Against Him On Social Issues
Synodality is an invitation to build deeper communion within the body of Christ, according to the Vatican, and part of a process the pope has embarked on this year to create dialogue between Catholic believers and clergy.
The two-day meeting, by invitation only, didn’t appear to fit the description of synodality. Rather, as Massa said, it was meant to see “how we can move the American church away from these culture wars divided between conservatives and liberals … to a united position where it’s possible to be on a spectrum of positions and still be considered a good Catholic and not be called names by people who disagree with you.”
Critics in the conservative Catholic press read that statement to mean how the 70 prelates in attendance — with help from progressives within the American church in the form of academics, journalists and theologians — could bolster this pope’s agenda. Those on the Catholic left in the National Catholic Reporter billed it as a way bishops “can better support the agenda of Pope Francis.”
I reported at the end of 2021 that this year would “be the one where the battle between this pontiff and doctrinal traditionalists intensifies even further.” The culture war that is dominating our politics at the moment has spilled over into our religious institutions and the Catholic church’s hierarchy.
These meetings are yet another example of an intensifying fight between progressives and traditionalists in the church. The progressives call for “reform” when it comes to, for example, the way the church handles LGBTQ issues and part with the more traditionalist bloc of cardinals by signaling an opening of the door to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion. On the other side, traditional Catholics, those who want to uphold church teachings, see this movement and pontiff as a threat to centuries of church teaching.
What makes the gathering even more sinister to traditionalists is that the conversations were held under the “Chatham House Rule” — meaning speakers, panelists and attendees agreed they could only speak afterward to the news media about the contents of the discussions to help foster an open environment. As a result, recordings of the keynote speeches and panel discussions have not been posted online.
Like any series of meetings not open to the public, what it all meant was played out on social media and in the Catholic press across the doctrinal spectrum.
LifeSiteNews, a conservative Catholic news site, contacted the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Archdiocese of Boston and Loyola University Chicago’s Hank Center, “seeking further information about the conference, as well as the reason for general avoidance of the media. No response was received at the time of publication.”
The panels, according to those in attendance, included the impact of wealthy conservative influence in Catholicism and media companies, the polarization among U.S. bishops and the atmosphere of education at American seminaries.
Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, one of the attendees, said afterward that part of the purpose of the event was to “understand the spirit of what they call the ‘opposition.’”
“We have this what they call ‘opposition’ to the pope,” Rodriguez, who is also the coordinator of the pope's advisory Council of Cardinals, told NCR. “It’s trying to build walls, going backwards — looking to the old liturgy or maybe things before Vatican II.
“Vatican II is unknown by many of the young generation,” he added. “So, it's necessary to come back and to see that all the reforms of Pope Francis are rooted in Vatican II.”
Some Catholics, seeing that Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago was an attendee, saw the meeting as a chance for progressives to gain control of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. As of 2019, the USCCB is headed by Jose Gomez, the archbishop of Los Angeles and a traditionalist whom Pope Francis has not given a red hat to despite overseeing such a large city.
Concerns by those on the Catholic right aren’t entirely unfounded. In 2016, Vatican observer John Allen wrote that Pope Francis “engineered what may prove to be a seismic shift in the Catholic hierarchy in the United States, elevating not one or two, but a full three new American cardinals seen as belonging to the centrist, non-cultural warrior wing of the country’s hierarchy.”
The list included 13 new cardinal electors, meaning those under 80 and eligible to vote for the next pope, and featured three Americans. The three Americans? Then-Archbishops Blase Cupich of Chicago and Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis, as well as Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas.
Allen noted at the time:
While none of these three figures would be seen as “liberal” by secular standards, they are perceived as belonging to the more progressive camp in the Catholic hierarchy.
Of the three, Cupich and Farrell were quasi-expected, although one never knows with the unpredictable Francis. Chicago is an archdiocese that’s long been held by a cardinal, and Farrell’s new Vatican post seemed to beckon a cardinal at the top.
Tobin, however, is more of a surprise. Indianapolis is not a traditional “red-hat” see, meaning a diocese typically led by a cardinal, and his name had not featured prominently in much of the speculation leading up to the consistory announcement.
Cupich and Tobin were attendees in Chicago. Francis’ papacy has been divisive, especially among American Catholics, with his statements and appointments over the years. The culture war rages on. These meetings are a sign not to expect a ceasefire anytime soon.
Clemente Lisi is a senior editor and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged. He is the former deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.