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| From Catholic World Report |
George Weigel, who is best known as the premier biographer of Blessed John Paul II, turns his attention to the Catholic Church of the 21st Century in his new book Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st Century Church. While the title of the book may be disconcerting to some, Weigel’s primary premise is that the Catholic Church must live out the teaching mandates of the Second Vatican Council to be effective in it mission to evangelize to all the nations (Matt 28:19). He asserts that the People of God, collectively and individually, manifest Evangelical Catholicism when they live their lives in friendship with Christ as witnesses to the world of faith, hope and charity.
Pope Leo XIII
Weigel begins his examination of the Church by reflecting on the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII. One of his primary contentions is that the new reform that is currently taking place in the Catholic Church did not begin with the Second Vatican Council, as most would assume, but rather that it began during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII. According to Weigel, “Leo XIII set in motion a profound transformation of Catholicism in which the Church slowly moved beyond the catechetical-devotional model that had been dominant since the sixteenth-century Counter-Reformation to a new model— a model that is best described as Evangelical Catholicism” (11). Weigel considers Pope Leo XII instrumental in the beginning of this Evangelical Catholicism because he did so much to prepare the Church for modernity by laying the groundwork for the New Evangelization.
Counter-Culture Catholicism
Weigel organizes the book into two parts: the first is an outline of his view of the ecclesiology of Evangelical Catholicism and the second is a detailed blue print on how to implement necessary reforms to see this vision into fruition. He organizes his vision of Evangelical Catholicism into ten key primary characteristics. These range from the personal – experiencing friendship with Christ – to the apostolic notion that Catholic should stand out in the crowd, that their lives be remarkably different from the ambient culture because they have entered into friendship with Christ.
The New Evangelization
Not surprisingly, Weigel believes that Blessed John Paul the Great “gave the Council an authoritative interpretation led the Church into the kind of new Pentecost that John XXIII had envisioned, through the experience of the Great Jubilee of 2000” (10) and set the Church on the path to fulfilling its 21st Century mission of New Evangelization. In the pontificates of the Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Weigel sees the blue print for continued reform of the Catholic Church of the 21st Century. While it is unfortunate that Weigel chose a title that may cause undo confusion, his driving premise is that Evangelical Catholicism is the very expression of the ressourcement and aggiornamento expected from Vatican II. It is the New Evangelization.
Pope Leo XIII
Weigel begins his examination of the Church by reflecting on the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII. One of his primary contentions is that the new reform that is currently taking place in the Catholic Church did not begin with the Second Vatican Council, as most would assume, but rather that it began during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII. According to Weigel, “Leo XIII set in motion a profound transformation of Catholicism in which the Church slowly moved beyond the catechetical-devotional model that had been dominant since the sixteenth-century Counter-Reformation to a new model— a model that is best described as Evangelical Catholicism” (11). Weigel considers Pope Leo XII instrumental in the beginning of this Evangelical Catholicism because he did so much to prepare the Church for modernity by laying the groundwork for the New Evangelization.
[D]uring a reign that lasted over a quarter of a century, he quietly, steadily, and doggedly set about creating the conditions for a new Catholic engagement with modern cultural, political, economic, and social life. He reformed the Church’s philosophical and theological mind by mandating a close reading of Thomas Aquinas’s original texts, which were to become the foundation from which to build a distinctive Catholic intellectual engagement with modernity. He was the papal father of modern Catholic biblical studies, which he thought necessary to meet the deconstructive aspect of the challenge posed by the historical-critical method of reading ancient texts. He fostered serious historical scholarship in an effort to determine what was truly enduring and constitutive— and what was transient— in the life of the Church (13).
Counter-Reformation Catholicism
Weigel defines this counter-reformation Catholicism as one “which sought to preserve Catholicism through simple, straightforward catechetical instruction and devotional piety” and one that is still trapped in a misguided mindset of triumphalism (15). While this form of Catholicism did much to restore, secure and spread the faith, it was ill equipped for the challenges of the 21st Century because it lacked the deeper assimilation of the faith to withstand the Christo-phobic mindset of the ambient culture. Counter-Reformation Catholicism was mostly dependent on an enculturation through osmosis that required little “more of Catholics than (to take American reference points) memorizing the Baltimore Catechism and wearing the Miraculous Medal” (p. 15). Certainly Weigel is deliberately exaggerating, but the point is well taken, that many, if not most, Catholics, then and now, may know about Jesus, but do not know Jesus. Although he never directly states it, Weigel’s contention is that Evangelical Catholicism is the embodiment of the New Evangelization and its aim is to bring its members into deeper friendship with Jesus Christ, who gave His life so that they may have life in Him (1 Thes 5:10). Counter-Culture Catholicism
Weigel organizes the book into two parts: the first is an outline of his view of the ecclesiology of Evangelical Catholicism and the second is a detailed blue print on how to implement necessary reforms to see this vision into fruition. He organizes his vision of Evangelical Catholicism into ten key primary characteristics. These range from the personal – experiencing friendship with Christ – to the apostolic notion that Catholic should stand out in the crowd, that their lives be remarkably different from the ambient culture because they have entered into friendship with Christ.
The New Evangelization
Not surprisingly, Weigel believes that Blessed John Paul the Great “gave the Council an authoritative interpretation led the Church into the kind of new Pentecost that John XXIII had envisioned, through the experience of the Great Jubilee of 2000” (10) and set the Church on the path to fulfilling its 21st Century mission of New Evangelization. In the pontificates of the Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Weigel sees the blue print for continued reform of the Catholic Church of the 21st Century. While it is unfortunate that Weigel chose a title that may cause undo confusion, his driving premise is that Evangelical Catholicism is the very expression of the ressourcement and aggiornamento expected from Vatican II. It is the New Evangelization.
Weigel gave an interview on Catholic Answers Live answering questions about the book.
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