NIHIL OBSTAT: VATICAN ON ITS WAY TO CULTURAL CHRISTIANITY
We experience the Good when, after choosing Evil, we become aware of the utter inadequacy of our situation.
Comrades,
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For years, the populist Right has been targeting "cultural Marxism" as an allegedly new and even more dangerous form of Marxism bent on destroying the very basis of our civilization. Now, this term has its atheist counterpart: cultural Christianity. Lately, some fervent atheists (like Richard Dawkins) have declared themselves "cultural Christians": although they don’t believe in God, they respect and practice the moral rules of Christianity, considering them superior to those of all other religions. (Some misguided interpreters have located my Christian Atheism within this line.) The surprise is that even the Vatican itself seems to be moving in this direction: what matters more than truth are the ethical implications of a religious stance.
On August 28, 2024, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the assent of Pope Francis, made public a Note that granted approval for devotion linked to Medjugorje, recognizing the abundant spiritual fruits received at the Sanctuary of the Queen of Peace. Without making a declaration on the supernatural character of the Marian apparitions, it simply recognizes the goodness of the spiritual fruits linked to Medjugorje, authorizing the faithful to adhere to it since "many positive fruits have been noted in the midst of a spiritual experience, while negative and dangerous effects have not spread among the People of God."
The last sentence is peculiar: it sounds as if it admits there were also negative and dangerous effects which just have not spread around as much as the good ones – so it’s not a question of truth but rather a calculated assessment of good effects versus bad effects: since the good effects dominate, let’s tolerate the pilgrimage. The phrase nihil obstat was used by a Catholic cleric known as a Censor Librorum (Latin for 'censor of books') to indicate that a book contains nothing contrary to Catholic doctrines, faith, or morals, and so can be published. The message of the Note was also a nihil obstat: even if there are serious doubts about the miraculous nature of the appearances of Mary, the Note poses no obstacle to Catholics who want to continue making pilgrimages to Medjugorje. Such postmodern pragmatic relativism is as far as one can imagine from the authentic belief of someone like Kierkegaard who was in no way a dogmatic fundamentalist – he famously proclaimed that we cannot ever be fully sure that we believe; we can only believe that we believe and thus accept the absurdity of belief.
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