The Catholic crack-up - what Pope John Paul II needs to accomplish during his visit to the US

On his visit to America, the Pope's main task will be to remind his flock what a church is for.

When Pope John Paul II arrives in the U.S. on August 12 to attend World Youth Day in Denver, he will find the American Catholic Church a house divided against itself. In the words of one crusty Franciscan, "The only thing holding the American Church back from a schism is the real estate." And that rift is tied in with other problems.

In 1958 about 78 per cent of Catholics attended Mass weekly (compared to 44 per cent of Protestants). Recent polls report that weekly Mass attendance has declined to 35 per cent, and some well-informed people (like a chancery official in an Eastern diocese who regularly travels throughout the country) contend the actual figure is closer to 25 per cent. While that is higher than the 13 per cent reported by mainline Protestant churches, it is reason for serious concern.

In 1952, 83 per cent of Catholics said religion was "very important" in their lives. Now only 54 per cent say that. Moreover, Catholics are the only religious group in America who report that religion was more important to them as children than as adults. This, more than anything else, reflects the extraordinary changes that have occurred in a single generation.

The reasons given for the decline are mixed, of course, with equal numbers citing the Church's adherence to tradition and the Church's having stepped away from it. In working with alienated Catholics, I have found that the reasons for dropping out are never entirely clear even to those who have left. Yet there is probably a clue in the fact that the churches enjoying an attendance boom, here and in Latin America, are evangelical and fundamentalist Protestant churches. People attend church because they yearn for a respite from the inadequacies of the secular world and seek an understanding of their lives on a more profound level. A church that goes too far in accommodating the values and vision of the secular world has defined away its distinctive appeal.

Preserving the Mystery

The rift is reflected in disputes over the liturgy. Just 35 years ago there was only one basic, central prayer surrounding the sacrament. Since then, following the introduction of the New Order of the Mass in the late Sixties, diversity in forms of worship has gone beyond legitimate and historical pluralism. In some places rogue liturgies have become the norm. Conservative priests are being ostracized by their progressive colleagues, simply for observing the rubrics as outlined in the official documents of the Second Vatican Council and approved liturgical texts. Catholics often find themselves shopping for services to their liking as Protestants have done for years.

As if to throw gasoline on the flames, news leaked out last year that the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) intends to push for updated and "inclusive" versions of the Our Father and the Creed. Such efforts win undoubtedly increase the alienation felt by many Catholics who attend Mass in search of stable truth in an unstable world. And not just the laity. Priests across the theological spectrum feel the alienation captured in a joke that has made the rounds of American seminaries:

Question: What is the difference between a terrorist and a liturgist?

Answer: You can negotiate with the terrorist.

All of this may explain the growing interest in liturgical forms which were in existence before the Second Vatican Council. The loosening of the restrictions on the old (Tridentine) Mass has resulted in fully one-third of the dioceses in the country now offering it once a week (most major cities have several in place), and the number is growing. What is heartening - and surprising to outside observers - is the large proportion of young people attending traditional Masses.

Society v. the Church

These tensions within Catholicism are compounded by its growing conflicts with American culture. Indeed, John Paul arrives at a time when American culture is increasingly suspicious of religious authority in general and hostile to the Catholic Church in particular.

This factor intersects in various ways with the disturbing issue of pedophilia in the priesthood. As those most familiar with the issue agree, we are dealing with a tiny number of errant clerics; the percentage of sexual abusers among the clergy is no greater than in any other profession that deals with children. Still, the media have had a heyday with this issue.

All too often it is difficult to get a straight answer from a Catholic leader on anything but the finer points of universal health care. What the public needs is an explicit recognition by the Church that priests who have committed such actions are involved in grave sin and that both the scandal and the sin will be directly dealt with. John Paul addressed the issue forthrightly in a June letter. But his message was diluted a few days later when a spokesman said we "must ask if the real culprit is not a society that is irresponsibly permissive, hyper-inflated with sexuality" such that it would "induce even people who have received a solid moral formation to commit grave moral acts." Liberal syndicated columnist Colman McCarthy was able to make much of the spokesman's equivocation, likening it to a "devil-made-me-do-it theory" and "the secular ethic of guilt-free rationalizing." He had a point.