The Hatred and Infidelity of the Reformer
The "reformer" despises the actual, current, concrete, flawed, sinful Church because he is infatuated with an illusion of his own creation, a projection of his own needs, longings, hurts. It is like a masturbatory fantasy, a playboy centerfold. It is not a real woman in all her actual particularity, nobility, loveliness, vulnerability, monthly cycle, physical pain and emotional longings. It is a mirage, like the beautiful oasis really seen by the Sahara pilgrim dying from thirst, a hallucination fabricated out of desperation.
His "Precious" (think Gollum in Lord of the Rings) is more liberal or conservative, radical or relevant, Constantinian or Pre-Constantinian, evangelical or activist, monastic or charismatic, solemn or informal. It may be a utopian commune of love, or a warrior for the poor in the class conflict, or a sanctuary of medieval or Tridentine piety, or Dionysian Pentecostalism, or a culture warrior against the "woke."
In contrast with this mesmerizing ideal, the existing, actual Church is seen with disgust as a vile whore. He sits upon his throne and passes judgment: She is boring, annoying, reactionary, dogmatic, legalistic, misogynist, privileged, arrogant, defensive, uncompassionate, promiscuous, relativistic, fundamentalist, clericalist, unorthodox, compromised, and accommodating.
And so the reformer diverts his affection, loyalty and reverence away from the actual Catholic Church, (the women whispering their rosaries, the cold pastor, the distant bishop.) his Mother, the actual body and bride of Jesus Christ, to his idolatrous fantasy. He creates his own Church. So we have in the USA today tens of thousands of different churches. Calvin created his, Luther his, Henry VIII his. And so before them we had Arius, Mohammed, and so many others. Many Evangelicals today identify simply as "Christians" and that is in a way correct: they love Jesus our Lord, as portrayed in the Bible. But they assume some direct, individual one-on-one with Jesus through Scripture. They are clueless that Jesus is always mediated by a community and that theirs and all the others are indeed love affairs with Jesus but through a community that has despised his body and bride, our own mother, given to us in the person of Mary at the cross and the anointing of the apostles by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They implicitly renounce the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and therefore love the Head in a disordered, deprived manner.
The reformer is himself the judge, of the Church. He is not judged himself, by and in the Church, by the Word, the Sacrament, the lives of the saints. He is not saved from his sins by the blood of the cross. He himself is enlightened and tasked with reforming the now corrupt Church.
The reformer's compulsion is a temptation for anyone who is intense in spirit. Such is strongly drawn to specific spiritual truths or goods which are then seen as lacking in the actual Church. Such is thus missioned to bring his charism to enrich the broader Body. But this can be done fruitfully only in the purification of humility, patience, humor, obedience, trust, longsuffering, reverence, gratitude, tenderness and generosity of spirit. This is a long and difficult road.
My Story: A Reformer in Recovery
I myself, as a "Reformer in Recovery" know about this. In my youth, especially the intoxicated college years after the Council, I drank the juice and, for example, avidly read National Catholic Reporter, taking malicious delectation in ridicule of traditionalism. A few years later, early in our marriage, I threw myself into Catholic Pentecostalism and viewed ordinary Catholicism as a lesser, impoverished version of the Gospel, lacking in the charismatic gifts. Moving through adulthood, I reacted to the emergent hegemony of Cultural Liberalism by intensifying a conservative Catholicism as I exulted in the dual-papacy of JP-Benedict and the lay renewal movements. But the papacy of Francis has placed a dark cloud over my later years as my reformer compulsivity has resurged.
In the midst of that journey,1970, while courting my bride, as I emerged from my liberal phrase and just before my charismatic days, I was singularly blessed to study the Catholic Mystics at Woodstock College in Manhattan with a holy Jesuit theologian, Joe Whelan. From him I learned that all the Catholic saints loved the Church, our Mother, herself, even as Christ himself loves her. A second lesson: he had us read "Theology and Sanctity" by Hans Urs von Balthasar and there I learned that theology in its integrity flows only from a life of prayer, public worship and sanctity of life. He put me on the right path!
Conservative Catholic Reformers
This reformer compulsion is pronounced in Catholic progressivism. It permeates the papacy of Francis. He has given his life to the Church but he shamelessly he vents his disgust of the Latin Mass, clericalism, dogmatism and traditionalism, the American Catholic-Evangelical Alliance, the comfort and privilege of the clergy. It is not that this criticism is without value; but he delivers it with a repugnance void of tenderness or respect. This discontent with the actual Church underlies the inchoate, convoluted paraphilia they call "synodality."
But I know personally that the impulse is strong also in conservative circles. The core is a rejection of the actual, current Church in favor of a theological ideology or fantasy. Let's consider my own favorites: charismatic renewal, the Latin mass, and the Neocatechumenal Way.
Charismatic Renewal. This was and still is, in my view, a real movement of the Holy Spirit. It was also, viewed sociologically, an incorporation of Evangelical and Pentecostal American spirituality into Catholicism. As such it moved in the opposite direction of mainline Catholicism after the Council. There was the manifestation and exercise of specific gifts long forgotten by ordinary Catholicism: prayer in tongues, prophesy, miraculous healings, literal and intimate engagement with Scripture, direct guidance by the Holy Spirit, spiritual combat and deliverance from evil spirits, traditional gender roles, stronger forms of authority and obedience, and a fervent ecumenical embrace of evangelicalism and Pentecostalism. As is common with such enthusiastic movements (Ronald Knox is classic on this), many of us experienced this as a more intense and pure Christianity than what we know as ordinary parish life.
Additionally, soon two divergent paths emerged: one more Catholic and the other more Pentecostal. The first leaned deeply into our Catholic tradition: sacramental life, the magisterium, lives of the saints, Mary and the witness of John Paul. Some however strengthened the ecumenical bonds and downplayed Catholic piety which troubled the newfound unity across denominational lines. This last was the path of the Sword of the Spirit (umbrella group of covenant communities) and led our local People of Hope into a dramatic clash with Archbishop Peter Gerety over exactly the issues of authority, obedience, and gender roles.
Happily, however, after several decades the People of Hope are reconciled to the Church, leaders like Ralph Martin have fruitfully incorporated the Renewal into a vigorous Catholicism, and this movement continues to energize the Church. All is well that ends well!
Latin Mass. Here we find a fascinating ambiguity: on the one hand a love and loyalty to the Tradition as handed down and received through generations. At the same time, however, a disdain for the current Church, especially the hierarchy. Some are suspect of Vatican II and lean towards sedevacantism (we have no valid pope.) Francis' own disdainful oppression of them does not help. We hope for a retrieval of the legacy of Benedict and mutuality in humility, generosity, tenderness, contrition and forgiveness.
Neocatechumenal Way. The ambivalence here is even more profound, complex and rich. This charism of Kiko is flawlessly, fiercely embracive of our moral and dogmatic traditions. Loyal to our hierarchy, they work only with the blessings of bishop and pastor. Close to the papacy, they have Vatican approval despite their controversies. They pray with the Church, passionately, and emulate the lives of the saints. They contribute new riches to Church art and music.
On the liturgy, however, they break with the Novus Ordo more radically than does the Latin Mass. This is important: theirs is a distinct liturgy and a distinct liturgy means a different Church. Aligned with this is a radical negativity about a Western culture they see as thoroughly corrupt. In reaction they pursue a drastic "Benedict Option" in building a network of intensive communities as the model of an emergent, alternative Church in a now dystopian world. While it is not articulated, there operates as well an underlying distaste for the current parochial Church, as well as the received Tridentine and indeed post-Constantinian Church. And so, there is no formal or theological split from the Church but there is a significant liturgical fracture and an underlying emotional distance. For example, I have loved to attend an annual Archdiocesan Men's Conference which is hosted by a smorgasburg of Catholic groups: People of Hope, Knights of Malta, Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and others. Neocats would almost never participate in something like this. Not because they oppose it; rather, they have no time as their own internal ecclesial engagements are all-consuming. This is not a bad thing per se. But it is a weakening of the bonds of affection and loyalty they share with the broader Church.
We hope that as they grow and mature, and more priests are ordained from their communities to serve the broader Church, there may be an increase in mutual affection, reverence and loyalty.
Let Us Love Our Church
St. Ignatius of Antioch, at the close of the Apostolic age, exhorted us to cherish our unity through the hierarchy. That call resonates today. It is this actual, concrete, so disappointing Church we are to love tenderly, reverently, loyally, patiently, generously. How happy the habit we have of praying an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be for our pope at the end of every rosary. I don't like this pope and his people. It is not just that I disagree on this or that issue. It is that I despise, passionately and viscerally, what they are doing to our Church. It is because of my Catholic faith that I am enraged. But this same faith causes me to pause. First of all, whatever his failings, he is my pope and they are our bishops and therefore worthy essentially of reverence and loyalty. Secondly, Francis himself and his lieutenants are in many ways honorable and decent men worthy of respect.
So, the only path ahead: loyalty to our cherished, threatened Catholic truths even as we. bring them to prayer. Pleading for Truth. Pleading for Unity. Pleading for tenderness, reverence and loyalty for precisely those who infuriate us so.
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