The Catholic Leader - July 2

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The Catholic Leader, July 2, 2017
Arts + entertainment
STRANGERS IN A STRANGE
LAND: LIVING THE CATHOLIC
FAITH IN A POST-CHRISTIAN
WORLD
Archbishop Charles J. Caput;
Henry Holt and Company,
New York; 2017
“WE are passing through a revolution of sorts
in America,” says Philadelphia Archbishop
Charles J. Chaput.
Following such upheavals in the nation’s
moral life as the “normali-
sation of pornography, pre-
marital sex, divorce (and)
transgenderism”, the 2015
Supreme Court decision to
legalise same-sex marriage
was “a symbolic overthrow
of traditional Catholic
sexual morality”, he says.
It was to help Catholics understand such
changes, the archbishop said, that he wrote his
new book, Strangers in A Strange Land: Living
the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World.
“I was thinking about the confusion that
exists in the lives of so many people, even ordi-
nary, everyday Catholics who love the Church
and who love our country here in the United
States, but at the same time have a sense that
something is wrong and they really don’t know
what it’s about,” he told Catholic News Service
during an interview.
For example, he said, “expressing concern
about the change in the meaning of marriage is
considered to be old-fashioned or retrogressive
or bigoted and that leads people to be afraid to
even talk about it”.
Archbishop Chaput, 72, draws a contrast
between contemporary society and the simpler
America he knew in his childhood during the
1940s and 1950s.
“In today’s world, we treat people with dis-
abilities much better than they did when I was a
young man,” he said.
“Society is very conscious about their rights
and we even rearrange the structures of our
buildings to help people with physical disabili-
ties.”
On the other hand, “we have a technology
that has kept most people with Down syndrome
from being born, because the disability is de-
tected early, and technology has done that, and
we decide to eliminate those people” through
abortion, he said.
“It’s a symbol of how we’ve at the same time
progressed and at the same time regressed,” the
archbishop said.
Archbishop Chaput identifies the contracep-
tive pill and the transistor as key inventions of
the last century that led to many of the cultural
changes he outlines in his book.
The pill “was very tiny but led to huge
changes in our perception of the meaning of
human sexuality, which affects the way we
think about family”, and the transistor, found in
most electronic devices, led to all kinds of new
technologies that challenged Christian living in
various ways, he said.
“The disruption of family life” through new
communications technologies,
for instance, had led to a situa-
tion where “parents don’t know
how to influence their kids, or
are so busy they don’t have time
for each other”, he said.
The archbishop attributes
America’s emphasis on the
supreme importance of the indi-
vidual as a contributing factor to
the collapse of a Christian moral
consensus in the country.
Individualism was “one of
the weaknesses of American
culture”, he said.
“We don’t focus enough on
history or on community, and
that gets in the way of us being
serious about those who’ve
thought before us.”
For example, “I don’t see a whole lot of gen-
erosity on the part of the new leadership class in
the United States,” he said.
Millennials seemed “focused on making
money and having great success and being elite,
and I don’t see a lot of focus on the common
good”.
The appropriate Catholic response to the
cultural situation in the United States, “where
the basic assumptions of Christianity and
Catholicism are questioned by everyone”, was
to “live the Gospel in a radical kind of way”,
Archbishop Chaput said.
Writing toward the end of the
book, the archbishop calls for
Christians to engage in political
debates in the public square, but
also to “build the communities,
the friendships, and the places
in which we joyfully live out
our faith”.
Rather than a naive and
emotion-based optimism, “the
driving force in terms of fac-
ing the future for Christians
is always the virtue of hope”,
Archbishop Chaput said.
“Hope is energy built on
conviction that the future is in
God’s hands and God wants us
to be very much a part of creat-
ing that future – we are kind of the instruments
for the future.”
CNS
Book
Invention of the pill and transistor key points
Humming with extras
CARS 3: Starring (in voice)
Armie Hammer, Owen Wil-
son, Bonnie
Hunt. Directed
by Brian Fee.
Rated G (Very
mild themes
and coarse lan-
guage). 109 minutes
By Joseph McAleer
FASTEN your seatbelts and start
your engines for a wild (and often
ear-splitting) ride in Cars 3, the lat-
est instalment of the family-friendly
animated franchise.
Six years after the initial sequel and 11 since
the series began with Cars, the anthropomorphic
autos are back with a vengeance.
Director Brian Fee ramps up the racing action
(and the roar of the engines) while introducing
a fleet of new characters sure to please young
viewers – not to mention toy manufacturers.
Happily, there’s much more than the dizzying
blur of NASCAR-like action.
Screenwriters Kiel Murray, Bob Peterson and
Mike Rich inject a nice amount of heart and
pathos into the comedic plot, and add winning
messages about second chances and the value of
mentoring.
The years have been kind to ace racer Light-
ning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson).
He’s still at the top of his game. But just over
his shoulder is a new generation of faster vehi-
cles, like the brash rookie Jackson Storm (voice
of Armie Hammer).
“Enjoy your retirement,” Jackson tells Light-
ning as he whizzes past.
In a flash, Lightning is sidelined by an ac-
cident.
Disillusioned and depressed, he retreats to his
adopted home of Radiator Springs.
There he draws on the support of his loyal
tow-truck sidekick Mater (voice of Larry the Ca-
ble Guy) and comely Porsche sweetheart Sally
(voice of Bonnie Hunt).
Sally knows Lightning must look to the future.
“Don’t fear failure,” she insists.
“Take a chance. Try something new.”
A spiffy fresh paint job by Ramone (voice of
Cheech Marin) helps.
“It’s so beautiful,” Ramone says of his own
work, “it’s like the Sistine Chapel!”
With his spirits buoyed, Lightning heads to the
training centre run by his sponsor Rust-Eze and
its new owner, the “businesscar” Sterling (voice
of Nathan Fillion).
His eager young coach Cruz Ramirez (voice
of Cristela Alonzo) is thrilled with her new, if
elderly, charge.
“You’re my senior project,” she gushes.
As the bond between veteran racer and rookie
wannabe grows, Lightning recalls the wisdom of
his dearly departed mentor Doc Hudson (voice
of Paul Newman).
On a whim, he takes Cruz on a road trip to
find Doc’s original trainer – a grizzled ‘51 Ford
named Smokey (voice of Chris Cooper) – to
recapture some of the old magic.
“You’ll never be the racer you once were,”
Smokey intones.
“You can’t turn back the clock, kid, but you
can wind it up again.”
Cars 3 is full of surprises, and there’s a nice
twist in store well before the finish line.
The film contains a brief, highly stylised crash
scene.
Joseph McAleer is a guest reviewer for
Catholic News Service.
Third lap: An old favourite is back for another lap of fun with Cars 3. in this scene, Lightning McQueen (left, voiced by Owen Wilson) is with new coach Cruz Ramirez (voiced by Cristela Alonzo).
Photo: CNS/Disney
Film