Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church by George Weigel (review)

This volume by George Weigel, prominent neoconservative and Catholic commentator, draws a stark picture of Catholicism and its future. Echoing what he has written in many other places, Weigel indicates that today there is but a remnant of truly believing Catholics, and he suggests that they are largely engaged at the front lines of a war where they are pitted against the armies of an “ambient culture” fundamentally opposed to the teaching authority of the church and permeated by secularism and materialism. The ability of this Catholic remnant to swell their ranks through the force of reasoned argumentation and through the testimony of their Christ-centered piety, he concludes, will determine the fate of the Catholic Church over the next century.

Weigel asserts that this remnant – the adherents of what he calls an “Evangelical Catholicism” which is both theologically conservative and fully engaged with contemporary issues – can trace their origins to the papacy of Leo XIII (1878–1903). Leo’s early support for a recovery of Christ-centered piety through the means of modern biblical criticism, his effort to address contemporary philosophical concerns through the revival of Thomism, and his issuance of Rerum Novarum, the first of several “social encyclicals” designed to articulate a Catholic approach to modern economic life, would set a new tone for the church’s future relationship with “the world.” Unlike what he regards as the unhelpful triumphalist and defensive “Counter-Reformation Catholicism” that had dominated since the sixteenth century, Leo’s new approach, according to Weigel, set out to advance the church’s positions through the force of positive engagement around issues of broad concern. Yet Weigel’s own hearty endorsement of – and deep engagement in – the ongoing culture wars would seem to belie his endorsement of a positive style of engagement. Further, while scholars will understand the contrast he makes between Evangelical Catholicism and Counter-Reformation Catholicism, many ordinary Catholics and non-Catholics alike will likely have a hard time grasping the difference, particularly given the evident pugnacity and seeming defensiveness of many of Weigel’s Evangelical Catholics on a range of doctrinal and public policy matters.

This book covers a range of pertinent issues along the way. Weigel is most evocative and compelling when affirming the insights of Dei Verbum, Vatican II’s Constitution on Divine Revelation, and discussing the believer’s meditative engagement with the scriptures as the foundation of a vital and ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ. In a section that may spark agreement among some of his critics, he calls for the appointment of bishops from among the ranks of younger clerics with meaningful experience in parish ministry and higher education, and he endorses the development of a mechanism by which diocesan laity could provide input during the process of choosing a local ordinary. Tellingly, he decries the advance of same-sex marriage and alludes to dangerous “homosexual corruptions” (148) among the clergy, but ultimately says little of significance about the multiple and complex issues related to sexuality and gender that will remain crucial as the church heads into the future.