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Enough With the Reaction to the Reaction to the Reaction Already!

I’ve been meditating upon the nearly complete break-down of trust between generations of Catholics, between left and right. I’ve only been Catholic for 24 years and yet I feel like Catherine Doherty speaking of the 60’s. Overnight, she and friends like Dorothy Day went from being so far out on the left hand side of the Catholics spectrum (albeit orthodox) that you could hardly see them to being regarded as conservatives – and they hadn’t moved an inch. The whole Church had revolved around them.
Reading Cardinal Stafford’s passionate depiction of the times by those who lived it does help me understand. It helps me understand what the tsunami of cultural change in the 60’s felt like. I can’t tell you how wearying living with the reaction to the reaction to the reaction to the reaction is getting. Now that I’m seeing (as I knew was inevitable) the first signs of reaction by the very youngest seminarians to their trad “elders”.
The cycle of reaction and rejection keeps speeding up and now it only take 5 – 10 years or so for a “new generation” to take the required stance against the failures of its “elders” (who may still be in their 20’s).
Read the full article by clicking on the link below:

Enough With the Reaction to the Reaction to the Reaction Already!

Comments

  1. Anonymous13 July, 2012

    Society may be polarized but within the boundaries of that polaeization, the generations get along pretty well, nothing like the generation gap that manifested from the late '50s through the '70s.

    Strictly ithin the context of religion, the Catholic community may be at odds with each other and suffering a severe generation gap that involves several generations. Given the extreme age, isolation and autocratic tradition of the Catholic hierarchy, it's not surprising that this is troubling to them and the minority of true beliving followers that they have left.

    I was reading about how many conservative bishops are now requiring loyalty oaths of strict adherence and non dissent to all Catholic doctrine and dogma for those seeking participation in church life. Now that's going to be a big seller, don't you think?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fr. Tim Moyle13 July, 2012

    Anonymous: Nope. Fr. Tim

    ReplyDelete

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