CULTURE CLASH:

O'Malley confronts 'culture of death': Calls on priests to inspire society (Michael Paulson, 4/7/2004, Boston Globe)

Describing the United States as a "hostile, alien environment" for Catholics, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley yesterday exhorted Boston priests to do a better job preaching to a society he described as characterized by "a culture of death . . . consumerism, hedonism, [and] individualism."

O'Malley, at one of the signal moments of his first Holy Week in Boston, told hundreds of priests at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross that they must speak out clearly about "public issues" and "social causes" because "no one will follow an uncertain trumpet blast." He did not refer directly to the church's current public policy battle -- its effort to prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage -- but said the church's teachings about life and family are "essential for civilization in the long run." He quoted the apostle Paul as saying "the word of God cannot be changed."

The homily offered one of the first major illustrations of how O'Malley views American culture, and of how his status as a Franciscan Capuchin friar affects his priorities. He spoke at length about the importance of preaching, which was a major preoccupation of St. Francis.

"We have only to look at the New Age bookshelves and psychic hotlines and television stations to see that there is a hunger for God and for spirituality among our people, but today's audience is not easy," he said. "The boomers . . . are heirs to Woodstock, the drug culture, the sexual revolution, feminism, the breakdown of authority, and divorce. . . . And they are addicted to entertainment -- even the news must be entertaining."

O'Malley, who was installed as archbishop of Boston last summer, appears far more conversant with popular culture than his predecessor, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, spicing his humor-laden homilies with quotes not only from the Bible but from theater, literature, movies, and television. Yesterday he referred to the motion picture "Contact" as well as the book "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom.

But he described American culture as particularly inhospitable to Catholic teaching, and likened preaching to Americans to a form of martyrdom.

"The pulpit is the important arena of our martyrdom," O'Malley said. "It can be painful, it can be frustrating, but it can also produce much good."

The unity of secular Europe and radical Islamicism in opposition to the United States becomes more explicable if you simply look at George Bush as trying to restore a Culture of Life and them as bound together in two variations on a Culture of Death.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 7, 2004 8:59 AM