There’s a crisis of manhood in the American Church. You know it; I know it. But if our bishops are anything other than totally oblivious, they’re playing it cool.
In July of 2017, I attended a USCCB convocation in Orlando, Florida. Its stated goal was finding new ways to spread the joy of the Gospel in this country. Prior to the meeting, the USCCB developed the theme: making every single Catholic into a missionary disciple.
This all sounded fine to me, until I started looking at the breakout sessions for the convocation. There was one for women, one Latinos, one for youth, one for immigrants, one the poor, one for victims of sexual abuse… but not one session, curiously, on the role of men in the Church.
Of course, there are some obvious male roles – the priesthood, for instance. But the USCCB is apparently unaware that, outside of Holy Orders, men are a minority in the Church. That makes us the second-most feminine religion in America after Buddhism. I contacted the USCCB to see if they still had time to add something for men, but it was too late. All the decisions had been made. ….
