Today’s Manions are beneficiaries of a proud and noteworthy lineage. Chris and his siblings are the children of Clarence E. Manion (1896–1979), a professor and dean of Notre Dame Law School for nearly 30 years and the host and intellectual wellspring of Manion Forum, which older readers may remember. It was a popular radio program during the 1950s and 1960s. Beaming to about 100 radio stations (and later on television), Clarence Manion touted principled constitutional domestic policies, matched with firm anti-communism rhetoric, both in his commentary and his challenging interviews of guests.
A disclosure here: Although I haven’t seen him in person for decades, I have been Chris Manion’s friend since the 1970s. Readers will no doubt hold me to a high standard of fair-minded journalism when I make positive observations about his book, which I proudly accept.
In “Charity for Sale,” Manion makes the case that too many leaders of the American Catholic church have all but abandoned teaching and advancing homiletics on Christian principles that were central to the faith in the early and mid-20th century. This laryngitis, as Cardinal Timothy Dolan has described it, has been occurring simultaneously with an unmistakable ebbing of true, voluntary Catholic charity, in favor of seeking and gaining billions of dollars in government grants each year.
To begin explaining this metamorphosis, Manion points to the impact of Father John Ryan, a charming liberal who offered support to Democrat presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt and their progressive agendas as they expanded the federal welfare state. Father Ryan began encouraging the church away from traditional American individualism and toward what was known as “Fabian Socialism,” a gradual, incrementalist alternative to violent, revolutionary Marxism.
Though Father Ryan drove his agenda through the USCCB, there remained pockets of resistance. Boston’s Cardinal William H. O’Connell referred to Ryan’s ideas on a child labor amendment as “Bolshevik” in 1919.
Today, two-thirds of the annual spending by Catholic Charities USA comes from the government.
If Manion is the perfect individual to write “Charity for Sale,” I may be, owing to my experience, a credible person to review it. For nearly seven years, I was the CEO of one of the nation’s largest Catholic-affiliated social service agencies. The founding of my former agency 95 years ago was only made possible by the energy, commitment, and ingenuity of Catholic priests, sisters, and brothers, along with voluntary contributions from individual Catholics.
When I arrived at the agency in 2002, over 95 percent of the organization’s budget came from the federal, state, or local governments. When I departed, that percentage was about the same, out of a budget totaling $87 million today.
In less than a century, how did Catholic and other faith-based non-profits like mine move from being products of genuine American voluntarism to “NGOs” dependent on an ever-expanding state for their existence?
The reasons are myriad, but for sure, they are at odds with the pronouncements of Cardinal James Gibbons, considered the American prelate during his 44 years as Archbishop of Baltimore. In the late 19th century, Cardinal Gibbons counseled that the American Catholic church should avoid more entanglement with government. Father Ryan pressed for the opposite policies, and he would surely be ecstatic with the Church’s operation of billions of dollars in government contracts and services today.
As Father Ryan and many bishops were “gifted” with more and more government grants and assistance for Catholic social service efforts around the nation, some of the central messages of the Catholic faith became more muted. Although opposition to abortion is part of the legislative program of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and that of state Catholic conferences’ legislative agendas, it’s just one of many issues in a large list of demands that Church leadership vocalizes each year to elected officials at the federal, state, and even local levels of government.
By default, at least, abortion becomes equal in importance to appeals for more food assistance, subsidized housing, and a litany of other “liberal” concerns. If Catholic bishops believe an unborn child to be human life, shouldn’t that become issue No. 1 at all levels of government?
An even tougher “sell” than preventing abortion is the Church’s opposition to the voluntary use of artificial contraception. A much publicized Vatican encyclical, “Humanae Vitae,” was promulgated in 1968 by Pope Paul VI, and it made clear that using such contraception was sinful. Except for theology courses I attended in the 1970s, I can’t recall a statement from a Church leader or spokesman or a homily that addressed the topic. Yes, our culture is far from primed to consider such viewpoints, but don’t the Church faithful deserve an elucidation of papal teaching at least once in a while?
Internal rebuttals to the encyclical have attracted more attention over the decades than have the Pope’s statements. A group of liberal theologians, led by Catholic University’s Father Charles Curran, opined that Catholics may dissent from “authoritative but non-infallible teachings when sufficient reasons are present,” Manion reports. What is a faithful mass attendee to do with this Catholic version of George Orwell’s “newspeak”?
Now, a few states have permitted assisted suicide, and it may become law in my own. The Church, to its credit, has mounted some efforts to defeat such virulently anti-life measures. Perhaps a few victories on this issue will embolden Church leaders to defend life-enhancing doctrine across the board.
But what about Manion’s subtitle, “Has the American Catholic Church Become ‘Just Another NGO’?” The answer is partly yes, in my view. The overwhelming majority of Catholic clergy I have encountered are genuinely and energetically committed to their core mission of saving souls. They studied in seminaries for years so they can interpret God’s word, as the Church sees it, for the faithful and others searching for spiritual answers. They have sacrificed having marriages and families of their own so they can minister to others. For tens of millions of American Mass-goers, their local priests have become spiritual advisors, community leaders, and friends.
Yet, while pressing for more government support for their own social services programs, Church leaders have muted pronouncements on the great moral issues before us. Once an organization accepts government funding, it becomes natural to frame an eternal lobbying demand for “More!” Like most supplicants, these same Church advocates go to pains to not offend their liberal funders.
National and local Catholic charities and nonprofits may be the best examples of this transformation, though I have seen other faith-based groups affiliated with a spectrum of religions to likewise aggressively seek and lobby for government grants.
Manion’s “Charity for Sale” may be of special interest to Catholic readers. Church terms like “diocesan ordinary,” “synodality,” “apostolic nunciatura,” and others may send Catholics and non-Catholics alike scurrying to thesauruses. But for adherents of Protestantism, the Jewish faith, and other religions, Manion’s work is a cautionary tale of what may be already underway in their own spiritual tribes.
It’s a well-researched yet readable eye-opener.
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