At the April 2015 conference on polarization in the US Catholic Church, Bishop Daniel Flores lamented the lack of charity among Catholics in the United States, saying, “Without it, we are living a show, and the world rightly dismisses us as no different from any other show on television” (6). This collection of talks from that conference, featuring theologians and sociologists, as well as journalists and activists, examines polarization not merely as a symptom of problems in the church, but as a problem in its own right.
By “polarization,” the organizers mean not the prevalence of heated debate but rather its opposite: a separation into opposing camps that shuts off conversation, including useful debate. But contributors to this volume do not all see this phenomenon in the same way. In the volume's most poignant piece, Michael McGillicuddy reflects frankly about wounds that must be addressed if trust is to be built. Brian Flanagan's piece helpfully distinguishes such real hurt from collective allergic reactions to false triggers, which require a different sort of therapy. On the other hand, David Gushee characterizes polarization as a result of cultural captivity, and Charlie Camosy associates it with idolatrous faithfulness to political parties. Meanwhile, Sean Michael Winters approaches polarization as a possible side effect of telling hard truths. He warns that, all concerns to foster constructive dialogue notwithstanding, “the Catholic commentariat” should not pull its punches when those punches are well deserved.
Not everyone in the volume has the same anxiety about polarization among Catholics. Many point out that most Catholics are not caught up in these debates, and that the shared center of our life in eucharistic worship should be a source of hope. Susan Crawford Sullivan writes that suburban communities where hot-button issues “just don't come up” (48) and the pastor is good at “defusing” tensions (55) can be a sign of hope, even if the calm there arises in part from apathy, ignorance, or failure to speak deeply with each other. One wonders what conversation arose after Nichole Flores offered her reflection on ways to create intellectual, practical, and particularly aesthetic solidarity across racial divisions through, among other things, nonviolent protest.
Meanwhile, a few essays argue that the whole drama of polarization is a distraction from the central issues in the life of the church, particularly the pastoral needs of Hispanic Catholics (Hosffman Ospino) and of millennials (Christian Smith). Concern about millennials runs through the volume. Smith claims to “have interviewed young American Catholics who with straight faces reported to me that as far as they knew, the Catholic Church has no particular teaching on sexual issues” (18–19), but others have a more positive take. Elizabeth Tenety describes millennials as a generation well matched to the teaching of Pope Francis, gifted as they are with the openness needed to overcome polarization.
In spite of the diverse views represented, the tone of the volume is remarkably irenic, and perhaps too much so. It would, for example, be useful to know who is throwing gas on which fire. Rev. John Jenkins points out that political and media figures benefit from promoting polarization in their audiences, but church leaders should not give in to that temptation. Why make this point if that temptation had never become a problem? It is true that polarization is a feature of US culture and not only of the church, but it is too convenient to blame our polarization only on forces outside the church. The contributors to the volume, in their efforts to identify and support a nonpolarized center of the church, tend to downplay the serious sources of disagreement, leaving the prominent and influential minority at the extreme poles undisturbed.
As contributor Julie Hanlon Rubio points out, we cannot overcome polarization without talking about hot-button topics. But talking about hot-button topics without changing the way Catholics talk with each other is clearly not going to be a sufficient solution. Holly Taylor Coolman makes a strong case, in considering the Synod on the Family, that the simplified and petrified positions characteristic of polarization are obstacles to fruitful disagreements, and that the way forward will involve not less argument, but better argument. While this collection does not yet get us to that point, it may help move us toward a more sophisticated conversation about what is needed if Catholics are to be a “reconciled and reconciling” community.
