By Fr. Anthony R. Lusvardi, S.J., The Catholic Thing - In the late 1960s, Fr. Richard McBrien, future president of the Catholic Theological Society and long-time Chair of the Department of Theology at Notre Dame, declared that the Catholic Church had gotten out of “the salvation business.” Though most people wouldn’t have put it so crudely, McBrien was expressing a view that remains enormously influential in Catholic theology and pastoral life. In my own theological education, I often found that the question “What is the mission of the Church?” provoked waffling or embarrassment.