As the West faces a time of rapid and profound change, Christians are looking for guidance on how to respond. We asked Archbishop John Wilson to share his thoughts on the key challenges and opportunities at this critical point in our history. In this short speech given at a private dinner in February 2024, we hear from him what a practical, effective and authentically Christian response might look like. We share this with the Archbishop’s personal permission.
Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Church
I would like to try and say something around the challenges and opportunities facing the Church today and the urgent need to make a practical, effective and authentically Christian response.
Context – How can we read this cultural moment?
“Ours is not an age of change, but the change of the ages.” This was part of a statement made by the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in the Aparecida document in 2007.
In other words, we are witnessing not an era of change, but a change of era: unprecedented change, throughout the West and globally. In many senses, our age is an age of crisis, not least in terms of climate and relations between nations.
To put this in ecclesial terms, it is true to say that Christendom is finished. There is a book, From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, written by Mgr James Shea in 2020, in which he quotes Archbishop Fulton Sheen, from 1974, who said, “We are at the end of Christendom.” Sheen goes onto define this:
“Christendom is economic, political, social life as inspired by Christian principles. That is ending — we’ve seen it die.”
But Sheen goes on to say “these are great and wonderful days in which to be alive. I thank God … that I can live in these days, because these are days of testing.” He said it was not a “gloomy” picture, but “a picture of the Church in the midst of increasing opposition from the world. And, therefore, live your lives in the full consciousness of this hour of testing..”
Our culture is marked by individualism and identitarian ideologies, by the unravelling of social and economic liberalism. There’s a vacuum in leadership in politics. We have demoralised populations, and multiple pathologies that indicate human distress.
For example the current impact of domestic abuse. Massive impact on the mental health of our country, from the fact that our society is dysfunctional.
This raises questions about what kind of future do we face? We are not gloomy, certainly not despondent.
But what is the Church’s mission here? What is an authentic evangelising Catholic response?
And not least what does that mean in terms of the Gospel’s relationship to economy and society?
Challenges – What are some of the challenges facing the Church?
The greatest challenge to the Church is always the challenge to faithfulness and steadfastness in belief. Every crisis in the Church is fundamentally a crisis of faith. If we stop believing we might as well give up and switch the lights off.
With this comes the temptation for the Church to look to the world and to imitate the world, rather than provide a witness as prophetic leaven in the world. The Church has always been tempted by the zeitgeist and it’s no different today. She stands or falls on her capacity to be renewed by, and to communicate authentically, in and out of season, the truths received through faith.
Overall, Catholic numbers globally continue to rise – currently at around 1.3 billion. But those figures don’t represent equitable growth across every nation. There is decline and collapse in historic Catholic countries. This is offset by those which are more recently missioned and growing rapidly. Interesting question as to why. Without question, the utterly unacceptable and devastating abuse of children and vulnerable adults has affected the credibility of the Church worldwide.
UK Sunday Mass attendance post-Covid is about 500,000 against a Catholic population of about 3.8 million. There are signs of hope in this statistical analysis. For example, in my own Archdiocese of Southwark post Covid we have seen a 10% rise in Mass attendance in the past two years. We have 500 adults who are to be baptised as adults and received into the Church this coming Easter, the highest number since 2015. The majority of that number are converts not from another form of Christianity, but from no previous faith. So there is something alive.
But Christendom is dead. Because of that there is something of transition about where we are as a Church. And in that there’s an issue of confidence – because the Catholic and Christian voice becomes muffled in an increasingly secularised and intolerant society.
We have decline in vocations, although in Southwark they are growing. There is amalgamation and closure of parishes, we’re losing our presence in places – that to me is devastating. You lose sacred space and you lose a place on the map. There’s loss of confidence, poor formation and mission drift, there’s confusion and disagreements around how we should be missionary, including divisions within the Church about models of evangelisation. It should never be a choice, about whether we are proclaiming the Gospel or living the Gospel. It’s not either evangelistic or social. It has to be both. But the confusion takes its toll.
Opportunities – What are some opportunities for the Church at this time?
Here is a quotation from Pope Paul VI at the close of Vatican II, 1960 to 1965, a global event in the life of the Church, still to be realised nationally and internationally:
“The Church has gathered herself together in deep spiritual awareness, not to produce a learned analysis of religious psychology, or an account of her own experiences, not even to devote herself to affirming her rights and explaining her laws. Rather, it was to find in herself, active and alive, the Holy Spirit, the Word of Christ, and to probe more deeply the mystery, the plan, and the presence of God above and within herself, to revitalise in herself that faith, which is the secret of her confidence, and of her wisdom, and that love with which she is impelled to sing without ceasing the praises of God.”
We need a missionary church, not just ad intra but ad extra.
The big questions about life have not gone away. There continues to be a genuine search for meaning, to which we have answers as people of faith, together with other people of faith.
Generation Z – born late 1990s to mid 2000s – may be far less religious than their parents and much more socially progressive. But Catholicism is attractive to Gen Z. The statistics are beginning to bear this out.
The need for a Church that speaks into our culture – including our culture of death – that is seen to be a servant to our culture, brings to life the Acts of the Apostles.
The Catholic tradition has a narrative for society much more desirable and necessary than unfettered autonomy, than power and wealth, than purposeless, futile living for solely for self. None of that is beautiful. At heart, it’s ugly. We need beauty and we have a tradition of beautiful truth.
There is a work to be done, a mission that is of value not just to those within the church, and perhaps more so to those outside of the church: a work of restoring authentic language – about community, about how we speak about each other, about the place of the family, about what integrity means in human relationships, about how we rebuild trust, how we understand our sense of mutual obligation and belonging, how we rebuild relationships – all within an authentically Christian framework.
There are opportunities for alliances and partnerships, sometimes from surprising quarters. For example, a few years ago I was involved with a feminist pro-life group, not the sort of people I would usually come into contact with, but on a particular issue we had a common mind – a sort of common good.
There are vital roles for the church to play in spiritual and civic renewal, to challenge both individualism and collectivism – those failed answers to authentic human flourishing.
What might be some opportunities for the Church at national and diocesan levels?
At national and diocesan levels, there are opportunities to speak about the significance and the importance of human existence and not to be shy to talk about our God given identity; to counter the identity politics that divides human beings, that makes them vulnerable to domination, that undermines the common good.
We have the ability to talk about and uphold the sacred, and to bridge brokenness. God calls us to build relationships, to reweave the fabric of a fragmented society and culture.
We need to talk the language of covenant, of relationship, with mutual gift and task, the language of mutual responsibility. To talk about what it means to have just and binding relationships with mutual interdependence. A language where the tyranny of wealth, power, or government is seen as an affront to creation, and is called out as such.
There are opportunities for the Church to promote an all embracing notion of the common good. To be prophetic, to be countercultural, to resist structures of sin, to build structures of virtue rooted in the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching. There are opportunities to offer an antidote to the symptoms of human distress generated by a dysfunctional political economy and fragmented society.
We can generate a common good narrative of hope and justice that resists the dull and dehumanising compulsion of markets, the commodification of creation, and welfare systems that isolate and undermine human relationships.
What might be some opportunities for Christian institutions and businesses?
Christian institutions and businesses can put the spotlight on the inhumane systems of profit and power that lead to the abandonment of human beings.
They can generate a vocabulary about the common good, about mutuality, about virtuous places of encounter, of dialogue, of relationship. They can foster virtuous agency and promote, in the widest sense, vocation – genuine calling, not simply career.
One of the key areas we face in terms of challenge, in the Church, in education and in Catholic institutions, is to combat mission drift in terms of identity and purpose. This is also an opportunity. We need to be serious about our institutions as places where prayer is acceptable, where formation is acceptable.
And in the wider virtuous reality, Christian institutions and businesses can build coalitions and alliances with like-minded institutions and other religious organisations, and reorientate institutions towards spiritual and civic renewal, in line with our tradition of Catholic social teaching.
What about opportunities for Leadership?
We need leaders to become equipped with a holistic formation that puts personal spirituality and vocational responsibility at the service of the common good and an authentically Christian model of justice and virtue. We need to learn the art of discernment again, that wise sifting of options in the light of principles and truth.
We need leaders who understand what evangelisation means, and what it doesn’t mean.
Evangelisation is not proselytisation, faux devotionalism, pietism. It’s not limited to an exclusive focus on personal salvation. We need to nurture leaders who are humble, who understand the Beatitudes. Who understand that the places where people work and live are as important as the work they do and how they live. We need to nurture leaders who see the face of Christ in their neighbour, who ask who is my neighbour, and do something about it. We need leaders who are attuned to discovering the sacred in the ordinary.
We need leaders who can articulate Catholic mission clearly, asserting a Christian identity that is fundamentally rooted in God and the Gospel. An identity that is relational, which prioritises the building of local relationships of trust and reciprocity.
We need leaders who can bridge the internal divides between the potentially polarising evangelistic and the social wings of the Church, retaining the Catholic ‘and’ of proclamation of the Gospel words and deeds.
What might be some opportunities for churches, schools and groups at local level?
At local level, churches, schools and groups need to become more intentional.
I went to Confession last week and I confessed my rubbish prayer life. That’s something for an archbishop to put on the table. The advice I received – from a very good priest – was “maybe you just need to be more intentional about when and how you pray.”
Well – our parishes, schools and local groups need to become more intentionally relational. To capture that intentionality and relationality that comes through building local partnerships, that cherishes local neighbourhoods, that strengthens our local civic ecology.
Our parishes, schools and local groups need to offer people a taste of the kingdom. By being more beatitudinal, by being more covenantal, by having a sense of family. John Paul II said “the future of humanity passes by way of the family.”
Our parishes, schools and local groups need to talk about forgiveness and redemption not just in religious terms, but in human terms and to offer a way back for people into society again who have become peripheral, because of things they’ve done or because of what’s been done to them.
There is a need to teach people how to pray. We need to open up the beautiful tradition of Catholic spirituality. Other religious groups have their own spirituality as well. Once one religious group becomes more confident and authentic, it opens the way for solidarity with others. We’re not in competition.
Our parishes, schools and local groups need to live in solidarity with the poorest. What does that mean, on my doorstep? Not as service providers meeting clients, not as rescuers to victims, but as neighbours and friends. Some of the most important words that Jesus spoke in the Gospel are “I have called you friends.” At the heart of this is what it means to rediscover in our communities an authentic, all-embracing concept of friendship, with reciprocity and respect.
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All of this sits beautifully, and rightly, within our tradition of Catholic social thought and teaching – and within a more embracing understanding of evangelisation. They’re not in opposition. They are synergies.
Catholic social thought is often misunderstood – often instrumentalised, claimed by particular groups. For some, it is seen as optional! Well it’s not optional – because it’s from the Gospel. And if we are people who follow the Gospel, Catholic social teaching is a necessity. It’s something the world needs. It’s something I need in my life. It is the most coherent Christian framework to address social, civic, political, economic, cultural, and spiritual renewal. It’s often called the best kept secret, but it needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
Let me say it’s a great joy and a privilege and really something inspiring to have an association with Together for the Common Good. Their work resources Christians of all traditions to play their part – by making our tradition of Catholic social teaching and thought more accessible, in particular the concept of the common good.
On my way here my taxi driver spoke very beautifully to a lady begging at his window and gave her a pound. In his own way he contributed to the common good. It’s not so much the giving of money, it’s how we treat another person, it’s about relationships.
Together for the Common Good is providing leadership, building confidence – helping the people of the churches by delivering training to leaders, by bringing Catholic social thought to life in private and public conversations, by creating online training, formation resources, including for new generations of young people, helping them take responsibility and to understand the importance of relationships.
Together for the Common Good is doing what the Second Vatican Council asked us to do: reading the signs of the times, and addressing practically the challenges and opportunities I’ve spoken about here this evening. They are working so creatively, integrating personal spirituality and vocational responsibility at the service of the common good – and they are doing this through multiple partnerships.
I’d like to thank Together for the Common Good very much for what they’re doing. They need help so if you can support them, not least financially, please do follow up directly.
The Most Revd Archbishop John Wilson
Metropolitan Archbishop of Southwark
Private dinner, London, 20 February 2024
This article features in T4CG’s Summer 2024 Newsletter. Subscribe to the T4CG newsletter here
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