Facing the Challenge of our Times

 

Shea, Monsignor James P.

From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age 

University of Mary Press. Kindle Edition. 2020. 

    I had mentioned to someone that it was my resolve to read this little book on Ash Wednesday and I got it done! It was well worth the time, as it is indeed thought provoking. Even so, I have my doubts as to whether it should be taken as the interpretive key for pastoral planning in the United States today. I just do not think that we are called to retool along the lines of imagining ourselves back in apostolic times or as if we were working out of the catacombs to be able to successfully proclaim the Gospel. Monsignor Shea, of course, does not say that and has no such pretense, but in the discussions I have heard so far, some people seem to want to go that route.

    It remains to be seen if the sin of hypocrisy best sums up what is wrong with the Christendom model for living the faith or being Catholic. Granted, apostolic mission demands fortitude. Without a major dose of courage, nobody is going to witness to the faith in our secularized society. Even so, there was more to cultural Catholicism; parochial schools, Sunday Mass, Forty Hours Devotions, monthly confession, parish bazars and bingo, plus the scores of religious vocations to missionary and apostolic institutes of the consecrated life sustained or accompanied something of real substance and life. An old Irish Dominican friend long deceased, told me that on his street in Northern Ireland, every other house could boast a vocation to the priesthood or sisterhood, back in the 1940's and '50's. Christendom may have sustained that surge, but again, the model or construct had its depth;  there was much more to it than an overarching and perhaps sustaining cultural model. Christendom inspired faith.

    Monsignor Shea alludes to the need for improvements in priestly formation for a very different type of ministry today. Personally, I am not so sure that the challenges have changed that much or that "Going My Way" or "Bells of St. Mary's" ever really caught the substance of the challenge to living out the priestly vocation better than a half century ago.

    Read the book for yourself and see what you can glean from it. The persuasive witness (Pope Paul VI) argument alluded to by Msgr. Shea has its merits, but it is not enough. There is more at play in evangelizing our world.