The Battle for the American Church

The Battle for the American Church
Msgr. George A Kelly
(Doubleday, New York)

This intervention went contrary to the prevailing spirit at the Council, which has since become the famous spirit of the Council, that "Spirit of Vatican II" which must not be opposed under pain of committing the sin against the Holy Ghost for which there is no forgiveness. Father Arrupe was reviled and ridiculed for what he had said by the Liberal Consensus which predominated in the religious and secular media covering the Council. Nor did most of the Council Fathers take his prophetic warning too seriously. The mood of the Council was what Pope Paul described as "optimistic." It is epitomized in Gaudium et Spes which, despite a number of qualifications and soundly orthodox statements on the mission of the Church, clearly no longer envisages the Church as in a state of war with the world. The Church is seen as best fulfilling its vocation in the modern world by cooperating with those outside its boundaries to build up a more just and humane society. Dialogue rather than anathema was to characterize the Conciliar Church. But, if the City of God declared a unilateral cessation of hostilities, the City of Man did not. The war has continued. The City of God is being systematically razed to the ground and its citizens enslaved by the contemptuous victors. Unlike the Jews who wept by the waters of Babylon when they remembered Sion, there is little lamentation among those who have flocked to accept citizenship in the City of Man. Our Lady warned St. Bernadette that she did not promise her happiness in this life. Happiness in this life is precisely the offer made to those willing to exchange the freedom of the sons of God for the servitude of the slaves of Mammon. Much is written in the documents of Vatican II concerning the People of God. Post-conciliar Catholics might more appropriately be termed the People of the Pill. No less a prelate than England's Cardinal Hume assures us that the People of the Pill are often good, conscientious and faithful sons and daughters of the Church. Well, it's a point of view, not one that would have impressed Pope Pius XI or Pope Pius XII: not one to which, thankfully, Pope John Paul II gives any credence, but a point of view nonetheless.

Monsignor George A. Kelly is one of America's best known writers on Catholic issues. He is author of more than twenty-five books and Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Catholic Doctrine at St. John's University, New York. The title of his book shows that he is under no illusion as to what is taking place within Catholicism at present; it is nothing less than total war. This war is taking place in every country in the so-called "Free world." Msgr. Kelly describes the battle for the American Church. Alas, most American Bishops would deny there is a battle. Like most Dutch Bishops, French Bishops, or English Bishops, they would maintain that we are in the midst of a great unprecedented renewal, compared with which the original Pentecost appears as little more than an unsuccessful mission in a small rural parish. Standing amidst the ruins of the Church into which they were born, and from which they derived their vocations, they will assure us, without a suspicion of a blush or the bat of an eyelid, that we should utter the word "Alleluia" with great frequency in celebration of the great renewal in which we are privileged to be participants. Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem apellant, wrote Tacitus. Had he witnessed the aftermath of Vatican II he would have written: "When they create a wilderness they call it a renewal." Let Msgr. Kelly illustrate the true face of the Conciliar Church.

Msgr. Kelly also documents the transformation of a relatively small Church, composed in the main of underprivileged immigrants to the most important and influential religious body in the U.S.A. upon the eve of the Council:

Msgr. Kelly produces other statistics to illustrate the progress of American Catholicism before Vatican II; for example, what can only be described as the explosion of the Catholic School system. In the Diocese of Chicago alone, school enrollment rose from 120,000 in 1913 to 427,000 in I960. He interprets these statistics as indicating, inter alia, that:

The Author then places the reality of the alleged post-conciliar renewal before us:

No Catholic who loves his Church, because it is the one ark of salvation founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ to perpetuate His saving presence in the world, can read such statistics without profound sorrow. Nor is the disintegration of the Church in the U.S.A. an isolated phenomenon. The collapse has been far more extensive in France and Holland, and the same pattern is found on a more modified scale in such countries as Germany, Belgium or Britain.

Msgr. Kelly begins his book by stating:

This, then, is what the battle is about — it is a battle for the survival of the Catholic Church in the West. Our Lord promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail against His Church, but He did not guarantee its survival in any country or group of countries — witness North Africa or Scandinavia. The situation has been reached where it is those who wish to uphold orthodoxy who are the guerillas fighting an uphill battle against a powerfully entrenched Establishment.

As I have shown in my own Pope John's Council, the seeds of the post-conciliar debacle had been sown long before the Council took place. But it is undoubtedly to Vatican II that we must look for the immediate cause of the accelerating decomposition of Catholicism, to quote a phrase of Father Louis Bouyer. In my book I showed that the Council must be examined from two standpoints: that of the "official" Council, which must be judged purely on the basis of its promulgated documents; and the Council as an event which brought together liberal theologians and journalists from all over the world to set in motion a movement for the liberalization, or secularization, of Catholicism which has been gathering momentum ever since and is destroying the Church in the course of its triumphant progress. But the official documents themselves are not blameless, as I show in some detail in my own book. Msgr. Kelly corroborates what I have written concerning the ambiguity of some of these documents. "The documents of the Council contain enough basic ambiguities to make the post-conciliar difficulties understandable" (p. 20). He illustrates some of these ambiguities in the second chapter of his book, and also accepts that the objectives of the Council "were too numerous and frequently conflicting — for example, growth in Catholic faith as against new definitions that would appeal to non-Catholics." He also accepts that the Council made the mistake of:

Msgr. Kelly makes particular mention of the extent to which sections of Gaudium et Spes were extrapolated from the whole to suggest:

In Chapter III Msgr. Kelly examines the challenge to the Church's Magisterium by dissenting theologians. He notes that: "Unquestionably, dissenting scholars are hawking their wares with much more effectiveness than bishops and their supporters who look very much like men on the run" (p. 38). Indeed, many bishops have stopped running and jumped on the liberal bandwagon. Dissenting theologians are welcomed into their diocese to give lectures and seminars (often to priests and religious), and, should any Catholic protest, he will be the early recipient of episcopal thunderbolts. Those "priests, religious and laity willing to maintain standards set by the Holy See experience little support even from bishops" (p. 96). This is also very much the case in Great Britain. The same chapter contains a perceptive analysis of the thinking of Hans Kung and notes that the net effect of his teaching is to cast real doubt about the existence of "anything supernatural or transcendental" (p. 53).

Chapter IV is one of the best in the book. The Author is dealing with events of which he has firsthand experience, and concerning which he has undertaken wide research. He shows how, in the name of academic freedom, and claiming the support of Vatican II, liberal academics have taken over and virtually destroyed Catholic institutes of higher education in the U.S.A. The underlying assumption of their position is that "the State and the Secular world now establish the rules governing the university world; the Catholic Church and the Catholic university must accept those rules, especially concerning autonomy and academic freedom" (p. 77). This academic freedom extends to putting the facilities of Notre Dame University at the disposal of a pro-abortion group (pp 84-5).

In Chapter V, Msgr. Kelly describes how dissenting theologians in the U.S.A. chose human sexuality as the best issue over which to gain popular support in their battle against the Magisterium:

Anyone who thinks the Author may be exaggerating should consult pages 105-6. Msgr. Kelly suggests that the level of permissiveness advocated in Human Sexuality "has much in common with the teaching of the American Humanist Movement" (p. 106).

Chapter VI, possibly the best in the book, provides an absorbing and meticulously documented account of the manner in which the teaching of the Church on contraception was undermined in the U.S.A., and the attitude of the faithful changed. Msgr. Kelly's researches will prove invaluable to historians of the Church for centuries to come. It is reading which is both totally absorbing and totally depressing. On the eve of the Council, about 30% of American Catholics used contraceptives, 70% accepted the teaching of the Church. By 1970 these figures had been reversed. Today there is little difference between Catholics and Protestants in the U.S.A. on the question of contraception. There can be no doubt that this unprecedented rejection of official Church teaching has had a devastating and debilitating effect upon Catholic life. It has engendered an attitude among the faithful that they have the right to choose for themselves those aspects of Church teaching which they wish to follow. Nor can there be any doubt that responsibility for this widespread rejection of authentic Catholicism must be placed not upon the shoulders of the theologians who incited the faithful to defy the Church, but upon the shoulders of the bishops who allowed them to do so with impunity. Who can blame ordinary laymen for concluding that the views of a theologian must be acceptable if he remains in a prestigious teaching position, as did so many leading American (and English) opponents of Humanae Vitae? The American bishops did uphold the Encyclical in their pastoral but with a notable lack of enthusiasm. Msgr. Kelly comments:

Msgr. Kelly is at the top of his form again in Chapter VIII in which he describes the undermining of the Cana Conference of Chicago, one of the most positive and valuable movements in the pre-conciliar Church in the U.S.A. "The Cana Conference of Chicago began in 1945 as an exciting family movement of the Catholic Church. It became in 1965 a focal point of contraceptive infection for the American Church" (p. 202). By 1972 it was recommending Catholic acceptance of divorce (p. 215), and by 1975 its handbook for engaged couples, Beginning Your Marriage, "has much to say about togetherness, love, and sex but nothing at all about children" (p. 211).

Chapter VIII documents the replacement of sound Catholic teaching in Catholic school with the "New Catechetics." Catholic parents, Msgr. Kelly tells us, "saw the 'new theology' at work and did not like what they saw. When they complained they found themselves overwhelmed by the claims of religious educators to superior knowledge" (p. 237). The effect of the "New Catechetics" has been to leave Catholic children ignorant of their faith, and thus prone to lapse in their teens or even to induce them actually to reject the teaching of the Church.

Chapter IX is entitled Embattled Nuns. Had not the Author provided such full documentation, many readers would feel bound to suspend belief in what he has written. But all the facts are there. Except for a few isolated pockets of resistance, the American religious orders have disintegrated. Fifty thousand nuns left their convents between 1966 and 1976. Many of those who have not left appear to have stayed behind with the sole aim of stamping out any vestiges of the traditional religious life which might still remain. They have not simply discarded the religious habit, but the Catholic faith of which it was so well-loved and highly respected a sign. "The future of the Church, nuns were told, depended on the rediscovery of Martin Luther's insight that Christ speaks only through the hearts of the faithful discerning the meaning of Scripture" (p. 274). Sisters who prefer the pre-Vatican II religious life are manifesting "proneness to Fascism" (p. 259). One large order did not simply discard its habit and introduce "a whole gamut of expensive accouterments beyond the capacity of the average lay person to afford" (p. 278), but actually took away the habits of elderly nuns who had given fifty or more years service to the order: "To some it's heartbreak and tears were shed" (p. 279). Nuns in the U.S.A. are now in the vanguard of the militantly anti-Christian women's liberation movement and ignore any attempts at restraint from Rome, let alone the American bishops. The nuns appeal from the Pope to "the highest authority in the Church, the Vatican Council" (p. 268). Msgr. Kelly states that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious has from its inception "declared its independence of Rome and the American hierarchy" (p. 295). The next chapter entitled "Embattled Priests, or the Disorder of Melchisedech," describes the manner in which liberal activists have taken control of the various bureaucracies which have proliferated in American dioceses since the Council and at the call of the Council. These now interpose themselves between a bishop and his priests. Priests' Personnel Boards are particularly unpopular. Msgr. Kelly notes that "there is evidence many bishops turn over to the Personnel Board total responsibility for assigning priests" (p. 322). This frequently puts older priests with decades of service to the diocese at the mercy of brash young conciliar bureaucrats. Msgr. Kelly also examines the harm done by Priests' Senates and Team Ministers. Since the Council, 10,000 American priests have abandoned their ministry, and seminary enrollment has declined from 50,000 to 17,000. Officially, of course, this all adds up to a "renewal" of the priesthood, just as what has been described in previous chapters is officially a renewal of the religious life or a catechetical renewal.

The Author notes that, where the priesthood is concerned, the decline means more than lowered numbers: "It means saddened priests, too; men with empty lives and disrespect" (p. 306).

Chapter XI is entitled "The Defeat of the Bishops." It makes very sad reading. Not that many bishops would admit that they have been defeated. Acting upon the principle that if you cannot beat them it is better to join them, they now tend to be in the vanguard of the post-conciliar renewal. The question of Communion in the hand provides a typical example. When their authority and that of the Pope was defied they adopted the abuse and then actively promoted it. "The contemporary disdain for all authority has made bishops nervous about the use of authority in the Church. The big word is leadership, which has a more mellifluous ring and sounds less threatening than 'authority'" (p. 355). What episcopal "leadership" means in practice is that they accept and endorse whatever policies are currently advocated by the Conciliar bureaucracy. This involves the support of whatever trendy political and social causes are currently preoccupying the liberal establishment in secular life. But, Msgr. Kelly notes:

In the same chapter, the Monsignor examines such issues as the widespread practice of children receiving First Communion before making their First Confession in defiance of clear and repeated Vatican directives that this must stop. He also goes into detail about the extent to which the Vatican ruling on General Absolution is also ignored. Both these abuses take place in Britain with the full knowledge of some bishops. One American Bishop told a group of nuns about Vatican disapproval of his General Absolution programme, "but there is nothing they can do about it," he added. The religious sisters "laughed along with the Bishops" (p. 401).

The inability of Rome to correct abuses brings us to Chapter XII, "The Sack of Rome, or Rome Has Spoken, the Case Is Still Open." Here, alas, Msgr. Kelly has gone sadly astray. He has fallen victim to a temptation which comes to so many authors: he has digressed from his chosen subject, the battle for the American Church, on which he is able to write with the authority derived from profound research and first hand experience, to comment upon another subject about which he clearly knows very little; in this case, that of Archbishop Lefebvre. It may well be that the Monsignor felt his book might be better accepted if he showed that he was a middle-of-the-road man, as concerned about excesses on the theological right of the Church as well as on the left. Alas, the middle of the road is often a most dangerous place to be. Nor is it always prudent to avoid extremes. What matters is to be as close to the truth as our fallible human reasoning can bring us. Thus, in the abortion controversy, the correct position is the extreme one, the one adopted by the Church. If we were to avoid extremes we would have to avoid the extreme position that abortion is always wrong and the extreme position that it is always legitimate, and take a middle-of-the-road position that it is sometimes right and sometimes wrong.

The position adopted by Archbishop Lefebvre is that it is not possible at present to work effectively for the preservation of the Faith within the official structures of the Church. Msgr. Kelly's book is the most striking endorsement of that position I have yet read. However, it is not my intention here to argue the Archbishop's case. Only time will tell whether his judgment proves to be correct. Nor would I suggest for one moment that he should not be criticised; but I certainly maintain that if he is to be criticised he is entitled to expect objective criticism based on fact. This, alas, is precisely what Msgr. Kelly has not done. He has contented himself with denigrating Archbishop Lefebvre on the basis of the garbled, slanted and frequently false reports which appear in the Catholic Press. Thus what he has written about the Archbishop remains on this deplorable level. I will not lengthen this review by pointing out all the errors of fact, but simply warn the reader that he cannot place any confidence in anything Msgr. Kelly has written about Archbishop Lefebvre. I have sent him a copy of my own book, Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre, and I hope that, if he chooses to criticise the Archbishop again, it will be on the basis of fact, not fantasy. In the same chapter he makes an equally fierce, and equally uninformed, attack upon my good friend Hamish Fraser. Once again Msgr. Kelly has ventured into territory which he has not researched and his comments, consequently, do not merit serious consideration.

While discussing the book's defects, I must also mention the Author's failure to be sufficiently critical of the Vatican in analyzing the battle for the American Church. No objective historian can doubt that the weakness and vacillation of so many hierarchies since Vatican II is simply a reflection of the weakness and vacillation of Pope Paul VI and certain Vatican departments during his pontificate. The Monsignor does not ignore this sad fact, but he does not develop it in the full and radical manner with which he exposes the weakness of his own bishops. He does, however, complain in Chapter XII that heretical works were being sold in 1977 in Vatican bookshops (p. 440). He also notes that Fr. Bernard Häring, one of the most notorious opponents of Catholic moral teaching, "has for fifteen years during and after the Council used his close ties with the Holy Father and his position at the Alphonsianum, the Redemptorist University in Rome, to carry around the world his dissent with the Holy See on marriage, contraception, abortion, and moral law generally" (p. 441). He also admits that "those now in high positions of dioceses or Curia were his (Paul VI's) appointments" (p. 448). He quotes Gregory Baum's advice that "freedom from Rome's law can be obtained by seizing it in the knowledge that violations will go unpunished. . . . This was the Achilles' heel of Pope Paul's pontificate. What will the unity of the Church be if the Gregory Baums continue successfully to have unlimited confidence in their power to restructure the Church without a care for the Pope?" (pp. 448-9).

Msgr. Kelly has also failed to appreciate the full extent to which changes in the liturgy have been instrumental in undermining the unity of the Church. There is no attempt anywhere in the book to undertake a radical examination of deficiencies in the official reforms. The Monsignor is clearly untroubled about them. His position is that of a conscientious administrator. It is not for him to question what has been approved by lawful authority; he is concerned only if there are deviations from in the officially approved norms.

Possibly the most astonishing lapse in the entire book occurs in the final chapter. Here, perhaps with the aim of presenting an image that is not totally negative, the Monsignor claims to have found one or two areas in which there has been an improvement since Vatican II. I found all his examples completely unconvincing, but above all his praise for the Agreed Statements of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. He writes: "Consultation between theologians of the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church already seem to have reached substantial agreement on certain key elements of faith matters. Statements of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission have been widely acclaimed ecumenical formulations" (p. 467). Obviously, the Monsignor has not read these Agreements which are nothing less than a straightforward betrayal of the Faith  by the Catholic delegates.

Despite the criticisms with which I have concluded this review, I have no hesitation in recommending Monsignor Kelly's book. It is certainly one of the half-dozen most important books to deal with the post-conciliar decomposition of Catholicism. No one who wishes to understand the present crisis, let alone comment upon it, can afford to be without The Battle for the American Church. Priests in particular would be well advised to study it with great care. Its documentation is invaluable on all the topics within the Author's sphere of competence, which makes it particularly regrettable that he has gone outside this sphere in some chapters and flawed a book that might otherwise have been described as a classic.