c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.)

UNDATED _ In a brief talk at the just-concluded Synod of Bishops on America in Rome, Chicago’s Archbishop Francis George made a fascinating observation about American Roman Catholics.

The culture of America, George said, is essentially Calvinist and Catholics see their faith through the prism of Calvinism. Thus, American Catholics have a different vision of the church than do Latino immigrants, creating a sense of unease with American Catholicism for Latino Catholics.

While I disagree with some of George’s observations, I believe he has put his finger on a crucial aspect of the”culture wars”between the institutions of the church and its Latino peoples.

Certainly, the Puritan ethic persists in this country. The fixation on the miniscule elements of campaign fund raising, for example _ where was the president when he made certain telephone calls: in his private quarters or in the Oval Office? _ could only happen in this country.

On the other hand, the data available to me suggests American Catholics as a people are not Calvinist in their religious culture.

They certainly do not believe in predestination and the only people in the world more likely to endorse Pelagius’ thesis that humans control their own destiny are the inhabitants of Pelagius’ home island _ that soggy green island west of Britain.

On such crucial measures as sacramentality and communalism, American Catholics are radically different from their Protestant neighbors and indeed becoming more so. As a matter of fact, on these measures American Catholics have higher scores than do Catholics in any other country except, again, that soggy island off the shores of Europe.

George, like many other Catholic leaders, gravely underestimates just how Catholic is the religious culture of American Catholics, including non-Latinos.

Communal loyalty among American Catholics is as strong as it is anywhere in the world and stronger than it is almost everywhere. Yet there is a problem that I will illustrate with a story:

In a seminar at the University of Arizona, one of my students explained Mexican American religion. She talked at great length of the family feasts and festivals. Repeatedly, I pressed her for theological content.

Just as repeatedly she continued in her description of festivals. Finally, when I said in near despair,”Lupe, what does it all mean?”she replied, in some surprise,”Oh, I guess it means we believe God is a member of our family. When we have a family celebration, then God comes and celebrates with us.” She paused and went on,”Of course, we should know the rules like you Irish do. That’s why my husband and I have our children in a Catholic school, so they can learn all the Irish rules.” She put her finger on the heart of the matter: American Catholicism as an institution is an institution of rules, laws, regulations and thus makes it a Calvinist institution _ but only partly because of the Calvinist American cultural environment.

It’s also because of the”Devotional Revolution”in Ireland after the great famine (1845-1849), partly because of the reforms launched with the 16th-century Council of Trent and partly because of the immigrant experience in this country.

So, is George ready to deinstitutionalize and delegalize the American church? Will he say to people like my student Lupe,”Your God of celebration is more Catholic than our God of rules?”Maybe he wants to, but I doubt it.

However, unless he and his colleagues do say something like that, Latinos will not find the institution of the church in this country nearly as appealing as the one in the old country. They will feel it is a cold, rigid, unsympathetic institution because the”Calvinist problem”is not in the Catholic membership but in the formal institution and its leaders.

I agree with the archbishop that we need a new, non-Calvinist model of Catholicism. It would be, I hope, a model that says while rules and laws are not totally unimportant, far more important is the truth that the God of Catholics is a God of family, festival, celebration, and implacably forgiving love.

MJP END GREELEY