Stephen P. White

The deep divisions in the Church make it clear that the Church needs a big change. The document just passed by the U.S. bishops on the Eucharist isn’t it. But it might prove an important brick in beginning lasting renewal.

Archbishop José Gomez has a long track-record of speaking on racism and social injustice in a way that consistently challenges both the injustice of the status quo and the instrumentalization of the faith as a mere means to political ends.

For more than 40 years, President Biden (and others) have used the interminable “dialogue” in the Church as a pretense for using their Catholic faith as political cover for promoting abortion. The freshness of that dialogue turned rancid long ago.

Rome remembers her martyrs, and what an astonishing place to be allowed to join in that remembrance. I am filled with a pilgrim’s gratitude.

As Christians, we always have hope. It is not a hope for worldly success, or even that we will live to see the ecclesial (and social and political and cultural) renewal we hope will come. It is the hope that comes from knowing that however grim the battle, the war has already been won. Let us be happy warriors.

By almost any measure, America is the wealthiest nation in the world. Whether compared to other nations of the world today or in the past, ours stand out as perhaps the most affluent society in history. Are we better for it?

If the Church would keep the sheep in the fold, and call home those who have strayed, it would do well to speak in a recognizable voice.

The mission of the Church is not the responsibility of the diocesan pastoral center or some committee in the parish. It can’t be delegated or outsourced or professionalized. The mission belongs to all of us.

Our destiny is not to return to the way things were once, before all was made subject to corruption. Rather, our redemption lies through corruption, through suffering, through even death, to what lies beyond.

Restoring episcopal credibility is going to require a level of accountability and transparency which may be painful, even humiliating, at times.

Concerns about the pitfalls or potential abuses of synodality ought to be acknowledged, but it would be a terrible mistake to dismiss the promise of synodality out of hand.

The status quo will not be improved simply by denying Joe Biden (or anyone else) access to the Eucharist. But bishops weighing the pastoral costs of taking a clear stance on Eucharistic coherence ought to weigh those costs against the cost of perpetuating the manifest failures of the last several decades.