Angelus News | July 31-August 7, 2020 | Vol. 5 No. 21

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/AHMEDJADALLAH, REUTERS
headline, the document reiterates Pope
Francis’ frequent exhortations that the
sacraments should be offered without
charge, and financial offerings from
those who receive them must be a “free
act” rather than a “tax” or “fee.”
When a new Vatican tome rolls out,
usually the immediate question in
parishes and diocesan chanceries is,
“How does this affect us?” In this case,
the quick answer is, “It really doesn’t,
unless you want it to,” since nothing
in it is binding unless it’s already in the
law.
Yet perhaps the real contribution of
the document won’t be in the details,
but the bigger picture.
During the St. Pope John Paul
II years, I would often speak with
American bishops who met the pontiff
during their five-year “ad limina” (“to
the threshold”) visits to Rome.
More than once, some of those
bishops would ask St. John Paul why
he showed such favoritism to the “new
movements” in the Church, such as
the Neocatechumenal Way, Focolare,
Communion and Liberation, and the
like, which some bishops felt risked
creating a “parallel church” outside the
diocesan and parochial structure.
In reply, St. John Paul would often
tell his American visitors that the
reason they were puzzled is that in the
United States, parishes actually work.
In other parts of the world, he said, including
much of Europe, parishes are
basically sacramental “filling stations,”
where people will come for a wedding,
a baptism or a funeral, but otherwise
they don’t have much contact.
In that context, he said, the movements
are needed for people seeking a
deeper Christian experience, especially
the young.
It’s true that in a global context, American
parishes have long been the envy
of the Catholic world. They tend to be
beehives of activity, with the sacraments
being the beginning rather than
the end. A typical American parish
may have a youth group, a Bible study
group, a charitable operation, a school,
an RCIA program, a music ministry,
and on and on.
Indeed, the centrality of the parish is
both the glory and the Achilles’ heel
of American Catholicism. Americans
tend to be ferociously committed to
July 31-August 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 25
their local parish, but sometimes have
only a notional concept of membership
in a global Church and often resent
higher levels of authority “interfering.”
But today, the remarkably successful
American parish is facing unprecedented
strains.
In the long term, vastly expanded
social mobility is forcing many parishes
to think beyond the territorial model,
San Gabriel Mission pastor Father John
Molyneux, CMF, distributes the Eucharist June
6 during the parish‘s first public Mass after
pandemic restrictions were lifted.
VICTOR AMEMÁN
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conceiving of their mission as directed
to a series of communities other than
their immediate neighborhood.
Declining numbers of priests and
religious are fueling greater roles for
laypeople. Parishes are also facing a financial
crunch caused by the coronavirus
(COVID-19), having lost months of
collections in many locations throughout
the country.
Though American parishes tend to be
affluent by global standards, many of
them are going to have to learn to do
more with significantly less in the nearterm
future.
In other words, this actually may be
exactly the right time for a root-andbranch
examination of the mission and
ministries of American parishes. Even
if the new Vatican instruction doesn’t
provide dazzling new answers, just
raising the question may have the same
refreshing effect as — well, as a nice
warm bath, no matter what Queen
Elizabeth thought.
John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux.
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