The Church Confronts Modernity church confronts modernity: Catholicism since 1950 in the United States, Ireland, and Quebec

8. Comparing Post–World War II Catholicism in Quebec, Ireland, and the United States

G r e g o r y Ba u m 8. Comparing Post–World War II Catholicism in Quebec, Ireland, and the United States The title of the conference for which these papers were originally prepared , “Decline and Fall?” suggests a general disappointment with the Catholic Church and an intellectual climate of doom. Paradoxically, at this very time, I am grateful to the Catholic Church (and the other churches in the United States and Canada) for having adopted a critical stance toward the military policies of President George W. Bush. After September 11, 2001, the U.S. churches recommended caution: they demanded that the terrorists be caught and brought to trial, but warned against the use of military violence.1 They also recommended that the government examine the underlying causes of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and asked whether these attacks were related to American foreign policy in the Middle East and other parts of the world. The churches expressed their doubts about the moral legitimacy of the bombing of Afghanistan .2 Later, the Catholic bishops and the leaders of the mainline churches argued that a preemptive strike against Iraq had no moral legitimacy.3 The 268 1. Gregory Baum, “After September 11: The Dialogue of Religions,” Ecumenist 39 (Summer 2002): 8–11. 2. The Pastoral Message of the U.S. bishops of November 14, 2001, expressing hesitation regarding military action, was followed on Dec. 17, 2001, by an outright denunciation of the war, signed by thousands of Catholics. See Ecumenist 39 (Spring 2002): 4–6. 3. In November 2002 the U.S. Catholic bishops addressed a letter to President Bush in which they argue that according to Catholic teaching on just war, a preemptive strike against Iraq has no moral legitimacy. For the similar evaluations of the other mainline U.S. churches, see Joe Feuerherd, “Opinions Clash on Just War,” National Catholic Reporter, February 7, 2003, 3. pope fully shared this opposition to the war.4 He asked Catholics to make Ash Wednesday, the 5th of March, a day of prayer and fasting in support of peace. Further on in this essay, I shall discuss the spiritual forces behind this political involvement of the Catholic Church. The essay has three parts. The first compares the secularizing trends in Quebec and Ireland and contrasts them with the experience of American Catholicism, which, despite internal conflicts, continues to thrive. The second deals with a common element: the creativity of Catholicism in Quebec, Ireland, and the United States in the wake of the Vatican Council . I shall argue that the Church has defined its relation to the world and the world religions in accordance with a new paradigm. The third briefly reflects on the refusal of Irish, Quebec, and U.S. Catholics to accept the Church’s official teaching on women and sexuality and, related to this, the emergence of a new Catholic culture. Secularization in Quebec and Ireland Contrasted with the American Experience There is an obvious similarity between Ireland and Quebec, two small Catholic societies, at one time colonized by a Protestant empire, that struggled to protect their survival and identity. They were both peoples with strong Catholic faith, willingly accepting the clergy as their spiritual leaders. When, in the 1840s, the papacy mobilized the Catholic Church against the emerging liberal society—the ultramontane turn5 —the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland and Quebec became fiercely antiliberal, a political stance they sustained right up to WW II and, in some cases, even beyond. Yet beginning in 1960, a cultural transformation occurred in Quebec that initiated the secularization of society at a surprisingly rapid pace. Twenty years later, a changing cultural climate in the Irish Republic also led to the loss of Catholic power. Let me begin, therefore, to examine the similarities and differences between these two processes of secularization. Post–World War II Catholicism 269 4. John Paul II, “The Ten Commandments of Peace,” January 24, 2002. 5. Joseph Komonchak, “Modernity and the Construction of Roman Catholicism,” Cristianismo nella Storia 18 (1997): 353–85. Secularization in Quebec World War II had a different impact on the two societies. Since Ireland decided to remain neutral, it did not share the profoundly unsettling experience of the war that shook Europe’s traditional institutions and opened the door to both the creative and the nihilistic power of cultural pluralism. Ireland remained undisturbed in its Catholicism. By contrast, Canada...