Trickle-Down Theology Won't Work

Trickle-Down Theology Won't Work | Jonathan J. Bean, Ph.D. | A Guest Op-Ed for Ignatius Insight | July 27, 2009

In 1935, a French politician asked Joseph Stalin to appease the Pope by tolerating Catholicism in the Soviet Union, where atheism was the state "religion." Stalin roared "The Pope! How many divisions has he got?"

In fact, the Pope had many divisions throughout the world. Catholic churches and schools taught the faithful that God, not man, ruled over the universe. These unarmed divisions destroyed Soviet-style communism from within and exerted Western Catholic pressure from without.

That was then, this is now. Has Pope Benedict XVI lost his divisions, especially schools, to the relativism that he denounces in his recent encyclical (Caritas in Veritate)? From Rome, the Pope calls for virtuous conduct in the marketplace, yet Church teaching no longer "trickles down" to the Catholic masses the way it once did. As spiritual "transmission lines," Catholic schools face two challenges: the exodus of Catholics to "value-neutral" public schools, and the subversive influence of academics who flout the "Magisterium" (the "teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church").

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Comments

[Redfeather]

Catholic schools have lost their way. My experience with them is that the emphasis is on all things politically correct and they are run by faculty that embrace modern values. That is why the school parking lot is full of Landcruisers with Obama bumper stickers, why many students have only one sibling, and the pet social justice campaigns are fighting breast cancer and reducing the carbon footprint.

The mustard seed of Catholic renewal is via Catholic home schooling, I believe.

[Ed Peters]

"Stalin roared 'The Pope! How many divisions has he got?'"

I imagine he said it quietly, with cold, calculated contempt for the Church, but the point otherwise stands.