September 1965 we arrived, about 100 of us, ambitioning to give our lives in service of God and the suffering around the world as celibate, Catholic, Maryknoll, missionary priests. Because of the distinctive timing (1965-9), ours was to be an entirely unique itinerary, even as we were a lucid microcosm of the broader, especially American Church. Last week we enjoyed our 55 year anniversary reunion, or even "renewal," of our lifelong friendship and the values we share. We have gathered every five years over the decades. We are not aware of any other class, before or after, doing this. This is due to the unrepeatable coalescence of time, place and our congenial but disparate personalities.
From all over the country, we were a rich diversity of personalities, but quite homogeneous: 18 years old, white, male, working-middle class, mostly liberal politically, pious in a low key, self confident (notwithstanding standard adolescent insecurities) and surging with youthful altruism, idealism, curiosity, and adventure. We enjoyed a naive (to be short-lived) confidence in the messianic role of both the Catholic Church and the USA, not only in countervailing Soviet Communism, but also in lifting up the undeveloped world. We were iconic products of post-war, (1945-65) American Catholic Camelot.
We had been screened by Maryknoll for emotional stability, capacity for college academics, Catholic piety, potential for leadership and wholesome family backgrounds. Basically however, we were a self-chosen group. What we surely shared more than anything else was a deep, powerful impulse of generosity to help those who suffer. We were the pampered, privileged boomer generation; but we were grateful for our blessings and eager to share with the less fortunate.
Time: 1965-9
1965 was the culmination, the terminus, the pinnacle of the post-war American Catholic Camelot. Vatican II was just ending. The Church was exploding: large families, tons of vocations, new parishes, schools, colleges, seminaries, convents and rectories. A surge of missionary activity, especially to Latin America. Maryknoll was ordaining close to 50 men a year. Cultural icons, even beyond Catholicism, were the Kennedy family, Fulton Sheen, Thomas Merton, Doctor Tom Dooley and others. Civil rights movement was fiercely championed by the Church along with all elite institutions. The previous two decades had been an unprecedented love affair between the USA and Catholicism. But the honeymoon was to end very shortly...and harshly.
The progressive narrative is that the Council marked the end of the Tridentine Church and the beginning of a new Vatican II Church. But it is better understood as the culmination, the final product of powerful trends that were building for the entire 20th century but especially since the war: ecumenism, liturgy, scripture studies, social justice, role of the laity, religious freedom and Church/state relationships, dialogue with modernity, and a return to the sources. The documents of the Council were all approved by overwhelming majorities, in the high 90%s. In our country, (as I recall), there was widespread euphoria and only marginal resistance because it expressed values we had already been living for at least two decades. Even as the Council was being implemented, however, by some historic (or demonic?) irony, the Cultural, Progressive Revolution was exploding across the culture, deconstructing the post-war Catholicism which produced us. We deeply inhaled the toxins from our now-open seminary.
The Place: Maryknoll College Seminary, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, 1965-69
When we entered the college seminary in 1965, it was intact, vigorous, coherent. Several hundred of us lived a quasi-monastic, wholesome rule of life centered around study, prayer, liturgy, strong friendships, and modest amounts of manual labor and athletic recreation. I fondly recall, for example, the custom of 2 or 3 seminarians and priests, walking around our large building in the recreation time between dinner and night prayers (6:30-7:15) and praying together the rosary. It was a virile, wholesome, serene and challenging life. It was to fall apart, with much of the American Church, in the next four years. It was a different entity when we graduated in 1969. Some of us had lost our Catholic faith, others had given up daily prayer, some had girl friends, others worked in a local bar, many had embraced the New Left or the new religion of psychology. By 1971 it was closed.
Our faculty and formators were mostly middle aged Maryknollers, the Silent Generation, men who had chosen the missionary life but were sent, because of their academic intelligence, to graduate schools to educate us younger men. Not first class scholars, they were competent in their fields; intelligent; sound emotionally; of good character; and generally men of faith, in accord with the time that formed them. Perhaps as many as half left the priesthood in the following years.
One would imagine that good, middle aged men without children of their own would take a paternal interest in the young adults entrusted to them. Sadly, this did not happen. A "class structure" existed that erected an invisible wall between priests and seminarians. They taught us in the classroom and lived with us as prefects in our units, but on the whole there was little intimacy between us. It was like a residential prep school: on our part there was respect and affection, but from a distance. There were exceptions: some classmates fondly recall confessors and spiritual directors; an infirm priest elicited intense affection from those assigned to care for him; I myself was mentored by a lay, librarian autodidact.
Our faculty was entirely embracive of the Vatican Council, but was not consciously critical of the Cultural Revolution exploding at that very moment. Rather, since many left the priesthood in the following years, it is clear many were influenced by it, uncritically. I don't recall any priest clearly identifying and renouncing it. I recall for example, a respected theologian delivering a significant lecture, towards the end of our time there, about the rapidity of culture change and that society increasingly needs to look to the young, rather than the old (experienced, learned, grounded in tradition) for wisdom. That thesis is surely at the heart of the Progressive Revolt: disparagement of tradition, authority, and the past. Arguably the biggest influence on our class was noted priest-psychologist Eugene Kennedy (my personal nemesis!) who left the priesthood and was widely received as a guru of Catholic progressivism.
With our faculty largely disengaged from ourselves and social developments, we as a class were left (especially in the last two tumultuous years of 1968-9) to form each other, in the currents sweeping around us. My personal recall of those years was a low-grade, constant, ecstatic frenzy of reading, thinking, discussing, arguing. To be sure, not all of our class were so vulnerable to this intellectual virus; perhaps half or more continued tranquilly, immune to this contagion. Specifically, many of us returned as seniors after the summer of 1968 (arguably the explosion point of the Revolution) from experiences that had "blown our minds" (a favored phrase at the time): a group stayed in a black inner city parish, I myself studied Spanish at the Ivan Illich radical think tank in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and such. All institutions, but especially those of the Church, were critically scrutinized and questioned. Sacred authority, as in our Catholic tradition, was forgotten; an Alinsky-like, soft Marxist paradigm of authority as power, of the oppressor over the oppressed, became evident everywhere, including the Catholic hierarchy. Our senior year became an intense workshop in political/cultural radicalism.
Weakness of the Catholic Camelot
Looking back, it is evident that the confident, expansive, fecund Catholicism of our childhood had underlying weaknesses, superficial roots. How else could it have collapsed so catastrophically within a few years in the 60-70s?
The primary problem was lack of an evangelical/mystical foundation: the failure to hear and engage the Gospel event-person of Jesus Christ, God-and-man, our personal/communal Lord and Savior. The entire Catholic elaboration (morals, dogmas, liturgy) springs from the personal encounter with the crucified-risen-ascended-Spirit-sending Jesus Christ. Without that spiritual basis, Catholicism is an incoherence, a house of cards. And so, our cohort (along with the entire Church) had been moralized, sacramentalized, and dogmatized but NOT evangelized. We had not come to know deeply, personally, intimately the Divine Person of Jesus in relationship with the Father and the Spirit. And so, in large part, this Camelot Catholicism collapsed, almost immediately, like a house of cards, under the demonic assault of the Cultural Revolution and sexual/political progressivism.
Closely related to this spiritual problem was an intellectual one: our American Church was not deeply, clearly rooted in a philosophical, dogmatic (in the best sense) understanding of our faith. Intellectually, we were largely defenseless against the assault that came. Our immigrant, American character was largely pragmatic and activist but weak in contemplation and metaphysical reflection. This is true of our entire society; and so of our Church; and specifically of the the Maryknoll missioner bringing American-know-how (credit unions, agriculture, education, etc.) to the deprived around the globe.
We, Wannabe Catholic Evangelizers, are Evangelized
The irony: we were being formed to spread our faith; in the process we (largely) lost our faith and accepted a new one. Our faith formation had been childish and shallow, without deep roots or a solid foundation. Our faculty was distant from us and largely clueless about the tsunami of change around us; they were not forming us in the Catholic faith. We were forming ourselves, in the currents of anti-Catholic progressivism.
Those years were intellectually stimulating; but spiritually they were a dessert. I cannot recall any inspiring homily or lecture; nor going to confession; nor a life-changing retreat or conference. Spiritual direction (as I recall) was a priest doing an exercise in Rogerian listening, when I had nothing really to say! There was a stability, but a monotony to our liturgical life. Fervor for the Gospel...passionate love for Jesus Christ...the fire of the Holy Spirit...were not evident.
The vacuum was filled by the twin fascinations of progressivism: the political and the therapeutic.
What is Cultural Progressivism?
A perfect storm of diabolic currents...all anti-Catholic...that had been simmering for decades but exploded volcanically around 1968:
- A secularism, very materialistic, that ignored the supernatural and relocated the spiritual in the political and the therapeutic. Thus, an incomprehension of: the male-celibate priesthood, chastity, virginity, the demonic, divine wrath, spiritual warfare, the miraculous, cloistered monastic life, relics, final judgement, sacramental efficacy, papal infallibility, the inherent sanctity of hierarchy/dogma/patriarchy...and the entire architecture of Catholicism...all radiating from the Splendor of Christ. It is tyranny of the activist/pragmatic/efficient over the contemplative/ mystical/sacred.
- The contraceptive sterilization of sexuality and and its displacement from enclosure in the spousal as unitive, fecund, faithful, chaste, sacrificial.
- Tolerance of abortion as back-up contraception and the desecration of human life that is incompetent.
- A Darwinian trust in the inevitable triumph of science/reason over the ignorance and superstition of the religious past. Thus, a disparagement of tradition, revelation, authority.
- Prominence of the Marxist model of oppressor/oppressed throughout history and society: male/female, black/white, capitalist/worker, straight/gay, colonizer/colonized, etc. With this an allegiance to political leftism in a messianic key and exaggeration of policy and government as efficacious and salvific.
- Triumph of the therapeutic over the spiritual disciplines of prayer, confession of sin, penance, and communal liturgy. Personal, private health and thriving replaced older ideals of the heroic and the holy.
- The absolute sovereignty of the individual, isolated, "choosing" Self, dislocated from history, family, tradition, the Mystical Body and the Trinity.
The seductive appeal of progressivism for elite Catholicism, including our cohort, is that it is itself a Christian heresy. It is not a bold, lucid rejection of our faith like Nazi neo-paganism. Like all heresies, it inflates key elements of our faith, detaching them from the Catholic gestalt and turning them against other truths. So progressivism is a humanism, accentuating the dignity of the person; it champions the social/political underdog; it frees sexuality from shame/guilt to declare its inherent goodness; it accentuates the power of the intellect and science and especially all the wisdom unveiled by psychology and the social sciences. The Catholic Progressive self-identifies, not as an "ex" or lapsed Catholic, but as one who is more enlightened, contemporary, scientific, and compassionate.
Maryknoll
Maryknoll was particularly vulnerable to the corrosive toxins of post 1965 Progressivism, but first some history. We can contrast the original Maryknoll (1911-45) with the post-war society (1945-65). The founders (Fathers Price and Walsh, Bishops Ford and Walsh) shared a fierce Tridentine spirituality: Marian, sacramental, hierarchical and passionate to save souls from the world, flesh and the devil by baptism into the one true Church. By contrast, the Maryknoll that attracted our class in the early 1960s, at the time of the Council and before the Cultural Revolution, was a happy marriage of American cultural confidence and Catholic generosity.
That second paradigm collapsed catastrophically, immediately after 1965, for several reasons:
1. Individualism. The Maryknoll ideal, much like that of the Jesuits, was of the solitary, heroic individual, courageously pursuing his mission in a foreign land. At that time, there was a famous TV cigarette commercial of the "Marlboro Man": strong, handsome male on a horse, in the American West, calmly smoking his Marlboro. The Maryknoller was the Marlboro Man! Catholicism in its most potent expressions is always fiercely communal: the monks and mendicants, the lay renewal movements (charismatic, Neocatechumenal, Communion and Liberation) and the new, conservative religious orders attracting our youth. Such thick communities...whether evangelical/charismatic or traditional...are resistant to hegemonic liberal individualism. Not so the Jesuits and the Maryknollers.
2. Missiology. Vatican II stressed the positive, even salvific elements of other religions; it downplayed the negative, violent, even demonic aspects. It would have benefited, for example, from a dose of Rene Girard's anthropology of mimetic, sacred violence. This imbalance opened the Church to an anthropological relativism and universalism: all paths lead to God; avoid triumphalism at all costs; God's mercy brings pretty much everyone to heaven anyway. Our theology professor Fr. Fraizer explained that the paradigm of Church as sacrament had been replaced by sign. A sacrament we know is an efficacious sign of God's grace. The new model, drained of efficacy, sees God's grace already operative so the Church is there to illuminate that presence. The mission task is not to convert to Christ and his Church, but to somehow clarify and highlight grace already at work. This is a vague abstraction at best. It ignores sin, the demonic, the desperate need for conversion, the distinctive and incomparable Splendor of Jesus Christ. Is it likely a young person would give up marriage, children, career and comfort to be such a "sign?"
3. Colonialism. The confident, virile, American, Catholic image of the missioner that attracted us to Maryknoll in 1965 was brutally attacked and deconstructed by the anti-colonialism of the late 1960s left. Ivan Illich was the most fierce critic of the missionary effort in Latin America as cultural imperialism: assuming superiority, missioners imposed the Irish-American parish structure (Church, rectory, school, convent) as they propagated high technology and disparaged (if unintentionally) the rich, simple religiosity and traditions of native peoples.
4. Leftwing Radicalism. Working often with the very poor, Maryknollers saw, of course, the systemic social/political causes of marginalization and so many were drawn to activism, liberation theology, and soft Marxist ideologies to alleviate the suffering. Progressive policy here takes on a highly moralistic, even religious dimension.
5. Pragmatism. As a group, Maryknollers are men of action, doers of good deeds, "Marthas" rather han "Marys." Intelligent, few are metaphysicians; compassionate, few are deeply mystical; quiet, modest witnesses by their lives, they tend to be mute in regard to evangelical proclamation. And so as a group they lacked the spiritual and intellectual resources to clearly see and combat the anti-Catholic ferocity of progressivism.
Maryknoll post-1965 is a loose association of generous, adventuresome, idiosyncratic, Catholic bachelors. They are a delightful, fascinating group: intelligent, energetic, enthusiastic, positive, gracious, confident. Mostly, they are men of compassion, of action and agency. Their piety is quiet, personal, humble. Their politics mostly leans left; their theology is not entirely orthodox. But they prefer action to argument and are not overly ideological. They are faithful to the Church and devoted to the Eucharist and probably (quietly) to our Blessed Mother. A small number lean to the conservative movements (pro-life, charismatic, Marian, etc.) but more favor liberation theology and liberal politics. They tend to be mavericks, eccentrics, risk takers, humorous, carefree, creative, full of life.
What of the future? For decades now there have been almost no vocations from the States. They are now recruiting from other countries. I myself am skeptical about this direction since their is no shared, communal spirituality welcoming them.
Nevertheless, I cannot adequately express my admiration, delight and gratitude for the "silent generation" of Maryknollers who are now steadily passing to their reward.
Where are We Today: Glen Ellyn Class of 1969?
Four of us are today Maryknoller priests. They reflect the description above: delightful, entirely different personalities...gifted, generous, intelligent, energetic men of deep (if quiet) faith and exceptional moral character. Jim spent his adult life in Korea and communist China and is now working on the canonization causes of founders Fr. Price and Bishop James Anthony Walsh. John worked for decades in Africa, was leader of Maryknoll, and now teaches at Scranton University, in the local jail, and works at the United Nations as representative of Maryknoll. Scott became a doctor/surgeon, worked in care for AIDs patients in Africa and continues to serve in parish work in the USA. Larry gained a doctorate in spirituality, served Chinese religious studying in the USA and continues to do spiritual direction, retreat work and talks. At 77 they all have their boots on and continue to prod their distinctive paths. We esteem and love each of them.
A special, very special case: unchallenged leader of our class, John Harper, served in Maryknoll leadership for years before leaving to have a family and do amazing work with the homeless, addicted, and mentally ill...all rooted in a deep, fertile 12-step spirituality. An exceptional, fascinating, gifted, humble man! Typical of Maryknoll, a man of action...but at the same time, a quiet mystic.
Two of our classmates are permanent deacons. We all seem to enjoy happy marriages and family life. Perhaps half of us practice our Catholic faith (understood simply as participation in mass on Sunday.) Almost all lean left in theology and politics. Most have found a synthesis of our Catholic and progressive propensities. With the exception of a few of us, there is little connection with evangelical Christianity, the Latin Mass community, the theological legacy of John Paul and Benedict, or Culture War from the pro-life conservative side.
There is, then, a political/theological divide that coexists with a deep, intense mutuality in respect and affection. This divide is perhaps most strongly felt by the few of us who have moved strongly in the opposing conservative/progressive directions. Ironically, the Harris/Trump debate happened on the Tuesday evening of our reunion. We exchanged views, calmly and respectfully.
I cannot deny an underlying sadness: we were so close in those years; and now have gone in different, often contradictory directions. The liberal/Catholic synthesis of our childhood and youth did not endure: many of us have gone progressive, a few of us strong Catholic. My own grief is not for my friends; they benefit from their roots in wholesome, if imperfect, midcentury American Catholicism. It is for their children and grandchildren, detached from the sacramental economy, the Mystical Body of Church, and vulnerable in a society gone lonely, rootless, techno-manic, materialistic, and Godless. The impulse to share our faith that brought us together in 1965 burns more intensely today in me; especially in regard to our young.
As a group, however, we resemble Maryknoll itself. We deeply share Catholic roots and memories; and above all the impetus to do good and serve the suffering. We are different personalities; and have developed a variety of theologies, spiritualities and politics. We enjoyed (in my view), almost 60 years ago, in that tumultuous era, a Catholic Camelot of our own. We share an esteem, delight and affection for each other. In distinct ways, we continue to ride together the currents of Joy, gratitude and generosity that brought us together 59 years ago.
