Change from what to what?

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus asks that very obvious question in this piece in First Things. After all, things usually go along with some continuity…

Which does not prevent certain presidential aspirants from chanting the weary old promise of CHANGE! Change from what to what? Never mind. Change is the mantra of the neophiliac who has nothing new to say, and it casts a spell over those who are too young to know how old it is. My colleague Jim Nuechterlein sums up his conservative philosophy in the simple statement that “Change is bad.” That goes too far, of course, but it’s a sentiment that is nice to hear for a change.

Oh by the way, this article has next to nothing to do with politics, or at least the presidential race. Church politics, yes. Bishops speaking out on public issues (which are seen as political), that’s in there too.

But the issue of ‘change’ speaks also to people in the Church wanting it to come up with the times, get modern, affirm cultural trends and while we’re at it….turn the hierarchical institution into a democratic one, never mind how it was established by Christ. That was a very long time ago.

The title of this piece is what attracted me, because it was the subject of a talk Fr. Neuhaus gave last spring at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.

“There is a great difference between being an American Catholic and a Catholic American,” said Fr. Neuhaus. “The adjective controls.” We strive, he stated, “to be American in a distinctly Catholic way….instead of the other way around.”

That will be critical for Catholics in America come election day.