The Catholicization of Social Justice

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 18, 2012

It is really quite astonishing. Jonathan Reyes has just been appointed executive director of the USCCB’s Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development. Reyes replaces John Carr, who has served the USCCB for the past twenty-five years.

The reason this is astonishing is that the new appointment marks a significant change in ideological direction for what may be the last bastion of the liberal old guard in the bureaucracy of the American bishops. Just as at the parish level, “Justice and Peace” committees have often been excuses to promote an essentially secular liberal vision of society, so too has this been the case at the USCCB. Those wedded to both leftist theology and State-centered politics are already lamenting Carr’s retirement as the end of an era.

In contrast, Reyes credentials show how deeply yet creatively rooted he is in the mind of the Church. He was a professor and then Vice President for Academic Affairs at Christendom College; he served as Vice President for campus ministry and leadership formation in the early days of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students; and he was the founding president of the Augustine Institute. These are all impressively orthodox institutions with a profound Catholic spirituality, deeply evangelical in character, and utterly untempted by worldly fashion or secular glory.

The USCCB has been slowly trending in this direction for some years now. No longer is faithful Catholicism limited to the doctrine and pro-life committees. But this new appointment is emblematic of a sea change that will very soon affect the way our bishops and priests address social and political issues. It is, in fact, emblematic of enormous spiritual and cultural growth.