NAPA, CA—Special to the Catholic Business Journal. Archbishop Charles Chaput opened this year’s Napa Institute with a provocative talk on how Catholics can live in these rapidly changing times. He began by culling from a recent Pew study that highlighted many disturbing trends in today’s culture:
- 33% of American men and 40% of women have an anxiety disorder
- 70% of Americans are unfit for military service
- 50% of men have STDs
- 16% of the women who ship out with the Navy come back to port pregnant
- 50% of university students from the top schools cannot argue coherently
The Archbishop of Philadelphia then shared the good news. We make the world, he said.
“Our actions, our choices and our lives matter,” Chaput said. “God works through us. We need to own the mission to change things for the better…. This is a privileged moment for Christians. This is not a time to retreat but to engage!”
Eleven Observations
Chaput laid out eleven observations to consider as we engage the culture:
- People and nations change all the time. Change is healthy if it does so organically, and at a good pace.
- The nature and pace of today’s changes have no precedent. Chaput added, “They are too radical, even for me to integrate.”
- Fast change leads to discontinuities and confusion.
- There are many things, in all facets of life—education, economics, sex, technology—that contribute to the confusion.
- We cannot go back. Nostalgia is misleading.
- Birth control has separated sex from procreation. Religious liberty is now being challenged by erotic liberty. And gay leaders like Tim Gill from Colorado are intent on punishing us for our beliefs.
- Democracy flattens inequality but it also flattens out distinctions leading us to a new order for humanity…one where the human spirit will no longer be informed by religion.
- Democracy protects freedom of individual liberty but it creates a problem. Pre-existing duties as humans that have been accepted as givens are now suspect and attacked.
- Technology is good but it too has a problem. It gives us tools to use but they also have become tools that use us…”Humanity becomes dead material to be used. Consider the push ahead in AI, facial recognition and gene splicing, and what these could mean for humanity.”
- Americans are especially prone to technology. Our Puritan past has been focused on solving problems and harnessing technology to conquer nature.
- Reality is bigger and richer than what we can measure with instruments and senses. If we limit ourselves only to what we can prove, we will limit and starve human wisdom.
Much of Europe, with its low human life “replacement rate,” is dead or dying. We still have time in America, Chaput emphasized. We must exercise the wisdom to know that the future belongs to people with children, not to people with things. In contrast, he noted, Islam has a future because of its belief in children.
The Action Plan
Archbishop Chaput laid out an action plan for the Church and all Catholics.
“The Church has to get back into the influence game. We must get back to living a life ruled by convictions greater than ourselves. Faith is the seed for a better future. Live joyfully, love each other, get married, stay faithful, and raise children of Christian character.”
“Pray, use silence to connect with God, and read. (If we do not, we commit ourselves to stupidity.) Be skeptical about the world. Be engaged and help, with your actions, in the public square.”
“There is a fundamental hunger for God that is not being fed. We need a belief in God, our future is in his hands. Our lives matter. Have faith. Love with all your heart.”
The Napa Institute was inspired by a 2010 essay, “The Next America,” (First Things) penned by Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput and resembles the Aspen Institute with provocative talks given by leading Catholic clergy, authors and laypeople. The Institute, now in its seventh year, was co-founded by Rev. Robert Spitzer, S.J., former president of Gonzaga University, and Tim Busch, a successful lawyer and entrepreneur in the hospitality business. The aim of the Institute is to better equip Catholic leaders to face the challenges of the “next America.” More than 550 people from all over the world are attending this year’s four-day conference.
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Thomas A. Loarie reports live from the Napa Institute and is a columnist and senior editorial advisor for Catholic Business Journal, one of three rotating hosts on the popular “The Mentors” radio show, and the of Bryologyx. He may be reached at tloarie@catholicbusinessjournal.biz.