The decade that began on January 1, 2000, had no nickname, such as “the 90s.” Now that it’s over, some are calling those ten years “the aughts.” It somehow seems fitting that such an anxiety-producing time should either have no popular name at all or be referred to by a synonym for “zeros.”

As the Catholic News Service recalls (see page 1), headlines during the “aughts” were dominated by terror, war, and politics. Indeed, the archetypal event of the decade was undoubtedly 9/11. On September 11, 2001, the world became aware of just how deeply radical Islam hates the modern, Western world. These attacks provoked this country into invading Afghanistan. The more controversial invasion of Iraq followed. In part because Iran is “bracketed” on the East by Afghanistan and on the West by Iraq, Iran has accelerated a nuclear program, which has alarmed the United States, Israel and many other nations. The conventional wisdom holds that Iran will dominate the news in 2010.

In American politics, the “aughts” saw the disputed election of the Republican George W. Bush to the presidency in 2000 and his reelection in 2004. President Bush garnered an unusally high number of Catholic votes, especially in 2004,largely because of his opposition to Federal funding of abortion and embryonic stem cell research (which uses cells from aborted babies). But at the end of his two terms, perhaps because of growing opposition to the wars, a majority of Catholics voted for the Democrat Barack Obama, the first African Amercian major-party candidate for president, despite his support for Federal funding of abortion and embryonic stem cell research. This shift in voting has deeply upset pro-life Catholics and has led to bitter exchanges between them and Catholic politicians and, at times, between them and their own bishops. This polarization has colored the debate on health care reform, as the bishops support extending coverage to the uninsured, excluding abortion from the benefits required to be offered, and guaranteeing better medical care to immigrants, legal or not. Liberals are incensed that the bishops prevailed on abortion in the House of Representatives and conservatives, while pleased with that victory, seem distincly unconfortable with the other two issues.

Other signs of polarization, in both Church and State, emerged during the “aughts.” The clerical abuse crisis did enormous damage to the credibility of the Catholic Church, beginning in the United States, but soon eleswhere, especially in Ireland. Divisions emerged between the people and their priests and bishops, and, sometimes between the priests and the bishops.

The passing of the much-loved Pope John Paul II after a 26-year papacy gained the attention of the world, as did the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI. In the polarized context of the “aughts,” his attempts to promote reconciliation (for example, between the Islamic East and the secular West, or between the Catholic Church and traditionalist Catholics and Anglicans) have tended to run into opposition and incomprehension, particularly on the part of those who have not yet realized how central God’s love is to his theology and to his papacy—witness his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love”).

One of the great controversies of the decade concerned the degradation of the environment. Although there are serious doubts about the hype surrounding global warming, the Catholic Church has prudently urged that human beings should show more respect for the environment and should apply the brakes to accelerating pollution. It has also taken steps to “green” the Vatican (solar panels, etc.) as a token of its seriousness in this area. And Catholics responded with extraordinary generosity to those devastated by natural disasters, especially the 2004 tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

One major development not mentioned by Mark Pattison in his Catholic News Service story is the meltdown of the world’s financial system in 2008, which has resulted in the deepest recession since the Great Depression. Here, Pope Benedict delayed his major encyclical on social justice, Caritas in veritate, to make sure that it would address clearly and correctly the economic crisis. The pope’s moral perspective on economics ought to be taken very seriously by the powers that be in the coming decade—presumably to be known as the “teens.”

Here in the Diocese of Savannah, the aughts began splendidly with the dedication of the restored Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist as part of a joyful week-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Diocese in 1850. Although in keeping with the general tenor of the aughts, an arsonist tried to burn down the Cathedral in 2003, he failed to do so and the building was thoroughly cleaned and repaired within two months.

Shepherding his flock through this difficult time Bishop J. Kevin Boland celebrated his Golden Jubilee as a priest of the Diocese of Savannah in June 2009. Whatever joy we might feel about escaping the aughts, it must be tempered by the sadness of knowing that Bishop Boland must submit his letter of resignation to the pope when he turns 75 years old in April 2010, although the Holy Father may be in no hurry to accept it.

As we now enter the “teens” of the 21st Century, perhaps we could take the words of Pope Benedict on New Year’s Eve to heart. He reminded all that “the various events of our lives —important or small, simple or undecipherable, joyful or sad” should be understood in the context of God’s great love for each person and the invitation he extends to everyone to set out toward “a goal that is beyond time itself: eternity.”

—DKC