This being the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, I pause to thank God for the holy, learned Jesuits who influenced me, especially in my early adulthood.
In the summer of 1969, recently graduated from college seminary and returned to the lay world, swept up in the revolutionary enthusiasms of the time, I found myself bereft of career aspirations but with crush on an adorable girl, eager to serve the poor, and fascinated by the study of theology-philosophy-culture-humanities.
I asked Mary Lynn out on a date; fell madly in love; courted her passionately; and was married within 16 months. And we have lived (more or less) happily ever after.
I took a part time job teaching English-as-a-second-language to Hispanics in the South Bronx and thus relieved my modest financial needs and my urgency to help the poor.
Prelude: Maryknoll College Seminary
The previous tumultuous years, 1965-9, I had spent happily in the semi-monastic safety of Maryknoll College where we enjoyed a wholesome routine of study, prayer, work, sports and friendship, but no women at all. I admired our teachers, Maryknoll Missionary Priests, as men of quiet faith, sterling character, and generous hearts. Characteristically American, they are practical men of action, inclined to energetically serve the physical needs of the poor and peacefully the sacramental needs. They are not strongly inclined to intellectual reflection or mysticism. Spiritually the four years there consisted of routine exercises, with little spiritual inspiration. Intellectually I was stimulated some of the courses and by reading about the ferment in Church and society. Not a fertile time spiritually or theologically.
Woodstock College, NYC
I learned that the respected, 100-year-old Woodstock College, including renowned Fr. Avery Dulles S.J., was relocating to NYC at Union Theological and Columbia University. I found my way to the office of the Dean, Fr. O'Brien, who told me the school was still strictly a Jesuit seminary but that the gracious Fr. Dulles would welcome me in to audit his Fundamental Theology course, without fee or credit. Dulles exceeded expectations: he welcomed me in like a family member; he even looked like my uncles; directed the "beetle" (a Jesuit custom) to provide me with all notes; I felt completely a home. I had died and gone to heaven! Soon I was invited to dinner with the seminarians. This contrasted sharply with my experience at Union Theological where I was incapable of making friends. I think I am just too parochial and Catholic.
Avery Dulles S.J.
Dulles, convert to Catholicism and son of John Foster Dulles, was the outstanding Catholic theologian of his generation: encyclopedic in knowledge, balanced and prudent, impeccably loyal to Tradition, insightful, charmingly modest in demeanor. A model theologian! Superb as an introduction to the fundamentals of Catholic theology!
Dulles was a stronger defender of the changes of Vatican II at that moment in time, but the Church was changing rapidly around us. I am sure he did not change his views, but a few years later he opposed, sometimes it seemed single-handedly among American Catholic theologians, the powerful progressivism, discontinuous with Tradition, that accommodated the Sexual Revolution. He became the definitive Catholic voice in the Evangelical-Catholic dialogue (with Fr. Richard Neuhaus) and a reliable lodestone in the confused Church of the 70s. He was honored with a cardinal's hat for his steady, generous service to the Church. He looked like he could be one of my uncles, long and lanky and Lincoln-like, and had a shy, slow manner...which endeared him to me all the more.
Joseph Whelan S.J., Mystic
But the defining formative influence on my prayer and spiritual life was Fr. Joseph Whelan S.J. Listening to his introductory lecture on the Catholic Mystics I was certain that he was a main deeply in love. I myself was in that state at the time; but he exceeded my own intensity. At that moment in time many priests were leaving the priesthood to marry. I wondered. I came to realize that he was passionately in love, with Christ and his Church. I learned that to love Christ is to love his Church. I read Balthasar's "Theology and Sanctity" and discovered that sound theology can only come out of prayer and holiness of life: "kneeling theology." This was a striking contradiction of prevailing academic theology and formed my understanding of the craft.
He was the best teacher I ever had. He may have been the holiest man I ever met. Add a sharp intellect. Add indescribable charm. He led me deeply into my Catholicism and left an indelible print on my heart and intellect.
Other Jesuits and Protestants
I studied under other Jesuits who nicely complemented these two giants: Walter Burkhardt (patristics), Skyler Brown (scripture). Additionally I benefited from the finest intellects in liberal Protestant thought in psychology/religion (Anne Ulanov), Scripture (Samuel Terrien), American Protestant History (Robert Hardy), liturgy (Cyril Richardson), political theology (Hans Hoekendike), as well as philosophy of knowing (Philip Phoenix at Columbia). At the same time I was befriended by Jesuit seminarians who immediately were like brothers to me.
Union Theological presented a rich buffet of brilliant thinkers, each in a specific field. But there was no unifying theological vision shared by them. Happily, that was provided by Dulles/Whelan/and company.
In that same year I took a part-time position teaching theology with the Jesuits downtown at Xavier H.S. My department chair, Neil Doherty S.J. was a fine priest in the mode of Dulles/Whelan: intelligent, educated, holy, gentle and humble of spirit. He became for me, even after I taught there, a spiritual director and had a beautiful influence on me.
About a decade later I befriended another of the same type: John Wrynn S.J. was a fine historian at St. Peter's College, Jersey City. He attended our charismatic prayer group and was appreciative of it without fully joining. I recall an inspiring presentation on our Blessed Mother. He was my spiritual director for about 25 years. He led me through the Spiritual Exercises (annotation 19, in daily life) and was a sensitive guide. Especially in Confession with him I experienced always an extraordinary, palpable descent of heavenly peace as we concluded. Interestingly, he was more liberal theologically than me but that never became a problem. For example, I often spoke about the influence of John Paul II on me but later, after onset of dementia, did he candidly tell me of his antipathy to that pope.
Conclusion
From Dulles/Whelan and more personally from Doherty/Wrynn, I received the solid, spiritual and theological foundation that:
- Informed my catechesis and teaching for the next 55 years.
- Supported my surrender to Jesus Christ in Cursillo and to the Holy Spirit in the Charismatic Renewal.
- Guided my efforts to respond to the needs of the poor.
- Prepared me to embrace the authoritative theological vision of John Paul and Benedict.
- Immunized me against the progressive confusion that has troubled the Church in our time.
Every morning one of my prayer litanies is to the eight holy men who have closely influenced me. Half of them are these Jesuits who so guided me. I share this prayer:
Dad (Ray Laracy), John (Rapinich, best friend), Paul Viale (holy priest), Fathers Dulles, Whelan, Doherty, Wrynn, and David L. Schindler (theologian): Pray for me! Pray for us!
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