The Battle for the American Church Revisited

Msgr. Kelly, well familiar with the key leaders in the American Church, chronicles developments here since Vatican II in great detail. He observes that since the Council, people in key leadership positions too often hold views that are a distortion, if not an outright falsification of, the true aims of the Council. Essentially, these views boil down to a denial to one extent or another of papal authority and Church Tradition, and the acceptance of relativism in faith and morals. This change of view, so precisely opposite the strong orthodoxy that characterized the American Church before Vatican II, can be seen in Catholic colleges, seminaries, religious orders (especially the Jesuits), and (amazingly) among many bishops. The results have been dire: a weakening of faith and optimism among the laity, fewer conversions and more "cafeteria Catholics", and great confusion as to the true direction and purpose of the Church. Msgr. Kelly believes this battle between defenders of the Faith and those seeking a new faith has gone on far too long. He looks to the Bishops and to Rome for leadership: if they take a strong stand, rejecting half-measures, appeasement and laxity, they can do much to reclaim and reenergize the hearts and minds of the flock. And, as Msgr. Kelly frequently reminds us, it is not merely a question of hearts and minds, but of souls. Those who are taken in by the secular norms of our day, who attempt to reduce this battle to a political disagreement between "liberal" and "conservative" or between "freedom" and "obedience" make a grave error. This is not a political dispute with merely material ramifications, it is a spiritual war upon which our eternal salvation rides. This point of Msgr. Kelly seems much in need of making, since it seems that so many, even Church leaders themselves, seem so eager to miss it.