The Catholic Thing

(The Catholic Thing. Francis X. Maier).

One of the reasons I spent three years writing a recent book on the Church in the United States was to capture the character, challenges, and real concerns of the men who lead us today as bishops. What I found confirmed my more than 40-year career experience. Our bishops have the same strengths and flaws as the rest of us. But they’re overwhelmingly good men, faithful to the Church and her teaching, and committed to their people. Of course, there are always a few outliers who, whatever their good intentions, don’t quite fit the mold. Simply put, no other U.S. bishop in recent memory has diverged so openly from his brother bishops on sensitive issues, or so obviously ignored the protocols of collegiality, than the Diocese of Lexington’s John Stowe. Jayd Henricks described the overall pattern of Bishop Stowe’s singular leadership in a recent article here. As Henricks – himself a former USCCB senior staffer – noted, Stowe “regularly steps into the most delicate and highly charged cultural and political issues with none of the painstaking care his brother bishops show. He seems determined, in fact, to follow his own blundering impulses, and to kick against the other bishops’ pastoral approach whenever it might rein him in.”

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(The Catholic Thing. Bishop James Conley).

In December 2019, Bishop Conley writes, “I was granted permission by the Holy Father to take a leave of absence to attend to my mental health. It was humbling to admit that I didn’t know how long my healing would take – or if I would even return – but I wanted to combat the cultural stigma around mental health issues (and my shame) by sharing my suffering openly. The outpouring of support and prayer I received from the good people of the Diocese of Lincoln was beyond what I could’ve imagined. I would need all that grace since the hardest part of my journey was still ahead.”

My Story of Pursuing Mental Health https://whatweneednow.substack.com/p/pursuing-mental-health-as-a-catholic Since my conversion to the Catholic Church in college, I have always known my total dependence on God, recognizing this as a defining feature of the human condition. I believed Jesus’ words, “Apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5), but this truth became twisted with a lie. I had been raised according to the common American stereotype of the self-made man who solves every problem himself. When things aren’t going well, he doesn’t show weakness, he just works harder. As a Christian, I adapted this to: he prays and works harder. God offers grace but, with that aid, I mistakenly thought I had to do the rest. Such ungodly self-reliance inevitably led to my unraveling.

Continue reading… Pursuing Mental Health as a Catholic.

Continue reading… My Story of Pursuing Mental Health

(The Catholic Thing. Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap.).

CBS’s 60 Minutes is the premier television interview program in the United States.  Over the years, it has held conversations with politicians, heads of state, royalty, celebrities, actors, athletes, and other people of note.  This past Sunday, May 19, it aired an interview with Pope Francis, the first time that 60 Minutes has interviewed a Roman Pontiff. Pope Francis appears to enjoy giving interviews, and he is very good at giving them.  He has a common touch in his manner of expressing himself, employing words and phrases that catch the imagination of his listeners.  He comes across as one who understands and can speak to ordinary men and women.  In so doing, he elicits an affectionate response.  This was evident in the 60 Minutes interview.  He smiles.  He makes people laugh.  He can even tell a good joke. He endears people to himself.  People cannot help but love Pope Francis, and this is a good thing. That said, there is also another trait that has become apparent when the topic of the Catholic Church in the United States arises.  On this subject, one can be assured that Pope Francis will offer some criticisms.  He perceives the American Catholic Church as conservative – particularly many of the American Bishops.  This concern again became evident in the 60 Minutes interview.

When asked by Norah O’Donnell about the criticisms he has encountered from American Catholics, Pope Francis first stated that a conservative is someone who “clings to something and does not want to see beyond that.”  Conservatism has no future.  It only has a past to which it tightly cleaves.  In this light, Pope Francis made two further inter-related points.  He emphatically stated that to be closed to change is “suicidal.”  This suicidal mindset appears to rest on the presumption that, if one is not open to the contemporary work of the Holy Spirit, one dies as the Church continues to develop.

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