The Mercy of God

 Dives in Misericordia (Rich in Mercy), which I read shortly after it was issued by John Paul in 1980, influenced me more than any other book. By a providential grace, I read it just before the heartbreaking death, by suicide, of my wife's brother Al...the singular, incomparable tragedy of our shared life. Al was endearing and admirable in a million ways: gentle, kind, intelligent, athletic, handsome, inquisitive, charming. He suffered emotional distress gravely and heroically for many years. He fought it with all the resources available to him: psychology, "Recovery" self-help groups which he led, healing through prayer, exercise, a beautiful relationship with a lovely woman who loved him dearly. There was nothing that he could have done that he didn't do to overcome his distress. Before his (apparently) final act, he lit a candle...surely a gesture of hope and prayer. Before that he assisted his elderly stepfather in taking off his boots. 

His wake and funeral were extraordinary. There is nothing like a young death from a big family to bring out huge numbers of grievers/comforters. The kindness, compassion and love of all these people was overwhelming. A single thought gripped my mind:  "If all these people are so merciful, how much more so is God, who is full of mercy, the source of all mercy."

At that point, the Mercy of God, became the defining reality of my life. Everything else came to be seen in the light of this.

What is Mercy?

Mercy is the response to sin and suffering by goodness, generosity, abundance, compassion, strength, and love.

Without sin or suffering, you do not have mercy. So, in the Garden of Eden and after the second coming of Christ there is no mercy. Within God's very self, there is no mercy, as he has neither sin nor suffering. So, we may say that mercy is the defining form of God's relationship to us in this life, finite-dependent-sinful creatures that we are. It will have no place after this life in the eternity of heaven. And it had no place in the life of God prior to creation. The exercise of freedom by us, his creatures, in choosing evil and the consequential suffering  is what elicited from his infinite goodness the reality of Mercy.

Imagine a joyous wedding party where everyone is happy, thriving, celebrating:  the bride and groom are ecstatic, the parents and family overflowing with joy, all the guests are dressed up, satisfied and euphoric. At this moment there is love, joy, hope, generosity...but no real mercy, because there is evident here no sin or suffering. And so heaven we are told is like a wedding feast.

 Mercy in Context and Relationship

 In the teaching of John Paul, following the revelations to St. Faustina, Mercy is not a monotone; it is held in tension with truth, justice and holy wrath. This is fully in accord with the clear teaching of Jesus himself as well as that of the saints and the Church throughout the ages. 

The mass readings during this month of November are from Revelation and the gospels and deal with the end times: descriptions of terror, wrath, punishment on Babylon, the great serpent and all evil. They are fierce and frightening. We are directed this month, ending the liturgical year, to consider the Last Things: death, judgement, heaven and hell. Clearly, God's Mercy is not a dismissal of judgement, Truth, punishment and wrath. Rather, it remains in tension with these dimensions of God's relation to sin, error and evil. 

We might say that the Catholic Church, in our age, since WWII, has shifted its theological gestalt to highlight more clearly, especially in light of St. Faustina's revelations, the victory of God's Mercy. For example, we now grant funeral masses for victims of suicide. This is probably due to the enhanced grasp of God's goodness as well as a development in anthropology/psychology and our understanding of the forces that diminish freedom and therefore culpability. However, with the Church of the ages, we kneel in awe of a Holy God, powerful in Mercy but also in truth, justice and wrath.

Disordering, Exaggeration, and Cheapening of Mercy

A troubling development during the pontificate of Pope Francis is presentation of Mercy as a monopolistic absolute, uprooted from its connections with other realities of the Divine. And so we read that Mercy defines the very essence of God, as if there is mercy within the Divine, even before the exercise of creaturely freedom. And so there is dismissal of the reality of hell, accountability and judgement. Mercy as kindness and acceptance dominates as to dismiss or diminish Truth.  Moral absolutes, around sexuality especially, are minimized on behalf of a soft love and a cheap mercy. Mention of moral absolutes, punishment, chastity, Lucifer, hell, law, spiritual warfare...all of this, essential to our legacy, is reconfigured as legalism, dogmatism, rigidity, clericalism, and so forth.  

The result is a cheapened, soft, effete kind of mercy as unconditional acceptance and affirmation, void of masculine virtues of fortitude, purity,  zeal, and fear of the Lord.

Real Mercy

The real deal, that we learn from St. Faustina and John Paul and the entire tradition: Mercy is even more magnificent in relation to the holiness, the justice, the wrath of God. It triumphs, not by dismissing or diminishing those mysteries, but by miraculously encompassing them. This is not something we can understand. We can only kneel and adore before it.

A Populist Authoritarian? Or Progressive Totalitarianism? What's a Catholic to Do? Or: Why I Voted for a Morally Repugnant Wannabe Dictator

Dedicated to Dr. Wilbur Puhr PhD who came to Maryknoll College Seminary from the University of Chicago to teach us political science and introduced us to the magnificent thought of Hannah Arendt, including her pivotal distinction between the authoritarian and the totalitarian in the classic Origins of Totalitarianism  (a must-read to think politically after 1945.) And a fond memory of dinner and drinks with him in Ivan Illich's marvelous Cuernavaca, summer of 1968, in the midst of all the social and ecclesial uproar.

What's the Difference Between Authoritarian and Totalitarian?

The former demands complete political control and will crush any opposition or political pluralism, including freedom of speech. But if you do not challenge his political control, he can be a good neighbor and friend. He will live easily with cultural and societal pluralism: religious activities, evangelization, private enterprise, various schools, non-profits, art and such.

The later is a far darker, deeper nemesis. Flowing from a total, quasi-religious fanaticism, it seeks to control all of human life: religion, family, education, economics, culture and art. This we might call "radical evil"...a real visitation from hell on earth. A far, far deeper evil than routine dictatorship.

Portugal's Salazar, Spain's Franco, and (arguably) Italy's Mussolini were authoritarians; Hitler, Stalin and Mao were totalitarians. Contrast: 1930s Spain of Franco and the Popular Front; Vietnam under Diem and the Viet Cong; Iran under the Shah and the Mullahs; Nicaragua under Somoza and the Sandinistas; Cuba under Batista and Castro; Russia and Eastern Europe after and before 1989.

Totalitarianism flows from an ideology, a total, but reductive view of the person and uses violence to destroy anything that resists this: Nazism (racial), Communism (economic), Sharia Islam (religous), and Cultural Progressivism (sexual).

 Trump: Incompetent, Aspiring Dictator

As a person, Trump epitomizes and aggravates the moral depravity of our age: post-Sexual-Revolution-of-1960s. He is an entertainer, a celebrity, a flaming narcissist who demands attention. He is not a power broker. He did not consolidate power in his first term. His defiance of the  2020 election was futile, ridiculous, and pathetic. His current crusade for Matt Gaetz as Attorney General is a case in point: a self-defeating waste of energy out of his obsessional resentment against a Department of Justice that targeted him in four prosecutions that were poorly founded, political and finally self-defeating . His insistence will elicit resistance from a critical mass of moderate Republicans or eventually (if he achieves recess appointments) from a Supreme Court. While he has consolidated control over the RNC, he is erroneously presuming a huge mandate out of an election that was a virtual tie. He is riding for a fall. Traditional Republicanism is in decline, but has not disappeared. More importantly, failing that guardrail, we have a Supreme Court that is conservative, but not mechanically so. A recent NY Times article enumerated the many cases in which Justice Barrett resisted the "conservative" position out of  rigorous legal reasoning. She is not alone: Roberts rescued the Affordable Care Act and Gorsuch infamously installed gay marriage as law of the land. Alito and Kavanaugh are also capable of surprisingly independent thought. I am optimistic about the strength and resilience of our political institutions. My liberal family and friends disagree; but they hope that I am right.

A Modest Catholic Proposal

The USA of 1970 was entirely different from that of 1960. We might understand it as the Invasion of the Body Snatchers: same body but now indwelt by an alien spirit. The 1960 reality was exuberantly Christian, Ecumenically-Protestant-and-Catholic-Friendly, after victory in WWII and united in opposition to the communist USSR. A single technology, in the 1960s, along with a perfect storm of developments, transformed our culture: Contraception. Sex was torn from marriage, children, fidelity, chastity; abortion became an absolute necessity; divorce and cohabitation became the new norm; pornography an epidemic; religion declined; the family was broken along with all the smaller/intermediate institutions that nourished it; Big Government and Big Business took control in service of the sovereign-indulgent-unhinged-isolated Self. Some of us were slower than others (many are still stuck cognitively in a euphoric 1960), but sometime in the 1970s, certainly by the time John Paul became pope in 1978, the Catholic found himself a stranger in a strange Brave-New-Progressive-Catholic-Despising-World. Classic Catholicism was suddenly reconfigured by Progressivism as misogynist, homophobic, reactionary, authoritarian and later transphobic and often racist, greedy and even fascist.

In this context, we Catholics do not ambition to transform society: to eliminate abortion, global warming, gun violence, social inequality, warfare, birth control, adultery and crime. No! Our primary goal is simple and modest: to live our faith. We aspire to freedom to live our way of life, raise our children in it, and share it with others who desire it. But we must fight fiercely for that liberty. It is at risk in a Progressive, totalitarian world hostile to it. 

And so, for example, we will insist that our own hospitals, doctors and nurses, tax and insurance money will NOT be used to kill the unborn, to make and freeze embryos, to reconfigure the gendered human body. It is true that two thirds of black babies conceived in NYC are destroyed in the womb; that Afro-Americans continue to vote pro-choice in large numbers. There is little we can do for those babies as that is  the overwhelming consensus of that demographic. However we will fight fiercely to protect our own way of life. We will NOT cooperate with abortion, IFV, or trans-surgery.

Progressive Totalitarianism

- Kamala Harris insisted that there would be no religious exemptions  regarding her sacred "reproductive rights." The religious dare not resist the absolute, unconditional right to kill the unborn; additionally they will be required to cooperate with it. For good reason did she boycott the Alfred Smith dinner in NYC: she realizes her agenda is hostile to that of the Church.

- Catholic agencies across the country have closed their adoption services as they are required to place little girls and boys with homosexual couples.

- The Little Sisters of the Poor, who sacrificially serve the poor and elderly, have been forced to court repeatedly to resist state coercion to support contraception and abortion as regulated under the Affordable Care Act.

- In the Covid crisis, Churches (with the compliance of bishops who are most to blame for this) were closed across the nation, depriving all of us, including the dying and dead, of the sacraments. Meanwhile large BLM rallies were tolerated and liquor stores, gyms, and mainstream institutions remained open.

- Trans-females, biological males who prefer another gender, are granted "constitutional" (???) rights to use female bathrooms and compete in woman's sports.

- Believers who do not accept "gay marriage" are coerced, against their inner convictions, to bake cakes and take pictures at these events.

- In vitro fertilization, an artificial, expensive and unnatural practice, which freezes millions of small human beings (what else are they?) is widely, unthinkingly embraced across the society, including by the ignorant Trump and much of the RNC.

- Mainstream Catholics (Knights of Columbus, Latin mass folks, Pro-life centers) are targeted by FBI memos, Senate hearings for justices, and widespread vandalism that goes unaddressed by liberal prosecutors.

The pattern is consistent, assertive and systemic: the Progressive State cannot tolerate the Catholic way of life. In that it agrees with Nazism, Communism, and Sharia law. But not on behalf of the master race, the working class, or the Koran; but on behalf of the Sovereign Self.

Global Culture Wars

On the international level, the Christian order is engaged in agonistic struggle with three and a half totalitarianisms. The "half," and in the long term least threatening, is Putin whose racial/cultural imperialism makes him more than your ordinary dictator but less than full scale totalitarianism. The communism of China, North Korea and Cuba is totalitarianism pure and simple; but now more technologically potent than that of Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Likewise, Sharia law is classical totalitarianism, but it is divided against itself in its Sunni/Shiite forms, Iran and international terrorism, and therefore less powerful. The most insidious, camouflaged, and close at hand is Cultural Progressivism. It presents as liberational in its crusade for the isolated, rootless, sovereign Self as it systemically destroys the bonds (especially the most sacred, father-mother-child) that bind us to each  other. The enemy close at hand is worse than that overseas.

We find ourselves in complex, contradictory conflicts and shifting alliances. Currently, Iran, China and North Korea are aligned in the Ukraine, while a fragile Nato consensus faces the Trumpian intention to detach and make peace. In the Culture War however, Putin himself supports Christian tradition against Cultural Progressivism. So we see that his endorsement by Archbishop Vigano is not entirely crazy (but only 90% crazy!) Recall also that John Paul's struggle against the abortion imperialism of the West in the Cairo and Peking conferences found its best allies in the Islamic countries. 

We defeated Hitler in partnership with Stalin. In the "real politique" of the Cold War we supported many dictatorships as the lessor evil than the imperialistic, totalitarian order. And so now, in the new, violent, multi-polar order, we do well to follow the "Christian Strategy" of Adrian Vermulle: position ourselves pragmatically but not absolutely with those parties who advance and protect our concerns. 

Conclusion

Yes, Trump entertains authoritarian impulses: he imagines himself as John Gotti on a global level. I am confident that our political institutions are resilient and will resist his chaos. He is a world class demagogue, a flaming narcissist, a product of the sexual revolution, a low-class and crude American, a xenophobe, a moral counter-exemplar, a cartoon character, a buffoon. He has become the voice of the underclass, the marginalized, those despised (as ignorant, racist, homophobic) by the liberal elite. He has championed our religious freedom, the nature of the gendered-sexual person and family, and the inviolate value of  every person, however small or powerless. Given the choice between a real, camouflaged but pervasive Progressive totalitarianism and our aspiring,  often entertainingly transgressive (against dogmatic "wokism") strong man... the choice is easy.  He is a jerk, but he is our jerk. He is the enemy of our enemy; so he is a friend.

 

The Feminine Voice and Intellect: Confessions of a Catholic Philogynist

There is nothing like a dame...nothing in the world...there is nothing you can name...that is anything like a dame.          Rogers and Hammerstein, "South Pacific"

I fell into a burning ring of fire.     Johnny Cash

It will not surprise you, dear Reader, that your Fleckinstein has been accused of being "patriarchal" and so, however unintentionally, misogynist. The reality is entirely different: an extreme love of women, even approaching adoration. Why such intense attraction? Admiration? Delight? Obsession? Desire? Tenderness? It is in part temperamental: we see in many young ones a pronounced attachment to the mother or father, to women or men. But most responsibility goes to my own mother, a woman of exceptional beauty, inner and outer, and generosity. She mothered me wonderfully. Additionally, I have been very loved by very many very good women. And so, in every encounter with a woman, (not excluding psychopaths, borderlines, criminals) I have zero capacity for sustained suspicion, resentment or malice as I resonate with radiant positivity, quiet euphoria, serenity, trust and impulsive generosity. Eve's sin I personally blame on the passivity and neglect of Adam. And so you see here the root of my boundless contempt for Cultural Progressivism: it denies the iconic loveliness of the feminine as well as the heroic nobility of genuine virility. Granted I have suffered more than my share of toxic gynephilia, understood here as disordered attraction to women, rooted in concupiscence, that is needy-selfish-lustful-covetous-sterile-ungenerous. But one of the joys of aging within the sacramental embrace of our maternal Church is the slow but steady diminishment of those disordered cravings and the purification and intensification of wholesome philogyny as generous, fraternal, paternal, free and fruitful. 

Whitney Houston, Barbara Streisand, Maria Callas, Julie Andrews, Cher, Amy Grant, Taylor Swift, Joan Baez, Celine Dion...What is it about a woman's voice? Indescribable! Delightful, abundant, generous, resonant with emotion, at once earthly and heavenly, inspiring, mystical and miraculous, down-to-earth, heartbreaking, lucid, iconic, comforting, inebriating and yet sobering.

Similarly, in these my "golden years," I clearly prefer woman writers and thinkers, in all my areas of interest: spirituality, theology, psychology, philosophy, culture and even politics. My favorites:

Contemporary: Heather King, Tracey Rowlands, Mary Anne Glendon, Mary Harrington, Patricia Snow, Abigail Favale, Mary Eberstadt, Mary Healy, Rhonda Chevrin, 

Late 20th Century:  Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa, Catherine de Hueck Doherty, Adrienne von Speyr, Madaleine Del Brell, Caryll Houselander, Elizabeth Anscombe, Elizabeth Moberly, 

Early 20th Century:  Edith Stein, St. Faustina, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, Elizabeth Leseur, Flannery O'Connor, Etty Hellison, Sigrid Undset, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil.

My own intellect is very masculine: abstract, detached, clear, certain, prosaic, sober, authoritative, transcendent of emotion, comprehensive, assertive, combative, philosophical. So it needs the balance of the feminine intellect which is: contemplative, receptive, intuitive, sensitive, engaged, corporeal, synthetic, compassionate, artistic, fluid, organic, inclusive, refined, conciliatory.

 In accord with nature and Providence, the paternal and maternal complement and complete each other. The tragedy of our society is that we are both fatherless and motherless. Certainly we are not "patriarchy" in the sense of ruled by fathers. Rather, our culture is permeated by a disordered, toxic, diminished "masculinity" of technological control-abstraction-detachment, devoid of the feminine as natural, organic, receptive, communal and contemplative. And so, for example, mainstream feminism itself is a flight from the feminine in its competitive, jealous mimicry of disordered masculinity as sexual license, careerism, power-status envy, and individualism.

We find something entirely different in the internal life of the Marian, which is to say maternal, Catholic Church. Balthasar has taught us that the Marian (feminine, receptive, contemplative, unitive) influence is superior to the Petrine (masculine, hierarchical, apostolic).  And so, virile, priestly, apostolic authority that is authentically Catholic is never a mimicry of the power dynamics of the techno-dominant world, but rather placed under the influence of Mary, Queen of angels and saints, Mother of Christ and all of us. Genuine paternity is strong, stable, certain and is the fruit of the seed of the filial position of being both held and liberated by the loving Mother.

Carl Jung taught that in the second half of life the recessive, hidden aspect of the personality (the anima)  emerges so that the assertive male manifests feminine aspects previously camouflaged. This makes a great deal of sense. In any case, within Catholic life, reception of the feminine or Marian influence is essential to the maturation of fruitful paternity.  On that note, we end prayerfully:

We place ourselves, Mary our Mother, under the mantle of your holiness, your purity, your tenderness, your beauty and your love.

 

Pro-Life in USA 2024: A Culture of Virile Chastity

 Who is it that has led the pro-life movement for the last half century? Who runs the pregnancy centers, the Marchs on Life, the literature? All women! The pro-life movement has not been fueled primarily by career politicians, nor by bishops, nor by males, chaste or unchaste. But by women. This movement is the authentic feminism of our age: the passionate, profound, persistent, maternal drive to nourish, cherish and protect the innocent, vulnerable, powerless.

Who really benefits from legal abortion? Unchaste, indulgent, irresponsible men who can use/abuse women and then manipulate them to destroy the child conceived. Violation of the sixth commandments leads directly to violation of the fifth: fornication/adultery lead to murder. Remember David, Bathsheba and her murdered husband Uriah?

Militant sexual progressivism has contrived the protection of the unborn as masculine control of the feminine body. This is an inversion straight from hell. It is abortion that violates the feminine body. This lie was the singular coherent thought of the recent Harris campaign: she proclaimed it obsessively, passionately, indignantly, self-righteously. She was indecisive, confused and incoherent in all things; but about abortion she was shrill, impassioned and condemnatory. She presented as the heroic, noble figure saving women from the violent control of evil, Trumpian men.

The gullible swallowed this in huge doses. Good, devout, otherwise intelligent Catholic women become furious as they entertain this paranoid, delusional obsession. They rage; become depressed and anxious about the new president. They throw themselves into a convoluted, demon-inspired gender war.

In fact, there have been more abortions since Dobbs, due largely to the availability of pills. Most of the state initiatives protecting abortion have passed.

In fact, the Trump campaign, in contrast with the Harris-abortion-obsession, has taken abortion off the table of national politics. This is a prudent policy on several levels. For one, it helped him win the election as we know voters in key states voted for pro-abortion initiatives and also for Trump: they understood the distinction. But at a deeper level, the return of abortion to the states is very good for our country. For the last half century, it has been the single most polarizing issue in the nation. Most political issues are negotiable: taxes, border policy, climate, guns, etc. But the value of the life of the embryo and "reproductive rights" are absolutely contradictory; there is no compromise. It is good that we battle this out on the state level and return our national politics, hopefully, to a degree of civility and cooperation.

Catholic progressives enhance their self-righteousness in voting prochoice by condemning Trump's support for life as insincere. They presume to judge his heart and soul, rashly and hatefully. We do better to leave that judgment to God and consider his objective record. It is mixed. Formerly he was prochoice. Recently he has, in apparent ignorance, embraced the freezing of IVF embryos. His record is mixed; he seems to mirror the majority of Americans who are ambivalent. I think there are about 20% passionate on both sides of the issue; about 60% are conflicted or unsure. Nevertheless, from the perspective of the unborn, he is the best friend they ever had!

Today we know about the marital infidelity and adultery of liberal heroes JFK, MLK, Clinton and others. Trump is in this club; but he is not in the major leagues like them. His deep narcissism draws his libidinal energies towards himself and leaves less available for even a physical craving of the feminine. They share with the many conservative adulterers and fornicators the value of hypocrisy: they tried to hide their wrong doing and not directly influence others to sin. Jesus said: "It would be better for you to have a millstone around your neck and be thrown into the sea than to lead these little ones into sin." Sins of the flesh are mortal and serious: against the possibly conceived, against the sacred feminine body, and against one's own dignity as a temple of the Holy Spirit. But leading others into sin is far worse. Consider Joseph Kennedy, the patriarch, father of JFK and RFK: he inducted his own sons into infidelity and lust. I can hardly conceive a deeper place than his, in purgatory or hell we cannot know...but it doesn't look good for him. In this November, month of the souls, let's give him a chance and pray for his soul, and his entire family, and his companions in sin. 

With Dobbs we see that our society, under Roe for half a century, has become overwhelmingly, even substantially pro-abortion. This is because in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s our society, in critical mass, rejected the sixth commandment: Thou shall not commit adultery. And the ninth: Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife. The new dogma: sex is not essentially conceptive. It is relational, recreational, relieving, expressive...it is not about babies. In this world, abortion is absolutely necessary as back-up contraception.

Another lie from the pit of hell: responsible use of contraception avoids abortion. The opposite is true: the decision to engage sexually but reject conception is already a choice to destroy the offspring that comes so often as the method is far from perfect. A "contra-ceptive" society  is already, essentially, an abortive society. We see that clearly after Dobbs. The epidemic of porn-fueled sexual addiction, the breakdown of marital fidelity as our moral norm, the embrace of unchastity...all of this is the root cause of abortion.

Political and legislative efforts to eliminate abortion in such a culture are largely futile. Indeed, they may themselves provoke stronger pushback as in the aftermath of Dobbs. This does not mean that we abandon the unborn. No, we need to defend them prudently with the resources at hand.

Each state is now a distinct battleground. Nationally we will have to deal with issues about funding and support for abortion overseas. But the real action properly happens at the state level. We cannot win the war across the culture.

What we must do is defend our own way of life: absolutely refuse to directly support abortion (as well as contraception, IVF, trans surgery and all the artificial technologies) ourselves directly. Our tax and insurance money cannot be used for evil purposes. Harris clearly stated that  "reproductive rights" are absolute and allow no exemptions: she would coerce Catholic doctors, nurses and hospitals to perform abortion, trans operation and the the entire litany of degradation. This we must fight passionately.

"Love chastity" Saint Benedict said. Yes! Love chastity. This is the heart of a prolife culture. Even as we suffer our own weakness of the flesh...lust, covetousness, isolation, jealousy, anxiety, depression, self-hatred, compulsions, bad habits...let us encourage each other in love of chastity. We are dealing with often constitutional weakness, with the allure of the world, and the hyper-intelligence of the devil! But we are immersed in the very Body of Christ; we are ourselves Temples of the Holy Spirit; we have the efficacy of the sacraments, the guidance of the Church, and the example of the saints, many of them around us. Come Holy Spirit!

Do I Have Concerns About Another Trump Administration?

I was happy to receive this question from a family member who offered it in a good spirit: along with a congratulations on our victory, in genuine curiosity, and (I think) with real grief. He, along with most of my family of origin, is deeply troubled by realities like the plight of immigrants, global warming, and the violence of January 6. I share these concerns.  But they are not my top priorities.

My deepest concern with Trump is one, but has three aspects. It deals not with policy or governance so much as morals and culture, the deeper dimension of politics. It is what made me as a "never-Trump-conservative" and a "double-hater"  abstain for the previous two elections. These views have not changed, but have been overwhelmed by the stronger negatives of Biden/Harris.

1. Decadent moral example: for all of us, but specifically my grandchildren. EVERYONE is a moral exemplar; and especially those in positions of leadership, status and power. No one more than our President! I passionately rejected the public/private distinction that allowed many to accept Bill Clinton after his scandalizing dalliance. The private and the public are not separate; they influence one another. Above all, I despise Trump's shameless disrespect for people: women, immigrants, his political enemies. Secondly, his almost absolute disregard for Truth. Thirdly, his uncamouflaged, all-pervading narcissism makes him largely unfit for this position.

2. Along similar lines: the ongoing Trump Performance has badly damaged, not our democratic political institutions, but our culture and morals. Since the 1960s our society has been in catastrophic moral decline. Trump rides that wave and has intensified it: scandalous disrespect for people, disregard for truth, sexual license, crude and insulting language. He makes our society morally worse by his example and behavior.

3. Polarization of the left/right: Again, he did not invent this, but he has benefited from it and intensified it. The mutual suspicion, fear, resentment, and contempt across the divide is becoming worse. Trump deliberately inflames this. There is a real demonic quality to this mutuality and it is effective on both sides of the aisle. That is why I welcomed the question, offered in respect.

Regarding his egotism and potential for abuse of Presidential power I am not greatly concerned for three reasons.

1. Ross Douthat is right: he is not a power broker; he is a vain, self-centered man, desperate for attention. My daughter said "He is not a fascist; he is a big baby." He has little interest in policy, ideology and power. He wants everyone's attention. He is an entertainer; he is performing for the crowd. What he says is not to be taken literally; it is entirely histrionic, performative, attention-seeking.  In his four years of power, he did not maximize it. For example, a real tyrant would have used the covid emergency as an opportunity to monopolize power: he let the states do their thing and deferred to Fauci.

2. He surrounds himself with good people, he delegates to them, he defers to them as he himself lacks strong inner convictions. This is what has made him successful on such a grand scale. Paradoxically, he has a certain humility in that he does not claim expertise but defers to others with specific competence. For example, unlike the arrogant Biden who was sure of his competence about Afghanistan, he would not have overruled his generals and pulled out of there with such devastation.

3. Lastly, our basic institutions are resilient, rooted, stable and resistant to someone so unfocused, unhinged, and infantile. He was restrained by his own advisors but also by establishment Republicans, the courts, the Democratic opposition, and the durability of our institutions. His election denial was rejected by all kinds of courts and most Republicans (notably Bill Barr). The alleged "insurrection" was overcome in a few hours and the actual election validated immediately, by both parties, with his own Vice President presiding. 

With regard to policy, I am not Trumpian but have a number of concerns. 

1. In foreign policy, I am myself a strong internationalist, not an isolationist. But it is undeniable that the world enjoyed four years of peace in his term. That was, in my view, mostly good luck. But his contribution to it was not nothing. His unpredictability, I do believe, gave pause to bad actors like Iran and Russia. He showed a strong hand that they feared. The Abrahamic Accords are historic accomplishments and will hopefully be strengthened. His policy on Iran was correct. He correctly forced our NATO allies to pay more of a fair share. Going forward he does well to mute his "America First" chant and build strong alliances in all arenas: Europe, but even more in the Middle East and the Pacific. His infatuation with strong man dictators is troubling and distracting. But I hope that that is more of a personal hobby and does not set real policy. I share his pro-Israel position on Gaza and Lebanon. I strongly support the Ukraine and find that Biden did too little too late; but I think the time is right now for him to force both sides to the table.

2. Economically he talks populism, but his tax policy favored the rich and increased the debt and therefore inflation. He won the election because of inflation (along with other factors); but in my view he contributed to it as much as the Biden over-spending. He was rewarded; Harris was punished. Such is politics. My hope is that the new Catholic-friendly populism of Vance will have influence and help the lower working class.

3. He is absolutely right about the need for a controlled border. But I do despise his negative rhetoric about immigrants. It is inconceivable, impossible, that he would deport millions of law abiding illegals. What he will do, correctly, is deport the criminal element.

With regard to energy, tariffs, guns and many issues I am somewhere between the parties and satisfied that neither side is able to entirely prevail. 

Almost all of my children voted for neither candidate as "double haters." I am proud of them for that. I am greatly relieved at the defeat of Kamala Harris. But that does not eliminate my moral contempt for the performative person of Trump; my sorrow at the sadness of so many dear friends and family; and especially my regret at the divide that has come between us.

So again I am grateful for the question and the spirit in which it was offered.

The Moral Rot at The Core of The Democratic Party: Desecration of Femininity and Masculinity

Biden/Harris is a replication, a mimesis of Adam/Eve, Ahab/Jezebel, father/stepmother of Hansel and Gretel: weak, passive, negligent man and hateful, shrill, destructive woman. This is the heart and soul of Progressivism, the DNC.

Apart from her "Trump-is-Fascist-Paranoid-Hysteria," Kamala had a single thought: Abortion. She was vague and vacuous on every issue, but crystal clear on legalized abortion. In her debates, interviews and speeches she would put you to sleep with her empty, meaningless nonsense; but when she spoke about abortion she changed entirely: passionate, indignant, certain, furious, self-righteous! She truly is a one-issue politician, an abortion fanatic! She will hear nothing about "leave it on the state level:" she will tolerate no exemptions for religious reasons. The mother's right to kill her unborn is ABSOLUTE.

Politics is always, among other things, defense of the sacred. For Kamala and the DNC there is one thing above all that is sacred: "reproductive rights."

Abortion however is downstream of, a consequence of a more fundamental progressive dogma: contempt for virility as paternity ("patriarchy") and femininity as maternity. Militant femininity despises paternity/femininity as iconic of the Trinity and reconfigures the human as an androgynous, isolated monad...an "individual."  When you reconstruct the person as a degendered individual, you do not create a neutral, abstract reality, you design a monster, a perversity, a Frankenstein. You create a pathetic, feeble, emasculated male; and a shrill, hateful, destructive female. Both are entirely repulsive...morally, spiritually, viscerally, personally.

This creed is Anti-Catholicism. What is sacred for the Catholic? Every human life, particularly the most defenseless, powerless, diminutive. And facing this little, vulnerable one is the iconic love of Mother and Father. And so, Cultural Progressivism and Catholicism mutually despise each other. 

Donald Trump's victory in 2016 (I wrote at the time) was in part an unconscious yearning for a father figure. Trump is a perverse father figure, but he is a father figure: strong, assertive, paternal. In a dangerous world of ferocious war lords, you want him in your corner. Those who sanctimoniously despise him might consider that his is an intact, loyal family; contrast this to Hunter Biden, the Cuomos and Kennedys!) After losing to a man, Biden, a father figure although a weak one, he has again prevailed over  another woman, who is constitutionally unable to be a father figure. (This is NOT to suggest that women cannot be President and Commander in Chief, but it does take a very special kind of woman like Golda Meir, Joan of Arc, Nicki Halley, Tracey Gabbard, Margaret Thatcher, etc.).

His second victory is vindication of that claim: he is a strong male figure. Morally despicable in a multitude of ways! But he is a man. Putin is right: he did "act like a man when he was shot." Blood running down his face, pumping his fists...that picture is a classic, an icon, an unforgettable image. When I first saw it I said to myself: "This man has this election." The election was a victory of classic virility, however toxic-perverse-decadent, over a raging femininity and a passive, weak masculinity.

The myriad of failures of the Biden/Harris years can all be seen as symptomatic of a deeper, systemic moral infection: the weak, passive male submissive to the raging female in the tradition of King Ahab, Adam, and the negligent father of Hansel and Gretel. Consider:

- Abortion, the defining and absolutely sacred value of the party, is primarily the consequent of the male as indulgent, irresponsible, and unprotective of his woman and child.

- Consider the Biden team! All are intelligent, accomplished and altruistically motivated, but together and individually they convey indecision, weakness, anxiety, defensiveness, caution: Blinken, Mayorkas, Buttigieg, Garland. Contrast Trump's first administration team:  Pence, Pompeo, Ball, Kelly, Mattis, Mnuchin, Tillerson, Carson, DeVos, and Haley. Right of center, they exude confidence, certainty, assertiveness, and gravitas. Moderately right, they functioned as entirely conservative, preserving our institutions despite the volatility of the President. Even more striking contrast is with those currently surrounding Trump: Vance, Musk, R. Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard, Vivek Ramaswamy. These, the famous "X-men" are immensely talented but also risk-friendly, fearless, unconventional, politically incorrect, unpredictable. The polar opposite of the safety-obsessed Biden team.

- The ill-considered, impulsive and perfidious pullout from Afghanistan was a betrayal of our allies there, the arrogant reaction of an incompetent President, and a signal to the world (Putin, Iran, China) that the USA lacks the will to fight.

- The catastrophe unfolding in Israel/Lebanon is rooted primarily in the machinations of Iran, funded by the indulgent Biden policies.

- The entire Hunter Biden nonsense is simply the failure of an indulgent father to discipline his son.

- The border crisis and increase in crime is a clear failure of the paternal, protective mission of the state.

- The infatuation with homosexuality and transgenderism signals a systemic deprivation in wholesome virility.

- Inflation is in part the undisciplined spending, the failure of prudence, the impulse to indulge, as for example, the loans of students, with little attention to the long term effects on national debt.

- Biden's support for the Ukraine and Israel has been too little too late: not enough to deter Putin, not enough to adequately ensure Israel's decisive victory. He is indecisive, wavering, fearful (of Putin and Iran both.) Chamberlain's peace with Hitler is the accurate historical analogy.

A clear majority of the American people have rejected the slander of fascism, tyranny, misogyny, "patriarchy" and endorsed a man, however flawed and self-centered. Let us pray that he, and all of us, may become iconic, reflective of the love of our heavenly Father: not only strong, but gentle, humble, chaste, wise, protective, generous and sacrificial! Come Holy Spirit: upon all our leaders!

Meanderings of an Itinerant Theological Student: a Reminiscence

Shortly before our college graduation, my friend Tim Hull offered me his image of my future: I am on a dirt road in some third world country, kicking a can as I walk, wrapped up in my thinking. At the time, I received this as accurate, appreciative, and affectionate. I was flattered.  I have always cherished the image. I take it to be prophetic of my life.

In sophomore year of college seminary, I received my annual "evaluation" (the judgment of our priest faculty about our progress towards the priesthood) from a marvelous Maryknoll priest, John Halbert:  "You are a nothing! What are you? A nothing! Not a leader, not an athlete, not a trouble-maker, not the popular guy, not the class clown, not the smart one! You are nothing!" He paused in silence. I let it sank in. "That is about right" I said to myself. Through high school I was the same thing: quiet, nothing exceptional, invisible. But I didn't feel bad. Strangely, I felt quietly within a peaceful self-esteem, unrelated to the social perception. I think I was flattered by the attention: he was obviously speaking so  passionately because he expected better of me. Than he asked: "What about your father? Is he a nothing like you." At that I felt a surge of joy and pride within: "No. My father is not a nothing. He is a union organizer. A leader of men." I felt such happiness and affection at the thought of my father, Ray Laracy. And I quietly thought: "I am his son. I will not be a nothing." I have always cherished this memory. Most (for example my wife and children) are horrified to hear of it. 

Upon graduating college in 1969 at the age of 22 I left the seminary. Despite a continuing attraction to the missionary priesthood, I had to overcome my pathological shyness with women and work/live as a man before I could consider returning to the seminary. On my very first date I fell madly in love. My destiny was clear: husband to Mary Lynn and hopefully father of our children.

I had zero career direction. What I had was an urgency to study/share my faith and a desire to befriend the poor. While I courted my Beloved, I pursued these two passions, in an entirely fluid, spontaneous and random manner. I took courses as an nonmatriculated student with the best professors at Union
Theological and Woodstock Jesuit Theology School; I taught theology part time at Xavier HS. and  ESL in the South Bronx. At the time, another college friend described me as an itinerant, mendicant theological student.  

You can imagine that my new wife's mother and father were not thrilled with the career-free, happy-go-lucky, live-simply attitude of their new son-in-law. And the subsequent almost 54 years of marriage have been a dance...not always serene, never boring...between a Groom who is frugal, sparse, minimalist, abstract, detached...and the Bride who is an Earth Mother: free-spirited, fiercely devout, compassionate, mega-generous, artistic, aesthetic, visual, concrete, garden-food-wine-beauty loving. Rarely is the asymmetry, along with the more dominant mutuality and complementarity, of the male/female so pronounced (and sometimes excruciating, especially for the more sensitive one of us.) 

The 18 months in Manhattan between my graduation and marriage, I realize in retrospect, nicely sum up my entire adult life: the love I share with Mary Lynn, study and sharing of our Catholic faith, and our friendship with the poor. 

Other than 25 years working as a supervisor in United Parcel Service to support our family, my adult life has been bereft of career purpose, certification, achievements, and a  professional curriculum vita. In the meritocracy I am close to a nothing. The initiation, with family and friends, of Magnificat Home, now over 15 years old, is another exception. In general, I am amateur, entirely lay and unprofessional, in all things. This in two ways.

Most importantly, I have done what I have done out of love (Latin: Amo), not out of utility or for an exterior goal like money, status, security. 

Secondly, I have done everything at a low level of quality: almost no real excellence. But I have done very many very excellent things...however poorly...and that is my salvation. Somewhere I heard: "lower your expectations, and your performance will rise." I have a low bar of expectation. So I am easily pleased...with myself and with others. "Jack of all trades; master of none."

I have taught elementary school, high school, college, CCD, confirmation, summer bible camps, charismatic prayer meetings. I am expert at none.

I have prayed in city projects, jails, hospitals, psychiatric wards...I am not a certified chaplain.

I have engaged in Cursillo, Marriage Encounter, Charismatic Renewal, Our Lady's Missionaries of the Eucharist, Neocatechumenal Way, Communion and Liberation events, Communio conferences, 12-step groups, sensitivity groups, retreats of all sorts, men's conferences and support groups. But I wander in and out of these ambiances of grace, staying with none.

Perhaps my favorite spiritual classis is The Way of the Pilgrim, the strange, mysterious story of a Russian man who loses family and property to fire and embarks as a wandering pilgrim across Russia. He moves from one holy site or monastery to another; owning nothing; seeking wisdom; encountering all kinds of events, good and bad; always praying the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner." I find this story exhilarating in the pilgrim's life of freedom, simplicity, purity, humility, drama, and unlimited serendipity. I want to be that pilgrim!

A similar liberty of spirit is manifest in the classic of Myles Connelly: Mr. Blue. Blue is an eccentric, urban, joyous mystic, living in NYC, friends with the poor, lavishly sharing riches with the hopeless, exploding with praise and exuberance. 

A specific highpoint in my life was  20 years ago when I did the Camino of Santiago of Compostela across northern Spain. I had been delivered by surgery of colon cancer; my children were moving through school and into adulthood; I was happily teaching high school religion. I walked, in solitude, in late summer, in marvelous weather, across the glorious, historic northern Spain. I stopped at every chapel and church to pray. I cherished my solitude. I had a long itinerary of prayers to do each day: 20 decades of the rosary, intentions, litany of Divine Mercy, prayer of the sinner, scripture reading. I had died and gone to heaven! The only time I was lonely was a dinner: inexpensive, delicious, with a cheap but decent carafe of wine. I missed my wife Mary Lynn who would have LOVED the meal and the wine and the price! Sometimes I would walk with someone and talk or eat dinner with people. But mostly I was alone and enjoying it. I never planned ahead. Even walking I only looked for the "pilgrim shells" that marked the way. About 3 or 4 times I wandered off path, but always found my way back. 

So my life, at its best,  has been like the Camino: not programmed ahead of time, spontaneous, light, free. I would like to think much of it in synch with the Holy Spirit...of joy, of mercy, of hope, of abundance. My hidden ambition has always been to emulate the Russian Pilgrim and Mr. Blue. 

From my conception I have been surrounded by love...of family, within the Church, in a prosperous USA. This intensified my temperamental tendency to introversion, solitude, happiness, reflection. Along with this: an aversion to a culture of activism, conspicuous consumerism, extroversion,  competition, status obsession and crude machismo. Perhaps that is why I am prone to reject the bourgeois.  Perhaps that is partly why I will, in about two hours, pull the lever for Trump/Vance! Still a "never-Trumper" and a "double-hater," my statement is defensive of my Catholic way of life and of the lower class against the pretentious, Catholic-despising, sexually liberated, science-adoring progressive hegemony of the professional, managerial, educated elites.

I was conceived just 78 years ago this month. I wonder: what will be my legacy? I hope I will be remembered as a pilgrim, of the Camino, like the little Russian guy; as a  happy friend of poor, like Blue; as a "man of the Church,"  a "catechist," an "echoer" who lived and listened within the womb of Mother Church; as one whose life of love, faith, and joy, shared with his wife, continues and flourishes in his family and friends.