Religion & Law

A must-read piece by John Allen, the reporter-on-things-Catholic whom all Catholics, of all stripes, seem to respect:

 . . . I?m inclined to think the past week does mean something, and here?s my first-blush stab at expressing it: Collectively, I think these events both symbolize and advance the collapse of Catholicism as a culture-shaping majority in the West. When the dust settles, policy-makers in the church, particularly in the Vatican, will be ever more committed to what social theorists call ?identity politics,? a traditional defense mechanism relied upon by minorities when facing what they perceive as a hostile cultural majority. . . .

Of course, some observers -- and not just religion?s cultured despisers, but many Catholics themselves -- welcome all this, seeing it as a long-overdue dose of humility and accountability. On the other hand, a growing band of Catholic opinion, certainly reflected in the Vatican, believes that a ?tipping point? has been reached in the West, in which secular neutrality toward the church, especially in Europe, has shaded off into hostility and, sometimes, outright persecution.

Some blame a rising tide of neo-paganism in the West for the church?s woes, while others say church leaders, and especially the Vatican, have no one to blame but themselves. Whichever view one adopts, the empirical result is the same: Catholicism no longer calls the cultural tune. Benedict?s decision to launch an entire department in the Vatican dedicated to treating the West as ?mission territory? amounts to a clear acknowledgment of the point.

Facing that reality, Catholicism, both at the leadership level and in important circles at the grass roots, is reacting as social theorists would likely predict, with a strategy that other embattled minority groups -- from the Amish to Orthodox Judaism, from the Gay Pride movement to the Nation of Islam -- have often employed: Emphasizing its unique markers of identity, in order to defend itself against assimilation to the majority. . . .

To be sure, Benedict XVI?s ambition is not merely that the church in the West will be a minority, but a ?creative minority,? a term he borrows from Arnold Toynbee. The idea is that when great civilizations enter a crisis, they either decay or are renewed from within by ?creative minorities? who offer a compelling vision of the future.

The $64,000 question, therefore, is whether Benedict?s version of a ?politics of identity? is the right way to unleash the creativity in Catholicism that will allow it to play a transformative role in the cultural movements of the future. One thing?s for sure: projecting a robust sense of Catholic identity seems poised to be the guiding principle in Rome for some time to come.

I reflected, by the way, a bit on the "creative minority" idea in this reflection on Deus Caritas Est, "Church, State, and the Practice of Love".