Pope’s blunt remarks pose challenge for bishops

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, left, shown with Pope Francis. Francis called the church’s focus on abortion, marriage and contraception narrow and it was driving people away. AP

By Rachel Zoll http://rochesterdemocrat.ny.newsmemory.com/

Associated Press

NEW YORK — In recent years, many American bishops have drawn a harder line with parish­ioners on what could be considered truly Roman Catholic, adopting a more aggressive style of cor­rection and telling abor­tion- rights supporters to stay away from the sacra­ment of Communion.

Liberal-minded Catho­lics derided the approach as tone-deaf. Church lead­ers said they had no choice given what was happening around them: growing secularism, in­creasing acceptance of gay marriage, and a broader culture they con­sidered more and more hostile to Christianity. They thought they were following the lead of the pontiffs who elevated them.

But in blunt terms, in an interview published Thursday in 16 Jesuit journals worldwide, the new pope, Francis, called the church’s focus on abortion, marriage and contraception narrow and said it was driving people away. Now, the U.S. bish­ops face a challenge to re­think a strategy many considered essential for preserving the faith.

“I don’t see how the pope’s remarks can be in­terpreted in any other way than arguing that the church’s rhetoric on the so-called culture war is­sues needs to be toned down,” said John Green, a religion specialist at the University of Akron’s Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.

The leadership of the American church is com­posed of men who were appointed by Popes John Paul II or Benedict XVI, who made a priority of de­fending doctrinal ortho­doxy. Over the past dec­ade or so, the bishops have been working to reassert their moral authority, in public life and over the less obedient within their flock.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops warned Catholics that voting for abortion-rights sup­porters could endanger their souls. Church lead­ers in Minnesota, Maine and elsewhere took prom­inent roles in opposing le­gal recognition for same­sex marriage in their states. Bishops censured some theologians and prompted a Vatican-di­rected takeover of the largest association for American nuns by bring­ing complaints to Rome that the sisters strayed from church teaching and paid too little attention to abortion.

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the bishops’ confer­ence, said he thought the pope was telling everyone — inside and outside the church — to focus less on polarizing debates on sex and morals.

“I don’t know if it’s just the church that seems ob­sessed with those issues. It seems to be culture and society,” Dolan said. “What I think he’s saying is, ‘Those are important issues and the church has got to keep talking about them, but we need to talk about them in a fresh new way.’”