I Hate the Race Card

"I disagree with the whole thing" Senseehray said after reading the essay below. She is my first and best interlocutor on this painful subject. She is a strong black matriarch, with a lifetime of street experience. She manages Mary's Place, one of our homes. I admire her, trust her, love her. I took a deep breath and a voice inside said quietly: "Relax. Listen carefully." She continued. She was not arguing with my argument;  she was ruminating, sadly, peacefully, deeply. "You are not like everyone else. You were raised in a family where you learned values and virtues. The rest of the world is not like that. The world is color-coded and you cannot know what it is like unless you are black." We were sitting in the shadow of the excruciating abuse of George Floyd. She and her entire family are constructed like that gentle giant.  "If you tell me you are color-blind I will tell you that you are not seeing me. My color makes up who I am: how I think, what I eat, the things I love and hate. It is so sad." She repeated these four words like a refrain as she continued to say what I am paraphrasing.."It is so sad. There are no black fathers. There simply are no black fathers. It is so sad: when I walk down the street and see a group of black male teenagers I cross the street because I don't know what they are up to. If I see a group of young whites I continue on serenely without a thought. It is so sad. It is sad that we have to carefully train our young men how to act if stopped by police because of the danger. We, our family, are all afraid for my 17-year-old, 6'6'' gentle giant of a grandson: we don't want him to get a license because he might be stopped, intimidate the police by his size and become a victim. I have no use for the sexual freedoms that are rampant; they are the cause of so many problems. It is all so twisted and confused: it is class and culture but it is also skin color." Much of what she said actually agreed with my thought. But her core experience: to be black is to be hurt, anxious, vulnerable. And so she renounced, not specific points, but an implication and a tone of the essay. My psychologist daughter has warned me that my ever-positive attitude can be dismissive of real pain and anxiety and therefor hurtful. This concerns me. So: what follows is not to dismiss the agony of the black community contemplating that 8-minute crucifixion of an innocent. This pain, vulnerability, anxiety and anger...is race associated. And it is real. Black suffering of violence and vulnerability in a host of ways is pervasive, perpetual, profound and systemic as a confluence of deep, powerful, inexorable forces. I argue here that it is not, in the whole, a result of conscious or unconscious white hatred or fear of blacks and is not a system of practices, policies and protocols that could be undermined in the swift, effective manner the civil rights movement dismantled such institutions in the 1960s and afterwards. To assert this narrative is not only a mistaken diagnosis of a complex, dense, confusing tragedy, but itself becomes a contributing  cause. It is like a doctor who sees an illness but misdiagnoses and makes it worse. We have a pathological pandemic of violence against blacks; we need to get the precise diagnosis and prescribe accordingly.

For 50 years I have exercised authority, at the ground level, as UPS supervisor, Catholic school teacher and boarding home director, in the racially-ethnically diverse world of Jersey City and northern NJ. There is nothing I hate more than the race card! Imagine you are corrected by the boss: stop talking in class, get to work on time, lower your radio which is bothering other residents. You have two choices. You may say "you are right, I am wrong and it won't happen again." Or, you attack the boss. The sharpest sword in your sheath is the race card:  "I don't see you telling your white friends to lower their radios!" Even as I type this my blood pressure is rising!

The worlds I have ever inhabited...family, Church, union, UPS, schools, Jersey City...are free of systematic racism so I do not buy the racist narrative that haunts the liberal mind. The current case of the black bird-watcher and the white female dog-walker verifies my view: the nasty, stupid woman in her rage reverted to a narrative that would have worked perfectly in Alabama 60 years ago. But in USA 2020 what happened? She lost dog, job and reputation and is despised as a bigot; he is revered as a calm, bird-watching, rule-obeying, gentleman of Afro-American descent. This is not systemic racism.

It is not that I myself am color-blind; rather, I delight in racial/ethnic variety. Sincerely! (Full disclosure: I harbor admiration for Jews, affection for Latinos, and attraction to Italian brunettes. This is not necessarily a good thing, it just is what it is.) Deliberately we have lived and raised our family in a tough, diverse section of a working class, east coast city. We never considered moving to a suburb. Our neighborhood, parochial school and backyard basketball court mirrored the demography of Jersey City, the most ethnically diverse city in America. I come by it honestly: from my family. As it changed, my parents stayed in the  white, working class neighborhood in Orange NJ where I was raised. My mother would welcome black kids and help with their homework. Some years later my father, walking down the street crossed over as he saw a group of half dozen tall, strong black teen men at the corner. As he crossed over he was recognized: "Hey Mr. Laracy! Hi! Remember us? How is Mrs. Laracy?" Happily my own children caught this attitude. Walking through the snow after a winter blizzard we exchanged pleasantries with a warm, older black man; my 4-year-old Margaret Rose looked up to me sweetly and said with enthusiasm: "Daddy! Isn't it something how all black men are so nice!" My son Paul was about 12 when he was mugged on his paper route by a black boy; a neighbor intervened. Paul was a tough (but tender) kid accustomed to those city streets and didn't seem fazed by the mugging but told me with distaste and surprise: "Dad, Mr. Dugan is really racist!" My basketball-playing Clare, at age 13, adopted a "ghetto" manner of speech for a period. It didn't bother me as I knew it would be counterproductive to resist a temporary phase and there was a humorous tone to my already Ingrid-Bergman-esque Clare talking like a rapper!

The intensifying racial polarization, markedly throughout the Obama (!!!) years, is the tragic consequence of a lie:  the liberal, black-as-victim narrative that is fueled by the media, secular elites, and political Democrat apparatus.

Purification Ritual: Political Self-Righteousness as Absolution

This race narrative is intensifying even as things are getting better for blacks because it functions as a purification ceremony for seculars. Liberals are sinners just like the rest of us; no worse; actually, the ones I know are better than most. I think of my sisters and my college-seminary classmates: they (politically liberal but not secular)  are strikingly compassionate, generous, open-minded, curious, intelligent, energetic and free of malice, hatred, and fear. Good people! Maybe because of their virtue they don't feel the need to confess. Deep down we are all sinful; but seculars don't believe in confession of sin and absolution by a priest. All cultures/religions have purification rituals. Seculars have two: therapy and political correctness. Having liberated the libido from meaning, purpose, fidelity and fecundity, they are loaded with unconscious guilt but have nowhere to go; so they double-down on political righteousness. Think Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein: promiscuous men are the most militant advocates of "morally righteous causes" like reproduction rights, gay liberation and black victimization. They look at the medic shot in her bed, the large man helpless under the knee of a cop and the poor bird watcher: they shake their head in moral indignation: "Murderers! Hang them!"

Structural Class Injustice: Quarantining of the Privileged

Structural injustice and systemic violence in our society are class/culture, not race based. The "over-class" cloisters itself...by residence, education, career, recreation...out of contact with the "contagion" of the deplorables: the elderly are shuttered in nursing homes, the dysfunctional in group and boarding homes, the demanding little ones in day care, and the inconvenient are aborted and euthanized.  The core disease of the secular liberal is: fear of death. Disbelieving in the transcendent and eternal, they are trapped in the limits of the present; and desperate about death in all its forms. Thus: our "throw away culture!" The senile, the psychotic, the criminal, the infected, the contagious...these must be avoided at all costs. They smell of death!

In that world, it is fashionable, even glamorous, to include a smattering of blacks and ethnics: the Obama daughters will go to the best schools and can live wherever the want. It is even better to welcome LGBTQs because as transgressive such epitomize the sexual liberation the liberal values above all else. But many of my Jersey City friends..."low lifes" and "trailer trash"...would not do well in those neighborhoods. In Jersey City I have never seen those "We Welcome Everyone" and "Love is the Answer" signs. I find those in lily-white, affluent neighborhoods where the affluent signal their righteousness even as they would be disgusted by a redneck, evangelical or a biker family. From an invincible position of isolation, exclusion, comfort and security they parade their altruism.

Subconsciously, the over-class is aware that in the cosmic sea of human suffering, they indulge themselves on an island of comfort, safety and affluence. They know it is insecure; that it is unjust!Their conscience, hearts and souls are tormented, below the cognitive/deliberative level, by double guilt: that of sexual license and that of material indulgence in a world of suffering. Lacking faith, they have no transcendent horizon of meaning and Hope. They know not how to absolve themselves. Their double load of guilt finds false relief in a double treatment: in the therapeutic and in political correctness. The therapeutic culture of narcissism affirms their feelings; indulges their cravings; prohibits any moral judgments about sex or consumption; and dissolves, secretly, bonds of obligation, loyalty, sacrifice, accountability, discipline and virtue. To compensate, an ethos of cultural correctness condemns a contrived racism as well as residuals of Judaeo-Christian morality. Identification with a bogus-victim provides, falsely,  a sense of self-righteousness and moral superiority.

Legacy of the 60s

The Great Paradox of our time: the co-mingling in the 1960s of the Civil Rights Movement and the Sexual Revolution. The first is the singular moral victory of the last 75 years; the later is the defining spiritual catastrophe of our time. And the two were inextricably co-mingled in an adulterous union. Just as the black community was unbound from a system of servitude and degradation, it fell (in a critical mass, and along with poor whites) into a deeper slavery: sexual license. MLK and his lieutenants like Jesse Jackson and JFK along with his family and collaborators were cutting the chains of segregation even as they were spreading their seed promiscuously. Their legacy: the perverse polity of the Clintons and the predatory privacy of Trump, Epstein, and Weinstein.

My friend and mentor recalled that growing up during the 1940s-50s in working class Philadelphia the Catholic, Jewish and Black neighborhoods mirrored each other in their stability, safety, and tranquility. Family and community structures were solid. There was not this awareness of police brutality. Granted: it might have been there in the black community but invisible and hidden to him. Nevertheless, real structures of racial injustice reigned at that time; the black family, despite the wounds of slavery and discrimination, was stronger than it is today. The Cultural Revolution had not yet struck.

By 1970 racism as an underlying structure had collapsed. Happy Day! But something worse took over: Cultural Liberalism. This eroded the bonds of marriage and family; trivialized, sterilized and desacralized sexuality; destroyed the powerless; and desecrated authority, femininity and virility. It broke with tradition and with a fertile future and imprisoned us in a claustrophobic present. It colluded with meritocracy, technocracy, global capitalism and the mega-state to destroy mediating institutions and atomize the individual. In doing so, it robed itself in a costume of righteousness as it identified with and championed bogus victims: the black, the homosexual, and the woman. Welcome to the dreary world of intersectionality!

The Deplorables and the Privileged 

I was raised to prefer the underdog. In 1955 that was the working man, the Negro, the Third World. In 2020 that is the Trump base. The Democratic Party transmuted, again 1970, into the party of the affluent, the powerful, the indulgent, and the arrogant. I am not a member, but I like the Trump base. They are not so much ignorant, racist, misogynist,  unhinged.They are anxious and angry. They are reactive against the elite in their affluence, education, status, superiority, condescension, and righteousness.  As they cling to their guns and religion they are down-to-earth, unpretentious, faith-filled, liberty-loving, and patriotic. They are not perfect! The deeper sadness is that of the secular liberal: deplorable-hating,  Trump-obsessing, guilt-ridden, shrill, self-righteous, superior, self-sterilizing and quietly despairing.

Subcultures of Racism

To be sure: there are subcultures of racism across the nation. But they are outliers, alien to the foundational structures and power dynamics of our hegemonic technological, state-and-market, meritocratic, sexually liberated culture. My nephew was driving through Texas with his fiancé, a striking young woman of mixed ancestry, Afro-American and Indian. They were stopped randomly and senselessly by a state trooper who eyed them suspiciously and spoke to them contemptuously.  As they continued on their way, she called her father who is in the army. He called the Governor of Texas. The take-away? The trooper is almost certainly a racist. I wouldn't be shocked if some of his fishing buddies and cousins are the same. BUT, he may be in trouble. He could get away with that, and worse, in 1960. But in 2020, many blacks have confidence, connections, intelligence and initiative. The mega-system doesn't tolerate that nonsense. The mega-narrative of underlying, pervasive racism is itself nonsense, dangerous nonsense. Racist subcultures resemble polygamous Mormons, cock-fighting and dog-fighting minorities, or the Shakers, of happy memory (last one died in 2017). Racists are remnants of another world and time; probably most interesting to anthropologists and abnormal psychologists.  (Sidebar: What I especially enjoyed about that nephew's wedding was sitting with a handful of the bride's father's army friends. They were of a kind: large, strong, virile, loud, confident, funny, fun, affectionate, religious, warm. Delightful and interesting! My army son knew the type well: he said they monopolize the upper ranks of the non-commissioned officers.I was glad to know our army is in such hands. One could wonder: Is this systematic racism that the low-income, no-opportunity down-South whites can't have their own kind as bosses in the army? I think NOT!)

Police Brutality 

The primary causes of police violence:
1. Mistakes are made in the heat of violence, threat and chaos. The most expert, virtuous and heroic police will make them. I admire them and am grateful for their service. I could not do their job!
2. Sadists and sociopaths are a critical mass (Is it 10%? Could be much higher at places.) of our police. They  self-choose the career so they can hurt people. I was on a jury that found a policeman guilty of brutality. I later learned he was infamous for beating up street kids. He did not discriminate; sadism is inclusive of all.
3. The infamous "blue code" is the bond of loyalty shared by groups of men who face danger together. Within boundaries it is necessary,  wholesome and noble; tragically, it too often bursts those moral limits. A black policeman would likely shield his white partner who mistakenly shoots a black youth: it is not racism, it is disordered loyalty.
4. Adolescent and young adult males commit almost all of our violent crime. It is the nature of things. Cops and male teens are like dogs and cats. It myself, a real altar boy, was harassed twice by police in my early years. I was infuriated.
5. Black youths are even more prone to crime as so many are victims of a culture of deprivation, abuse, neglect, lack of opportunity and...above all...fatherlessness!

Crisis of Authority and Paternity

At least 50% of black teenagers have been abandoned by their fathers. How could they not carry an explosive rage against father, which is to say, authority, figures. Before he even meets a cop, he is destined to hate him. So the unfortunate officer on the block has to engage with the abyss of hurt, abandonment, and rage the youth understandably harbors as victim of a universe of destructive vectors. Yes, a history of racism is one of them. Male promiscuity and infidelity is another. The complex, dense "Culture of Poverty" is a catch-all. The cultural revolution, with the distrust of authority, is at the heart of it all. The youth is victim, so is the police officer.

The initial phrase in this essay is about my own exercise of authority. Authority...father and mother, teacher, priest, coach, President, priest...is the sacred trust given by God to protect, provide, nurture, instruct, correct, encourage and inspire those who are young and dependent in any way. The abuse of authority is the plague of our time: priest, President, police.

Intertwined is the loss of trust in authority. This is the legacy of the Cultural Revolution; it aligns itself with the desecration of sexuality and the decimation of the powerless as a trinity-from-hell. The loss of trust in God leads to suspicion of authority in all its forms. This becomes anxiety, rage, and conflict.

The "systemic racism" narrative is a result of and a development of this fundamental crisis in authority, filial trust and paternal care. This story line fosters helplessness, victimhood, impotence, distrust, anger and the mimetic contagion of violence that is today sweeping our cities.

This being the Vigil of Pentecost, I invoke the Holy Spirit!

Comfort and console the families violated by such police violence:    Come Holy Spirit!

Bring peace and safety to all our communities:  Come Holy Spirit!

Bless our police with wisdom, patience, courage, gentleness!  Come Holy Spirit!

Inspire all fathers to tend and care for their children and their mothers!   Come Holy Spirit!

Inspire those in authority to gentle strength in tending the young and vulnerable!  Come Holy Spirit!

Postscript. When I consider the George Floyd tragedy, I don't identify with him. I identify with the police. Oldest brother in a family of nine, I have always been in positions of authority. Low authority, but authority. I am like the lowest level knight in the medieval world or the bottom rung of the commissioned officers; basement of the hierarchy. This doesn't make me a bad person, except in the world of "intersectionality." What would I have done with this powerful man, accused of forgery, who won't get into the car? It is a big problem. Good idea:  relax, get off his neck, call for backup, for a higher level officer. But if it was up to me: assuming my anxiety level was modulated after invoking the Holy Spirit, assuming I had the self-confidence I lacked most of my adult life and the clout to pull it off, I would have walked George to the precinct. I hate to drive and love to walk. Sweet, gentle, genuine, generous soul that he is, we would have befriended each other immediately. Regarding the alleged $20 forgery (which he might not have done, or he may have done in error mistaking his monopoly money for his real money): it is a crime and not a nothing, but it is so itsy-bitsy, tiny-weeny that it is virtually a nothing so I may have given the store owner the $20. I would have violated police protocol, would be disciplined if not fired, and ridiculed by other officers. That is why I am not a cop.

Distance and Love

I am thinking a lot (Is it the virus lock-down?) about distance and love. Distance, it seems to me, fundamentally structures love, which is a constant movement between closeness/intimacy and distance/separation. In this reading, distance is not separation as the contrary of love, but a movement and moment within love, inevitably and inexorably. Balthasar says the distance between the Father and the Son is infinite! What does that mean? I won't pretend to know. But I do know distance as interior to human love in all its splendor and variety. Consider:

Courtship.  The beloved, the desired is, at first, infinitely distant, separate, removed. But the desire, the delight, the appreciation ignites a ferocious, explosive movement to overcome that distance. And so: the approach; the flirtation; the thrilling, sometimes agonizing give-and-take of approach, invite, charm, repulsion, retreat and surrender.

Fatherly love is the opposite of motherly live: it starts from distance, and moves, very slowly towards closeness. My encounter, as father and grandfather, with the newborn: awkward, boring, anxious. The little one is, for me, devoid of charm, interest or beauty.  No thanks, I don't want to hold him! Sometime into the second year, a miracle happens: the ugly little monster becomes, not only a real person, but a person radiating charm, intelligence, beauty and fascination. Now the relationship begins! And it is indescribably exhilarating!

Fatherly love does not stay forever in that honeymoon period of ages 2,3,4. Rather, there are seasons. The affection, intimacy and delight will ebb and flow...more on the part of the child than the father. The little one will suddenly lose interest in Dad or Granddad...and a dry period ensues...and then the relationship will re-surge in a new, more mature key. I noticed this in a striking way with my five daughters. Up to the age of around 12 she is my little girl, precious, trusting, innocent. Around the age of 18 she becomes my adult daughter, again affectionate but in a mature, womanly manner. But 13-17 is an awkward time. As father I am fascinated by the miraculous changes occurring, but the adolescent is far less comfortable with Dad than with Mom. So, there is a quiet distance that ensues. I have never read or heard of this, but I cannot think that my experience is exceptional. It simply makes sense that the teen girl, getting used to her own budding femininity, is not entirely comfortable with her father's masculinity.

Father-Son love entails inevitably, it seems to me, some conflict, some battle, some real distancing. The son has to differentiate from Dad to attain his own masculine identity. And this will ordinarily entail, if not rebellion and discord, at least differentiation, disagreement of some sort, and distancing. The son will do things not directly approved by father. He will become something that does not echo his father. It has struck me that this phase can be particularly difficult for the son coming of age under the shadow of an especially strong, respected and confident father. Better for the boy for his father's failings to be obvious.

Father-Daughter distancing is, after the adolescent separation noted above, fluid, effortless and pleasant...in my experience. I enjoyed meeting the young man who comes courting (maybe because I have been so fortunate in my daughter's choices); getting to know him and approve of him; and finally handing her to him, in a state of pure euphoria, at the altar rail.

Marital Love moves clearly through its stages. If courtship succeeds, the honeymoon is an experience of union, of becoming two-as-one, but it is short-lived and in part illusory. It give way to parenthood which is a togetherness-in-mission that brings with it pronounced specialization and differentiation. Whatever the cultural and personally-preferred norms, the child brings a kind of a unity and a kind of separation. The work involved dissolves much of the elation of the honeymoon period. But the love takes on a depth and intensity as it looks beyond itself to the children and other shared concerns of family, community and profession.

Empty Nest love, (again, in my experience), brings a rather intense separation: the shared mission is diminished (but not erased) and the honeymoon long over and the two personalities  define themselves, and ignored dimensions of themselves, in ways that pull away from each other. Now the husband is more dedicated to his fishing or golfing or boarding homes or blog and the wife is involved in her career and gardening and interests not shared by her husband. After 30 or so years of moderate serenity, this is a real danger time for the marriage as the centrifugal dynamics, always at work and not inherently destructive, intensify. The marriage will flourish if these forces are allowed an appropriate freedom even as countervailing centripetal forces intensify. These include: love for children, grandchildren and broader family/community; shared religious faith; enjoyment of common interests and hobbies; and (for the Catholic) a renewed surrender to the graces of the sacrament.

Friendship shares the same ebb and flow of intimacy and distance: joyous seasons of effortless communion will suddenly usher in times of dissonance, disagreement and misunderstanding. Again, if the love is deep and firm, the distance will be eventually be overcome and the relationship emerge more solid.

Distance not only accompanies love but deepens it. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" goes the saying. True that! The sometimes painful endurance of distance purifies and strengthens the love. The "felt absence" of the beloved is always bitter/sweet: bitter because it is absence, but sweet because it is certain presence, in memory and longing, for the one who is cherished and delightful.

I type this on the Monday between Ascension Thursday (or Ascension Sunday for those who take their Catholicism lite lol!)and Pentecost Sunday. This is the great season of absence/presence, of intimacy/distance. When the the feminine, affectionate, intimate Mary Magdalene clings to Jesus he corrects her: "Do not hold onto me...I must go to the Father." But the distant, skeptical, angry Thomas is invited: "Put your hands into my wounds." For 40 days Jesus presents himself...randomly, serendipitously, almost capriciously. He is here one minute and gone the next. Much like the wizard Gandolf in Lord of the Rings. (Thanks to nephew Danny for that image.!) But on Ascension Thursday he makes his definitive departure: he is gone, for real, for ever. But, he goes to reign on high and to be present in a new way: in the Holy Spirit that descends 10 days (exactly!) later and in the Eucharist and in the apostolic college.

So he is present, and yet absent. To know him, personally and intimately, is to love him; to bask in his presence; but also to suffer his absence, sometimes painfully (as in the dark night of the saints.) To know and love Jesus is to be in a perennial game of "hide and seek"...now he is clearly here, then he is gone, and then he is excruciatingly absent, but then he returns better than ever. So it is on this earth. We are always with him; but always distant from him, longing for him. So, we already have a foot in heaven, but a foot on this earth that is passing away. It is a happy feeling: because it allows for the enjoyment of these passing delights without a despair about their futility as everything here that is true and good and beautiful...everything and everyone who is loved...will be restored and fulfilled in the afterlife. It makes life on this earth so much more fun: serene, anxiety-free, exhilarating and hopeful!

It's Ascension THURSDAY

Not Ascension Sunday or Tuesday or Wednesday. Ascension THURSDAY! Always was and always will be: Ascension Thursday! I don't care what the bishops say: I have not, do not and will not celebrate Ascension Sunday! My solemn vow: I will, for the remainder of my life, boycott the Novus Ordo in my Archdiocese of Newark or any where the feast is transferred to Sunday. I will travel to another diocese, or attend Latin Mass or Eastern Rite...as long as it is Thursday.

It is not just the Thursday thing. It is the structure of the liturgical year. Easter Season is the pinnacle of the year and it is itself formed by two periods: the 40 (that's 40, not 39 or 41 or "about 40) days of Jesus' Resurrection appearances and than the 9 (not "give or take 9") days of waiting from the Ascension to Pentecost and the descent of the Holy Spirit. Those numbers, 40 and 9, have a sacrosanct nature to them. They are exact and precise and must be. In this case 40 + 9 does NOT equal 42+7 or, for that matter 35+14 or 49+0! The pinnacle, the summit, the high point of our liturgical year has been broken. Everything...EVERYTHING...builds to Easter and then onto Ascension and Pentecost; and then the ordinary time flows out of that, right into Trinity and Sacred Heart and Corpus Christi and so forth. The beautiful Gestalt that is our liturgical year has been defaced and deformed; as if we allowed a class of 4-year-olds to color, paste and cut a Rembrandt!

Why this destruction of what is so precious, ancient and sacred? Apparently, it is inconvenient for so many to make mass during a work day. Yes we have vigil, early morning, noon and evening masses. But it is still inconvenient. Where I live (Jersey City) there are well over 100 masses available throughout the day within about a 45 minute drive. So, this is another move to dilute, water down our Catholic faith to make it convenient, comfortable and accessible to bourgeois life. Catholic life in this country is becoming like a delicious stew, brimming with beef, vegetables, potatoes and good seasonings, but some people have weak stomachs so we are combining in with twenty portions of water to one of stew: Catholic lite, comfortable, thin, mediocre! Tastes and looks like lukewarm, dirty water. Disgusting! Spit it out of your mouth!

Cardinal Tobin in Newark wrote last week that he was transferring the feast "to ease the pastoral work of livestreaming during this difficult time." This is the most ridiculous, nonsensical thing I have ever read. I have observed my parish priest do the live-stream: he mounts his cell phone, presses a button and celebrates mass. What is there to ease? Our priests have nothing to do: Churches and rectories have been closed, even to quiet adoration; sacraments banned; priests directed to quarantine and isolate. They don't even have weekly envelops to count donations. They must be bored stiff. And our Ordinary speaks of "easing the pastoral burden!"  It would be comical if it was not infuriating and nauseating.

I confess: I am entirely drained, depleted of any residuals of filial gratitude, affection or trust in our hierarchy (with exceptions). My act of loyalty and prayer for my pope and bishop are bare, raw acts of volition, acts of the will in resistance to my passions and emotions. It is an unhappy dissonance for so many of us Catholics.

What am I to do? Well, first serenely accept that we are in a time of exile, of crisis, of dessert dehydration and starvation in regard to our bishops and popes. Not the first, not the last time. Secondly, follow alternate leadership: the exceptions and especially emergent lay leadership; and of course, bring it to our Lord Himself. He alone is our true and only and enduring Shepherd!

(BTW:  Three cheers for Archbishop Hebna who is leading the Minnesota bishops in defiance of their authoritarian governor!

The Good News About the Covid

Let's start with some fundamentals of our faith:
- God's Providence means that in all things he is working for our good, our happiness here and forever.
- This means that His "permissive will" allows bad things, temporarily, to bring greater good things about. We can't always identify with cognitive clarity what those good things are; ours is to trust in them, receive them gratefully, and to surrender to this reality.
 - Jesus tells us...persistently, definitively, soberly, passionately:  "Do not be afraid."
 - We are only here on this earth for a little while...to prepare for eternity in heaven. Everything...everything...here is temporary, provisional. Death: not a big deal, overrated! Sin and disbelief: a big deal, underrated!

Now: for the practicals:
 - Operation Lock-down was a great success: the purpose was to flatten the curve and avoid overload of our medical system. A complete triumph!
 - There is a kindness to the Covid: it spares the young. If you are under 60 and healthy, you have more to fear from the seasonal flu!
 - It targets elderly and sick, but let's be honest: there is a mercy therein also. Many of the deceased were suffering a terrible quality of life. Almost half of our deaths have been in nursing homes. If you are there, you probably can't walk, bath yourself or go to the bathroom. You are away from those you love (who can't care for you; through no fault of their own, we will assume) and living in a dull, institutional setting, dependent upon low-paid and sometimes unhappy employees.  Truthfully, if I am in a nursing home I will welcome the Covid.
 - The warm weather will certainly inhibit the virus but to what extent we don't know.
 -  In the coming months, before the winter season, we can confidently expect improved technology of care and prevention: better tests, tracing, medicines, protocols and eventually (one year?) a vaccination.
 -  In light of the novelty, strangeness and unpredictability of this virus, our political leaders did (in my view) a reasonably good job in handling it. I give Trump credit for putting Fauci and Birx in the forefront. Pence handled himself with dignity and prudence. And there was good  cooperation between the parties, levels of government (including Democrat governors like Cuomo and Murphy) and the private sector.
 - The countless "heroes" on the front lines in hospitals and the community are an inspiration to all of us.
-  The public cooperated calmly, reasonably, successfully...on the whole.

A certain level of anxiety in March/April was understandable in light of the catastrophe in Italy. But we are now in a position to move on with sobriety and calmness. Prudently, we will be practicing social distancing, masks, and limitations on large indoor gatherings for another year or more. But we can do so free of anxiety, grateful for the many blessings received, and hopeful for the future.

Masculinity/Femininity and the Culture Wars

Masculinity/Femininity is: physical traits, sexual and romantic inclinations, cultural creations, emotional/psychological/spiritual gestalts, personal decisions and attitudes...all this, and so much more. It is the Great Mystery of Creation: the high point of the natural order and the greatest finite icon or sacrament of the Divine. Man and Woman look to each other...to delight, challenge, humble, ennoble, complement, crucify, sanctify, cooperate, transcend, annoy, and finally (in God's grace) glorify each other! But, when things are off between the masculine and the feminine...as they regularly are since the Fall...within a person's self, or marriage/family, or culture/society/religion...things go very, very bad. And so, all the great Culture Wars spring deeply from gender disasters. Let's look at five current Culture Wars in this light.

Abortion is the defining, foundational moral, spiritual, and cultural issue of the past 50 years and the foreseeable future. The "right to choice" is essentially the cry of femininity as violated, vulnerable, unprotected, and un-cherished. It is not a "woman's issue" but the desperate cry of woman who is abused, abandoned, despised and objectified by a predatory male. At the same time, it is the "right" of that same predator to be protected from the consequence of his lust; it is "backup contraception;" it is the key to a culture of sexual liberation; it is the ultimate violation of the woman and child by the male; it is the "anti-paternal" even as it is the "anti-maternal;"  it is disgust for the 6th commandment breeding contempt for the 5th. It is the expression of feminine hysteria and the essence of masculine narcissistic domination. The pro-life movement is both maternal and paternal; a woman's issue and a man's issue. Unhappily, it's practical association with the Republican Party has tended to associate it, in many minds, with male privilege, arrogance, misogyny and indifference to the poor and suffering. While there no doubt is some truth to this association, at the deepest level it is a slander.

The Pandemic Lock-Down, after the first months of consensual cooperation, has now erupted into a culture war between conflicting feminine/masculine propensities. Maternal protectiveness seeks to protect the weak and vulnerable from suffering and death; on the other hand, a masculine restlessness sees a greater danger in passivity, fear, isolation, depression and economic stagnation and is becoming desperate to work and get out and get along with life. The feminine in this case looks to the state as a protective mother, caring for the sick; the masculine resents a smothering mother suppressing liberty, agency and masculinity itself.  A weakened femininity risks panic, hysteria and paralysis; but an immature masculinity can be reckless, irresponsible, selfish and insensitive to the anxiety of the vulnerable and the suffering of the afflicted. If we ever needed a balance between the feminine and masculine propensities, it is the present.

Global Warming is quintessentially feminine in that the female psyche profoundly and perennially senses itself as part of a larger whole...the womb, the family, the Church and the universe. The ego boundaries of the feminine psyche are permeable, open, receptive, generous, welcoming. The inferior male psychology is more defined, rigid, set off, aggressive, controlling, and defensive. Here is a case where the male propensity for science, technology, entreprenuship, conquest, skepticism and analysis needs desperately to be modulated by his love for woman in her compassion, inclusiveness, tenderness, contemplation, and sense of beauty.

Guns are an issue so clearly reflecting gender differences that any discussion becomes banal and obvious.

Boundaries and Immigration  are again clear expressions of gender propensities: the woman as welcoming, receptive, generous and compassionate. By contrast, the masculine psyche appreciates boundaries, the rule of law, respect for protocols and procedures and a paternal protectiveness. Again we see the need for mutuality, openness to the other gender, tenderness and reverence. Again we see the unhappy polarization into political parties and culture warfare.

The man becomes manly, virile, heroic and virtuous by loving the woman in her difference, her tenderness, sensitivity, generosity and generosity. The woman becomes feminine in a wholesome and holy way by loving and being loved by the man with his own complementary characteristics. The singular perfect creature was a woman: Mary was loved by her saintly father Joachim, her holy husband Joseph, her divine son Jesus,  by John and the other apostles. and by her heavenly Father in the Holy Spirit. She flawlessly imbibed masculine love as she immaculately loved men and allowed her own femininity to flourish. She is nature's "solitary boast." She is our strength and comfort and inspiration...in our own masculinity and femininity.

"Blessed Mother, we place ourselves under the mantle of your holiness, your purity, your beauty and your love."

The Demise of the Institutionalized Church: Ivan Illich Was Right

Institutional vs. Institutionalized Church 

Not the Institutional Church, the Institutionalized Church...is dead... to me. The institutional Church is the essential form, substance and structure of the Church of Jesus Christ that will endure and prevail against the gates of hell, until Christ returns in glory. That is the sacramental economy, the interior/exterior form of the life of worship and proclamation of the Gospel as centered in the Eucharist and Baptism. It requires Holy Orders, the always-male and almost-always-celibate priesthood, episcopacy and papacy. By "institutionalized" Church I mean the complex of institutions that developed under the hierarchy in the Tridintine Church over four centuries (1560-1960): schools, hospitals, orphanages, etc.

In their day, these institutions marvelously expressed the corporal and spiritual works of Mercy of the Church, under the leadership of the hierarchy. But they have outlived their day: they have become counterproductive. They now prevent the pope, bishops and priests from fulfilling their mission of announcing the Gospel and presiding over our worship.

McCarrick/Maciel Legacy 

This became clear in the catastrophic summer of 2018 and its aftermath: McCarrick, Vigano, the state priest abuse  reports, and the death penalty change to the Catechism. What followed confirmed the sad conclusion: the Vatican under Francis continues to cover-up the entire McCarrick affair. Why were sexual predators McCarrick and Maciel able to rise to the pinnacle of Church power and influence and use the hierarchical structure of the Church itself to protect and hide their perversity? Why do we even now, two years later, have no disclosure from the Vatican, no response to the damming Vigano allegations? Why are the Vatican finances perennially shrouded in darkness, secrecy and deceit?

My answer: the rise of the mega-Church-bureaucracy! McCarrick and Maciel were both expert bureaucrats, supremely skilled in the arts of fundraising, charm, diplomacy, influence wielding, administration, and power-brokering. McCarrick was my ordinary for many years: he was in a class of his own in regard to raw energy, stamina, intelligence, emotional intuition, charm, wiliness, and statecraft. Both men used their personal charm, financial resources and leadership skills to form relationships with the papal and episcopal elite. This was possible because the humongous network of bureaucratic institutions required exactly this set of skills to survive and flourish: they did not require meekness, humility, simplicity, contemplation, or spiritual wisdom. Super-Bureaucrats!

Most bishops are good men: intelligent, competent, educated, experienced, well-intended, pious and even holy men. BUT ... they have become caretakers of massive bureaucracies. That is their job. They watch over multi-million dollar complexes with boundless liability, regulatory, financial, insurance, and administrative challenges. Their focus, energy, concern is on custody and care of their institutions; we can't blame them. And so they cannot be our shepherds. The problem is sociological. A iconic case for the organizational behaviorist!

The Dallas Charter

With this policy, the bishops stripped their brother priests of all due process: a single, shaky accusation can completely destroy the life of a priest. It is a horrific thing: an accused priest, problematically or outright falsely, is thrown under the bus by his bishop. He no longer has a trustworthy father, but a hostile prosecutor. Why has this happened? The bishops are listening to their lawyers and insurance people: they are protecting their institutions from liability and litigation. This wound to the heart of the hierarchy is itself enough to merit the wholesale disenfranchisement of the episcopacy from its mega-bureaucracy.

Pusillanimity before the Pandemic

  In my Archdiocese of Newark our Churches are closed and we have no sacramental life. None at all. This is abominable! You cannot tell me there are no safe ways to have Eucharist, penance, annointing of the sick and so forth. I for one am infuriated, scandalized, and nauseated by the timidity, pusillanimity, and inertia of our bishops; by their complete lack of apostolic zeal! I saw on TV the other night a lawyer who is bringing suit against states for their extreme limitation of worship. She was asked about support from the Catholic bishops: not so much as a wink or a nod was her answer! Why are they so lethargic, indifferent about our sacramental life? There are probably many causes. They seem weak on the efficacy and importance of the sacraments: "Oh we can wait! We can presume God will provide other ways." It is hard to deny (as I did for so many years), after the McCarrick/Vigano summer of 2018 that a convert homosexual network continues to operate in chanceries and the Vatican. But these human weaknesses are always with the Church. The decisive factor in the current, catastrophic spiritual castration of the hierarchy is their stewardship of huge organizations. Someone said "They want to be with the popular kids." We might call this "The Hesburg Complex": the obsession with building strong large institutions and befriending the powers that can enable that. So, the Governor calls the Cardinal and asks for help and he is eager to play along and stay in his good graces. Surely there is also a commendable concern to limit the spread of the virus and save lives; but there is no sense of balance or proportion! Must we completely eliminate our life of worship?


Ivan Illich: Prophet of a Poor, Powerless, Purified Church 

Over 50 years ago, mid 1960s, Ivan Illich called for the Church to become poor and liberated, to give up all these institutions. I found the idea inviting at the time but dismissed it because of all the corporal and spiritual good being done by this immense network: education, health care, concern for orphans, the poor and the marginalized. The loss, I calculated, would outweigh the spiritual gain. I didn't change my mind until the summer of 2018 when I saw that the hierarchy had sold its soul to protect its institutions. Illich was indeed a Prophet!

Lay Governance

The recommendation here is not that the Church as Body of Christ and People of God stop doing the corporal/spiritual works of Mercy in structured ways; that is inconceivable! Rather, that the hierarchy give up governance to the laity, so that they can focus on their actual ministry of worship and word.

Recall the institution of the diaconate in Acts: the apostles did not want to neglect prayer and worship to monitor distribution of food so they ordained deacons. Something analogous is called for now: bishops have to relinquish control of these huge institutions so they can attend to prayer and the Word.

Lay control will not necessarily improve those institutions: they may become more incompetent, corrupt and unorthodox. The intent is not to improve those institutions: they will become worse when unbound from the Church! The intent is to free the bishops to do their real mission: preach the Gospel and preside over worship! Not to protect and  develop mega-organizations!

Historical Context

The primitive Church had the most bare-bones, minimal institutions. The medieval achievement of Christendom married Church to state, with the benefit of enhanced influence but pronounced tendencies towards corruption. This arrangement survived even to 1960 in Iberia and Latin America, but the Tridintine Church entailed an increasing detachment of Church from state that culminated in Vatican II. What greatly distinguished those four centuries (1560-1960) was a spectacular explosion of energy and fruitfulness in new, active religious orders which build schools, hospitals and places of care. The story repeats itself over and over again: a soul is called by God to solitude and prayer; then starts doing good works; then is joined by many others; and opens tens or even hundreds of institutions before dying in holiness. Examples: Ignatius of Loyola, Elizabeth Seton, Francis Cabrini, Katherine Drexel, John Bosco, John Baptist de la Salle...far too many to count. All these were under the care of the bishop or pope. This was a marvelous world of faith and charity. This is the world in which my generation (post-WWII) grew up. That world is no more. Although remnants remain.

The Emergent Church

The vigor, resplendence and fecundity of  the post-Vatican II Church involve events that combine independence from  the institutionalized Church with loyalty to the Institutional Church. Examples:
1. Mother Angelica, herself a religious, brilliantly delivered EWTN from the envious clutches of the Vatican and the American Bishops and placed it safely in the hands of an independent lay board. While not exactly infallible, that board has been on the whole more faithful to Church tradition than our bishops and our current pope.
2.  The NeoCatchumenal Way of Kiko Arguello has developed its own alternate world of institutions largely independent of the established Church. Amazingly, this "way" focuses clearly on the Word and the sacramental life, including the clergy and religious life, so they venerate the Institutional Church as they ignore the institutionalized Church.
3. Similarly the charismatic renewal centers itself in the communion with Christ through Word and Worship and has retrieved Pentecostal, Evangelical and Catholic traditions along with a freedom to develop new forms and ignore dying structures. I think here especially of Ralph Martin, Mary Healy and Renewal Ministries. Likewise, Communion and Liberation Movement has given birth to a variety of cultural, social and service organizations, supportive of but independent of the hierarchy. There is a long list of such lay-led, Spirit-driven movements and institutions.
4. The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal offer a promising paradigm. They live poverty in a real manner and do not own property. Their local friary here in Newark, Most Blessed Sacrament, was a cloistered convent for over a century but was purchased by an independent lay board, a non-profit that owns and administers it, while the friars live there and use it for their ministry. Perhaps this is the way our hierarchy should go: hand properties over to independent lay boards so they can be free to pray, study, preach and develop strong Christian Catholic communities.

The Emergent Catholic Anarchism 

Just after Theodore McCarrick was stripped of his red hat, Bill McGurn opined (WSJ, July 30, 2018) that he might be much more than another sad incident of clerical, predatory abuse of younger men; that he might be another Tetzel, the infamous friar whose sale of indulgences triggered Luther and the Protestant Reformation and restructured Christianity. At the time I shook my head skeptically: "exaggeration! It is just another sad incident." By the end of that summer, I had changed my mind: Catholicism is again changed forever. The stripping of the Catholic Church of its mega-bureaucracy has now become necessary and inevitable.

This is a radical, risky proposal. I doubt it will be welcomed in clerical, episcopal or papal circles. It means a drastic loss of power, money and influence. It may happen in the course of time. I myself will not give a dime to Archdiocesan or Vatican fund raising drives. I will not pray for their efforts. If I cursed, I would curse their efforts. I am not alone!

In the Benedict Option Rod Dreher advocated a modulated withdrawal from the mega-institutions of society (government, business, entertainment, education) in order to strengthen small, close, independent communities of faith, family and community. I take it to be a retrieval of subsidiarity, strengthening the smaller communities which themselves become the strength of the larger organizations. This needs desperately to be done for the Catholic Church. We all need to downsize. It is my hope, for example, that our children be educated in Catholic schools, but without the involvement of clergy. This is the work of the laity. Hopefully the remnants of our parochial schools and the emergent home-schooling will together provide flourishing models. The intuitions of Illich, Ellul, Day, Berry and others can encourage us to build our own small pieces of "heaven on earth" as we are guided and inspired by a powerless, impoverished and holy priesthood and episcopacy.

Language of Love: Waiting

A popular book by Gary Chapman identifies five languages of love: gifts, acts of service, presence, touch and words. The "languages of love" are, in my view, infinitely more diverse, profound, fascinating, mysterious and serendipitous than these basic, simple five. Off the top of my head:  waiting, surrender or release, praying with and for, giving and asking for forgiveness, feeding, laughing and joking together, bearing with patiently, confronting/combating and "ad infinitum." Here I consider "waiting" as a language of love.

Frequently we find ourselves waiting for our beloved. This involves, obviously, some separation: physical-geographical or emotional-spiritual. About two weeks after my first date with my first girl friend I was madly in loved and asked her to marry me. She told me "no, not yet." She was 19 years old, a sophomore in college. So I started my waiting. Notice the two dimensions:  "no" and "not yet." The "no" was a no. But the "not yet" was a "maybe later"...a tentative yes, a grounds for hope. So we see that waiting is structured by hope: the beloved and the desired is not in my possession, it is absent, there is deprivation; but by anticipation she is already possessed by me in my heart, with a premonition of delight and satisfaction. Mysteriously, deprivation and absence combine with anticipation and joy. And so, 1969 -70 I lived and worked in NYC but called her faithfully every Wednesday night; saw her every Saturday and looked forward to both all week. The waiting through this courtship was entirely joyous as I got consistent signals that my love was reciprocated and I enjoyed high certitude that my desire would be consummated.

Throughout my childhood, Christmas afternoons were at my grandmother's house: we had cold cuts, rye bread, potato salad; received pajamas as presents; and crammed into a small old farm house with many cousins, Grandma, Aunt Grace and four of the five Laracy brothers. Uncle Jack almost never came. He was different from his brothers. Hard to describe: he had fought with Patton and I always wondered if he was emotionally wounded from the combat. Quiet, shy, sweet in temperament, he married an agoraphobe so we never saw him or his two sons. I knew him because when I caddied as a teenager, he would still "make a loop" on the weekend to supplement his job wage. Most of the adult caddies were called "rummies"...alcoholics who lived in low-end boarding homes....easy to take characters, sometimes interesting, but somewhat sad. Uncle Jack was a cut or two above that. He always smoked a huge stogie. He walked with his feet pointing out so was nicknamed "duck." As his nephew, I was christened "little duck" which I received happily because it seemed to come with affection and muted respect. Anyway, every hour Christmas afternoon when the bus stopped across the street from my Grandma's house on Eagle Rock Avenue, West Orange, NJ, she would look out the window and loudly ask: "Is that Jack?"  All afternoon she watched and waited for Jack. He pretty much never came. She never stopped waiting. She loved her five sons but she had something special for Jack. Her love came forth as waiting...every Christmas!

When you think of it, time is almost always structured by waiting and hope: waiting for the bus, graduation, our wedding day, the birth of our child, vacation, and so forth. The human heart is everlastingly desiring, and than waiting with hope. The degree of certainty elevates the joyousness of the waiting. All the Children I have known have unbounded confidence in Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny and wait bi-annually with sublime happiness. But it is also true that no consummated hope ever resolves the longing of the human heart: we achieve one goal, but move almost immediately into another pattern of waiting. Clearly the human heart is created with an infinite, unbounded longing...for communion with the Good and the True and the Beautiful to an infinite degree and for eternity. Nothing finite or temporal satisfies us: no person, thing, achievement or earthly condition. None! And so, we move from one hope to another; from one waiting to another. The ultimate question, of course, is: are we destined to satisfy this desire that is so profound, passionate, persistent, and irrepressible? For sure, however, life and time and being are:  waiting, longing, hoping.

The story of the Prodigal Son has the the naughty son squandering his inheritance, falling into decadence, and returning home in desperation. It is the loving Father who is waiting. He is waiting for his beloved son. He looks every day down the road, like my Grandmother on Christmas afternoon, hoping and yearning to see his precious little one. After a prolonged wait, he sees him; he rushes to him with arms open; robes him with splendor, puts a ring on him and prepares a feast. He cares not what has transpired or even what the son's attitude is; he just loves him and welcomes him. This story reveals the meaning of time: the loving Father is waiting for us. Patiently. With most passionate, profound, persistent and irrepressible longing. He is waiting for us. We also, to a large degree unconsciously, are waiting and hoping for Him.

The certainty that we are awaited can infuse our own waiting with serenity, vigor, energy, delight...as we nourish all our hopes and our final, ultimate Hope.

Let's Bring Back "Limbo"! And Push with Aragorn into the Haunted Mountain!

The state of grace: baptismal union with God, a continued friendship and relationship; renunciation of serious evil; persistent effort to overcome personal sin; immersion in a communal network of relationships that inspire, encourage, correct and hold accountable.

The state of sin: separation from God by deliberate and free consent to serious sin; a state of isolation, loneliness, resentment, disbelief and despair.

It's pretty binary,  our Catholic faith: God or Satan, heaven or hell, sin or grace! The state of grace is pretty graphic in its stronger forms: think of Mother Theresa, John Paul II or any of the great saints! Constant communion with God; effortless acts of generosity, heroism and mercy; fluid forgiveness of the enemy; total trust and surrender; invincible inner peace and strength; eagerness to repent of any wrong-doing and make amends; equanimity in the face of torture and death. The state of sin, when robust,  is equally striking: deliberate murderers, drug dealing with children, sexual trafficking of underage girls or boys, torturers, and such. One in the state of sin is already in hell, alone and desolate. One in the state of grace is already in heaven, but with more or less purgatory as there are still sins to be repented and suffering to undergo as part of life's journey.

The problem is that life as we encounter it is not so lucid and bipolar! Most people around us are not noticeably in heaven or in hell; are not in joyous freedom nor in total bondage. They are confusing, complicated, dense combinations of good and bad. They are caught in compulsions, error, emotionally wounds, mimetic contagion, moral confusion, and spiritual blindness; even as they are capable of empathy, gratitude, generosity, contrition, brutal honesty and even heroism. They are wonderful one minute and horrible the next! So...where are they: in the state of grace or of sin?

Here is where the idea of "limbo" could be helpful. It seems that many if not most are in some kind of limbo: neither desolate nor beatific; in constant flux; volatile; unstable in the good and the bad. "Limbo" in the popular, not theological sense, indicates a state of neutrality, of waiting, of inertia. The traditional Catholic understanding of limbo was the place for unbaptized infants who remain in the state of sin and so cannot enter heaven but have not sinned personally and therefore don't deserve the punishment of damnation. At best it is a place of neutrality, without pain or delight; at worst it is a section of hell but without the torture involved. The Church never officially taught this doctrine; it was an opinion advanced and widely accepted. The idea has been held in contempt in Catholic theology since at least the Vatican Council almost 60 years ago. But it hasn't been clearly renounced by the official Magisterium. Official and popular theology commend such infants to the Mercy of God with much hope but no kind of certainty.

My proposal is to refurbish the concept to explain the condition of many souls in this life: an unstable mixture of sin and grace. It would contrast sharply with the traditional limbo which is permanent, unchanging and eternal. This-life-limbo is highly unstable: alternating violently and unpredictably between good and evil. This-worldly-souls-in-limbo are the scene of a colossal spiritual battle between the forces of grace and those of sin; they are in a constant state of tension and conflict; now moving towards God and then away, but always in movement, never at rest. They are "in play." They are in general on the "broad path" that leads to perdition; but they are also the arena where God's grace is at work in deep, hidden, mysterious ways. Similar to the souls in the traditional limbo, many of our contemporaries have a certain innocence: they really don't know what they are doing. They are following the herd and their own passions and seem not to be operating out of deliberation and freedom and so are stuck in a "pre-moral" fog of ignorance, illusion and low-or-no-culpability.

Consider a typical couple that approaches a priest for sacramental marriage. They have been contracepting and co-habitating for years and think nothing of it. They really are clueless! As they approach the sacrament, are they in a state of grace or a state of sin? They are seeking the commitment and sacrament so grace is at work; but they have been mutually violating each other for a long time. That is not nothing to a Catholic priest. We are not to judge another's soul; we leave that to God. But the priest is responsible to evaluate the readiness for the sacrament; to fail in this would be sacrilege. The conservative pastor will see immediately that they are "living in sin" and require abstinence and risk chasing them away from the Church. The liberal will tiptoe gingerly and inoffensively, suggesting pre-marital continence as an "ideal" but making them feel perfectly comfortable and risking presumption and sacrilege. A third alternative:  if there is recognition that the couple is in the state of limbo, there may be greater prudence, patience and appropriate rigor in leading the couple gently, but firmly, out of their darkness and confusion. This revived doctrine of limbo has rich pastoral potentialities.

We find a striking image of this reality of "limbo" in Lord of the Ring: before the final battle with the forces of Sauron, Aragorn goes through the Dark Door into the Haunted Mountains where he and his comrades are engulfed in an infernal darkness and encounter the Paths of the Dead. These unliving-undead-ghosts are in some stage of hell-on-earth. With breathtaking courage, Aragorn unveils his identity as The King and calls them back to the vow they had made to his ancestor and then broken with such horrid consequences. Miraculously, they respond to his challenge; prove to be the needed reinforcements to achieve his victory; and are rewarded by restoration to life. These "Dead" are an image of those in this life who are in limbo: they are not really alive in God's grace, but they are not yet eternally damned. But they are largely bereft of hope, vigor, vitality or joy. They are restored by renewal of their vow to the King: is this not a marvelous image of so many today who have lost their baptismal communion with the true King.

And so we see that in this world a few of us are already deeply in heaven and some (hopefully fewer still) deep into hell. But most of us are in purgatory or limbo: purgatory understood here as the entry way to heaven in which we are cleansed of sin by suffering and repentance;  limbo understood here as an entry to hell, dark and disordered but less than fully aware and deliberate.

Jesus promised the Church that "the gates of hell would not prevail." My friend Tim pointed out we tend to imagine the Church resisting the powers of hell; but Jesus is saying here that the Church is the aggressor in attacking hell, to rescue souls, and that the defensive gates of hell shall not prevail. This is Balthasar and Speyr's doctrine of the descent into hell. We are to push with Aragorn through the Dark Door, into the Haunted Mountain, and free the desolate souls.Those of us fortunate to live consciously in the love of God the Father, in our full baptismal identity as King (Priest and Prophet) are tasked to call the limbo-souls to their primal bond and covenant with the Father, to challenge them to the battle, to inspire them with longing for the Kingdom of Heaven.