The Scourge of Adjectival Proliferation

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio - articles - email ) | May 20, 2024

As if we didn’t have enough problems in the Church, now we have an unwieldy multiplication of adjectives encumbering our theological vocabulary.

Shortly after the sin of our first parents, in arrogance, the people tried to build a tower to reach the heavens without the help of God. The story of the Tower of Babel begins: “Now the whole earth had one language and few words.” (Gen. 11:1) (Homilists, take note.) God punished the aboriginal Pelagians who presumed to get along without His grace and scattered them far and wide, unable to communicate because of their disparate tongues. Henceforth, the proliferation of words, languages, and adjectives (probably) hindered the unity of mankind.

The formation of nations in antiquity and beyond reveals an inherent desire for unity despite the cataclysmic dispersion of population. A nation is a grouping of families and tribes with common interests. Traditionally we stress unity through the rule of law. The American flag represents the US Constitution. The succinct American Pledge of Allegiance professes we are “one Nation, under God.”

Sometimes we need words of clarification. We have President Eisenhower, the US Congress, and the threat of atheistic Communism to thank for adding the clause “under God” to the Pledge in 1954. Recognizing God’s supremacy is essential to mitigate the ongoing consequences of the collapse of the Tower of Babel. Unity at its root depends upon our cooperation and communion with God.

Nations traditionally have venerable ethnic communities in major cities. But some ethnic elements—wounded by fear and bigotry—depart from the rule of law and become dangerous to local and national unity. Certain ethnic enclaves do not permit entry of those with ethnic or racial characteristics at variance with the neighborhood. (As usual, controversy surrounds the existence of contemporary ethnic no-go zones.) Conversely, elites impose the Woke ideology on the culture and violate the norms of family and tribal decency. The challenge is to distinguish between cultural forces and racial characteristics.

For example, the famed economist and social commentator Thomas Sowell traces the violence of inner-city black gangs to the inherited culture of Scotch-Irish Americans in the South before the Civil War. J.D. Vance’s memorable book, Hillbilly Elegy, reveals the same violent hillbilly tribal patterns among whites, and his book complements Sowell’s observations. The pathological ethnic habits are not genetic but cultural. Truth as we perceive it forms the basis of culture.

We often speak of Irish-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Polish-Americans, and so on. The modifiers are usually harmless and help us understand the American ethnic melting pot. But as the adjectives affixed to “American” multiply, the desired unity ends with unintended divisions.

The unity of the truth of God’s revelation “subsists” in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church (cf. Lumen Gentium, 8). After Pentecost, the mission of the Church is to repair, reunite, and save a fallen humanity dispersed when the Tower of Babel collapsed. But this time, our unity is based on God and His grace as we receive it from the Church and her sacraments. The Church gathers us into the Barque of St. Peter with the proclamation of the Word and brings us to salvation. The Church is Catholic.

As we search for adjectives to enhance our unity, as with the American multicultural project, we often fail and merely accentuate our differences. Nobody would object to celebrating Spanish or Vietnamese Masses as common courtesies in response to pastoral needs. However, multicultural ministry programs may unintendedly emphasize our differences by adding unnecessary adjectives to “Catholics” rather than promoting the universality of the Catholic faith. (It may help to refer to the Latin Mass in the universal tongue of the Church as a “multicultural” Mass!)

Similarly—and with a greater risk to the faith—we often use ideological adjectives to modify our understanding of Catholics. We have conservative Catholics, liberal Catholics, progressive Catholics, and libertarian Catholics. A believing Catholic is naturally conservative. A Catholic conserves the truth of Divine Revelation handed down in Sacred Tradition throughout history. Strictly speaking, a “conservative Catholic” is a redundancy. Unfortunately, the frequent application of the adjective has unintended ideological effects because the qualifier provokes further clarifications.

There is a significant difference between a “conservative Catholic” and a “Catholic [fill in the blank].” The former is redundancy, and the latter is not. Catholic political positions in America (and around the world) necessarily vary to good effect. The prudential arguments do not necessarily violate one’s standing in the Church despite the passion of disagreement (on questions of war, for example). But the “conservative” adjective modifying “Catholic” may undermine the sovereignty of the Catholic Faith and our duty to argue divergent prudential judgments.

The easy acceptance of the reduntant term “conservative Catholic” grants permission to affix other ideological modifiers, implying a similar duplication of terms. A “Catholic liberal” may prefer the English Mass to Latin, for example, and a conservative may prefer Latin. But if the liberal label implies approval of abortion, the so-called LGBTQ agenda, or the Woke Godless secular ideology, a liberal cannot be a Catholic in good standing. Under these circumstances, “liberal” and “Catholic” are contradictions in terms.

Affixing a multiplication of unnecessary adjectives to the Church and Catholics—like babbling unintelligible languages—distorts the Word of God. The proliferation of divisive adjectives distracts us from the firm rock of the Church’s carefully crafted traditional theological vocabulary. The Descent of the Holy Spirit elevates God’s people with His grace and consecrates them in the truth of Jesus. The Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. We need God’s Word unencumbered by needless adjectives—and the grace of the Holy Spirit—to bring us to our heavenly home.

Regrets for this word salad. Blame the Tower of Babel.

The remedy: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues… [and] each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?’” (Acts 2:4-7)

Fr. Jerry Pokorsky is a priest of the Diocese of Arlington who has also served as a financial administrator in the Diocese of Lincoln. Trained in business and accounting, he also holds a Master of Divinity and a Master’s in moral theology. Father Pokorsky co-founded both CREDO and Adoremus, two organizations deeply engaged in authentic liturgical renewal. He writes regularly for a number of Catholic websites and magazines. See full bio.

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  • Posted by: Randal Mandock - May. 20, 2024 6:00 PM ET USA

    Good response to the recent "conservative" criticism from on high. St. Augustine tackled this problem more than 16 centuries ago. His solution was to disregard political labels and just stick with orthodoxy. Religion is to be sought "among those alone who are called Catholic Christians, or the orthodox, that is, the custodians of sound doctrine and followers of right teaching" (De Vera Relig., cap. v).