All Things Catholic

Much has been made lately of Pope Benedict XVI's apparent lenience for "cafeteria Catholicism" on the right. Two developments have fed the perception: talks between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X, the "Lefebvrites," who broke with Rome in protest of liberalizing currents after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65); and new structures to allow Anglicans to become Catholic while preserving their heritage, with the most likely takers being conservative Anglicans opposed to homosexuality and women's ordination.

This week's big Vatican story is obviously the decision to create special structures, called "personal ordinariates", to welcome Anglicans seeking to join the Catholic church. In some reports, the move was touted as a bold gambit to end the schism that began with the English Reformation in the 16th century -- a dubious bit of spin, given that the actual number of Anglicans likely to sign up for one of these ordinariates will almost certainly be quite small.

When the dust settles, the centuries-long breach between Rome and Canterbury will remain intact.

Read the full story here: What the Vatican's welcome of Anglicans means

Rome certainly has its own rhythms, which can be either charming or annoying depending upon your point of view. On the ecclesiastical scene, periods of relative calm alternate with occasional bursts of near-frenzy. This week is one of those peak moments, as even a partial run-down of what's going on will illustrate:

• A day to honor 'Good King Wenceslas' Monday, September 28, 2009
• UK trip, Newman beatification in 2010 a 'good hypothesis' Sunday, September 27, 2009
• Trip to UK, beatification of Newman in 2010 a 'good hypothesis' Sunday, September 27, 2009
• A professor pope wields some rhetorical jiu-jitsu Sunday, September 27, 2009
• Benedict XVI confronts the ghost of Jan Hus Sunday, September 27, 2009
• The Hapsburgs were smiling from Heaven today Sunday, September 27, 2009
• Interview with Benedict XVI aboard the papal plane Sunday, September 27, 2009
• Czechs object to authority, not religion, sociologist says Saturday, September 26, 2009
• In Prague, Benedict XVI offers Erasmus for the 21st Century Saturday, September 26, 2009
• Pope delivers upbeat message in ambivalent spot Saturday, September 26, 2009
• Religion key to a 'healthy society,' pope tells secular Czechs Saturday, September 26, 2009
• Czech believers find islands of hope in a secular sea Saturday, September 26, 2009
• Church history through the eyes of a catacombs priest Friday, September 25, 2009
• The German shepherd bids farewell to a 'wolf in winter' Friday, September 25, 2009

From a strictly demographic point of view, one could argue that the intense interest surrounding relations between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X, popularly known as the "Lefebvrites," is terribly exaggerated. Worldwide, the society has a little under 500 priests, roughly the same number as the Diocese of Buffalo. It claims one million faithful, a number impossible to confirm but which, even if true, would represent less than one-tenth of one percent of the global Catholic population.

Yet for a variety of reasons, the Vatican's effort to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again by reconciling with the Lefebvrites carries a significance way out of proportion to those numbers.

Read Allen's full column here: Healing the schism with traditionalists.

This week's column also looks ahead to Pope Benedict XVI's trip to the Czech Republic Sept. 26-28.

Given all the recent American Catholic ferment -- the Kennedy funeral, the surprise resignation of Scranton's Bishop Joseph Martino, debates over health care reform, etc. -- it's been understandably tough for Catholic news from anywhere else in the world to register. Yet there's a bizarre story out of Italy this week that deserves its moment in the sun.

It's a soap opera, really, as tawdry and tragic as these bits of voyeurism usually are, yet it also suggests two points with potentially broad implications:

• The political and cultural ties in the West that in recent decades have bound the church to the political right may be unraveling.
• The "Power Distance Index" in Catholicism, meaning the willingness of ordinary people to accept the authority of the bishops to manage the internal affairs of the church, is declining rapidly, and not just in countries scarred by the sexual abuse crisis.

I'll sketch the details in a moment, but first, here's a thought exercise for American readers to capture the drama of what's happened.

Reading the Vatican paper, Asia's Joan of Arc, Nazi analogies, and more

The past week has been one of those periods when there isn't a single dominant Catholic story, but rather plenty of interesting nuggets. The following, therefore, represent a few slices of Catholic life in mid-August.

Summer is conference season, which makes it a great time to get a sense of what’s stirring at the grass roots of the Catholic church in America. I’m speaking this week at a couple of Catholic events, and Thursday brought me to the annual assembly of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, representing the leadership of more than 20,000 vowed religious priests and brothers in the United States, some 10 percent of whom are now foreign missionaries.

Fans of the TV show “West Wing” may recall the series’ next-to-last episode, when Chief of Staff C.J. Cregg finds herself contemplating life after the White House. A wealthy philanthropist wants her to run his foundation, asking what she would do with $10 billion to make the world a better place. Her answer was to build roads in Africa ... hardly sexy, she warned, but key to developing African economies and ending poverty.