In 2021, it became obvious the US bishops and the pope are singing from different hymnals | National Catholic Reporter

In 2021, it became obvious the US bishops and the pope are singing from different hymnals | National Catholic Reporter 

By Michael Sean Winters

The life of the Catholic Church in this country in 2021 was characterized by an obvious, flailing culture war fit and evidence the pope is more and more determined to press forward with the reception of Vatican II in ways that will likely affect the U.S. church in profound ways.

The effort by the leadership of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to pick a fight with the nation's second Catholic president was the dominant story of the year. NCR's editors named Archbishop José Gomez its Catholic Newsmaker of the Year because of his role in the bishops' conference's catastrophically narrow focus on President Joe Biden's support for legal abortion, and consequent failure to recognize the unique opportunity presented by having a president who attends Mass with a frequency fewer and fewer Catholics display, and who has articulated the importance Catholic social teaching has had on his political views.

The drawn-out squabble about how to frame a document about "eucharistic coherence" showed a conference that was torn between the lousy theology of the culture warriors who think Biden and other pro-choice politicians should be denied Communion and the otherwise universal practice of the church that distinguishes between lawmaking about an evil action and the performance of the evil action itself.

Part of the problem with the debate was a function of the fact that the bishops' June meeting was virtual and the kind of dialogue needed to forge a consensus was therefore impossible. But only part. The other main cause of this debate was that the bishops had elected Archbishop Joseph Naumann to lead the Committee on Pro-Life Activities four years ago, and he used that perch to push for this strategy. When the Vatican intervened, making it clear such a strategy was impossible, the bishops realized in the summer what they should have realized all along: That they needed an off-ramp from this misbegotten approach.

The compromise was a text that is not even technically a teaching document because the conference leadership announced it would not be sent to the Holy See for the canonical approbation necessary for such documents to become binding under the terms of canon law, and specifically St. Pope John Paul II's teaching in Apostolos Suos (Paragraph 22). They have gussied up the document with a proposed eucharistic revival which is not a horrible idea in itself. But when they announced the revival would culminate with a national eucharistic congress costing an estimated $28 million, jaws dropped on both sides of the Atlantic.

"Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing," says Macbeth. But that is not quite right. The sound and fury of the bishops' debacle over Biden — among other items, especially liturgy — signified how out of touch the U.S. bishops' conference was with their people and with the direction the pope is indicating. There remains acute resistance to this pope, and it is more and more evident that such resistance is actually rooted in a deeper opposition to the Second Vatican Council.