Pollyanna Catholicism

The first and second little pigs who built their homes of straw and sticks, singing:  "We're not afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf! We're not afraid of the big bad wolf! Ha ha ha ha ha!

The third pig who build his house of solid stone and brick, soberly, realistically, vigilantly: "I will work hard and build a solid house that the wicked wolf cannot destroy!"

The Big Bad Wolf:  "I'll huff and puff and I'll blow your house down! And then eat you up!"

At least since Vatican II, the Catholic Church has been like the two silly little pigs: naive, happy, trusting, presumptive and oblivious of the threatening Dark Kingdom. The "null curriculum" of the Vatican II Church: EVIL! Real, raw, actual evil is the "elephant in the room" that smells horrible, is breaking everything and crushing everyone but is not to be mentioned.

About a year ago I attended a workshop on "dealing with difficult people" (psychopaths, borderlines, etc.) and then read a book that changed my view of reality:  The Sociopath Next Door by Harvard psychologist Martha Stout. About 4% (1 of every 25), she states, of us fit this description. Even if this number is inflated (as I hope) the problem is that they are not diagnosed and not recognizable (unless you marry , befriend or work closely with one.) If you lump these with borderlines, criminals, predators and badly addicted you realize that we are dealing with a LOT of bad, dangerous people. Stout emphasizes that we are unprepared for this. I asked myself: who is least prepared to recognize and deal with such? Precisely those of us who are raised in stable, happy families and are relatively wholesome, generous and trusting...the very best of us are least competent in dealing with the very worst!

This gave me a new window into the "cover-up" of the priest sex scandal. A piece of the puzzle of this horrific reality is that at least some of the vicars, bishops and authorities in charge were trusting and naive and deceived by the predators who were outstanding con artists. It was a mismatch!

This naivete has pervaded the Catholic Church since Vatican II. Granted: late Tridentine Catholicism was afflicted with exaggerated suspicion and antipathy to Protestantism, Judaism, the separation of church/state, and modernity in general. But it retained, to its credit, a robust sense of evil: the world, the flesh, the devil, This hard realism vanished in the wake of the Council and was replaced by a contagious presumption, a false assurance that everyone is basically okay, that a combination of good psychology and education and policy can remove evil, and that a loving God surely accepts everyone into heaven.

In a refreshing and illuminating new look at the Council (The Disputed Teachings of Vatican II) Seton Hall's Tom Guarino identifies the positive perspective of "analogy" as underlying the entire Council. The Fathers looked outward to see "similarity within dissimilarity" and chose to emphasize the positive dimensions that the Church shared with other religions and the broader society. He is correct: this was an inspired and fruitful approach. He is clear, however, that no document or council can give the entire picture. My thesis here is that the Council blatantly ignored the realities of Evil and that it requires correction for an accurate view of modern life.

The Council infamously avoided the word "communism"...this at the height of the Cold War, the aggressive expansion of the Soviet empire, and the catastrophe of China's cultural revolution. The Council was enthusiastically open to Western culture just as it was about to explode into the Cultural Revolution that liberated sexuality, targeted the helpless and unborn, and renounced tradition and authority. The Church was entirely unprepared for what hit it after that Council!

I would compare this to raising your children in a tough urban neighborhood and telling them: the people here are really nice, you can trust them and help them...all of them! The problem is: the kids are not prepared for the drug dealers and users at the corner, the pedophile club around the corner, the gang violence that is rampant. Better that we tell the kids the truth!

We need to talk about spiritual warfare! We need to learn about the strategies of Satan (obsession, oppression, temptation, deception, possession) and how to overcome them (confession, accountability, deliverance, constant praise and thanksgiving.)

Let us keep our hearts and minds open to all that is True and Good and Beautiful in our world even as we fortify ourselves and pray "deliver us from evil."