My Beloved Catholic Countercultures

Why I Love Them

I love these five groups (Charismatics, NeoCats, Trads, Catholic Worker and Commuio school) for two reasons. First, I take my Catholicism straight-up: undiluted, potent, profound, passionate and extravagant. No Catholic-lite for me! No lukewarm, nondescript, cafeteria-cultural, accommodating Catholicism for me! I would prefer a raging nihilism,  a militant Islam or revolutionary Marxism to a soft, thin, anemic, effete, bourgeois Catholicism: at least they have fire in the belly!

Second, Western culture turned darkly, militantly anti-Catholic in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. If you, as a Catholic, are not deliberately, shrewdly, systemically, wholeheartedly resisting The Culture, than you are in fact capitulating to it, surrendering your faith, however unintentionally. Since 1965, it is Culture War everywhere, all the time. This is the world we live in. This is the age we are given. These five groups are fiercely, consciously, uncompromisingly defending our faith...and aggressively advancing into  enemy territory. The "gates of hell shall not prevail" against the attack of these soldiers (by confirmation) of Christ.

Shared Characteristics

1. They are lay communities. We are not dealing here with new religious orders.

2. For the most part they originated or flourished in the 1960s in reaction to society's cultural revolution and progressive developments in the post-Council Church.

3. Each is a new, creative re-gestalt of elements of the Catholic legacy in a surprising, promising way, often flowing from the charism of an extraordinary founder.

4. Each is completely faithful to the hierarchical Church in its christological, moral, sacramental, and dogmatic foundations, even as it challenges many aspects of the  mainstream.

5. In their more extreme expressions, they show cult-like dynamics which present problems for the Church.

Charismatic Renewal

This is seen by participants (including myself) as a sovereign Act of the Holy Spirit in the USA in the late 1960s just after the Council. Sociologically, it is in large part an overflow of Pentecostal and Evangelical Protestantism into a Church seeking renewal. It's central focus: proclamation of repentance  from sin and acceptance/experience of Jesus Christ as personal Lord Savior; a powerful explosion of the Holy Spirit manifest in unusual gifts including praying in tongues, prophesy, love of Scripture, direct guidance by the Holy Spirit, healings, deliverance from evil spirits; and formation of intensive communities of praise and fellowship. 

It contrasted sharply with the emerging cultural progressivism of society and fashionable trends in the post-conciliar Church as it enacted a dramatic, new Catholicism of: zeal for conversion from sin to Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit; ecumenical engagement with the evangelical/charismatic Churches; literal and very personal, intimate reading of Scripture; appreciation of male/female distinctions; practice of authority and obedience; heightened sense of the miraculous and the supernatural.

Internationally it is part of the Pentecostal movement which is profoundly changing the global Church. In the USA it flourished for a little over a decade but then fell out of fashion. It survives in intensive covenant communities and among Hispanics and Filipinos. It has had an immense influence on the broader Church in music, healing, evangelization (FOCUS, NET, Renewal Ministries, Franciscan University and other), and ecumenism. 

In its more intense expressions it seemed to move in two distinct directions. One went more ecumenical, emphasizing unity with Evangelicals, and playing down without denying Catholic elements. This move became more Pentecostal and less Catholic. In contrast, Ralph Martin and others drew closer to their Catholic faith, including the work of John Paul, and blended the charismatic elements into a Catholic synthesis. 

This movement generated no distinctive social vision but has practiced the works of Mercy and accepts the social teaching of the Church. Covenant communities that I know tend to be largely white, bourgeois, affluent. They exemplify our boomer generation who were entering adulthood in their heyday. They are, of course, conservative culturally/politically but have not advanced a systemic critique of the capitalist society in which they largely thrive. It did fight some (liberal) bishops on gender and its alternative, stern authority structure. Its temptation was to consider itself, especially in its extraordinary gifts and manifestations, associated with the "baptism of the Holy Spirit," as normative Christianity. In this way it disparaged normal, traditional Catholicism. 

Neo-Cats

Easily the most intensively Catholic, countercultural phenomena, this is a startlingly new combination:

1. A long, detailed, demanding spiritual itinerary (20 years or more), done entirely in community, which retraces that of Kiko himself, in his DeFocauld-like kenosis with the Spanish gypsies and dispersal of worldly riches.

2. Intensive, persevering engagement with the Word of God, again always in community.

3. Unconditional acceptance of Catholic dogma and morality. This is sometimes exaggerated, for example, in their pronounced, simple commitment to large families. 

4. Fierce focus on weekly Eucharist which is configured away from tradition and even the Novus Ordo into a Passover-meal-banquet reminiscent of liturgical fashion in the years immediately after the Council.

5. Formation of intensive, small communities centered around faith sharing and an extraordinary transparency about intimacies and failures which at once recalls ascetic practices of monks and the encounter groups of the 1960s.

They create a radical Catholic counterculture, the "Benedict option on options," within society and the Church. They do not offer a critique of society nor a vision of an alternative. But they assume an apocalyptic, dystopian, Godless world largely bereft of grace. Likewise, they implicitly evaluate the mainstream Church as weak in the face of a hostile world. Like many reformation movements, they assume that the Church lost its apostolic innocence and power when it entered into power after Constantine and understand themselves as a return to the martyred Church under pagan Rome.

Paradoxically, despite their intense Catholicism (which means universal, inclusive, complete), they are the most cult-like of these cultures because of the drastically negative view of the world and Church. This tends towards a dualism which contrasts their "Way" to a Church weakened since Constantine and a world in deep, almost absolute darkness. And so they suffer a tension between Catholic and cult-like dynamics. They have so much to offer the broader Church as they balance protecting their distinctive charism with integration into the larger body.

Trads

The Latin Mass Movement resists progressive Church developments after the Council and in stronger expression criticizes the Council itself. They are not specifically resistant to the broader culture although as observant Catholics they strongly oppose the sexual revolution and abortion as they defend the family, chastity, and Tradition. For these reasons they renounce the Democratic Party and lean Republican but I see no basis for the FBI's paranoia about domestic terrorism. They are not the Catholic Worker! In lifestyle they seem to me to be well educated, successful, mainstream and generally bourgeois. They are zealous to preserve our Catholic legacy, especially the traditional mass in its solemnity and the clear Thomistic world view that travels with that. In their extreme forms they move towards renunciation of the Council itself, sedevacantism, disparagement of ordinary parish life, and disdain for the episcopacy and especially our current pontiff. But their oppression by Pope Francis is a big mistake. As Pope Benedict understood, they serve our Church well by retrieving and protecting much of our legacy that has been discarded in the progressive fog of euphoria and confusion since the Council.

Catholic Worker

In its pure form as enacted by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin the Catholic Worker, since the 1930s, is impeccably loyal to the Church as it has excelled in the works of Mercy, spiritual and corporal, to the poor. They embrace a radical poverty in lifestyle and are flamingly anti-bourgeois. They go beyond this into a political ideology of anarchy (refuse to pay taxes) and pacifism (resist any war, even WWII.) Their fame increased in the 1960s with the emergence of the Catholic Left which in many cases drifted into sexual progressivism and away from the staunch Catholicism of its founders. Their stronger positions are debatable and problematic, but their Catholic zeal, poverty of spirit, and love for the poor are exemplary for an American Church tempted by bourgeois comfort, efficiency, affluence and individualism.

Communio Theology

This is a small, even miniscule community of Catholic theology gathered around the John Paul Institute for the Family and David L. Schindler (of happy memory) in Washington DC. Very intellectual, indeed metaphysical. Deeply critical of American culture as anti-Catholic (non-Marian, non-sacramental, non-contemplative), Calvinist-turned-secular, individualistic, technocratic, scientistic, relativistic-fideist-rationalist. Far from being resistant to the Catholic Church, it draws from the John Paul/Benedict papacies to develop a deep, philosophical, traditional-yet-contemporary viewpoint and practice. Politically it is absolutely renounces progressivism but is sharply critical of the individualism and "liberalism" underlying mainstream rightwing politics. Highly abstract, it points first towards localism in focus on family, Church and smaller communities, as well as the conservative side of the Culture War but a more left-wing-friendly critique of global capitalism. It finds itself now in conflict with a papacy that is reconfiguring the Institute for the Family to contradict the clear teaching of John Paul. It has a mustard-seed-type influence beyond its size because it is a brilliant, scholarly theology rooted in holiness of life.

Other Less Countercultural, Less Creative Expressions of Traditional Catholicism

These five countercultures stand out more clearly in contrast to other strongly Catholic associations and movements that are less creative and countercultural. Any genuine Catholicism will be resistant to the Sexual Revolution and its legacy of sex unhinged from family. But some groups maintain that position without challenging more broadly or deeply the bourgeois, individualistic society that has embraced those values.

Opus Dei, Regnum Christi, Knights of Columbus, Legion of Mary, Our Lady's Missionaries of the Eucharist (of which we are a part) and similar associations give fervent, clear expression to traditional Catholic faith but do not prophetically address the broader societal system and lack the distinctive creativity and novelty that sets aside the countercultures.

Communion and Liberation Movement of the saintly, brilliant Monsignor Giussani is a unique case. It is a 60s, lay, renewal event guided by the distinctive, creative genius of its founder. His charism is difficult to describe but it involves: encounter with the person of Jesus Christ, in a community of friendship, acceptance of Catholicism in its entirety, eagerness to embrace all that is good in the Church and the world (in that it is entirely non-cult-like), and a conversation dynamic that is lively, intelligent, educated and leads to judgment about the true, good and beautiful in light of our faith. It exudes an Italian, renaissance-like confidence and positivity. It is non-defensive and in that it is not formally countercultural. This is both a strength and a weakness. For example, its seminal, annual USA event, the New York Encounter in February highlights the very best things happening in our world and Church, avoids cultural combat, is very appealing to sophisticated, liberal-leaning, cosmopolitan NYC. The event is youthful, wholesome, high-brow, energetic, creative and welcoming. Irenic to a fault, it fails to critically engage society and Church. It hosted Austen Ivereigh, hagiographic biographer of Pope Francis, but entertained no criticism of the papacy. It highlighted Francis Collins, an accomplished and admirable figure, but again no discussion of the problems with the Fauci-Collins policies. 

In its openness and positivity, it is a contrast with and perhaps also a balance to the more critical approach of the Catholic Countercultures.

Catholic Neo-Conservatism

Here we consider another distinctive form of Catholicism: the Reaganite, three pillared (pro-life, anti-communist, pro-capitalist) Catholic Republicanism that peaked in the 1980s in the aftermath of the fall of communism after assault from John Paul and Reagan. Major Catholic exponents of this view were the triumvirate of Novak, Neuhaus and Weigel. Interesting, they were engaged quite fiercely by David Schindler in a series of exchanges at the end of the last century. The influence of this synthesis is in decline since the Trumpian takeover of the Republican Party. 

This coalition became the political defense of Catholicism in regard to unborn life, family and religious liberty. But it entailed an alliance with and approval of low regulation, global capitalism. As such it embraced a Protestant ethic of individualism, economic liberalism, meritocracy and a deemphasis on Catholic concerns for the poor, working class, economics of the family and smaller communities. In short, while it resisted, politically, the emergent hegemony of sexual liberation, it endorsed an economic order that privileges the powerful and affluent and punishes the underprivileged. In significant fashion, it is a capitulation to bourgeois, class-stratified, unequal, global capitalism. 

The Antagonist

If our five countercultures are allied as protagonists in this tale, the antagonist, the enemy is clear: sexually liberated bourgeois society and Catholic progressives that accommodate it from within the Church. Our five protagonists are allies in battle with the now hegemonic individualism (sexual, economic, cultural, spiritual) that exploded in bourgeois America almost sixty years. Its characteristics: sterilization of sexuality, erotic license and confusion, deconstruction of gender roles and the family, technocracy, rupture from Tradition, contempt for authority, obsession with power, idolization of science, denial of the miraculous and supernatural, meritocracy, careerism, unequal distribution of wealth-power-status, celebrity culture, destruction of small communities and organizations, malignant growth of the state and global capitalism, triumph of the therapeutic-narcissistic-histrionic, decline of institutions,  a secular-pantheistic environmentalism in flight from creation and its Creator, denial of sin-evil-Satan-hell, and absolute ignorance of our Holy, Merciful God. 

Catholic progressivism seeks to accompany, accommodate, befriend this vile behemoth by endorsing birth control, militant feminism, the LGBTQ program, disconnect from Tradition, androgyny, identity politics, the expansive state, unrestrained experimentation, humanistic psychology, and more. It has immense influence in prestigious Catholic institutions: universities, journals, media, and especially the current pontificate.

Postwar Catholicism and Ordinary Parish Life Today

My own lodestar, measuring bar and baseline is the flourishing Catholicism of my youth, 1947-65: expansive, grateful, energetic, confident in identity yet comfortable in an American pluralism that was broadly Christian, hopeful and harmonious. 

That Camelot cannot be retrieved. We find ourselves in a fractured, tormented, contentious age. Ours is an age strikingly similar to that given to Frodo and Aragon: the forces of darkness are active, surging, ferocious, omnivorous. The battle rages. 

And yet, the grace of God is at work. It will prevail against the gates of hell. The Church of our childhood, that faith of our fathers, continues with surprising resiliency and perseverance. God's glory and mercy is manifest and triumph in every act of mercy, every family prayer, every mundane parish mass, every 12-step meeting, every heartfelt forgiveness, every giving of thanks. We dare not underestimate, ungratefully, the workings of God all around us in a million small and big ways.

My own gratitude list includes: I am a certified Charismatic as I cherish Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior; I pray in tongues, usually quietly; I renounce demons, covertly; I pray for miraculous healings confidently; I love the Evangelicals and Pentecostals as I embrace Catholicism in toto; but I have never made the full dive into a covenant community. I am an avid student of Communio theology, but not a credentialed theologian. With my wife I mostly but not perfectly fulfill our promises with Our Lady's Missionaries of the Eucharist. I am a proud, but nonparticipating Knight of Columbus. I am friend, admirer and sometimes critic of the Neocats, Trads, Catholic Workers, Communion and Liberation, and Catholic Neo-Conservatives.  

Glory and thanks to God especially for our Catholic Countercultures as they fiercely, fearlessly radiate our Catholic faith, undiluted and undiminished,  into a dark world desperate for it.