My Big Sisters in Christ

 "Strong feminine influence."    My handwriting analysis.

I never had a big sister. This is a privation.

As oldest of 9, I have 6 little sisters, 5 daughters, 13 granddaughters, 18 nieces. I have taught religion to 1,000s of young women. In 25 years at UPS I supervised women but never had a female boss. As director of a residence for women I have served 100s of women and worked with perhaps 50 or more.

I am ALWAYS the big brother, never the little brother.

I was blessed with a tremendous mother, two grandmothers, 6 aunts, a dear great-aunt, 5 girl cousins. The 3 who were older than me were great; the closest I got to a big sister. 

To make matters worse: in grade 5 we boys went with the Christian Brothers. This was followed by all-boys high school and college seminary. From age 10-22 I had no girl classmate, friend or teacher. I never talked with a girl or woman who was not family.

At age 22, I left seminary, still drawn to the priesthood, primarily to learn how to relate to women in a wholesome, mature manner. I was afflicted with inordinate shyness, insecurity, obsessive desire, and shame. Fortunately, my first date went swimmingly: Best time in my life. I fell in love. My fears evaporated. I passionately, persistently courted. And have lived happily ever after. 

A singular blessing: in my late 20s, early in our family life, 1972-77, I befriended and worked very closely with three "big sisters": all Convent Station Sisters of Charity, all about 15 years older than me, quite different in personality, all women of extraordinary intelligence, character, energy and holiness. I pray to them every day. Patricia Brennan, leader of our charismatic prayer group, was the closest I have ever seen to St. Paul. Virginia Kean lived close to the poor in Jersey City and mentored me in serving the residents of the housing projects. Maria Martha Joyce was my partner in teaching high school religion, my good buddy, and tons of fun. With each I shared a mutuality in purpose, calm affection, respect, and delight. They fortified me in my three defining aspirations: catechesis of the young, service of the poor, and the Church's life of worship. They were not father figures; not mother figures; but friends, partners and big sisters. Later in life I was fortunate to repeat this pattern with others, especially Dominicans and Felicians. 

Consider the "big sisters" I have known, if only in a single conversation or lecture:  St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Dorothy Day, Ruth Carter Stapleton (charismatic healer, sister of Jimmy Carter), Anne Ulanov (Anglican psychologist-theologian at Union Theological), Dr. Dianne Traflet (Seton Hall U.), Sister Joan Noreen (OLME), Felician Sister Marilyn Minter (charismatic missionary to Haiti), writer Heather King, and Mary Healy (theologian).

More remotely, through their writings and life witness, I am influenced by: Catherine Doherty, Adrienne von Speyr, Caryl Houselander, Saint Faustina, Saint Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, Blessed Maria Teresa Demjanovitch, Hannah Arendt, Elizabeth Leseux, Flannery O'Connor, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, Simone Weil, St. Theresa of Lisieux, St. Maria Gioetti, and Mother Margaret Cusak.

Masculinity is a reality of relationship, to women and men, in filiality, fraternity/friendship, spousality and paternity. Of immense importance is that of fraternity/friendship, brother/sister. This is fundamentally neither filial nor paternal/maternal although some dynamisms are present. It is entirely non-spousal, free of romantic-erotic-possessive dynamics. It is equality; it is mutuality in sober affection, reverence, and shared purpose. 

While I never had a biological big sister, I have been more than compensated by these big sisters in Christ. They affirmed and strengthened me in Christlike virility and enhanced my ability to love all women in a manly, wholesome, holy manner.  Thanks be to God! 

 

Milestones on the Spiritual Itinerary of a Contrarian, Boomer Catholic

One thing I ask of the Lord; this alone I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life.

"Contrarian" because my generation in critical mass left the Catholicism we received; my life went in a different direction, drawn by a gracious, invisible hand ever deeper into our faith.

1. Childhood/Youth.  

Catholicism was the air I breathed: everything and everyone I knew. Parish, school, priests, sisters, brothers, serving mass (6 AM daily, some weddings, lots of funerals), sacraments, family rosary.

Standard, generic Irish-American Catholicism: no frills, nothing exciting or dramatic. Pious in a quiet, low key manner. Comfortable with God the Father, our Blessed Mother, and the saints. Not Evangelical; I did not personally know Jesus as my Lord and Savior; that would come later. Not Pentecostal; I did not receive clear, concrete guidance by the Holy Spirit; that would come later.

Serious about the sacraments. The thought of missing Sunday mass would never even occur to me. Serious about morality. Especially chastity. Especially about love for the poor and suffering.

The single defining experience was learning, at age 7 or so, about the starving children in China. I was horrified. I walked back and forth through my house. Mesmerized by the tragedy of it. From then an underlying aspiration was always to befriend the poor and suffering.

I grew up with The New York Times, America and Maryknoll Magazine, seeing global suffering and its alleviation as the primary drama, even more than the Cold War. My decision at the end of high school to apply to be a Maryknoll missionary priest was obvious.

Even the world beyond the boundaries of the Church seemed somehow an extension of that defining reality: the labor movement, Democratic Party, caddying, sports, Davey Crockett, John Wayne, and the US as protagonist against Communism.

I never left this Catholic world. Even my 25 year business career with secular, capitalist UPS was saturated with Catholicism: Franciscan-like brown uniforms and trucks, rigorous work ethic, strict code of honesty, fraternal camaraderie, quasi military authority/obedience structure, positive social reputation, austerity, and focus on "service." 

Catholic prep school continued this pattern: steady, calm, boring, schoolyard basketball, caddying, and tons of reading which opened a second life, far more interesting. Religion was routine, serene, quiet.   

2. Maryknoll College Seminary 1965-9

Late adolescence was spent serenely in the quasi-monastic routines of the seminary, which were at that point,  like the rest of the post-Council Church, were falling apart: prayer, study, work assignments, recreation.  Strong friendships. Men only. Wholesome.

Spirituality was again generic Irish-American Catholicism: quiet, uneventful, steady, uninspiring. Our Maryknoll priest professors, many of whom later left the priesthood, were decent, intelligent men of fine character but distant from us seminarians and so not directly influential.

I was befriended, mentored and deeply influenced by a dynamic, gifted, intelligent, ex-Marine, ex-pugilist, lay librarian Pat Williams.

Junior year my philosophy study included the 19th century "masters of suspicion" (Marx, Nietzsche, Darwin) and the medieval Thomistic tradition (Maritain and Gilson). The contrast was stark: irrationalism, chaos, violence, reductionism versus a splendid realism  of faith and reason. The choice made itself. This served to inoculate me against the Cultural Revolution at that very moment exploding across the culture. 

From this serene haven we engaged the intellectual ferment of the Church and society. Exciting! Stimulating! Revolutions! Always new books, thinkers, theories, theologies! A permanent state of low-grade, intellectual ecstasy! 

I was personally influenced by Monsignor Ivan Illich, eccentric, maverick, brilliant iconoclast who wandered near Catholic heresy but from a deep, unusual Catholic mysticism. He presented a radical critique of Church and society rooted in a profound Catholicism. This appealed to me and paradoxically, despite his heterodoxy, served to strengthen my allegiance to our faith.

3. Holy Theologian Jesuits Whelan and Dulles

While courting my wife-to-be, (1970-2) I studied theology with some of the best Protestant theologians at Union Theological NYC but more importantly with outstanding Jesuit priest-theologians. Most significantly Joseph Whelan SJ, himself a mystic, helped me to see that love of Christ is love for his Church; that good theology flows only from prayer and holiness; and introduced me to Balthasar. Avery Cardinal Dulles, the incomparable American Catholic theologian, gave a Catholic vision incomparable in its depth, breath, balance, loyalty, erudition.

4. Cursillo

Here, 1973, age 26, I encountered Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, as human and divine. I became an Evangelical Catholic.

4. Charismatic Renewal

Just a few months later, as a couple we opened ourselves to the Pentecostal Anointing, called "baptism in the Holy Spirit," previously given in confirmation but now exploding experientially. 

This, building upon Cursillo, was the defining life-changing encounter of my life. Previous to this, my Catholic faith lacked intimacy with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I felt blessed by and grateful to God but much of my spirituality was a burden of compassion and guilt about the poor and suffering accompanied by a low-grade guilt about my inadequate response to an obvious obligation to help the less fortunate. This event inverted the dynamic: I was no longer burdened by a debt of guilt. I became receptive of the Holy Spirit: blessings, guidance, inspirations, empowerment. I drank voraciously of the teaching flowing from the leadership including Ralph Martin and Steve Clark.

These encounters opened our marriage to receive children. To start our family with such a spiritual basis was an immense blessing.

In these same years (1972-80), I remained without career orientation and we lived modestly but happily. I taught religion in a Catholic high school while serving a parish in the housing projects, communicating with Spanish-speaking families and catechizing children. I was blissfully engaged with my three life passions: passing our faith to youth, friendship with the poor, the life of prayer and worship.

5. Dual Papacy of John Paul/Benedict and Communio Theology

The papacy, teaching and person of John Paul influenced me immensely. Everything: theology of the body, the Divine Mercy, philosophy of labor, the new Catechism. I had already encountered Balthasar but now I dived passionately into the theological journal Communio, edited in the USA by David L Schindler and drawing from JP, Balthasar, and Ratzinger-Benedict. Through the 80-90s, raising our family and working for UPS, my spiritual life was immensely enriched by this school of theology.

I became a Cultural Warrior: sworn enemy of Cultural Liberalism, of a Democratic Party which had betrayed Catholicism in favor of sexual chaos and genocide of the unborn, and the progressive infection within the Church.

Over the years,  our faith also benefited from friendship with Marriage Encounter, Sisters of Charity, Dominican Sisters, Felician Sisters, Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Communion and Liberation. Graduate study at Seton Hall University brought me into contact with the significant dialogue there between Catholicism and Judaism.

As a couple we never committed to a strong intensive community, but benefited in raising our children in the faith from the above friendships, a good/normal parish, good/normal Catholic schools, and especially engagement, especially during adolescent summers, with more intensive groups including NET retreats, World Youth Days, Youth 2000s, Magdallen College summer catechetical programs, charismatic conferences and service/immersion trips. 

6. Neocatechumenal Way and 12-Steps

Approaching the new Millennium, these two movements helped me greatly. Both are keenly aware of human powerlessness and weakness. While I did not commit to either in a final way, I for a time did "walk with" each and benefit immensely. I was part of two different Neocat communities. I participated at times in Alcoholics Anonymous, Alanon, Emotions Anonymous, Family Anonymous, and similar groups including Suicide Survivors Support Group, men's sharing groups and Dr. Lowe's Recovery Groups for nervous people. Taken together, these immensely helped me deal with personal patterns of compulsivity.

7. Camino of Santiago and Magnificat Home

Walking, with delight, the Camino of Santiago in Spain in 2007, just delivered from colon cancer with good surgery, my children moving steadily into adulthood, and happily back teaching religion in a Catholic school, I repeatedly asked God if he had anything for me to do. My mind always returned to "boarding home people" whom I had befriended. Upon early retirement from UPS in 2001 I had sought to pursue work with them but came to dead ends so had simply prayed: "God, I want to serve these people. But it is too much for me. You have to bring together a team. And I will be on that team." So, day after day this dialogue ended with: "I am on the team. But you have to bring it together." Over half way through the pilgrimage, the electric bulb in my mind went off. I saw clearly what was so obvious: in my own family/friends we had already a network of assets and energies adequate to start a modest house. My mother asked the cost to start such a project. I answered (accurately as it turned out): $100,000. She told me she would give me a check for $50,000. We were off and running. We are now over 16 years into this delightful work. We have received blessing after blessing including our dear residents, volunteers, staff, and a marvelous support network.

8. OLME: Our Lay's Missionaries of the Eucharist

Following my daughter Clare and wife, I made promises in OLME to center my life on the Eucharist, the daily prayer of the Church, charity and simplicity of life. So as a couple we often, but not always, pray morning and evening prayer together, and practice daily routines like mass and rosary. It has been an indescribable blessing upon us as a couple.

9. Psychology

As an amateur student of psychology, I am fascinated by how the (supernatural) grace of Christ works through human protocols: the intersection of counseling, spirituality and theology. Early on, I was impacted by priest-psychologist Charles Curran's focus upon the power of listening, in therapy and education, as empathetic, open, affirmative. His approach was solidly Catholic in contrast to Carl Rogers and his disciples like Eugene Kennedy. Charismatic renewal is rich in this field: healing of memories of Ruth Carter Stapleton, deliverance ministry of Neal Lozano, scriptural teaching of Mary Healy. The scrutinies of the Neocatechumenal Way and the entirety of the 12 step program are powerful in healing. The academic work of Paul Vitz, pastoral approach of Benedict Groeschel, and the spirituality of von Kaam are particularly fruitful. Additionally, the "reparative psychology" (Joseph Nicolosi and Elizabeth Moberly), much maligned as an effort to change "sexual orientation," is promising as "repair" for a range of sexual disorders.

10. Second Childhood

Age 78, I choose to think of this stage, not as senility or retirement, but as growth into second childhood. Cognitive/physical decline brings with it graces for childlike trust, gratitude, receptivity,  holiness of life. Our shared joy as a married couple is first our life of faith. Second is watching our grandchildren grow up so beautifully, and in our Catholic faith.

For now our health and stamina allow us to continue engagement with Magnificat Home as well as happy participation in teaching CCD (7th grade), jail and hospital ministries. 

Our next milestones: decline and death. With this is the promise of childlike trust, holiness and increase in grace. The best thing is that increase in personal holiness brings with it blessings for those we love and even those we do not know.

God's tender mercies have been so abundant that I can intelligently only anticipate more Mercy to come. I pray for an increase in Hope. I look forward to seeing in the afterlife so many who have passed. I delight in the future I observe in our family. I am happy to be a small, but not insignificant person in this Church.

Pope Leo: Icon of Virility

Theologically Pope Leo promises to follow his mentor Francis. He will minimize the Culture War; press strongly on geopolitical issues; lean heavily into "synodality" (a word that makes me sick to my stomach!) This is, to put it nicely, a "thin," mediocre, accommodationist Catholicism. But I like and admire him strongly! This despite my view that the primary task of the pope is to teach us, theologically.

I like him because he is manly. I think this is, unconsciously, why the Cardinals chose him.

In the buildup to the Conclave, he led several consultative sessions. I understand that he conducted these sessions in such a sober, calm, decisive, intelligent and self-effacing manner that the Cardinals were charmed. His style, manner deportment is admirably masculine.

He does not talk too much. His few words are well-chosen, to the point, sober, judicial, objective.

He is not full of himself. There is no cult of personality about him. He is about business. He is NOT narcissistic. 

He is not emotional. He does not dislike this group or that group. He does not vent feelings. He is calm, objective like a judge. He is himself a canon lawyer, a man of the law, an institutionalist in the best sense. In that sense he is a striking contrast with Francis who never tired of railing against legalism.

He is a holy priest; a man of prayer; one close to the heart of Jesus, mystically and pastorally in his love for the sheep. This could also be said of Francis.

Neither are first rate theologians, not even comparable to Pius XII, John XXIII, or Paul VI much less John Paul and Benedict.

Leo radiates an interior serenity, a stability, a joy, a reassuring calmness. This comes from an interior humility and a closeness to God.

In this he is an exquisite father figure. Even though he is in important issues my own theological adversary, I trust him. I am reassured by him. I am confident he will listen to both sides of an issue. I know he will do what he thinks is best.

He is genuinely a man of peace, urgent to reconcile those at war, including within the theological community. 

As an American he is a pragmatist, a man of action, a doer of deeds. He is an experienced administrator who will steady a Vatican prone to volatility, corruption and greed.

I have known so many priests like him, especially in Maryknoll but also diocesan priests. Not intellectuals, but intelligent and well-informed. Balanced. Pastoral. Practical. Prayerful. Steady.

Our world desperately needs men like Leo at every level: every parish, family, nation, organization. 

The crisis in virility (Fleckinstein never tires of chanting) is the defining catastrophe of our age.

This has been made worse by our two recent Presidents: Biden and Trump. In contrasting ways, they are scandalous, effete, narcissistic, idolatrous, depraved, contemptuous. 

The response to Charlie Kirk indicates a craving for the restoration of masculinity.

By virtue of who he is, how he carries himself, Leo is such a restoration.

May God richly bless him with even more Christlike Virility! 

A Catholic Take on the Jew, Judaism, Israel and Anti-Semitism

 Philo-Semitic, passionately; 

Pro-Judaism, with reservations; 

Pro-Israel, with conditions and criticisms; 

Scapegoating, God-hating, Satanic Envy of Anti-Semitism

Philo-Semitic, Passionately

God passionately, intimately, everlastingly loves the Jews. We who love God follow suit. They are God's first and final love. We gentiles are add-ons. With all their infidelities He continues to love them. And so do we. God gave them...and us...the initial covenant, the scriptures, the patriarchs, Moses, prophets, kings, temple, John the Baptist, Joseph, Mary, Jesus, the apostles, Paul and the initial Church. Spiritually, all Christians are Semites. 

Their legacy of fidelity (albeit imperfect) in suffering and affliction, through three millennia, is incomparable.

Despite sin and through the purgation of suffering, they have preserved their covenant and identity as God's people in study of the Word, prayer, virtue.

That ancient heritage is preserved mysteriously in their spiritual-moral-intellectual-emotional-aesthetic DNA. There is about the Jew...secular/observant, male/female, wealthy/poor...a distinct charism, a grace, an appeal, an interior depth, a graciousness, an insightfulness, a sense of humor, a radiance from heaven.  Of all peoples, nations, ethnicities, they are exceptional, graced, and afflicted by persecution.

This grace is not removed even when they are unfaithful, no longer believe, do not observe the commandments. They are still specially loved. They still carry an indelible interior radiance. We Catholics might compare it to the indelible seal received in baptism, confirmation and orders. It is an endowment of the soul that cannot be erased. It continues to radiate even in strange manners.

As volunteer chaplains in our local hospital, my wife and I stop in each room to offer spiritual support. We are well received. But by far the most responsive and warm are Jews. This includes very secular ones and observant ones...both of which often decline for different reasons. But the surprise: after a courteous refusal, they unfailingly offer a most heartfelt appreciation for what we are doing. It is very touching. It comes from a depth, an intensity, a striking spiritual luminosity. They are a special people!

Pro-Judaism with Reservations

Catholicism was never Anti-Semitic; but for 2000 years was Anti-Judaic. From the initial family feud between the Jesus-believing and the Non-believing Jews as well as the Judaizing controversy (some Christian Jews wanted to require the entire Jewish law including kosher and circumcision on the gentile converts) Christianity carried an Anti-Judaic resentment. Without denying the initial covenant, focus was upon the rejection of Jesus by Jewish leadership. This is evident even in the Gospels. The rejection of Christ became the defining theological feature of Judaism after Christ. This, combined with their strangeness, led easily to scapegoating, hatred and pogroms. But the hatred on the part of the Church (contrast with populist Anti-Semitism which the Church often resisted) was never directed to Jewish blood. Rather, the Church intended the conversion of the Jew from a defective, Jesus-denying Judaism to salvation in Christ.

In the wake of the Holocaust and theological renewal leading to Vatican Council II the Church strongly changed to a Pro-Judaic perspective. There was surely contrition that a prior Anti-Judaism may have contributed, although not deliberately, to the history of persecution and genocide. But more essentially, scripture study revealed powerfully the Jewish roots of our own faith. And we were able to see in the ongoing Judaic community a fidelity to the initial divine covenant. 

This theological shift, clearly announced in Vatican II, was (in my view) the most significant, drastic and necessary change of that Council (which is not considered a dogmatic  so much as a pastoral council.)

While I passionately endorse this shift, I see a new, contrary imbalance in mainstream ecumenical Catholic theology since the Council. With the overdue, newfound appreciation of historic Rabbinic Judaism, there has been a repression of candid criticism from the Catholic perspective. Historic Judaism is descended from the Pharisee movement of the time of Jesus which was passionately devotional and ethical, not as attached to temple worship, but legalistic. It did, in critical mass with exceptions, reject Jesus and his message. That decision is carried down within the spiritual DNA of the Jew, along with the previously noted intimacy with God. And so, there is a split personality in the Jew as encountered today: on one extreme the fastidious observance of a complicated moral code, on the other hand the secular Jew drawn to alternatives like Marx, Freud, Hollywood/pornography, and militant Zionism. Along with this imbalance, we also see a pronounced movement (Buber, Heschel) within the Jewish community into Gospel perspectives, even short of full conversion.

This unbalance is noticeable in the esteemed Seton Hall Judaeo-Christian Studies program from which I have greatly benefited. For example, when the controversial Mel Gibson movie The Passion of Christ was released, that program held a conference on it. The Jewish concerns were forcefully, and properly voiced by all speakers. However, there was no expression of a positive Christian view of the film. Likewise, I have noted over the years that prominent Jewish leaders, who are energetically pro-legal-abortion, are honored in an overt repression of Catholic values.

The argument here is not a return to the past but that respectful dialogue with our Jewish partners will benefit from candor on the Catholic side of the conversation.

Pro-Israel with Conditions and Criticisms

Catholicism does not endorse the view, strong in American Evangelicalism, that the restoration of the state of Israel is playing a part in the return of Christ. The Church therefore has entertained a pragmatic balance, a sympathy for both Palestinians and Israelis. Of particular concern, of course, is the small but significant community of Arab Catholics, who are often mistreated by Jew and Muslim both. There is, of course, a history of violence from both sides. But this is not to assert a moral equivalence. 

My own view of the Gaza conflict is that the state of Israel has really no choice but to destroy Hamas. As that group is dug into civilian populations this unavoidably entails a horrific degree of civilian deaths. That the civilian population overwhelmingly supports the Oct 7 atrocity and Hamas makes it all the more difficult to respect the standard combatant/civilian distinction. 

On the other hand, the withholding of food and medicine is another matter. This is not intrinsic to the destruction of Hamas. This is a moral evil of immense gravity. I do not fault our two presidents for supporting the Israeli offensive but I do find them negligent in failing to force Israel to open the gates for food and medicine, even now as I write.

Roots of Anti-Semitism: Envy

They are God's special people. It is like Joseph and the other sons of Jacob who envied the beloved one. With some dissention, they agreed as a group first to kill him and then sell him into slavery. They were simply jealous. They were insecure, resentful. At the end of the day, of course, they love him passionately. 

The Jews are simply more intelligent, heartfelt, deep, funny, intense. They are the chosen ones. So you have to love them and join them or hate them. 

They are to the nations what Duke is to college basketball, Notre Dame to football, the Yankees to baseball, the Kenyans to marathons. They are always in the lead. You cannot be neutral or indifferent: you have to hate them or love them.

There are many reasons to hate them. Many are great lawyers, doctors, business men and have money. In the NY/NJ area they gather in areas and live their different ways, not real friendly to others, indifferent to other minorities, working the system well for their own schools and other benefits. In the Culture Wars they are inordinately represented in Marxism, psychoanalysis, entertainment, music, and culture/art in general. They are highly influential politically in relation to their numbers, including about support for Israel. 

It is startling (especially for us boomers who came of age in the wake of WWII) to see the emergence of this hatred on both the left and right. On the left it comes with sympathy for the Palestinians and identification of the Jew with the oppressive, powerful, white Man. On the right is merges into MAGA xenophobia, paranoia and isolationist jingoism. 

In both expressions, the underlying root cause is the same: envy flowing from deep insecurity, anxiety, and an overwhelming sense of weakness and oppression. 

As an Irish-American, I cherish my heritage and my country. But I do not think the Irish are the greatest people and I certainly do not see the USA as the greatest nation ever. I am well aware of the flaws of both the Irish and the USA. My love is realistic and critical. I was always embarrassed by the fuss over the Irish on St. Patrick's Day and even more ashamed by "American First" MAGA jingoism. 

Another root cause of hatred of the Jews, in my view, is the Envy of Satan himself. Of all the peoples, he sure despises the Jews the most. It is from the Jews that his final defeat came. It is like his hatred of women! Mary was destined from eternity to be Queen of Angels and Saints. A woman! A Jewish woman! So Lucifer specially despises women and Jews. 

If you want to foil Satan and glorify God, start with veneration of this Jewish woman. And then give your reverence to all women and Jews! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!

A "Thick" Catholic in a "Thinning" Church

We are indebted to David Carlin for this helpful "thick/thin religion" binary. He was buried last week, age 87, in Rhode Island, where he taught sociology/philosophy in community college, wrote, and remained active in Democrat state politics well into this century. He is among the last  authentically pro-life, active Democrats. That species became extinct in the 1970s but Ray Flynn of Boston is still alive; Sargent Shriver and Bob Casey Sr. have both passed. He wrote with clarity, insight, passion. He was, like Fleckinstein (who aspires to emulate him), a thick Catholic in a thinning Church.

Eternal Rest grant unto him O Lord, and let the perpetual light shine upon him, may his souls and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in Peace!

A thick religion is sharply different from the broader society: deep roots, sharp edges, clear identity. Examples: Amish, Orthodox Jews, Catholic Worker. Thin religion is one that blends into the broader culture without sharp differences. Examples: Reform Judaism, mainline liberal Protestantism, the freemasons in the USA. 

Carlin recalls the thicker Catholicism of our postwar childhood/youth. We Catholics, increasingly accepted into the broader society in the ecumenical postwar euphoria, still retained our identity: schools, meatless Fridays, sacramental practices, etc. In the 1960s, however, a four powerful historical developments coalesced to undermine this clear, thick identity.

1. The fabulously prosperous economy, in contrast to the preceding World War and great Depression fostered a confidence, a materialism, a secularism increasingly indifferent to the supernatural.

2. Catholics were fully accepted into society, including the upper echelons and better schools. They moved from urban ghettos to suburbs. They accommodated into bourgeois society.

3. The Vatican Council deliberately engaged modernity in a positive, credulous, arguably uncritical attitude just as society was, at the elite levels, turning dark.

4. The Cultural Revolution exploded in the late 1960s with its sexual liberation, attack on tradition, and reconstruction of the isolated, genderless Individual.

Pope Paul VI

Humanae Vitae prophetically, defiantly rearticulated the thick, Catholic view of sexuality as procreative and sacred. It definitively divided the Church: thick vs. thin. The rejection of this teaching within the Church opened the doors to all that followed: abortion, pornography, divorce, homosexuality, transgenderism, and a misogyny disguised as feminism. The Church of the 1970s fell into polarization, confusion, and a pronounced "thinning" in academia and much of the hierarchy/priesthood. 

John Paul and Benedict

The dual pontificate was a firm, profound, sophisticated and nuanced articulation of a thick Catholicism that embraced what is best in modernity but renounced the bad. Their teaching and hermeneutic of the Council had immense influence, often outside of prestigious academic and Church circles. It conspired with spontaneous eruptions of thicker Catholicism: lay renewal movements, Latin Mass, populist devotions to Mary, the Divine Mercy and others.

Francis and Leo

This second dual pontificate can be understood as a  "thinning" of Catholicism to appeal to those who are offended by it. There is no clear change of dogma. But there is a shift in emphasis, a downplaying of the sexual teaching, for example, and a focus on things congenial to mainstream cultural progressivism.

Temptation of Thick Religion to Become a Sect

Thicker religions tend to become sectarian in the negative sense:  anxious in a dangerous world. defensive,  judgmental against those on the outside, incapable of seeing the Good-True-Beautiful beyond their own borders. Ecumenism and (small c) catholicity are weakened. 

Pastoral Impulse

Catholicism is urgent to share, to embrace the Good wherever it is found, and to charm others. The pastoral impulse is to meet the other where he/she is; to present what is most appealing; to downplay what offends.  In this sense, the apostolic style of Francis and Leo is deeply Catholic in its outreach to those distant. Our bishops and priests reflect a long spectrum in regard to the balance between a thickness that preserves our faith and an appropriate thinning in outreach to the distant. The perfect balance, of course, found in wise, holy souls is loyalty to the faith along with pastoral sensitivity.

Foundations of Thick Catholicism

1. Primacy of Prior Revelation. The foundation of our faith is an earlier, definitive and final revelation of the Divine here on earth. That revelation is preserved by a continuous, historical Church with a pattern of worship, life, authority, teaching and tradition. All change and development is organically from within the given Revelation: we do not look to relevancy, fashion, science, psychology or politics for definition.

2. Extravagance of the Miraculous, the Sacred, the Supernatural. Creation is enchanted, infused everywhere with the Divine, from the original Creation, the Fall and the Redemption, we live with: angels, saints, demons; miracles; healings; virgin birth; transubstantiation; absolution of sins; levitation; bilocation; incorruption; exorcism; prophesy; stigmata; relics; heaven, hell and purgatory.

3. Gravity of Evil. The Dark Kingdom of Lucifer; original and actual sin; the seductions of "the world;" demonic activity; the weakness of the flesh; confession; exorcism; the eternity of hell.

4. Worship. The "greater thing" chosen by Mary, sister of Martha, is prayer, liturgy, and communal worship. All good action flows from this primacy of the mystical.

5. Sacredness of Sexuality, Family, Vowed Life.  In sharpest contrast to our contraceptive culture, Catholicism cherishes a cult around marriage/family and the religious life. Both of these are inexplicable to the broader culture.

6. Poverty. In a society addicted to affluence, a thick Catholicism values poverty: in the religious life and in other forms such as the Catholic Worker.

7. Politics is Diminished. Life in family, Church and immediate communities is valued so that political ideology is reduced in importance. The thick Catholic will have political views and vote, but there is a relative detachment generally and an aversion to a sacred allegiance to any party, policy or ideology.

Characteristics of a Thin Catholicism

Obviously, a thin Catholicism is the opposite of the above. 

-The past is viewed with suspicion as ignorant, phobic, oppressive as hope is placed in a present and future of technological, scientific, educational, psychological enlightenment. 

-The material universe is viewed in reductively scientific terms, secular and disenchanted. 

-Evil is metaphysically null and void; it is reconceived as psychological dysfunction and political oppression. 

-Worship is replaced by meditation, therapy, and culture. 

-Sexuality becomes companionship and recreation rather than the gift of self in a sacred vow. 

-Poverty is viewed only as affliction. 

-Politics becomes a new religion.

Catholicisms: Thick and Thin 

Happily, the Church is always a tension between competing dynamics: the return to the sources (thickness) and movement to engage and share with others (thinness). 

The thickest Catholicism is surely the Catholic Worker as classically articulated by Day and Maurin. First, it is orthodox and therefore  defiant of the Sexual Revolution. Secondly, it profoundly embraces the poor and poverty itself, in imitation of St. Francis and so many saints. Last, ideologically it is anarchistic and pacifist. This last is not, to my mind, an enrichment of the Catholic faith, but it surely makes it even more thick culturally. 

A competitor would be the Neocatchumenal Way with its intensity around worship, the Word and community as well its large families, alternative Catholic counter-culture and many priestly vocations. 

Other groups and movements are thick/thin in complicated combinations. For example, Charismatic Covenant Communities became fiercely countercultural in regard to gender and family life, but sometimes embrace other aspects of mainstream middle class culture. The same can be seen with the Latin Mass groups. Communion and Liberation is more expressive of the positivity and eagerness to engage of the Vatican Council and therefore less thick but not thin in a pejorative way.

The Church of Francis/Leo is urgent to communicate with those distant but slow to defend much that is most precious in Catholicism. This is troubling for us thick Catholics. It presents a challenge. We are called to witness, in life and word, to the Truth received. This is a significant mission. Above all, we need to do this in a posture of interior serenity, confidence, generosity, humility, positivity and charity. To the degree we ourselves surrender to the Truth revealed and received, we will in turn charm and attract our brothers and sisters to Christ and his Church.

Spiritual Exercises

This is not the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Every other Thursday morning, it is my joy to offer a "spiritual care session" on the psychiatric floor of Jersey Shore Medical Center, where my wife and I are volunteer chaplains. 

I introduce myself to about 12 (out of a census of 25 or so) who come voluntarily. I especially explain our residence for low-income women in Jersey City. As many in the group are familiar with homelessness this is a good start.

I note that if I were a physical trainer, I might do exercises (stretching, weight resistance, walk in place, etc.) that might be helpful to everyone, regardless of body type (large/small, male/female, young/old). And so, we will consider spiritual exercises that are helpful for all of us, regardless of religion or lack thereof, because we all have a human spirit.

1. Gratitude.  I ask what is one thing for which they are grateful about being there on that hospital floor.  Then they share a a specific thing about their childhood for which they are grateful.  I  a small bottle of water and several accept and say "thank you."  I point out that in those few seconds of gratitude, accepting and thanking, they are not in depression, anxiety, anger, jealousy. They nod. We discuss the nature of mental attention: we focus on one thing at a time, as with vision, as everything else fades into the background. 

An Oprah Winfrey episode of many years ago: a series of celebrities testified that their lives changed drastically when they developed a habit every night before sleep of listing 5 things of the day for which they were grateful. They witnessed to decrease in anxiety, depression, anger, jealousy; increase in peace, joy, freedom, generosity, agency. 

They are invited to quietly count on their 10 fingers 10 things in their life for which they are grateful. Giving thanks:  the path to peace, joy, freedom.

2. Powerlessness and Surrender. This is straight from the 12 steps of AA: (1)"Admitted we were powerless over _________(alcohol or other) and that our lives had become unmanageable." Each of us has one or more "dragons"...addiction, emotional affliction, compulsive habit...which is about 100 times more powerful than our will power. They react with interest that I had attended EA meetings (Emotions Anonymous) in which participants shared powerlessness over anger, depression, anxiety, jealousy and other. (2) "Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity." Invitation to surrender. To cease the fight. To look for help from "higher power" of whatever name. " Higher power" that is not myself but is powerful, kind, merciful.

A runner in the Rockies crashed into a Grizzly Bear who started to tear the man apart. He recalled that a punch to the nose of a bear would shock him so he tried that. It only excited the bear to become more violent. He surrendered. He went limp and fell to the ground. A rustling sound nearby startled the bear who ran away. The man survived, crediting an angel with his rescue. In any case, he was wise to give up the fight, surrender.

Similarly, a swimmer caught in a rip tide is NOT to swim against the tide, which will lead to immediate fatigue and drowning. Rather, "go with the flow" so as to conserve stamina, attempt to swim parallel with beach and wave for help. Again: don't fight the tide, go with it, and call for help.

Skid class for driver of auto: the impulse in a skid is to brake strongly and steer out of the skid. Wrong! The locked tires will continue straight in the skid. Rather: accept the skid, steer directly (however counter-intuitive this is) into the skid while gently pumping brakes to regain traction and only then steer out of the skid. Again: not direct combat but surrender and cooperate with a "higher power."

3. Network. Most in the group are benefiting from the supportive environment of professionals and fellow-sufferers. So, they are invited to consider the network of support outside the hospital: who makes you feel happy? With whom can you be truly honest? Who makes you a better person? And how can you strengthen and build that network: call a friend or family member, get back to temple/church/support group? Social worker or counselor? 

4. Give or Ask for Forgiveness.  

The film Straight Story is a true account of Alvin Straight, in his 70s and poor health, who learns his brother, with whom he has not spoken in 10 years, has suffered a stroke. He decides to go to see him hundreds of  miles away in Wisconsin and does so on a John Deere lawnmower tractor which moves about 3 miles an hour. He drives slowly from Iowa on a kind of spiritual pilgrimage, with eventful, touching encounters along the way.  Upon arrival, his brother beckons him to a rocking chair next to him. They sit quietly, without words. Then the brother asks: "Alvin, did you drive here on that lawn mower?" Alvin nods yes. Tears stream down his brothers face. End of movie. Tremendous work of art!

My friend Coleen, a  passionately spiritual woman, went to see Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ about 20 times, with different people, recalling her sins. She called the kid she had bullied brutally in 7-8th grade. After catchup talk she said: "I was cruel to you; I am so sorry; I ask your forgiveness." He, now married, with children, in his 40s dismissed it: "We were just kids. Don't worry." She persisted; he dismissed again. A third time, quietly, solemnly she said: " I know I hurt you deeply. Please forgive me." Silence on phone. Then sobs. Then heartbrokenly he says: "I could never understand why you hated me so much!"

We discuss how difficult it is to say those words: "I was wrong. Forgive me." 

And so, the invitation here is to ask forgiveness. Or to give forgiveness.

I hesitated to present this. This is a psych ward. There are deep traumas and wounds. It would be cruel to issue a moral imperative with an implied condemnation. But I have found that offered in a light manner, in the form of stories, as an option, not an obligation, it has (so far) been well received.

Sometimes these sessions get interesting, for example, if someone acts out in a manic fashion. Normally there is a compulsive talker or interrupter.  Additionally, people come and go as they need to get meds, meet with professional, or even lose interest and want to take a walk. But there is a raw, manifest, even desperate hunger and interest manifest. To meet with them and discuss this stuff is awe-inspiring. It is the high point of my week.

The Great Catholic Counter-Liberation 1968-2025

Catholicism: Attacks and Counteroffensives 

Among the greatest attacks upon the Church we distinguish those from the outside, those that divided us and those from the inside.

 From the outside: 1. The barbarian invasions of the ancient Roman Catholic world. 2. The Islamic devastation of Christian civilization across the Middle East and Northern Africa which reached up into Spain and was repelled by the Reconquista, at Lepanto and other battles. This war continues around the globe today. 3. The Enlightenment-inspired revolutionary movements from the French Revolution up until the Mexican persecution of the Church and the Spanish Civil War. 4. Communism, Soviet and Chinese.

Those that divided us: 1. The East-West schism. 2.Protestant Reformation.

Those from the inside: Arianism. Iconoclasm. Other heresies. 

Arguably worse than these is the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. It was an attack from an exterior enemy. But it also penetrated, like a viral infection, into the Church itself in the form of theological progressivism. It has the Church institutionally united but theologically divided.  

In the history of the Church, real apostolic synods have decisively guided the Church. Nicea renounced Arianism; Nicaea eliminated iconoclasm. Trent contradicted the Reformation: clearly, authoritatively, efficaciously, finally. Trent triggered a robust, revived Catholicism: Ignatius and the Jesuits, Philip Neri, Charles Borromeo, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, Francis DeSales, Vincent DePaul, the missionary orders all over the globe, the entirety of Baroque culture. 

Vatican II

By a misfortune of chronology, Vatican Council II predated by a few years the explosion of the Cultural Revolution. So it was not a response to that attack. It was not a preparation for it. Unfortunately, it weakened the Church in its ability to fight this attack. It lowered the Catholic immune system, just as a bacterial infection was about to attack. It embraced an openness, a positivity, a credulity just when that world was turning dark.

It was an authoritative act of the Church, surely inspired by the Holy Spirit. It was many things:

-A refocusing of the Church on its Evangelical center: the person/event of Jesus Christ.

-A return to the sources of the early Church.

-A reconciliation with what is good/true/beautiful in modernity.

-An ecumenical reconciliation with the Churches and world religions (especially Judaism).

-A quintessential expression of the post-War Church and the various movements thriving in it (ecumenism, scripture, lay leadership, etc.)

-The culmination, the final closure of the Tridentine Church. It was a splendid conclusion to a historical era. It was not the defining statement for a new Church.

Curiously, it failed to address the battles the Church would wage in the coming decades. With regard to both Islam and Communism it advocated mutuality in respect and dialogue and avoided candid witness to the violence that continues from these adversaries. More significantly, its positivity towards contemporary culture left it unarmed for the assault about to be mounted. A future historian looking at the documents and then at the travails of the Church that followed would have to note the dissonance.

What followed the Council was the collapse of the institutional Church from within and continued persecution from Communism, Islam and Cultural Progressivism. 

If the Reformation elicited from the Tridentine Church an explosion of energy, is it possible that the Cultural Revolution did the same for the Church of our time? A Catholic Counter-Liberation?

Catholic Counter-Liberation

Yes, we have in our time just such a counter-liberation. The problem with the Vatican II documents is that their positivity gives encouragement to the progressive affirmation that a new Church was initiated by that event. The so-called "Spirit of Vatican II" was a vulnerability, a openness to the viciously anti-Catholic virus of the sexual revolution, an impulse to accommodate to, to surrender to that assault. And so, we look beyond the Council for other dynamics that provide a correct hermeneutic for it and directly confront the sexual-cultural revolution.

Let's go back to 1968.

- The Cultural Revolution is exploding. 

- The thriving institutional Catholicism of the past 23 years is about to collapse catastrophically. Mainstream Catholic leadership and theology is clueless.

- I myself am a mild-mannered, introverted student spending endless hours in the Fleckinstein Philosophy Reading room, Maryknoll College Seminary, with the uber-Catholicism of Etienne Gilson, Jacques Maritain and Ivan Illich. 

- Catholic charismatic renewal is spreading from its birth in Duquesne University in 1967 to Clark/Martin in Ann Arbor, to Notre Dame and then beyond. 

-The disciples of Monsignor Luigi Giussani (previously  encouraged by Archbishop Montini of Milan) form Communion and Liberation in response to the radical student rebellions.  They adopt that name signaling that genuine liberation lies in communion with Christ in his Church. 

-Amidst that same Italian/global unrest, Chiara Lubich founds the Focolare Gen Movement for young people 15-30 years old. 

- Kiko and Carmen arrive in Rome to spread their Neocatechumenal Way beyond Spain. Giuseppe Gennarini converts from leftwing radicalism and becomes the apostle of this "way" to the USA. 

- Pope Paul VI, tutored by the brilliant Polish Cardinal Wojtyla, is about to issue Humanae Vitae, the defining authoritative statement that divided the conjugal mystics from the political activists. (SO MUCH is happening in Italy!) 

- Initial conversations begin among Ratzinger, Balthasar, Boyer, DeLubac and others regarding the Communio journal to be founded in 1972. 

- Ratzinger himself, observing the violence of the student protests, retains his theological grounding but repositions himself from Vatican II progressive to culture war conservative and publishes his influential Introduction to Christianity. 

- Cardinal Wojtyla initiates the beatification process for Sister Faustina of the Divine Mercy as he develops his catechesis on sexuality, covertly wages war with hegemonic Communism, and becomes famous for his support of the Jews among anti-Semitic student protests.

- Mother Teresa of Calcutta expands her work around the globe as she enters her extended dark night of the soul. We see that 1968 is the year the Cultural Revolution exploded across the West; even as the Great Counter Liberation was percolating quietly, humbly, anonymously, hopefully.

The primary dynamics and agents of the Great Catholic Counter Liberation include:

1. John Paul and Benedict. Their output, authoritative and scholarly, lucidly defines the Great Counter Liberation, as Trent did for the earlier Church.

2. Von Balthasar. His theology, unparalleled in depth and breath, brilliantly compliments that of John Paul and Benedict.

3. Charismatic Renewal. A powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit; bringing ecumenical communion between Catholicism, Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism; and a fresh communion with the supernatural to a Catholicism whose mainstream was tending strongly to the progressive and secular.

4. Lay Renewal Movements. Neocatechumenal Way, Focolare, Communion and Liberation and others.

5. Evangelical-Catholic Culture War Alliance. Unified Christians against Cultural Liberalism even as it risked intimacy with rightwing, Republican ideology.

6. Divine Mercy Devotion. Encouraged by John Paul and articulated in his masterful Dives in Misericordia, this articulated a powerful message of God's compassion but always in tension with divine truth, justice and wrath against sin.

7. The Latin Mass. Pope Benedict especially appreciated the value of maintaining practice of this rite in a healthy diversity.

8. New, Strong Catholic Colleges. 20 such schools (another 5 provisionally) are recognized for strong Catholic identity in contrast to the marked liberalization across most of higher education: Franciscan, Benedictine, Ave Maria, Dallas, Catholic University, Christendom, and others.

9. Homeschooling. Since the pandemic, the number of students homeschooled has been stable at 4 million, 10% of the population, up from 3-4% previously. A major motive is religious education with the widespread radicalization of the public schools and collapse of many parochial schools. Anecdotal evidence indicates good fruit.

10. New, Small, Orthodox Religious Orders. Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Community of St. John, Sisters of Life and several new Dominican orders of sisters are vigorously orthodox in contrast to mainstream orders in swift decline.

11. Martyrs, Especially across the Communist and Islamist Worlds. Mainstream, liberal media gives little attention to the very large number of martyrs across the globe. In the economy of the Church, however, we know that "blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."

12. Enduring Catholic Practices: Worship, Service of the Poor, Family Life. Overall, of course, more important than all these significant developments, is the steady, based, humble practice of our Catholic faith by countless families, parishes, priests, brothers, nuns all united around the Eucharist, within the Communion of Saints, in confession of sins and aspirational holiness, fidelity to our legacy, service of the poor and suffering, and loyalty to state of life.

What is the Great Counter Liberation?

-The affirmation that genuine liberation of the human person and community is found in communion with the person/event of Jesus Christ in his Church.

-Articulation of core, perennial Catholic values in a fresh, contemporary vernacular.

-Vigorous, militant resistance against cultural liberalism as: rupture of sexuality from the spousal union, deconstruction of gender, genocide of the helpless, disconnect from authority-revelation-tradition, denial of the supernatural, exaggerated trust in science, adulatory elevation of the isolated-sovereign-Self.

-A conjugal mysticism that finds in Christ's spousal love for his bridal Church the hermeneutical key to sexuality, gender, family, sacramental life, priesthood and religious life.

-Eucharistic, Marian, aspirational of holiness, chaste, faithful to vows and state of life, docile to the hierarchical Church, close to the poor, detached from political ideologies, Philo-Semitic, ecumenical.

If counter-reformation was the interpretive key to Catholicism after Trent, counter-liberation as explained above is key to that after Vatican II. Similar to Baroque Catholicism, it is defined by opposition, contradiction: not of Protestantism (with which it largely reconciled in Vatican II), but against cultural liberalism including its penetration of the Church as theological progressivism. 

In contrast to Baroque Catholicism which prevailed up to the Council,  Counter-Liberation:

1. Not only reconciles with the Reformation, but restores a balance to Catholicism with a fresh evangelical focus on Christ and an enhanced grasp of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.

2. Is a sophisticated, intellectual engagement with modernity, discerning the good from the bad, especially in the brilliant intellects of John Paul, Benedict, Balthasar and others.

3. It ponders more deeply, in response to the Cultural Revolution, the Mystery of spousal communion: that of Christ with the Church, within marriage/family, and at the core of the Catholic cult of worship, sacrament, priesthood and religious life.

4. It engages confidently, assertively, always in truth and love, with global adversaries including communism, Islamism, cultural liberalism, and various disordered political ideologies.

It is a singular blessing to be Catholic in the time of the Great Counter Liberation.

We, the Church Militant on earth, are always at war. Always under attack, from the world, the flesh and the devil. Always under attack by our adversaries. But more importantly, always on the offensive. We are assured by our Savior that the gates of hell will not prevail. Our eventual victory is assured. But we do play the long game. We are assertive, confident, zealous, fearless...with John Paul, Benedict, Luigi, Kiko and Carmen, Mother Teresa, those who have gone before us and who march with us now.