From the U.S., Head of VR English Section Shares Reflections on Church in the United
States
(17 Apr 08 -RV) The head of English programming at Vatican Radio, Sean-Patrick Lovett,
is in the United States with the Holy Father, and shared with us his reflections on
the Church that so happily receives Holy Father in these days…
Text
Things
are what you call them. The Pope talks about the “Church in America”. In America,
they talk about the “American Church”. There’s a difference. While there is only one
Church (whether it’s in America or wherever), the Church in every country does have
certain characteristics that make it unique. And the Church in America is no exception. This
isn’t the time or place to launch into lengthy analyses (which have already been done,
extremely well, in several prestigious books and publications). More modestly,
I’d like to suggest 4 adjectives that give some clues at least to understanding the
special nature of this American Church. First of all, it’s big. Very big. It’s
the third largest Catholic community in the world, preceded only by Brazil and Mexico
in terms of numbers of faithful. Which means it makes its presence felt, both inside
the United States and beyond. Two: it’s generous. Countless humanitarian, aid and
assistance programs and initiatives around the world are sponsored or supported by
American Catholics and related charities, agencies or associations. Three: it’s
varied. It’s a melting-pot of cultures and ethnic groups representing dozens of different
traditions. And this guarantees a richness and variety of faith and worship which
is without parallel in any other national context. Four: it’s changing. Rapidly
and radically. If demographic and immigration trends continue at the present rate,
then by the year 2050, half of the American Church will be Hispanic. So it’s not only
already multicultural, it’s also largely bilingual. This is the Church Pope Benedict
XVI addressed, through its pastor-bishops, at the National Shrine in Washington DC.
He was responding to the President of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Francis
George, who had just given voice to some of the major concerns of the American Church
at the present time: political, religious, social, ideological and moral. The Pope
didn’t hesitate to respond clearly and concretely, returning to the sexual abuse issue
in greater detail, setting it in a wider context of social and moral responsibility
and calling for a “determined, collective response”. And to the Church in America,
the Pope launched a new challenge: to recapture the Catholic vision of reality and
to present it in an engaging and imaginative way. For such a big, generous, varied
and rapidly changing Church, that should prove to be no challenge at all. With
the Pope in the United States, I’m Sean-Patrick Lovett.