David Quinn
If the Church tries to be too accommodating of cultural Catholicism, it starts to lack coherence, writes David Quinn
In Ireland, most people still seem content to call themselves ‘Catholic’. Census data for 2016 put the figure at 78%. The RTÉ exit poll on the day of the abortion referendum came up with a similar number. Why does the figure remain so high when so many of these same people disagree with the Catholic Church on some very fundamental issues, not least abortion?
The number of people who call themselves ‘Catholic’ is much higher than the number who go to Mass each week. The latter figure is about one in three of all baptised Catholics. At what point does a person who almost never goes to Mass and disagrees with the Church on many issues stop saying they are Catholic?
French friends tell me that in their country very few people describe themselves as Catholic unless they go to Mass regularly. This is because in France and various other European countries, ‘cultural Catholicism’, or ‘cultural Christianity’ does not really exist anymore.
Willingness
By ‘cultural Catholicism’ is meant the willingness to still identity as Catholic even when your religious practice is very irregular. Cultural Catholics are those who don’t attend Mass weekly, or even monthly but still want their children baptised, still want them to make their First Holy Communion and Confirmation, still want to get married in church and still want a church funeral. They might also turn up for Mass on the likes of Christmas Day or Easter Sunday.
Both the institutional Church and regular Mass-goers have traditionally had a benign view of cultural Catholics. They are glad they still want their children baptised and so on and they are glad to see them at Mass on Christmas Day.
That said, they are not so happy when it is absolutely obvious that many of the parents who want their children to make their First Holy Communion or Confirmation basically see it as a big day out, as a way to mark their children becoming older and more mature, who see First Holy Communion and Confirmation as ‘rites of passage’ but attach no real significance to the religious aspect of the events.
This can be demoralising for priests and for those lay Catholics who do take these events seriously.
However, to date, practicing Catholics have been willing to tolerate cultural Catholics on the grounds that it is better that they show some interest in religion than none. You never know, they might eventually start to take their faith more seriously again in the future?
In the past, cultural Catholics, even while disagreeing strongly with the religion of their childhood in some very important matters, have basically been content to live and let live. That is to say, they might not agree with the Catholic Church in all things, but they have not tried to insist that the Church change in accordance with their wishes. That seems to be changing.
One example is the minor controversy that arose when Junior Minister, John Halligan was prevented by a priest from being a Confirmation sponsor for his godson.
Mr Halligan was barred because he is a self-declared atheist. Confirmation is obviously a Christian event when you are confirmed in your Faith as you approach young adulthood. Your sponsor is supposed (in theory at least) to help strengthen your Faith. How can he do that when he is an atheist?
Minister Halligan described the decision to bar him as “petty”. But how can it be petty when the whole point of being a Confirmation sponsor is that you share the Faith of the person being confirmed?
The controversy shows how sacramental events like Confirmation are increasingly seen as cultural events, full stop, rather than as religious events first and foremost.
When the religious aspect of Confirmation, First Holy Communion, etc. is being forced to downplay itself to this extent, then the ‘cultural’ side of ‘cultural Catholicism’ begins to totally overwhelm the ‘Catholic’ part.
This is when the bishops have an absolute duty to step in and defend these events as religious first and foremost, which is what the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Phonsie Cullinan, and the parish priest in question did on this occasion. (Although it should be said that Bishop Cullinan did not directly name John Halligan when stressing who can and cannot be Confirmation sponsors.)
Bishop Cullinan and Bishop Kevin Doran also tried to set down a marker when each said that any Catholic who voted for abortion, knowing what they did, had committed a sin and should attend Confession.
Some people question the prudence of them saying this, while a number of priests said Catholics who voted ‘Yes’ were welcome in their churches every Sunday.
But neither Bishop Cullinan nor Bishop Doran said such people weren’t welcome. They simply stressed that certain actions are incompatible with the Catholic faith, and voting for abortion is clearly one of those.
Wrongness
The priests who said ‘Yes’ voters were welcome in their churches without pointing out the wrongness of voting for abortion were not offering proper pastoral guidance to their congregations. That is to say, they were not properly defending the Catholic part of cultural Catholicism. What does this say to Catholics who voted ‘No’? Is a Catholic who voted ‘No’ just as faithful a Catholic as one for voted ‘Yes’?
When cultural Catholicism takes a favourable view of voting for abortion and tries to force the Church to go along with this, then we have a problem. We also have a problem if the Church is expected to smile sweetly when an atheist insists he or she has a right to act as a Confirmation sponsor.
If the Church tries to be too accommodating towards cultural Catholicism, it starts to lack coherence and shape. This is especially so when the surrounding culture becomes more and more secular and starts to believe it has a right to dictate to the Church what it should believe and how it should act. At that point, cultural Catholicism starts to become militant and loses its more benign character. At that point, the Church has a duty to stand its ground and insist upon its beliefs and practices.