A “silent schism” has taken place in American Catholicism, with some sections of the Church “sitting out the papacy of Francis” while certain bishops use social media to inflame “a uniquely toxic situation”, theologian and award-winning author, Dr Dawn Eden Goldstein has warned.
Speaking to Christopher Lamb at a Tablet webinar, “The Church and polarisation: where does this leave Catholics in the United States?” Dr Goldstein said, “Polarisation in the United States is seen largely where people try to make the Church coterminous with a particular political party – ‘if you are a real Catholic, you are going to be a member of a specific party’. That is especially bad where you have got a two-party system.”
Of those Catholics “biding time until the next pope”, Dr Goldstein, whose biography of Jesuit Fr Edward Dowling won the 2023 Christophers award said, “We have to call out schism wherever it comes from. When a bishop is using social media to be divisive, then we really have a problem. Rome is still not really aware of the toxic effects that a bishop can have rallying people on social media and doing the same sort of things that Donald Trump tried to do to polarise people.”
She said Catholic members of some conservative think tanks could tend to be locked into “a persistent hermeneutic of suspicion” against Pope Francis, claiming that he is a liberal Pope and therefore they are free to disregard anything he says which is not infallible. “It is not Catholic to simply assume that as long as the Pope is not speaking infallibly, I can ignore it. That’s the schism that we are all dealing with right now and we need to pray for unity.”
As to whether the synodal journey can heal this polarisation, she revealed that there has been “a significant amount of apathy” among the US bishops towards the Synod on Synodality.
“I think the Synod can help by making bishops aware of the extent to which the faithful are affected by polarisation,” she said. “Maybe if bishops get a better understanding of these problems that are harming the faithful, particularly in the social media ecosphere.” They needed to be more sensitive about things that inflame divisions she said.
Author and commentator Gloria Purvis, host and executive producer of “The Gloria Purvis Podcast”, said Catholic media has an obligation to communicate the truth and point people towards Catholic values.
She spoke about her experience of having her role ended as a presenter of an EWTN radio show. She believes her efforts to raise the issue of racism as a life issue was not popular with the “self-described devout Catholics who are typical EWTN’s audience” and who have “an anaemic view of human dignity” and the Church’s teaching on racial justice.
“I did get a lot of racist hate mail when I was at EWTN on Morning Glory when I tried to bring up the issue of racism,” she said. “I was really well known for talking about defence of life in the womb and authentic women’s rights from a Catholic perspective. For some reason people assumed that meant only a particular thing and so when I stepped outside of their preconceived notions and was just as vigorous a defender of a person's human dignity in the area of race, I think it was seen as a betrayal by some people.”
She explained that EWTN affiliate Guadalupe Radio relayed that they thought her show was contentious and dropped it. At the end of the year the show was not renewed.
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