At a time when the Catholic Church seems increasingly divided between competing visions of her identity and mission, how do we remain faithful to tradition without retreating into the past, and engage with the modern world without surrendering the truths of the Faith?
Professor Jacob Phillips, Professor of Systematic Theology at St Mary’s University, returns to Regina Unscripted for a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation with Katherine and Mark about Pope Leo XIV, Catholic tradition, the crisis of modern culture, and the extraordinary opportunities now opening up for the Church.
Beginning with the remarkable scenes surrounding Pope Leo’s recent visit to France, we reflect on the significance of tens of thousands of young Catholics gathering around the Successor of Peter, and what their evident hunger for faith reveals about the spiritual condition of contemporary Europe. For Professor Phillips, the visit offered something profoundly important: a vision of Catholicism which transcends the increasingly bitter divisions between traditionalists and progressives, reminding us that the Church’s identity is found neither in nostalgia nor fashionable accommodation, but in her living continuity with Christ.
Drawing on the thought of St John Henry Newman and Pope Benedict XVI, Jacob explores the nature of authentic doctrinal development and the temptation, present on both sides of the ecclesiastical divide, to identify some historical moment when the Church supposedly lost her way. We discuss the responsibilities of ecclesiastical authority, the difficulties created by poorly communicated Vatican documents, and the need to distinguish legitimate criticism from a loss of faith in the Church herself.
The conversation then turns to one of the most urgent moral questions facing Western society: assisted dying. Drawing on his recent work challenging the assumptions behind euthanasia, Professor Phillips makes a powerful case for understanding human life as something received rather than possessed. Even in suffering, dependency and approaching death, human existence retains a meaning which cannot be measured simply by personal autonomy or utility. Particularly striking is his experience of finding common ground with secular audiences, suggesting that the Catholic understanding of human dignity can still speak powerfully to those who do not share our faith.
We also confront the increasingly difficult questions surrounding immigration, national identity and the Church’s social teaching, asking whether the moral obligation to welcome the stranger has sometimes been presented without sufficient recognition of the corresponding responsibilities towards the common good, cultural continuity and social stability.
In the final part of our discussion, we explore Joseph Ratzinger’s theological engagement with modernity, considering whether the Church should resist contemporary intellectual developments or seek to purify and transform them in the light of revelation. This leads to a fascinating exchange about science, reason, human consciousness and the fundamental question of where meaning comes from.
Perhaps the most encouraging observation comes when Professor Phillips reflects upon the unexpected signs of renewal he is witnessing in England and Wales. Younger generations are searching for truth, beauty, authority and coherence, often precisely because the institutions of secular society have failed to provide them.
As Jacob puts it: “We are on the front foot now.”
The challenge for Catholics is whether we have the intellectual confidence, spiritual courage and fidelity to the Church to respond when people come looking for answers.
This is a conversation about far more than the controversies of the moment. It is about recovering a properly Catholic understanding of tradition, reason, grace and the Church’s mission in a world which, perhaps more than it realises, is searching for God.
Watch the full conversation with Professor Jacob Phillips here: