Back to the Future?

Stephen White of Catholic University writes on a recent conference of leaders addressing perceived “opposition” to Pope Francis:

“Second, and more to the point: whatever Cardinal Maradiaga or Professor Faggioli might think, very few American Catholics want to return to the 1950s; it’s just that even fewer want to go back to the 1970s.

“And that, more than anything else, I think, explains most American ambivalence toward Pope Francis. Why? Because, rightly or wrongly (wrongly, I would argue), a great many American Catholics see in this pontificate an attempt to return to the pastoral strategies and priorities that were the hallmark of the most disastrous era in American Catholic history. The years immediately following the Council were a catechetical, evangelical, liturgical, and vocational disaster. And that’s before we get to the fact that this same era happened to coincide with the worst days of the abuse crisis in this country.”

Read the whole column.