Root Cause of Our Civilizational Collapse: Demise of Virility as Paternity

Description of PaternityAs a prime reality, a Mystery, Paternity cannot be defined in terms of other realities. At the level of biology it is clearcut enough: the donator of seed in sexual reproduction of life. But in the sacramental, iconic cosmos of Catholicism, that is an image of profound realities: social, psychic, ontological and theological. At the depth level, Fatherhood...like truth, being, love, beauty, goodness...is not definable in other terms. It presents itself directly, simply, intuitively to the intelligence. If someone has no spontaneous sense of love or beauty it it is futile to define it.

Nevertheless, as "super-intelligible" rather than "non-intelligible" it can be described, however inadequately. (Here, we need the poet. This writer is nothing if not prosaic!)

Fatherhood is generosity, graciousness, gratuity, extravagance in the giving of life. It is authorship, initiation, origination. It is provision, protection, pedagogy. It is authority as sacred, holy, or "super good." It is order, intelligibility, purpose, structure. It is transcendence...infinite distance...that is overcome by tenderness and mercy...to an infinite degree. Fatherhood is at the very heart of God as Trinity so Fatherhood in its purity is God, is Trinity, is the Father loving the Sonl Just as Sonship is the Son loving the Fatherhood. Our eternal destiny is to love the Father...in the Son...as the Son...in response to the Father's love for us. So it is simple enough: the purpose of life, of creation, of the cosmos: to receive, embody, share, delight in, and magnify the love of the Father, as Father, for us who are sons and daughters.

Paternity and MaternityHuman paternity, as a reflection or analogy of divine Fatherhood, is essentially related to maternity. Human paternity is always representational; by contrast, maternity is substantially distinct unto itself...different from God...quintessentially creaturely, the woman has her own solid, definite identity in a way that the man does not. The male, in all he does, is always pointing toward our heaveny Father; or sacriligously defacing His face. The woman's role as mother is different; complementary; reflective of God but in a manner distinct from Fatherhood and therefore closer to the Son and the Spirit in their distinction and distance from the Father. Maternity is likewise generosity, graciousness, gratuity...as reception, surrender, intimacy, compassion, inclusion, union, mercy. Maternity and Paternity include each other within each other; they are the same in so many ways, but mysteriously different and distinct in so many ways. Both are rooted in a prior spousality, of bride and groom, which creates a unity as it strangely preserves a limitless distance and distinction. Spousality, Paternity and Maternity all involve intimacy within distance and so relfect the interior life of the Trinity.

Original Sin Against Fatherhood Eve's primal sin was a direct rejection of Divine Fatherhood, an act of suspicion and distrust, a preference for autonomy and control rather than communion and surrender. On the face of it, Adam's sin was secondary and derivative as he followed her lead. She, the woman, apparently, has the primacy in sin and evil. A more contemporary interpretation, however, faults Adam for his absence from Eve in her moment of temptation: he failed in his vocation of spouse and father by abandoning her to her own resources; he left her alone and vulnerable. One might argue that his failure in paternity and spousality was the opening that Satan needed to seduce Eve. By this logic, Adam's dereliction in paternity led Eve to doubt the fatherly love of her heavenly Father and sieze control herself.

Purpose of Virility: PaternityThe destiny of every man is to become a father, to mirror the paternity of the Father. The itinerary of masculinity is: filiality (sonship) into fraternity (brotherhood, friendship) into spousality (groom to his bride) into paternity (fatherhood, in some form.) The source of paternity is filiaity: one is first a son, receptive of fatherly love, like an open receptacle; and later this love develops, clarifies, deepens and strenghtnes into the love of a father. One who is not fathered (in some form) cannot father.

Modernity: Desecration of FatherhoodThe Cultural Revolution that exploded in the West in the late 60s is, even more than a sexual revolution, a rejection of Paternity. The contraceptive tearing of sexuality from procreation, gender and spousality was the linchpin that deconstructed Fatherhood, but along with that was the deep renunciation of authority, of the sacred and the holy, of the past as tradition and revelation, of the primal relationships of man-woman and father-mother-child as analogues of the creator and the creature. The rich, profound cosmos of interwining relationships (God and creation, man and woman, father and child) was diabolically replaced by the autonomy and hegemony of the lonely, isolated, unrooted and purposeless individual. Individualism...the heart of liberalism!

The Tortuous Journey to Noble VirilityFemininity, in its destiny of maternity, is natural, organic, hormonal, biological, resilient, irrepressible, largely efficacious and almost infallible. Femininity, however violated, abused, despised, and repressed has about it a deeper invulnerability underneath the vulnerability. The mother's instinct is the most powerful force in the natural realm. In my neighborhood I have known homeless, drug addicts who were nevertheless passionate, tender, faithful mothers. Not so with fathers! Virility is an impossibly fragile, difficult, laborious project. It is NOT spontaneous,organic or hormonal. It requires a long, detailed, sophisticated itinerary of formation: instruction, modeling, correction, encouragement, testing, affirmation, more correction, more modeling, more affirmation. The formation of good men is the most difficult, complicated and significant of cultural accomplishments.

I would say that in our civilization the status of manhood reached a certain high point in my father's generation: the Great Generation who suffered the Depression, defeated the Nazi and Japanse imperialisms, contained Soviet Communism, and fathered large families. At the very apex of their achievement, however, in 1965, a diabolical dramatic turn occured across our culture but primarily at the level of the elites: the desecration of Fatherhood. The pampered boomer generation...so doted on by their adoring parents...listened to a soft, seductive voice: "You are better, stronger wiser, kinder than your stupid fathers!" They believed it. They turned against their fathers. They regressed (symbolically) to a narcisssitic and infantile immersion in the warm, safe maternal "womb." And the half century since than has been a collapse into decadence, unchastity,irresponsibility, infantilism and anti-paternity. It has become a dark world. A world without fathers.

St. Joseph Pray for Us!

USA 2021: A Darkening, Dystopian World; A Great Time to Go Catholic...Deeply, Radically, Fiercely Catholic

The moderate, reasonable middle no longer holds...decadence prevails...hysteria, extremism, irrationality exploding on the right and the left...our world has become dystopian! A fantastic time to be Catholic...true, profound, passionate, inflamed in our faith!

In 1960 the critical mass of American Catholics were in love with the party of John Kennedy which was overtly Catholic in its defense of the working family, civil rights, the poor, an idealistic internationalism and a fierce global resistance to communism. In 1989, right-leaning Catholics could proudly champion the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan...pro-life, victorious (in alliance with John Paul II) over Soviet Communism, champion of the freedoms of man. In 2020, the left has gone Cultural Libertarian, quasi-Marxist, and big-state-big-corporation fascist. The right has degenerated into Trumpian demagoguery. It is inconceivable to me how any alert, awake, practicing Catholic could vote for a Biden or a Trump! Our political world, along with the entirety of elite culture, has gone berserk in one direction while the underclass is vulnerable to toxic populism in a contrary way. Where do we find Sanity? Stability? Serenity? In a deeper surrender to our Catholic faith!

Our world reminds me of the Europe of the 1930s. Not the Depression, but the political polarization into extremes: Stalinism was facing rising fascisms of the right. Think Spain, Italy,Germany! The middle did not hold. At the same time, consider three humble Poles: Sister Faustina quiet in her convent, the young Karol Wojtyla maturing in his own hidden life, and Father Maximilian Kolbe championing the Immaculata as he prepares for his gory, glorious martyrdom. (See video Ocean of Mercy for an inspiring review of these three lives.) All three are now canonized saints. All three lived humbly, generously, prayerfully. All three greatly influenced our world.

It is an immense grace to live in the wake of these three. To surrender ourselves in prayer...to Mercy...to the reception and distribution of the Divine Mercy.

It is a terrible time to be a Democrat or a Republican! It is a wonderful time to be a Catholic!

I Stand Corrected...on Afghanastan

Regarding an earlier blog "A Catholic Case for Staying in Afghanastan" (Oct. 7, 2021) my JAG lawyer son pointed out a number of realities I underestimated:

1. In contrast to Syria and Iraq, Afghanastan has no Christian or Catholic community at all. The only chapel was in an embassy. I checked the numbers: some countries have a Catholic population at .01% (North Korea, Cambodia, Kyrgystan, Mauritania, Niger, North Macedonia, Tajikistan); Somalia comes in at .001%; but Afghanastan is by far the smallest at .0003%. Their Muslim culture is fiercely hostile to Christianity. While the urgency to bring the Gospel to every nation may make Afghanastan number one priority, there is a question about prudent use of scarce missionary resources.

2. Afghanastan might also be the most resistant and hostile to Western culture. An anecdote: our military built a courthouse for them. Shortly after it was handed over to the locals a visit showed that it was being used to house sheep and goats. So much for "rule of law" and "due process!"

3. The immense dangers of placing our 18-year-olds with heavy gunnery in violent circumstances: they may perform admirable 99% of the time but that one mistake evokes a tidal wave of hatred for the foreign invaders. It is not fair to our young men and to the locals.

4. Paradoxically, the countryside there is more peaceful now that we are out of there. The Taliban is in control and there is less conflict.

These are serious, sobering realities so I change my mind. I am about 60% confident that withdrawal (however badly executed) was the prudent strategy. Of course, future events may change our evaluations. A single terrorist attack from a base there will be a game changer, but I agree that the Taliban, as rational deciders (we hope), have learned a lesson and will suppress any bases that might provoke another invasion.

The "neoconservative-leaning Catholicism" underlying my earlier argument remains in its fundamentals: first, the imperative to plant the Church everywhere, second the importance of education and dignity for women, and thirdly the broader global cold wars against Sharia law and Communism and the need for vigor, strength, agressiveness.

The Uncles Club

Uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces: all underrated!

They are entirely ignored in sociology and psychology, theology and philosophy. They deserve attention!

I am a certified member of the Uncles Club! If we could measure the happiness and pride of uncles I would test in the top 1 % of the top 1 %. I LOVE being an uncle!

I think of my own uncles often. I had five. All were related by blood, not by marriage as my mother's siste married my father's brother so he was uncle in two ways. They basically formed the masculine world in which I grew up. They (along with aunts, grandparents) were the pillars of my world. I think of my Mom and Dad as huge, central pillars holding up the world I inhabited; but they were not alone. Around them were these important figures who added support, strength, stability, variety and flavor to our world. My uncles (and uncle-like friends) mirrored to me what masculinity is; they imaged for me my future identity. They were big, strong, confident, funny, intelligent, interesting, fun. On my father's side, heavy with men: Frank the oldest overflowed with good will, generosity, humour, fun; he and his family had a special affection for my family as my Dad was the youngest. Ed, a bachelor, was very good to us; an athlete, a man's man, quiet, humorous in a subtle way. Uncle Jack was different; somewhat distant, he was a loner; he had fought with Patton; when I would see him (he and I both caddied at a local country club) I felt a gentle affection flowing both ways. Charlie was close in age to my own father; he was like him, even funnier; to be with him was to be laughing or smiling nonstop. On my mother's side quite a different story: Uncle Billy travelled around South America; a brilliant man, wildly eccentric; fascinating to us; after his death we learned he was an intelligence officer, covert, for the army all those years after his service in WWII where he was wounded and honored. We would not see for years but we thrilled whenever he came around.

I was blessed with two Aunt Marians and Aunt Grace. The former were both mothers of their own families but overflowed with fun, humor, and affection for my family; Aunt Grace, single, was very, very close to us.

Some years ago, I at the finale of a parish-based "Discovering Jesus" program, I found myself being prayed over by two young women...devout, intelligent, attractive...who knew my nephews and so identified me as Uncle Matt. I have been prayed over, perhaps a hundred times, and expected the normal: Jesus, make Matt a good man, husband, father, pure and strong. But no: they surprised me and asked an anointing on my unclehood...that I be a good uncle. I was delighted with the thought. How many uncles are so anointed? Since then I have claimed from the Holy Spirit special gifts of unclehood.

Being an uncle is fun, delightful, effortless, unmerited, gratuitious and serendipitous. It is organic, spontaneous, entirely indeliberate. Between uncle and niece/nephew there is a gentle, pleasant affection, interest, respect. It just comes freely. It arises, of course, out of the affection between brother and sister which the children drink in like mother's milk. I don't remember ever having to correct a nephew; nor have I ever spent a penny on a niece. The thing is entirely free, light, and joyful. It is part of the nature of things. In this it resembles grandparenthood and cousinhood...all joy, no effort.

I have 18 nieces and 13 nephews. But it is not the quantity, it is the quality that matters. If I had only one I would be a happy uncle. My nieces are all feminine, intelligent, competent, maternal, kind, faithful, and lovely in every dimension...each in her distinctive, unique fashion. My nephews are fun, funny, interesting, athletic, virile, stimulating...dear "little brothers."

Happiness is...being an uncle!

The Uber-Catholics

I was flattered several years ago to learn that some more liberal family members referred to me and mine as "uber Catholics." It may not have been intended as a complement, but cock-eyed optimist that I am I receved it that way. I would never want to be lukewarm, milk-toast, lackadasical, accomodationist Catholic lite. I aspire to be flaming, profound, fierce, passionate,counter-cultural, radical, and yes extreme in my faith. If that is perceived as unbalanced, fanatical, and unhealthy...so be it!

So I will define an "uber-Catholic" as one for whom the faith and life in Christ is EVERYTHING! Everything else...family, work, romance, health, wealth...EVERYTHING else comes under this love for Christ. So, in various ways, the ubers are counter-cultural, they fervently embrace different dimensions of Catholicism. As an aspiring uber-Catholic, I like to hang out with other ubers, extravagants, extremists. Here are my preferred groups.

CharismaticsThis is my favorite group. They are weird, even from a traditional or mainstream Catholic point of view: praying in tonques, holy laughter, casting out of demons, healings and prophesies. In the wake of the Council when elite Catholicism was emulting late secularizing Protestantism this movement moved in the contrary direction, incorporating hard, contrarian principles of evangelical Pentecostalism: awareness of sin, centrality of Christ as Lord and Savior, literal reading of Scripture, strong gender roles, appreciation of obedience and authority, and in general a lively, graphic supernaturalism.

Neocatechumenal WayThis is the most intense, the most "uber"...the Marine Corp or maybe the Navy Seals of Catholicism. Within the old, they create a new Catholic civilization around: Jesus Christ as victor over death, small-intimate communities around the Word and liturgy, large families, a distinctive aesthetic in music and iconography and a unique catechesis which is orthodox and yet innovative. This "way" appeals largely to lower-economic groups, especially Hispanics in my NYC area. A la the "Benedict Option" its energies are focused interiorly on strenthening and sharing the faith of their communities and familes rather than on the battle for the Culture.

Traditional, Latin Mass GroupsThese, of course, retrieve elements of Catholicism that have been largely lost after the Council: the Latin mass, a vibrant Thomism, traditions of piety. These seem to have a strong appeal to young people who are disappointed with the secular drift of society and much of the Church. My impression is that the demographic is largely the educated and comfortable, if not affluent.

Catholic Worker CommunitiesThese are extreme in ways entirely different from the first three: anarchistic and pacifist, they identify strongly with the poor, and firmly reject our social order and the bourgeois way of life. In Day and Maurin there was an unusual marriage of Catholic faith with political radicalism; I am not sure how widely that admirable, if eccentric, legacy endures although Larry Chapp is true to it.

Academic CommunitiesIn strongest contrast to the secularizing momentum of mainstream, especially elite, Catholic academies, there are a handful of exceptions which develop their own distinctive, eccentric-extravagant cultures. My favorite is the John Paul Institute for the Family in Washington DC which carries on the "Communio Theology" of John Paul, Benedict and Balthasar in an American context. The small body of congenial scholars embody a "kneeling theology" that combines holiness of life with brilliance in scholarship. They are exceptional. On the undergraduate level Franciscan University of Steubenville is unparalled: under a strong charismatic influence, this community attracted disparate groups which reacted against the liberalizing trend in Catholic higher education: pro-life, home-schooling, Thomism, etc. It too combines the desire for holiness with serious learning. IPS (Institute for the Psychological Sciences) in Arlington, Virginia, is a serious graduate think tank for the dialogue between scientific psychology and a Catholic anthropology.

To be sure there are other strong Catholic cultures which may not be so "uber" in the sense of extravagant, extreme, or contrarian. Communion and Liberation is a lively, highbrow Catholic movement out of Italy that reflects a distinctive, almost neo-Renaissance confidence, positivity, lack of defensiveness and openess to the broader culture. First Things is deeply Catholic with a a pronounced Republican, neoconservative and even sometimes pro-Trumpian political ideology. EWTN, The Catholic Thing, Crisis, New Oxford Review and others reflect a fierce Catholicism.

Other Catholic academies lack the dominating Catholic ethos but foster smaller communities of vital Catholicism. My own family has experienced this at Mount St. Mary's (Emmitsburg), University of St. Francis DeSales, Assumption, University of Notre Dame and our local Seton Hall University. It is not unusual that secular universities, even the Ivys, foster small, intense countercultures in response to the militant secularism around them.

I have been blessed to participate in varying degrees, in the above communities, without becoming a fullfleged member of any. Catholicism has been, for me, a rich smorgasboard in which I taste some fruit, the fish, some vegetables, a variety of meats, and leave room for dessert. SO FUN! SO INTERESTING1 SO INSPIRING!

To Change the Church: Bad Idea!

The Synodality Process was initiated by Pope Francis with this purpose: "To change the Church." Bad, bad, bad idea!

I confess: I can't stand the reformer, the progressive do-gooder who is out to "change the Church"...to modernize it, update it, remake it in the image of his enlightened, fashionable ideas...in a stance of condescension, superiority, moralism, righteousness. Think the German synod!

Let's start with: What is the Church? It is a gathering of sinners, first and foremost. Now if you think you can change sin, or the sinner, or the conglomerate of sinners, then you need to change your medication!

More than that, though, without removing the dimension of sin, the Church is the Bride of Christ. She is passionately, tenderly, reverently, longingly loved by Christ. To be joined with Christ is to love His Bride: to cherish, serve, venerate, protect, and exult in her. NOT to change her!

Imagine a young woman is in love and engaged to a man with a drinking habit, and anger problem, and a history of promiscuity. She isn't worried: she loves him so much that she is sure her love will change him. Bad idea!

Imagine a Prince who is in love with a Princess. She has her problems but he sees in her loveliness, innocence, generosity, elegance, modesty, purity and holiness. The king's advisor has a different view: that she needs a lot of work...tutoring for sure, diet and exercise routine to lose weight and firm up the body, an entire makeover in fashion and hair style, and more. What would the Prince do? Obviously, he would have the advisor tarred and feathered, shackled, tortured, and thrown in prison.

Imagine you have a historic building: Washington slept here. It is a monument. You are NOT allowed to change the basic structure, rather you are obliged to maintain and protect it. That requires, of course, regular cleaning, preserving, and minor repairs. Yes you may rearrange the furniture. Were you to try to change the basic structure you would be arrested and imprisioned...and you would deserve it.

Of course the Church in her human dimension is sinful and in need of constant reform and conversion. But that mysterious process is the intimate relations of Christ Himself with His Bride which includes each individual soul and the Body itself. Jesus Himself, through the Holy Spirit, does indeed reform the Church, meaning each and every one of us. It is not for us to do so, even through some vague, global discusion group called synodality.

In his introductory remarks to the synodal process our Holy Father speaks about "the reception of new elements." New Elements? Bad, bad, bad idea! We can easily imagine the kind of "new elements" eager to intrude: cultural liberalism, critical race theory, LGBTQ pride, and the usual suspects.By contrast, authentic reform is always a return to the sources...ressourcement...to scripture, the fathers and doctors, martyrs and saints. It is a deepening, a purification, a growing of our already-given baptismal identity in Christ. It is simple: becoming holy, close to God, through all the standard Catholic practices of prayer, sacrament, service, fraternity.

On this journey into holiness, it is for us to join Christ in loving, contemplating, admiring, enjoying the Church. And to allow ourselves personally to be reformed and sanctified...by Christ through the Church, our mother, His bride and body.

In Praise of Silly

Silly is underrated! It is defined as: foolish, stupid, lacking in judgment and comnon sense. Synonyms are all disparaging: idiotic, nonsensical, crazy, imprudent, inane. Antonyms are all positive: sensible, prudent, intelligent, sober.

It was not always that way. The original Old English meaning of the word was "happy and blessed." That developed into someone for whom one has sympathy, and so weak in some way. Eventually it took on the current negative meaning. My purpose is to retrieve the original sense of the word.

Some of the saints have also warned against silliness as sinful: frivolous, superficial and distracting from what is good and holy. I do not follow that school of spirituality as I favor the approach of St. Philip Neri, the silliest saint of all, who embodied silly as joy, fun, lightness, affection, freedom.

Silly, for me, is a type of joy, delight, lightness and freedom. It is random, creative, serendipitous, spontaneous. It is freedom from worry, heaviness, obligation, expectation, pressure. It is blissfully void of moralism, perfectionism, indignation, self-righteousness as well as shame, guilt, anxiety.

It is affectionate, at its best.It is shared delight and so is inherently kind and generous.

Silly is a form of humour or comedy. Jim Carey, Robin Williams, Jerry Lewis...all silly! There is an intellectual dimension to silly: the incongruous, the contrarian, the absurd. There is a kind of brilliance to the silliness of a really good comedian.

On the other hand, we must acknowledge an ambiguity to silly: there is a dark side. It is not for nothing that it is disparaged in normal discourse. Silliness in the presence of suffering, sin, evil or tragedy is cruelty. Silliness when insensitive is rude and uncharitable. Silliness as habitual can be compulsive, addictive. In this ambiguity silliness resembles teasing which involves an aggressive and an affectionate dimension: when the former predominates it moves towards abuse, when the later is stronger it is wholesome fun.

As with all things, silly must be guided by sensitivity, prudence, love. Under those conditions, silly is childlike, innocent, liberating...a taste of the Kingdom of God here on earth.

Flowing In The Currents of History

My personal faith journey perfectly mirrors specific historical, cultural movements and personalities in Church history:

1950s...Childhood...Family Rosary...Father Patrick Peyton.I was blessed to be one of millions impacted by Fr. Peyton's crusade "A Family That Prays Together Stays Together." Perhaps as much as anything, the family rosary created the stability, serenity, and safety that made that period a Catholic Camelot for many (although of course not all) us boomers.

1960s...Youth...Catholic Radicalism...Ivan Illich.Coming of age in the turbulent 60s was exhilarating: civil rights, war movement, ecumenism, Vatican II, social justice and its critique of capitalism, and more. Emerging from that decade I was personally influenced by Ivan Illich who provided a deeper critique of modernity, technology, bureaucracy than that of the Catholic Left as well as a scathing appraisal of the confident Irish-American Catholic culture in which I was raised. He rooted this, however, in a profound and passionate traditional, mystical if eccentric Catholicism which strengthed me in my faith as it distanced me in some degree from fashionable conventionalism.

1970s...Early Marriage...Charismatic Renewal...Ralph Martin and Company.Pentecostal, Evangelical Catholicism intensified both my traditional upbringing and my more liberal youth by locating both within a personal encounter with Jesus himself and the Holy Spirit. It also positioned me in a clear, fierce adversarial position versus the emergent Cultural Liberalism. Additionally, a holy, learned Jesuit mystic name Joe Whelan deepened my love for the Church.

1980-90s...Adulthood and Family...the Pontificate of John Paul II. John Paul was, and is, my captain, my mentor, my role model, my inspiration. His catechesis on spousal love and sexuality encouraged me in my aspiration for purity of heart. His overall teaching, along with the entire Communio school, gave enhanced clarity, certainty, and ferocity to my Catholic faith.

2000s...Late middle age....Catholic Buffet...Pope Benedict. My happy emergence from midlife crisis was facilitated by a smorgasboard of felicitous influences: participation for a time in the Neocatchumenal Way, exposure to 12-step spirituality, the theology of Pope Benedict, Magnificat magazine, and other graces. Our children grew up; I transitioned out of my UPS career back to teaching religion.

2010s...Maturity...OLME (Our Lady's Missionaries of the Eucharist) and Magnificat Home...Sister Joan Noreen.My wife and I enjoyed participation in OLME, under the guidance of Sister Joan, where we aspired to deeper devotion to the Eucharist, Mary, the daily prayer of the Church, and a life of simplicity and charity. Additionally, I was privileged to participate with family and friends in Magnificat Home, a project of providing a home for single, low income women.

2020s...Old age...???Moving now through my 8th decade I am preparing to surrender some of my activity and responsibility for Magnificat Home as my energies slowly but steadily diminish. I am bereft of an inspirational movement or personality. I hope to grow in prayer, holiness and love with my spouse.

I am a product of my time. Moreso, I am a member of the Church, a branch in the vine, and have benefited richly from so many currents, personalities, movements. I am among the most undeservedly fortunate of men. I am grateful.

A Catholic Case for Staying in Afghanistan

If Trump and Biden...moral degenerates both, true deplorables...strongly agree on a policy...in this case immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan...it is probably a bad idea. If large majorities on the left and right...in a widely, deeply decadent society...applaude the decision, it must be wrong.

Disclosure: I am about 55% confident in my view. I am far from certain. I see the ambiguities, complexities, dangers of staying: the expenditure of money and lives, the futility of "nation building" in this complex, the local corruption as well as the visceral rejection of foreign intrusion. I enjoy none of the indignation, arrogant certitude, and righteous anger of those on the left and right who express contempt for my position. For me, it is complicated!

Global context: we are engagned in mortal conflict with totalitarian communism and militant Jihadism. This is a fight to the death...as much as World War II or the cold war. Every advance and each surrender matters: our withdrawal from Afghanistan was a serious setback.

We could have partitioned off maybe a fifth of Afghanistan, around Kabul, with a perimeter protected by a small (2,500) military force with excellent technology. This modest, free zone would allow:

1. A Catholic presence: works of mercy, Eucharist, monks and martyrs and hermits.

2. Educaion of young women.

3. An incipient culture of free enterprise, rule of law, democracy, human rights.

4. Other Christian, religious, and humanitarian organizations. A dialogue between Islam and other religions and points of view.

5. A military/intelligence base from which to monitor the broader Sharia nations and strike against the revival of Al Queda or other terrorist camps which could threaten our national and global security.

Prior to our departure, there was a single Catholic chapel in Kabul. It served foreigners; Afghans were sternly forbidden to convert. Now there is no visible Catholic presence. This is tragic!

The obvious dilemna is that we, the "West", are ourselves involved in a civil culural war between liberal secularism (individualistic, atheistic, cosmopolitan, technological, sexually liberational, malignant in growth of state and global capitalism) and our Christian heritage. We are no longer a coherent, integral culture; we are incapable of a fierce assault on our enemies or even of a firm defense of our values because we lack inner identity, form, character. We are decadent.

Today, October 7, 2021 is the 450 year anniversary of the battle of Lepanto, when the prayer of the Rosary by a united Christendom elicited the divine intervention of our Lady of Victories and saved the west from an invading Islam. Let us pray, today, the rosary, and invoke our Lady's assistance today, as we wage a three-way global war against secular liberalism, communism and Jihadism.

Our Lady of the Rosary, our Lady of Victories, Pray for us!

What is Art? What is Beauty?

Art is the human creation of an object (poem, building, song, etc.) that is beautiful.

"What is Beauty?" is an infinite question!

Let's start by contrasting beauty, as a realistic quality of the object, with pleasure, the pleasing sensation of the beholder. Beauty is objective; pleasure subjective. The taste of chocolate is pleasing to one person, displeasing to another. Here we have subjective feelings or emotions. But the beauty of an object, a symphony or a mountain range or a single rose, abides in the object and is appreciated by the admirer.

In classic thought (Aristotle, Plato) beauty is one of the four transcendentals or qualites of Being as such. The others are Truth, Goodness and Unity. In this realist perspective, any thing, any entity or being, is...by virture of its existence, at once true and good and beautiful. It is such according to its significant, specific form: so a rose is beautiful as a rose, a symphony as a symphony, a woman as a woman. The form is the inner essence, the interior principle of life, which animates the object in all its aspects. So, the perception of beauty by the beholder is an intelligent act by which the knower/lover sees, intuits, knows, and delights in the form of the object as that form animates and radiates in all elements of the object. So, the appearances...sounds, visuals, colors, shape, words, dramatic narrative...in their multiplicity and diversity all manifest or express the interior form, which is deep, hidden yet manifest, spiritual yet indwelling material, invisible yet becoming visible.

The question asked often is: "Are you beautiful because I love you or do I love you because you are beautiful?" This is not an absolute binary, either-or question. Clearly the beloved becomes more beautiful as she enjoys the enjoying gaze of the lover. His love enhances, elicits, affirms, augments her beauty. But the primacy is in the inherent beauty of the beloved. The lover is first of all passive, receptive of the beauty; he is carried away; he is defenseless, overcome and captivated. Only susequently, secondarily does he seek and court out of a desire conceived in receptivity.

Beauty is classicaly described in three dimensions: integrity, proportion and radiance. Integrity refers to the unity of the object, the interior singular and distinctive identity which brings together all elements of the object. Proportion, related to integrity, indicates that all elements are properly ordered to each other in a harmony that is pleasing. Radiance is the mysterious illumination, from the depth of the object, that shines forth from every element as it manifests the form that yet remains hidden, deep, transcendent.

Beauty indwells real things, but by an analogy and an imitation it also lives in artwork, human creations. Art is an imitation, but is far more than a mere photocopy. The creative spirit of the artist gives life to a new "thing" which reflects actual reality but in a novel, imaginative, beautiful and inspiring manner. So, for example, a beautiful rose or a lovely woman or a striking sunset might inspire in the poet a poem, in the painter a painting, and the composer a song. Each echoes or draws from the beauty of the original, the actual being, but in a novel, imaginative manner. The beauty of the original is elaborated, developed, enhanced...we might say "glorified." It is new and surprising even as it orginates in a prior, primary reality. It is not "creation out of nothing." It is derivitave even as it is innovative.

Beauty, as indwelling the real or being, in nature or in art, is intrinsically united with Truth and Goodness. We distinguish them conceptually but in reality they indwell each other. So, for example, something that is inauthentic or deceptive and therefore not true cannot be really beautiful. A failure in truth wounds the being which loses beauty as well. Similarly, a failure in the good, something that is apparently beautiful but somehow evil, is also degenerate and therefor lacking in true beauty, no matter how pleasing, impressive or glamorous the appearances. Appreciation for Beauty without Goodness or Truth (think of Nazi officers listening to a symphony) is an empty, superficial aestheticism; concern for the Good without the Truth or the Beautiful is a dry, oppressive moralism; devotion to Truth without Beauty or the Good is a vague abstraction or lifeless empiricism. But a good society will be enhanced by the authetically beautiful. The moral and aesthetic and the intellectual cannot be separated from each other.

Beauty and Art are ends in themselves and are not mere means to another end. So, for example, a piece of art that is primarily intended to advance a moral or political end would be diminished if not entirely emptied of beauty. However, a genuine work of art will manifest beauty and organically also express the good and the true so the beholder is pleased and delighted, but also illuminated in truth and inspired in good. Beauty, along with Goodness and Truth, are qualities of the real, of being. Analagously, genuine work is a creative expression, again, of the Good the True and the Beautiful.