The Works of Christ Progress: Archbishop Nienstedt Calls Faithful to be 100% Catholic

There is a concerted effort to paint those who adhere to faithful, classical, orthodox Christianity and, most particularly, faithful Catholic Christianity, as "backward." The Christian understanding of marriage and family is not some outdated notion of a past era but the framework for a future of true freedom. It is courageous Bishops like Archbishop John Nienstedt who are paving the path to authentic progress.

P>ST. PAUL, MN (Catholic Online) - On March 10, 2010, in a General Audience where he was instructing the faithful on the contributions of St. Bonaventure, Pope Benedict spoke of Church history and authentic progress, "Today there are views according to which the whole history of the Church in the second millennium is a permanent decline; some see the decline already immediately after the New Testament. In reality, "opera Christi non deficiunt, sed proficiunt," the works of Christ do not go backward, but progress."

Well, if you were to believe some of the articles passing themselves off for reporting in the secular press these days concerning the Catholic Church, the Church impedes progress. For example,consider an article in USA Today on October 20, 2010 entitled "Minn. archbishop: No 'lukewarm' Catholics welcome"  A reporter from the Associated Press interviewed Minnesota's Catholic Archbishop John Nienstedt. Some of the responses given by this courageous archbishop are worth noting. Here are a few excerpts from the article:

"The archbishop, who recently angered some of the area's 800,000 Catholics with the mailing of an anti-gay marriage DVD, said he believes spiritual leaders have a duty to talk to their flock about issues they see as important - even if some of those views might be unpopular with prospective churchgoers.. "We're part and parcel of the culture, so it's important for us to be involved with those discussions and have our say," Nienstedt said. He said Jesus Christ directed his followers to "either be hot or cold, but if you're lukewarm, I don't want that. So we want people who live their faith.. I believe that it's important that if you're going to be Catholic, that you have to be 100% Catholic," Nienstedt said. "That you stand by the church, you believe what the church believes and you pass that on to your sons and daughters and your grandsons and granddaughters."

However, these comments were buried within what amounted to a "hit piece". I strung them together.  The report sought to insinuate that the Minnesota Bishops Defense of Marriage Campaign and the closing of some parishes in a restructuring effort based on demography are related. The lead in to the article tipped off the reporter's agenda, "The Catholic archbishop for the Twin Cities defended his right Monday to speak to fellow Catholics on social issues, and said a shrinking Roman Catholic church is no reason to consider a more liberal stance"

The Archbishops' orthodoxy and call to the faithful to be fully and completely Catholic seems to be considered as impeding some kind of perceived "progress" by this reporter. Just consider the loaded language in the article. The reporter refers to this excellent DVD  which defends true marriage and the family and society founded upon it, as "an anti-gay marriage DVD." This is an example of what the late CS Lewis in his Studies in Words called "verbicide."

In much of the secular media there is a concerted effort to paint those who adhere to faithful, classical, orthodox Christianity and, most particularly, faithful Catholic Christianity, as "backward." Faithful Christians are portrayed as theological "Neanderthals" committed to a return to some perceived "dark age". We are depicted as "unenlightened", forcing "our view" on others. In reality it is those who engage in these kinds of word games who are intolerant of any view other than their own. Under the guise of reporting they conduct a propaganda campaign.

The hostility we face as Catholics is not an unfamiliar experience. We need to see it within the light of two thousand years of Christian history. I do not care how "advanced" some contemporaries think they have become, or how "modern" the "current" issues purport to be, we humans do not really change all that much, at least without grace. The struggle we are engaged in concerns a clash of worldviews, personal and corporate, and competing definitions of human freedom, flourishing and progress. In the circles of some contemporary cultural and social revolutionaries who like to call themselves "progressive", the positions being espoused and lifestyles being affirmed as "progressive" are anything but. They turn the clock back.

We live in what is often called a post modern age; some say a "post Christian" age. I prefer "pre-Christian." This is a new missionary age. The future belongs to the Catholic Church.  One has only to read the ancient Christian manuscripts and historic sources to read of cultures not unlike the one in which we live today, cultures of "use" where people were treated as property - cultures of excess where "freedom" was perceived as a power over others and unrestrained license masqueraded as liberty. These accounts depict the bad fruit of a pagan world view.

The word "pagan" was not used as a disparaging term in those accounts, but actually represented a pseudo-"religious" worldview. I use it the same way in referring to our contemporary age as increasingly pagan and not progressive at all. Many of the "gods" and goddesses" of this pre-Christian worldview promoted lifestyles of selfish excess, homosexual practices, and hedonism masquerading as freedom. The myths concerning them had them acting in much the same way. Their lies have simply been reintroduced today, only the myths and idols are different. Those who follow them still purport to be "progressive" when, in reality, they are regressive.

The current re-emergence of paganism is not the path to authentic human freedom and flourishing but to misery. The Christian understanding of marriage and family is not some outdated notion of a past era but the framework for a future of true freedom. It is courageous Bishops like Archbishop John Nienstedt who are paving the path to authentic progress. After all, "opera Christi non deficiunt, sed proficiunt, the works of Christ do not go backward, but progress."

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