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'future church' subject of john allen jr.'s talk at shrine

The room was crowded and many of the almost 150 people gathered Jan. 23 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville were well past middle age.
The topic: “The Future Church” in the mid-21st century. The speaker: John Allen Jr., CNN’s Vatican analyst who has been a Catholic journalist for many years.

While the audience may have expected an acerbic, perhaps negative, view of the future of the Catholic church, that didn’t happen. In fact, the fast-paced presentation was positive on more than one level.

First: The Catholic church is growing, just not on western or European soil; second: some of the issues that concern the church in the west or Europe don’t register on the radar of the growing church in the global south. That would be the southern hemisphere including South America, Africa and parts of Asia.

The topic came from the title of Allen’s most recent book, “The Future Church,” (Doubleday 2009), which is available at the shrine, The Vineyard in Belleville or online.

In his book, Allen outlines 10 trends or “currents” he sees as shaping the Catholic church and what might appear in coming years, based on these trends.

While Allen covered only three of the trends during his presentation, he gave his audience ideas to ponder.
Several of those points included: While the western or American Catholic church counts its members among the greying set, the global southern Catholics are predominantly younger.

In his travels to these areas of the world as he covered papal trips or went to meet and interview leaders in these areas, Allen said 90 percent of these Catholics are under 14 years old.

“We worry about an aging presbyterate and (the number of) people in the pews,” Allen said, and with these worries come concerns about the future of this church and access to the sacraments.

Access to the sacraments in the global south has generally been difficult at best. For example, in the west the ratio of ordained clergy to Catholics is about one to up to 1,500 Catholics. In the global south it could be one ordained priest to 8,000 or more Catholics.

However, in the global south, people are experiencing “a sense of optimism,” Allen said. “They feel their historical moment has come.”

Second: Allen sees the rise of evangelical Catholicism with the revival of Catholic identity, religious wearing habits and a resurgence of interest in Latin liturgies.

In the global south, concerns surface about secularism and the trend is to be more identifiably Catholic to prevent the church from disappearing into a kind of secular Catholicism.

The core issues confronting the global south do not resonate with American Catholics, although the U.S. church has made statements condemning trafficking, the proliferation of arms trading, the importance of relations with Muslim brothers and sisters, eradicating real poverty and educating youth.

The issues of the global south do resonate clearly with American Catholics who work tirelessly for social justice for all people, in this country as well as the rest of the world somewhat akin to Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s “seamless garment.”
So, with areas of interest and concern dividing the church, Allen suggests “the root challenge is to develop a new mentality, to look at what unites us rather than divides us. If we can’t do this, it will break us apart.”

If the folks in the pews in the United States look around, they will see others about the same age without the benefit of the next generation crowding in to hear the word of God and participate in the Eucharist. Young adults who are “culturally Catholic,” that is they were raised in Catholic households, may have attended Catholic schools or religious education programs, are not wholeheartedly embracing the call to weekly liturgies.

When they left home for college or work, they put away their childhoods and often church attendance was part of what they left at home.

“Our 20-something Catholics are moving in a rootless sensual world with a hunger for roots and clarity,” Allen said.
This may account for their need or desire for answers to the questions they have. “They are not ideologically conservative,” Allen said. Rather, they are “looking for identity and clarity; they need answers to culture through their faith.”

“Apologetics” sometimes sends shudders through groups of Catholics who believe questions about their faith, the relationship between church teaching and practice, are at least as important as answers.
Allen cautioned his audience “not to get bogged down in liberal versus conservative wars in the Catholic church.”
Many people do become bogged down and settle for discussions about the Vatican, its point of view, its pronouncements, its “us versus them” mentality.

In fact, Allen said, the way the Vatican actually thinks is “complicated with many points of view.”
That would be clearly evident if people reviewed the many cultural differences that exist there, given the number of countries from which the 2,668 Vatican staff members come.

In the long run, a positive outcome continues to be possible in any situation in the church — local or worldwide — whether the people agree or disagree with the way a local parish or diocese is run, if they continue to keep Gospel values at their own core.

“We need to focus on what is truly important: bringing Christ’s message to the world,” Allen said.
Each person has an idealized vision of the church, what it should be, could be, if only everyone else agreed with “me.”

However, Allen said: “Having a place at the table (for everyone) is more important” than a church constructed from dreams.