Pints With Aquinas - Archbishop Gomez Vs Wokeism

Episode Date: November 29, 2021

Read the address here: https://archbishopgomez.org/blog/reflections-on-the-church-and-americas-new-religions 📃SPONSORS📃 🙏 Hallow: http://hallow.app/mattfradd 📈Ethos Logos Investments: https://www.elinvestments.net/pints 🟦STRIVE: https://www.strive21.com/ 

Hey, Matt Fradd here. Welcome to Pints with Aquinas. If this show has been a blessing to you, please consider supporting us directly at pintswithaquinas.com.com. Give or at patreon.com. Matt Fradd, any dollar amount would be a blessing to us. Thank you so much for considering. Hello there. Welcome to Pints with Aquinas. Matt Fradd here. Hope you're doing well. Hope you are excited for Thanksgiving if you are an American and if you're not I hope that you'll have a fantastic 25th of November just hanging out doing whatever it is you're doing. Today I want to share a letter or a speech that was written and delivered by Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez who is also the president of the USCCB. He gave a really excellent address, I think, on wokeism in general.

And today I'd simply like to read his letter because I think it's very important. I think it's a very important letter. I also think it's important that whenever a priest or a bishop is courageous, speaks out against, say, secular dogma would be one way of putting it, that we congratulate them, that we thank them for being faithful shepherds. And I think this is true even if you have disagreements with a particular bishop or priest or, you know, public Catholic. You might have all sorts

of disagreements. But if this person says something courageous, you know, that's true and good, that I think we have to just thank them. And so, you know, Archbishop Gomez, I've never met you, but I'm grateful for your courage in addressing this issue. One of the reasons this issue is so important to me is I have been speaking in the United States publicly in the Catholic Church at various events, youth conferences, men's conferences, parish missions, all sorts of things, and I have shared the stage with people who are no longer Catholic. And it's like I saw their gradual deconversion is one way of putting it, apostasy is I think a more

accurate way of putting it, as they began to sort of latch on to sort of woke ideologies. They began to sort of, you might say supplement the lens of Catholicism with a particular shade of feminism or BLM or LGBTQ stuff. And I've so sadly seen them apostatize. And I've reached out to them privately and said, I love you, I'm praying for you, let me know if we can talk, things like this. And very often I don't get anything in response. One final thing before we read this letter, and that is, well, why should Gomez, this Archbishop Gomez fellow address this? Shouldn't he just stick to talking about the beauty of the Catholic faith? Why does he have to get involved in these day to day, uh, you know,

temporal issues? Why not just speak about the beauty of the Catholic faith? Stick to Elaine. Well, I think that's a very bad criticism because Catholics and non Catholics don't live in a vacuum. We live in a world. And for many of us, it's hard to hear the gospel proclaimed until we have many of these issues addressed. I mean imagine what it would be like being raised in Massachusetts, you know, say 20 years ago or so whenever the sex scandal was exploding. I think it was less than that,

but I mean this was an issue that needed to be addressed, right? And many people, in order to be open to Catholicism need this issue dealt with before they'll give you a hearing. And we live in a confusing day and age where Biden comes out and says the Pope said I was a good Catholic and I can keep receiving communion. Whether he said that or not, we don't know. But that's what Biden said. That's confusing to a lot of people. You know, I got a friend right now who just left Protestantism because he's considering Catholicism or orthodoxy.

And one of the first things he saw was the Pachamama incident. And to him, he's like, could someone please make sense of this for me? This doesn't look good, right? And so to those who would say to Gomez and others, just stick to the beauty of Catholicism, I think what they need to realize is, again, we don't live in a vacuum and there are real obstacles that need to be overcome and therefore addressed in order to respond fully and courageously to the gospel. Okay, so this was an address to the rise of new secular ideologies and movements

for social change in the United States and its implication for the whole church. And one of the things he says right up front is, I'll address this, how it's impacting the United States, but you need to realize that this isn't just impacting the United States, it's impacting Spain and other countries throughout Europe. He says he wants to do three things in this letter. The first, he says, I want to talk about the wider context of the global movement of secularization and de-Christianization and the impact of the pandemic. Second, he wants to offer a spiritual interpretation of the new social justice and political identity movements in America. And then finally, he wants to suggest some evangelical priorities for the church as we

confront the realities of the present moment. So here we go. I'm going to read this to you. I have put the link in the description below if you'd prefer to read it. But again, I just think it's so that that faithful Catholics do everything to get great messages like this out. He says this number one secularization and de-Christianization. I think we all know that while there are unique conditions in the United States similar broad patterns of aggressive secularization have long been at work in

Spain and elsewhere in Europe. An elite leadership class has risen in our countries that has little interest in religion and no real attachment to the nations they live in or to the local traditions or cultures. This group, which is in charge in corporations, governments, universities, the media, and in the cultural and professional establishments want to establish what we might call a global civilisation, built on a consumer economy and guided by science, technology, humanitarian values and technocratic ideas about organising society.

In this elite worldview, there is no need for old-fashioned belief systems and religions. In fact, as they see it, religion, especially Christianity, only gets in the way of the society they hope to build. That is important to remember. In practice, as our popes have pointed out, secularization means de-Christianization. For years now, there has been a deliberate effort in Europe and America to erase the Christian roots of society and to suppress any remaining Christian influences. In your program for this congress, you allude to a cancel culture and political correctness and we recognise that often what is being cancelled and corrected are perspectives rooted in Christian beliefs.

About human life and the human person, about marriage, the family and more. In your society and mine, the space that the church and believing Christians are permitted to occupy is shrinking. Church institutions and Christian-owned businesses are increasingly challenged and harassed. The same is true for Christians working in education, healthcare, government and other sectors. Holding certain Christian beliefs is said to be a threat to the freedoms and even to the safety of other groups in our societies. One more point of context. We all noticed the dramatic social changes in our societies

with the coming of the coronavirus and the way our government authorities responded to the pandemic. I think history will look back and see that this pandemic did not change our societies as much as it accelerated trends and directions that were already at work. Social changes that might have taken decades to play out are now moving more rapidly in the wake of this disease and our society's response. That is certainly true in the United States. The new social movements and ideologies that we are talking about today were being seeded and prepared for many years in our universities and cultural institutions, but with the tension and fear caused by the pandemic and social

isolation and with the killing of an unarmed black man by a white policeman and the protests that followed in our cities, these movements were fully unleashed in our society. The context is important in understanding our situation in the United States. The name George Floyd is now known worldwide, but that is because for many people in my country, myself included, his tragedy became a stark reminder that racial and economic inequality are still deeply embedded in our society. We need to keep this reality of inequality in mind

because these movements that are talking about, that we are talking about, are part of a wider discussion, a discussion that is absolutely essential about how to build an American society that expands opportunities for everyone no matter what color their skin is or where they came from or their economic status. With that, let's turn to the second point. The second point is America's new political religions. Here is my thesis. I believe the best way for the church to understand the new social justice movements is to understand

them as pseudo religions and even replacements and rivals to traditional Christian beliefs. Pause. I just want to offer a comment here and say I sometimes have felt as I've engaged with, to use a term that hasn't been fully clarified or what do you say, defined, I sometimes feel as I speak to woke Catholics that I have more in common with a Bible-believing Protestant than a woke Catholic, which is leading me to think that we may need to start thinking of woke Catholics, however we decide to define that. And if you're interested in that discussion, check out my interview with Seamus from Freedom Toons, what's his last name, Coughlin, because we spend a lot of time talking about wokeism, but it seems to me that we need to start thinking of woke Catholics and addressing woke Catholics

as sort of inter-religious dialogue. He says, this is back to Gomez, with the breakdown of Judeo-Christian worldview and the rise of secularism, political belief systems based on social justice or personal identity have come to fill the space that Christian belief and practice once occupied. Whatever we call the movements, social justice, wokeness, identity politics, intersectionality, successor ideology, they claim to offer what religion provides. They provide people with an explanation for events and conditions in the world.

They offer a sense of meaning, a purpose for living, and the feeling of belonging to a community. I mean, that is actually what they offer. Yeah, in an atheistic universe, which we don't live in but which we may believe ourselves to live in, we still are in desperate desire for, in desperate need of, a sense of meaning, a purpose for living and a feeling of belonging to a community. And if you've written off Christianity to a large extent, these things still need to be filled. You still have a desire for these things and incepts wokeism.

He says even more than that, like Christianity, these new movements tell their own story of salvation. To explain what I mean, let me try to briefly compare the Christian story with what we might call the woke story or the social justice story. The Christian story in its simplest form goes something like this. We are created in the image and likeness of God and called to a blessed life in union with him and with our neighbors. Human life has a God-given telos and intention and direction. Through our sin we are alienated from God and from one another and we live in the shadow of our own death.

By the mercy of God and His love for each of us we are saved through the dying and rising of Jesus Christ. Jesus reconciles us to God and our neighbours, gives us the grace to be transformed in His image, and calls us to follow Him in faith than ever the Church and every Catholic needs to know this story and proclaim it in all its beauty and truth. We need to do that because there is another story out there today, a rival salvation story. And that's the Christian story. and proclaim it in all its beauty and truth. We need to do that because there is another story out there today, a rival salvation narrative that we hear being told in the media and in our institutions by the new social justice movements.

What we might call the woke story goes something like this. We cannot know where we came from, but we are aware that we have interests in common with those who share our skin colour and our position in society. We are also painfully aware that our group is suffering and alienated through no fault of its own. The cause of our unhappiness is that we are victims of oppression by other groups in society. We are liberated and find redemption through our constant struggle against our oppressors by waging a battle for political and cultural power in the name of creating a society of equity.

Wow. Clearly, that is a powerful and attractive narrative for millions of people in American society and in societies across the West. In fact, many of Americans leading corporations, universities, and even public schools are actively promoting and teaching this vision. Wow, I thought that was really well put there. He says the story draws its strength from the simplicity of its explanations. The world is divided into innocent and victims, allies and adversaries.

But the narrative is also attractive because, as I said earlier, it responds to real human needs and suffering. People are hurting. They do feel discriminated against and excluded from opportunities in society. We should never forget this. Many of those who subscribe to these new movements and belief systems are motivated by noble intentions. They want to change conditions in society that deny men and women their rights and opportunities for a good life. Of course, we all want to build a society that provides equality, freedom and dignity for every person, but we can only

build a just society on the foundation of the truth about God and human nature. Amen. This has been the constant teaching of our church and her popes for nearly two centuries now. Our emeritus Pope Benedict XVI warned that the eclipse of God leads to the eclipse of the human person. Again and again he told us when we forget God we no longer see the image of God in our neighbour. Pope Francis makes the same point powerfully in Fratelli Tutti. Unless we believe that God is our Father, there is no reason for us to treat others as our brothers and sisters. That is precisely the problem here. Today's critical theories and ideologies are profoundly atheistic. They deny the soul, the spiritual, transcendent

dimension of human nature. Or they think that it is irrelevant to human happiness. They reduce what it means to be human to essentially physical equalities – the colour of our skin, our sex, our notion of gender, and our ethnic background or our position in society. No doubt that we can recognise in these movements certain elements of liberation theology. They seem to be coming from the same Marxist cultural vision. Also, these movements resemble some of the heresies that we find in church history. Like the early Manacheans, these movements see the world as a struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. Like the Gnostics, they reject creation and the body. Wow, that was enlightening. They seem to believe that human beings can become whatever we decide to make of ourselves.

These movements are also Pelagian, believing that redemption can be accomplished through our own human efforts without God. And as a final point, I would note that these movements are utopian. They seem to really believe that we can create a kind of heaven on earth, a perfectly just society through our own efforts. These are amazing points. I mean, just a moment ago, he gives us the sort of narrative of wokeism, the sort of dogma of wokeism. And as he points out, this is the old Manichean heresy, the Pelagian heresy and the Utopian heresy. Again, my friends, my point is this, says Archbishop Gomez, I believe that it is important for the church to understand and engage these new

movements not on social or political terms, but as dangerous substitutes for true religion. In denying God, these new movements have lost the truth about the human person. This explains their extremism and their harsh, uncompromising and unforgiving approach to politics. This is a really good point. You know, in Christianity, if you commit a serious sin, there's a way to be reconciled. But if you or I speak out against secular dogma, there is a good chance that we will be banished and no amount of apology or repentance will be accepted. And from the standpoint, Archbishop Gomez continues, of the

gospel, because these movements deny the human person, no matter how well-intentioned they are, they cannot promote authentic human flourishing. Pause. In other words, if you don't know what a human is, if you don't know what a human is, if you don't know what a human is for, then you're not going to be able to benefit the human person. I don't know what you are, I don't know what you're for, but let's see what we can do with you. It's just not gonna bloody work. Gomez says, in fact, as we are witnessing in my country, these strictly secular movements are causing new forms of social division, discrimination, intolerance and injustice. All right, here's the final point he wants to make, or the final section of points I

should say. Number three, what can we do about it? He says, that leads me to my final set of reflections. The question is, what is to be done? How should the church respond to these new secular movements for social change? My answer is simple. Oh and here it is. Are you ready for this? We need to proclaim Jesus Christ. Glory to Him, all praise to Him. You and you alone are the Savior of the world. You are God. You've become incarnate. You've saved us

by your death and resurrection. We renounce, this isn't Gomez, this is me praying in case you were confused, we renounce all other idols from our heart and we give you Jesus Christ the rightful place, you and you alone. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for teaching the truth about yourself and about ourselves. All right. Amen. End prayer. Back to Gomez. That's lovely. We need to proclaim Jesus Christ boldly, creatively. We need to tell our story of salvation in a new way. And not just our story, but the story, right? The story in a new way. With charity and confidence and without fear, this is the church's mission in every age and every cultural moment. We should not be intimidated by these

new religions of social justice and political identity. The gospel remains the most powerful force for social change that the world has ever seen and the church has been anti-racist from the beginning. All are included in her message for salvation. Jesus Christ came to announce the new creation, the new man and the new woman given power to become children of God renewed in the image of their Creator. Jesus taught us to know and love God as our Father and he called his church to carry that good news to the ends of the earth together from every race and tribe and people. The one worldwide family of God that was the meaning of Pentecost, when men and women from every nation under heaven heard the gospel in their own native language.

That is what St Paul meant when he said that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free. Of course in the church we have not always lived up to our beautiful principles or carried out the mission entrusted to us by Christ. But the world does not need a new secular religion to replace Christianity. It needs you and me to be better witnesses. Better... Wow, that's amazing. Here's why it's amazing. Often in these sort of social justice That's amazing. Often in these sort of social justice movements, not always, but very often, the problem is always outside of ourself, isn't it? They need to change. This thing needs to change. Even, and again, we're not denying the legitimacy of every single claim

made by every single group. But the point is, it's very easy to get passionate about something when nothing is required of you except to feel morally superior by telling others to change. When nothing is required of you, no growing up, no maturing, no moral development. It's really easy. I mean, I think this is kind of why, honestly, well, let's pick a topic. Let's pick something to which I haven't given much study and don't have a right to speak on with any sort of authority.

But I mean, global warming would be an example. Whatever one might say about global warming, you can see that how many people are significantly changing their lives, you know, so that they can positively affect the environment. Well, I mean, suppose getting rid of your iPhone and getting rid of all technology would help that. Have you done it? If you have, I'm really open to listening to you. But if you're just sort of pontificating to everybody else and nothing's really required

of you, you know It's it's easy. It's really easy. But here he says to you and to me as Christians. What are we gonna do? Well, he says we're gonna be better. It needs you and me to be better witnesses better Christians So the problem isn't you change, meaning those who are our ideological opponents, but we have to change. We have to be better Christians. Let us begin by forgiving, loving, sacrificing for others. Amen, amen, amen. He says, putting away spiritual poisons like

resentment and envy. Personally personally I find inspiration in the saints and holy figures in my country's history. In this moment I am looking especially to the servant of God Dorothy Day. For me she offers an important witness for how Catholics can work to change our social order through radical detachment and love for the poor grounded in the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount and the Works of Mercy. She also had a keen sense that before we can change the hearts of others, we have to change ourselves.

She once said, quote, I see only too clearly how bad people are. I wish I did not see it so. It is my own sins that give me such clarity. But I cannot worry about much about your sins and miseries when I have so many of my own. My prayer from day to day is that God will so enlarge my heart that I will see you all and live with you all in his love." This is the attitude that we need right now when our society is so polarized and divided. I am also drawing inspiration from the witnesses of Venerable Augustus Tolton. His is an amazing and truly American story. He was born in slavery, escaped into freedom with his mother and became the first black

man to be ordained a priest in my country. Father Tolton, and I hope I'm saying his name correctly there, if not I'll just blame it on my Australian accent, although it has more to do with my ignorance. He once said, the Catholic Church deplores a double slavery, that of the mind and that of the body. She endeavours to free us of both. mind and that of the body. She endeavors to free us of both. Amen. Today we need this confidence in the power of the gospel. We are at risk right now of sliding into a new tribalism. A pre-Christian idea of humanity as divided into competing groups and factions. We need to live and proclaim the gospel as the true path to liberation from every slavery and injustice, spiritual and material.

In our preaching and practice, and especially in our love for our neighbors, we need to bear witness to God's beautiful vision of our common humanity, our common origin and our common destiny in God. Finally, in this hour, I think the church must be a voice for individual conscience and tolerance and we need to promote greater humility and realism about the human condition. Acknowledging our common humanity means recognizing our common frailty. The truth is that we are all sinners. People who want to do the right thing often do not. Case in point, me. That was me saying that, not Gomez, if you're listening to this on podcast.

That does not mean we remain passive in the face of social injustice, never. But we do need to insist that fraternity cannot be built through animosity or division. True religion does not seek to harm or humiliate, to ruin livelihoods or reputations. True religion offers a path for even the worst sinner to find redemption. One last thought, my friends, and that is the reality of God's providence. We need to hold on to this supernatural understanding because it is true. God's loving hand still guides our lives and the course of nations. In the states the church is preparing to celebrate next month the 490th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe which mark the true spiritual founding of America and already we are seeing signs of an authentic religious awakening going on in America. Underneath all the controversy of our politics, the continued cloud of the pandemic,

all the uncertainty about where our country is heading. I am confident that we will see this spiritual awakening grow and spread in the coming decades as we look ahead to the 500th anniversary of the apparition. And our ladies words at Tepeyac continue to strengthen inspire me quote am I not here I who am your mother are you not in my shadow under my protection okay that that concludes the the excellent address that was given by Archbishop Gomez and I want to if he ever watches this to thank him for his courage because gee whiz, I mean if I put out a video that's slightly controversial, I get a lot of, well, you know, people upset and that's okay.

But I imagine that as the Archbishop of Los Angeles, as the head of the USCCB, he has his enemies. So why don't we offer a prayer for Archbishop Gomez? And here's what I want to invite you to do. If you want to do one concrete thing, reach out to the USCCB. Look, I hope you're not on Twitter, but if you are on Twitter, you know, thank Archbishop Gomez and tag USCCB. I don't know what their handle is, but I'm sure the USCCB is on Twitter. Thank Archbishop Gomez and offer him your support. And if you know him personally, buy him a beer for me. Would you do that? Buy him a beer for yourself or buy him a beer for me.

You know, it's been beautiful just reading this lovely wisdom from our shepherd here. He talks about Our Lady. And I have a beautiful icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary here before me. And I just want to say, why don't we pray? Why don't we pray and ask our Blessed Mother to help us to be better Christians and to help Archbishop Gomez

to continue to proclaim the gospel and for his health. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, for me, for my viewers, for Archbishop Gomez, for Pope Francis, for President Biden. Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. On this Thanksgiving eve, I am thankful for good pastors like Archbishop Gomez. God bless you all.

I hope you have a very lovely day tomorrow if you're American, and even if you're not American and won't be celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope that you too will have a lovely, yeah, Thanksgiving. God bless you.