The Lutheran pastor, John Neuhaus wrote a book in 1987 entitled "The Catholic Moment". He later converted to Catholicism and was ordained a Catholic priest and remained a brilliant conservative theologian until his death.
But as a Protestant, he felt that Catholicism of the USCCB of the time frame of 1987 (when Cardinal Bernadine was the chair and Bishop Lessard the chair of the Doctrine Committee, was fulfilling better the Reformation mandate than Protestants were doing, in addressing issues of culture, government and war and peace, not to mention the economy, racism and other issues.
Thus in 1987, Bishop Lessard, perhaps hoping to rise in the Church in the USA by becoming the Archbishop of Washington, DC or even Chicago, both of which were rumored earlier in his time as our bishop, was more than happy to align himself with the likes of Pax Christi, USA and the two most liberal bishops in the country in 1987, Bishops Gumbleton and Sullivan. He was more than happy to hang me as a most innocent sacrificial victim to work with and deal with insurrectionist nuns of Pax Christi to plan a Mass outside the gate of a Nuclear Submarine Base in our diocese where nuclear weapons also existed in order to invade it at the end of Mass, which they and others did, but not Bishop Lessard or me, his sacrificial lamb!
It was all about the Catholic Moment as Bishop Lessard perceived it and Neuhaus articulated it, where the corporate bishops of America through the mechanism of the USCCB could be relevant in our society, have a place at the table of world leaders and suggest particular policies as it concerns war and peace, disarmament, the economy, racism and so on, specific policies, of course, outside the domain of their mandate as bishops "To teach, rule and sanctify the People of God, or as pre-Vatican II theology taught it, the Perfect Society--independent of any worldly society.
All of this triumphalism, though, was coming to an end with the papacy of Pope John Paul II as it concerns the function of Bishops' Conferences worldwide and even more so with Pope Benedict's pontificate. Their emphasis was on actual Catholic teaching about local bishops acting independently of a national corporate body like the USCCB which has no doctrinal origin.
And in addition to this, while my bishop and Cardinal Bernadine and the USCCB of the 1980's were receiving such accolades from the brokers of American Liberalism in the secular and religious worlds and indeed from a well known and respected Protestant Lutheran Minister-theologian, John Neuhaus(which also tied into their desire to broker a new ecumenical Church of unity), the bishops' management of the Church and their dioceses was being neglected or mismanaged as it concerns the sexual abuse of minors by bishops, priests and others who work for the Church.
Thus, that one grotesque mismanagement of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church brought about a complete and total collapse of the Catholic Moment which is still occurring in 2021 even as Pope Francis of the ideology of the USCCB of the 1980's must also deal with mismanagement of the Vatican, its financial arm and the sex abuse crisis that continues unabated with the defrocked McCarrick, bishops he named in Chile and those he criticized in the most unpopelike manner who criticized his choices and well, you know what I mean. Liberalism in Church leaders managing the affairs of government, like war and peace, the economy, climate change while neglecting the coming schism in the Church brought on by the same leaders consumed with being power brokers on relevant issues of the day.
When CNN was fair and balanced, a bit of Crossfire as it concerns my post on my participation in insurrection and the invasion of a nuclear armaments base in my diocese all motivated by The Catholic Moment in 1987:
John Nolan said:
The Soviets had always seen Western 'peace movements' as fertile ground
for exploitation and as the Cold War intensified in the 1980s they made
this one of their priorities. Pax Christi International would have been
high on the list of targets. Lessard and like-minded bishops, whether or
not they cared to admit it, were playing the KGB's game. It was
noticeable at the time that groups like Pax Christi and the British
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, chaired by Monsignor Bruce Kent (since
laicized), were quick to condemn NATO as the aggressor for planning to
deploy GLCM and P2 in response to the very real threat of Soviet SS-20
missiles.
It was also claimed that US strategy was to confine a
nuclear war to Europe, a useful bit of disinformation which suited the
Kremlin's agenda of driving a wedge between America and its European
NATO partners. Incidentally, in April 2019 Pax Christi US called for the
disbanding of NATO on the grounds that it was a threat to Putin's
Russia. The Left may be delusional, but it can display remarkable
consistency.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
To "para bellum" by building and deploying nuclear weapons, the stated use of which is the annihilation of civilian populations, is grossly immoral.
"It is never permitted to direct nuclear or conventional weapons to 'the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their populations . . . 'The intentional killing of innocent civilians or non-combatants is always wrong." (The Challenge of Peace)
If you want peace, work for justice.