Jordan Peterson by Gage Skidmore via Flickr
CV NEWS FEED // Dr. Jordan Peterson recently sat down with Vatican correspondent for EWTN Colm Flynn to diagnose the modern crises of the Catholic Church.
In a three-minute video posted over the weekend on X by Catholic convert and former White House speechwriter Joshua Charles, Flynn asked if Peterson thought Catholics are “not inviting people enough.”
“When we look at the Catholic Church and its decline in recent years,” Flynn added, “less young people going, less people singing in up for religious life, and since Vatican II, you could say the church has been aiming to be more relevant, more welcoming…”
“Yeah it’s not working,” Peterson replied. “It’s shallow, obviously. Shallow and contemptible. It’s supposed to be an invitation to the great adventure of life.”
“What is the adventure of life?” Peterson continued. “‘Pick up your cross and follow me.’”
“As soon as you say you need to be more relevant than” the call to pick up our crosses and follow Christ, “what you’re doing technically is putting something else above that,” Peterson pointed out.
Flynn followed up with the question, “Is the Catholic Church not challenging people enough?”
”Definitely not,” Peterson said. “Not enough, not by any stretch of the imagination.”
Peterson presented the original proposition of Christ as profound and moving.
”Christ faced and triumphed over death and Hell,” Peterson said. “And you might say ‘Well, why is that relevant?’ ‘Cause that’s what you have to do.”
Readers can watch the clip below.
