O'Malley confronts 'culture of death'

Describing the United States as a "hostile, alien environment" for Catholics, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley yesterday exhorted Boston priests to do a better job preaching to a society he described as characterized by "a culture of death . . . consumerism, hedonism, [and] individualism."

O'Malley, at one of the signal moments of his first Holy Week in Boston, told hundreds of priests at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross that they must speak out clearly about "public issues" and "social causes" because "no one will follow an uncertain trumpet blast." He did not refer directly to the church's current public policy battle -- its effort to prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage -- but said the church's teachings about life and family are "essential for civilization in the long run." He quoted the apostle Paul as saying "the word of God cannot be changed."

The homily offered one of the first major illustrations of how O'Malley views American culture, and of how his status as a Franciscan Capuchin friar affects his priorities. He spoke at length about the importance of preaching, which was a major preoccupation of St. Francis.

"We have only to look at the New Age bookshelves and psychic hotlines and television stations to see that there is a hunger for God and for spirituality among our people, but today's audience is not easy," he said. "The boomers . . . are heirs to Woodstock, the drug culture, the sexual revolution, feminism, the breakdown of authority, and divorce. . . . And they are addicted to entertainment -- even the news must be entertaining."

O'Malley, who was installed as archbishop of Boston last summer, appears far more conversant with popular culture than his predecessor, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, spicing his humor-laden homilies with quotes not only from the Bible but from theater, literature, movies, and television. Yesterday he referred to the motion picture "Contact" as well as the book "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom.

But he described American culture as particularly inhospitable to Catholic teaching, and likened preaching to Americans to a form of martyrdom.

"The pulpit is the important arena of our martyrdom," O'Malley said. "It can be painful, it can be frustrating, but it can also produce much good."

He delivered the passionate homily at the moment of the year when the largest number of priests gather together for worship, to jointly celebrate the Chrism Mass, which is associated in Catholic theology with the establishment of the priesthood by Jesus at the Last Supper.

O'Malley compared the Catholic Church in the United States to "exiles in the midst of Babylon." He said Catholics "find themselves in a hostile, alien environment where the overriding temptation is to assimilate, the cultural pull is to conform to a dominant cultural influence that is incongruous with our faith and our destiny." And, he said, the central claims of Catholic faith are received "if not with hostility, at best with the yawn of indifference."

"Today, our challenge is simple: to resist the temptation to conform to the culture of death, to consumerism, hedonism, individualism," he said. Much of that language echoes Pope John Paul II's critique of American culture.

O'Malley did not refer to the clergy sexual abuse crisis that has shaken the archdiocese and damaged the morale of Catholic priests.

At yesterday's Mass, archdiocesan priests renewed their priestly vows, and O'Malley then mixed perfumes and olive oils as he blessed three kinds of holy oil that are to be used across the archdiocese over the next year for ordinations, baptisms, confirmations, the anointing of the sick, and the blessing of converts.

"Some of our people have despaired -- they feel this march of modern culture away from God is inexorable, and that we are powerless to influence it," O'Malley said.

But he argued that "Gospel values find fertile soil in the secular world."

Members of the baby boom generation "are shaped by the media that teaches them the modern myths, and yet they are hungry for God, for spirituality, and for answers," he said. But "typically, they are religious illiterates. . . . `My karma ran over my dogma' could be their motto."

O'Malley said too many priests do not make preaching a priority, or believe in the power of preaching. And yet, he said, opinion research suggests that "the strongest predictor of Catholic behavior and identification [is] the quality of the Sunday sermon," not issues such as "sex, birth control, abortion, or the ordination of women."

O'Malley's own preaching is always sprinkled with jokes, delivered with force, and informed by some reference to his own life experiences. Yesterday, he told the priests that their preaching needs to be more than high-quality public speaking; it also must feature personal experience and be delivered "from the heart."

Priests interviewed after the Mass welcomed O'Malley's remarks.

"I already spend considerable time preparing my homilies, but I will now spend more time meditating on them, in order to speak more from the heart," pledged the Rev. Michael A. J. Alfano, pastor of Sacred Heart-St. James Church in Groton.

The homily also struck a chord with the Rev. Joseph Hennessey, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Kingston. "We need to rededicate ourselves to our preaching ministry," he said.

The Mass was attended by Metropolitan Methodios, the Greek Orthodox hierarch of Boston, who twice warmly embraced O'Malley, and who was granted a prominent seat by the altar. Methodios, who had been a close friend of Law, said O'Malley was a welcome presence in the archdiocese, which, he said, "needed a ministry of a man of prayer and love such as yourself," and he wished for a time when Catholics and Orthodox churches could jointly minister to "a community of pain, a community filled with sorrow."

At yesterday's Mass, O'Malley offered a prayer for priests who died over the last year. He did not mention John J. Geoghan, the former priest who was killed in prison after being convicted of child sexual abuse, because Geoghan had been defrocked before his death.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.