A time of transition for Catholics

In the past weeks, Catholics worldwide, and in Rochester, have been thrown into a complicated storm of mourning, prayer and forward-looking with the death of Pope Francis on April 21 and the naming of an American—Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV—as his successor on May 8.

“Isn’t it certainly quite wondrous that the whole world has stood still—Catholics, non-Catholics, maybe even non-believers—the whole world was captured by the election of our holy father?” called out Salvatore Matano, bishop of Rochester, to the congregation at Sacred Heart Cathedral at the Sunday Mass following Leo XIV’s election as the 267th pope.

Papal transitions are always gripping, but with the ascension of the first American pope, this one in particular has floodlighted a crossroads in American Catholicism that the Roman Catholic Church has been staring down for the entire 21st century.

Data shows that religiousness is waning in the U.S. generally, with 28 percent of Americans identifying religiously as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” up from 16 percent less than two decades ago. The Pew Research Center says Catholics account for 20 percent of Americans, or roughly one-third of all who identify as Christians; in the Rochester area, the number is somewhat higher: 26 percent as of 2020. For every convert to Catholicism nationwide, about 8.4 people leave the faith.

The shape and centrality of religious practice among U.S. Catholics are also morphing. Many scholars have called this the rise of “cultural Catholicism”—while the U.S. has a large contingent of highly committed Catholics, another segment reports they are attending Mass less frequently, leaving the religion more and disagreeing with the church on key issues, including abortion, for instance. 

In a Pew Research Center survey conducted in early February, 60 percent of U.S. Catholics said the church “should be more inclusive, even if that means changing some of its teachings.” By large majorities, the respondents said the church should allow Catholics to use birth control (84 percent), it should allow couples to use in vitro fertilization to get pregnant (83 percent), and women should be allowed to become deacons (68 percent). Smaller majorities favored allowing priests to get married (63 percent) and women to be ordained as priests (59 percent). Even among Catholics who say they attend Mass at least once a week, only a slight majority (53 percent) say the church should stick to its traditional teachings, even if that means the church gets smaller.

On the highly charged issue of abortion, Pew research shows that most U.S. Catholics (56 percent) believe it should be legal in all or most cases; even among those who attend Mass weekly or more, nearly one-third (30 percent) hold that view.

Bill Wynne, raised Catholic and educated at Catholic educational institutions,  would like the American church to be fully committed to its mission, “specifically as it relates to the mercy of God extended to all our neighbors and our responsibilities to them.”

Sister Christine Wagner, former executive director of St. Joseph’s Neighborhood Center, believes the biggest challenge facing the Catholic church is relevancy.

“Keeping the church relevant for the times we are facing: relevant for those staying in the church and a new relevance for those who have chosen to leave but could be drawn back by bold church action; relevance in the global political stage, bringing a moral imperative; relevance to those who are poor and suffering all around the world,” she says.

Giving women equal status and rights is another issue, Wagner adds. 

Sister Patricia Schoelles of Saint Joseph’s echoes this point and sees inclusion, particularly for women, as the key challenge currently facing the church.

While Pope Francis appointed women to leadership roles more than any pope before him, which boosted their visibility, the church’s patriarchal structure remains. Women are excluded from positions of clerical authority.

“I think the church, its own structures of authority need to become more inclusive, and again Francis began that with his idea of synodality,” Schoelles says. “An awkward word, but I think the word implies that, if we’re to be a church, we all need to be included in the decisionmaking functions of the church, so we need more solidarity among those who are not currently included in the decisionmaking. And that includes women obviously, and Francis took great strides in including women. But obviously the Catholic Church needs to go further in the inclusion.”

She notes, however, that this would be difficult to coordinate with churches around the entire world. But she is hopeful that the pope’s experience in South America, where women are “part of the very organs of the churches there,” as she puts it, may push him toward more reforms.

“His hands are tied in many ways, but nevertheless the wisdom of women, we’re deprived of it right now in the Catholic Church,” she says.

On these schisms in moral values within the church, Schoelles says she hopes to see Leo XIV continue along a path set out by Francis, who did not “harp” on issues of sexual morality, she says.

“One of the dividing points in the Catholic Church, in its official teachings, are some of the teachings about sexual morality, and that obviously affects very much the LGBTQ communities—these groups feel rejected by the Catholic Church,” she says. “But what I noticed about Pope Francis was he did not change any of the official teachings, but he also did not in any way put to the forefront those moral teachings of the church. He sort of moved in other directions in his preaching and in his actions and with whom he met. … I think the church needs to continue to make strides in that direction.”

Surveys show Catholic registered voters lean slightly to the right: 53 percent align with Republicans, compared with 43 percent who are Democrats or lean that way.

Earlier this year, before he became pope, a social media account under then Cardinal Prevost’s name criticized Vice President JD Vance for arguing that Christian theology ranks caring for family before others such as migrants and strangers. “J.D. Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” read the post on the X account, which has since been removed from the internet.

It is with this backdrop that the significance of Pope Francis’ papacy, and the importance of his successor to the future of the faith in the U.S., is cast with a bold outline.

A decidedly left-wing pope who shied not from getting political, and an at-times controversially liberal reformer within the church from a Jesuit background, Francis centered much of his outreach on inclusion and mercy—issues that appear to be at the center of this trend toward distancing among American Catholics.

Those are the terms in which the conservative Matano remembers Francis—“the shepherd who sought out the lost sheep,” as he calls him. 

“Like Jesus, he reached out to the poor, the forgotten, the estranged, the foreigner, those on the fringes of society,” the bishop said. “Motivated by the love of Christ Jesus, he reminded us recently that ‘Dilexit nos,’ ‘He loved us,’ … and Pope Francis wanted this love to extend to all God’s People.”

While there were a number of Americans being floated as a potential successor to Francis, few expected an American to actually be chosen. Though Leo XIV, 69,  has conducted most of his work in Peru, he is originally from a south suburb of Chicago and is a 1977 graduate of Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

This makes him the second-ever pope from the Americas (following Francis, who was Argentinian). As a member of the Order of Saint Augustine, who follow the Rule of Saint Augustine and take a vow of poverty, he is also the second consecutive pope who was a member of a religious order (Francis was a Jesuit and thus also took a vow of poverty).

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rochester celebrates the election of Pope Leo XIV, says Karen Dehais, president and diocesan director.

“His call today (to be a) church that always seeks charity and seeks to be close especially to those who suffer is what Catholic Charities accomplishes every day, as we bring compassionate care to people facing hunger, homelessness, mental illness and more. We pray that Pope Leo’s dedication to these ideals will be a blessing for the Church and the world,” she says.

“I think an American, noticing certain trends in the United States building enmity between nations—you have a person with roots in the United States who I hope will look to foster and maintain the friendships on this globe that already exist,” Schoelles says. “Building enmity is not where we need to go, and I think the Cardinals or the Holy Spirit when they gathered in that room were thinking of just that.”

The pope is expected to build on Francis’ reforms and has already continued some of Francis’ messaging, especially on peace. 

In his homily to an audience of cardinals Friday, he pledged to align himself with “ordinary people,” and in his first Sunday address at the Vatican, he called for a lasting peace in Ukraine, a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the recent fighting between India and Pakistan. He quoted Francis in referring to ongoing violence as “a third world war in pieces.”

“Never again war,” the pope called out emphatically in Italian to the cheers of thousands packed into St. Peter’s Square below and overflowing into the surrounding streets.

To Schoelles, this emphasis on peace and building bridges between nations is vital messaging for the pope in this international climate.

“I think we’re in need of an international leader who can help to in some ways move beyond the unbridled nationalism that seems to be growing on our planet right now,” she says. “As one of the only international leaders, if he can somehow foster camaraderie among nations, a spirit of unity among nations, where we all work for peace and the betterment of our planet—that would be my greatest hope I think.”

Says Wynne: “All U.S. bishops must broaden their lens beyond the U.S.” 

Amid all of the speculation about how Leo XIV would conduct his papacy, Matano in his address in Rochester on Sunday discussed the legacy of the preceding popes who served in Leo XIV’s lifetime. He recentered his own discussion of the future on the central roles of the pope under Catholic doctrine—in particular uniting with Christ and opening himself to the holy spirit, and giving communion.

“Our holy father is gleaning from these pontificates such powerful messages of his predecessors, and to meld them together to strengthen his own pontificate,” the bishop said. “We see in his recent addresses to the world, to all of us, to every person, that he understands the continuity of his office, reaching back to the very time Christ walked this earth and told his first Vicar of Christ, ‘Peter, confirm your brothers and sisters in the faith.’”

Wagner, like Wynne, hopes Leo XIV will build on his immediate predecessor’s legacy by courageously reforming church norms—advancing women’s rights and roles in the church, welcoming married priests, and promoting inclusivity for all.

“(I) hope he remains bold in speaking truth to power,” Wagner says.

Justin O’Connor is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer. Paul Ericson, Beacon executive editor, and Smriti Jacob, managing editor, assisted with this article.

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