Milestones on the Spiritual Itinerary of a Contrarian, Boomer Catholic

One thing I ask of the Lord; this alone I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life.

"Contrarian" because my generation in critical mass left the Catholicism we received; my life went in a different direction, drawn by a gracious, invisible hand ever deeper into our faith.

1. Childhood/Youth.  

Catholicism was the air I breathed: everything and everyone I knew. Parish, school, priests, sisters, brothers, serving mass (6 AM daily, some weddings, lots of funerals), sacraments, family rosary.

Standard, generic Irish-American Catholicism: no frills, nothing exciting or dramatic. Pious in a quiet, low key manner. Comfortable with God the Father, our Blessed Mother, and the saints. Not Evangelical; I did not personally know Jesus as my Lord and Savior; that would come later. Not Pentecostal; I did not receive clear, concrete guidance by the Holy Spirit; that would come later.

Serious about the sacraments. The thought of missing Sunday mass would never even occur to me. Serious about morality. Especially chastity. Especially about love for the poor and suffering.

The single defining experience was learning, at age 7 or so, about the starving children in China. I was horrified. I walked back and forth through my house. Mesmerized by the tragedy of it. From then an underlying aspiration was always to befriend the poor and suffering.

I grew up with The New York Times, America and Maryknoll Magazine, seeing global suffering and its alleviation as the primary drama, even more than the Cold War. My decision at the end of high school to apply to be a Maryknoll missionary priest was obvious.

Even the world beyond the boundaries of the Church seemed somehow an extension of that defining reality: the labor movement, Democratic Party, caddying, sports, Davey Crockett, John Wayne, and the US as protagonist against Communism.

I never left this Catholic world. Even my 25 year business career with secular, capitalist UPS was saturated with Catholicism: Franciscan-like brown uniforms and trucks, rigorous work ethic, strict code of honesty, fraternal camaraderie, quasi military authority/obedience structure, positive social reputation, austerity, and focus on "service." 

Catholic prep school continued this pattern: steady, calm, boring, schoolyard basketball, caddying, and tons of reading which opened a second life, far more interesting. Religion was routine, serene, quiet.   

2. Maryknoll College Seminary 1965-9

Late adolescence was spent serenely in the quasi-monastic routines of the seminary, which were at that point,  like the rest of the post-Council Church, were falling apart: prayer, study, work assignments, recreation.  Strong friendships. Men only. Wholesome.

Spirituality was again generic Irish-American Catholicism: quiet, uneventful, steady, uninspiring. Our Maryknoll priest professors, many of whom later left the priesthood, were decent, intelligent men of fine character but distant from us seminarians and so not directly influential.

I was befriended, mentored and deeply influenced by a dynamic, gifted, intelligent, ex-Marine, ex-pugilist, lay librarian Pat Williams.

Junior year my philosophy study included the 19th century "masters of suspicion" (Marx, Nietzsche, Darwin) and the medieval Thomistic tradition (Maritain and Gilson). The contrast was stark: irrationalism, chaos, violence, reductionism versus a splendid realism  of faith and reason. The choice made itself. This served to inoculate me against the Cultural Revolution at that very moment exploding across the culture. 

From this serene haven we engaged the intellectual ferment of the Church and society. Exciting! Stimulating! Revolutions! Always new books, thinkers, theories, theologies! A permanent state of low-grade, intellectual ecstasy! 

I was personally influenced by Monsignor Ivan Illich, eccentric, maverick, brilliant iconoclast who wandered near Catholic heresy but from a deep, unusual Catholic mysticism. He presented a radical critique of Church and society rooted in a profound Catholicism. This appealed to me and paradoxically, despite his heterodoxy, served to strengthen my allegiance to our faith.

3. Holy Theologian Jesuits Whelan and Dulles

While courting my wife-to-be, (1970-2) I studied theology with some of the best Protestant theologians at Union Theological NYC but more importantly with outstanding Jesuit priest-theologians. Most significantly Joseph Whelan SJ, himself a mystic, helped me to see that love of Christ is love for his Church; that good theology flows only from prayer and holiness; and introduced me to Balthasar. Avery Cardinal Dulles, the incomparable American Catholic theologian, gave a Catholic vision incomparable in its depth, breath, balance, loyalty, erudition.

4. Cursillo

Here, 1973, age 26, I encountered Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, as human and divine. I became an Evangelical Catholic.

4. Charismatic Renewal

Just a few months later, as a couple we opened ourselves to the Pentecostal Anointing, called "baptism in the Holy Spirit," previously given in confirmation but now exploding experientially. 

This, building upon Cursillo, was the defining life-changing encounter of my life. Previous to this, my Catholic faith lacked intimacy with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I felt blessed by and grateful to God but much of my spirituality was a burden of compassion and guilt about the poor and suffering accompanied by a low-grade guilt about my inadequate response to an obvious obligation to help the less fortunate. This event inverted the dynamic: I was no longer burdened by a debt of guilt. I became receptive of the Holy Spirit: blessings, guidance, inspirations, empowerment. I drank voraciously of the teaching flowing from the leadership including Ralph Martin and Steve Clark.

These encounters opened our marriage to receive children. To start our family with such a spiritual basis was an immense blessing.

In these same years (1972-80), I remained without career orientation and we lived modestly but happily. I taught religion in a Catholic high school while serving a parish in the housing projects, communicating with Spanish-speaking families and catechizing children. I was blissfully engaged with my three life passions: passing our faith to youth, friendship with the poor, the life of prayer and worship.

5. Dual Papacy of John Paul/Benedict and Communio Theology

The papacy, teaching and person of John Paul influenced me immensely. Everything: theology of the body, the Divine Mercy, philosophy of labor, the new Catechism. I had already encountered Balthasar but now I dived passionately into the theological journal Communio, edited in the USA by David L Schindler and drawing from JP, Balthasar, and Ratzinger-Benedict. Through the 80-90s, raising our family and working for UPS, my spiritual life was immensely enriched by this school of theology.

I became a Cultural Warrior: sworn enemy of Cultural Liberalism, of a Democratic Party which had betrayed Catholicism in favor of sexual chaos and genocide of the unborn, and the progressive infection within the Church.

Over the years,  our faith also benefited from friendship with Marriage Encounter, Sisters of Charity, Dominican Sisters, Felician Sisters, Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Communion and Liberation. Graduate study at Seton Hall University brought me into contact with the significant dialogue there between Catholicism and Judaism.

As a couple we never committed to a strong intensive community, but benefited in raising our children in the faith from the above friendships, a good/normal parish, good/normal Catholic schools, and especially engagement, especially during adolescent summers, with more intensive groups including NET retreats, World Youth Days, Youth 2000s, Magdallen College summer catechetical programs, charismatic conferences and service/immersion trips. 

6. Neocatechumenal Way and 12-Steps

Approaching the new Millennium, these two movements helped me greatly. Both are keenly aware of human powerlessness and weakness. While I did not commit to either in a final way, I for a time did "walk with" each and benefit immensely. I was part of two different Neocat communities. I participated at times in Alcoholics Anonymous, Alanon, Emotions Anonymous, Family Anonymous, and similar groups including Suicide Survivors Support Group, men's sharing groups and Dr. Lowe's Recovery Groups for nervous people. Taken together, these immensely helped me deal with personal patterns of compulsivity.

7. Camino of Santiago and Magnificat Home

Walking, with delight, the Camino of Santiago in Spain in 2007, just delivered from colon cancer with good surgery, my children moving steadily into adulthood, and happily back teaching religion in a Catholic school, I repeatedly asked God if he had anything for me to do. My mind always returned to "boarding home people" whom I had befriended. Upon early retirement from UPS in 2001 I had sought to pursue work with them but came to dead ends so had simply prayed: "God, I want to serve these people. But it is too much for me. You have to bring together a team. And I will be on that team." So, day after day this dialogue ended with: "I am on the team. But you have to bring it together." Over half way through the pilgrimage, the electric bulb in my mind went off. I saw clearly what was so obvious: in my own family/friends we had already a network of assets and energies adequate to start a modest house. My mother asked the cost to start such a project. I answered (accurately as it turned out): $100,000. She told me she would give me a check for $50,000. We were off and running. We are now over 16 years into this delightful work. We have received blessing after blessing including our dear residents, volunteers, staff, and a marvelous support network.

8. OLME: Our Lay's Missionaries of the Eucharist

Following my daughter Clare and wife, I made promises in OLME to center my life on the Eucharist, the daily prayer of the Church, charity and simplicity of life. So as a couple we often, but not always, pray morning and evening prayer together, and practice daily routines like mass and rosary. It has been an indescribable blessing upon us as a couple.

9. Psychology

As an amateur student of psychology, I am fascinated by how the (supernatural) grace of Christ works through human protocols: the intersection of counseling, spirituality and theology. Early on, I was impacted by priest-psychologist Charles Curran's focus upon the power of listening, in therapy and education, as empathetic, open, affirmative. His approach was solidly Catholic in contrast to Carl Rogers and his disciples like Eugene Kennedy. Charismatic renewal is rich in this field: healing of memories of Ruth Carter Stapleton, deliverance ministry of Neal Lozano, scriptural teaching of Mary Healy. The scrutinies of the Neocatechumenal Way and the entirety of the 12 step program are powerful in healing. The academic work of Paul Vitz, pastoral approach of Benedict Groeschel, and the spirituality of von Kaam are particularly fruitful. Additionally, the "reparative psychology" (Joseph Nicolosi and Elizabeth Moberly), much maligned as an effort to change "sexual orientation," is promising as "repair" for a range of sexual disorders.

10. Second Childhood

Age 78, I choose to think of this stage, not as senility or retirement, but as growth into second childhood. Cognitive/physical decline brings with it graces for childlike trust, gratitude, receptivity,  holiness of life. Our shared joy as a married couple is first our life of faith. Second is watching our grandchildren grow up so beautifully, and in our Catholic faith.

For now our health and stamina allow us to continue engagement with Magnificat Home as well as happy participation in teaching CCD (7th grade), jail and hospital ministries. 

Our next milestones: decline and death. With this is the promise of childlike trust, holiness and increase in grace. The best thing is that increase in personal holiness brings with it blessings for those we love and even those we do not know.

God's tender mercies have been so abundant that I can intelligently only anticipate more Mercy to come. I pray for an increase in Hope. I look forward to seeing in the afterlife so many who have passed. I delight in the future I observe in our family. I am happy to be a small, but not insignificant person in this Church.

Pope Leo: Icon of Virility

Theologically Pope Leo promises to follow his mentor Francis. He will minimize the Culture War; press strongly on geopolitical issues; lean heavily into "synodality" (a word that makes me sick to my stomach!) This is, to put it nicely, a "thin," mediocre, accommodationist Catholicism. But I like and admire him strongly! This despite my view that the primary task of the pope is to teach us, theologically.

I like him because he is manly. I think this is, unconsciously, why the Cardinals chose him.

In the buildup to the Conclave, he led several consultative sessions. I understand that he conducted these sessions in such a sober, calm, decisive, intelligent and self-effacing manner that the Cardinals were charmed. His style, manner deportment is admirably masculine.

He does not talk too much. His few words are well-chosen, to the point, sober, judicial, objective.

He is not full of himself. There is no cult of personality about him. He is about business. He is NOT narcissistic. 

He is not emotional. He does not dislike this group or that group. He does not vent feelings. He is calm, objective like a judge. He is himself a canon lawyer, a man of the law, an institutionalist in the best sense. In that sense he is a striking contrast with Francis who never tired of railing against legalism.

He is a holy priest; a man of prayer; one close to the heart of Jesus, mystically and pastorally in his love for the sheep. This could also be said of Francis.

Neither are first rate theologians, not even comparable to Pius XII, John XXIII, or Paul VI much less John Paul and Benedict.

Leo radiates an interior serenity, a stability, a joy, a reassuring calmness. This comes from an interior humility and a closeness to God.

In this he is an exquisite father figure. Even though he is in important issues my own theological adversary, I trust him. I am reassured by him. I am confident he will listen to both sides of an issue. I know he will do what he thinks is best.

He is genuinely a man of peace, urgent to reconcile those at war, including within the theological community. 

As an American he is a pragmatist, a man of action, a doer of deeds. He is an experienced administrator who will steady a Vatican prone to volatility, corruption and greed.

I have known so many priests like him, especially in Maryknoll but also diocesan priests. Not intellectuals, but intelligent and well-informed. Balanced. Pastoral. Practical. Prayerful. Steady.

Our world desperately needs men like Leo at every level: every parish, family, nation, organization. 

The crisis in virility (Fleckinstein never tires of chanting) is the defining catastrophe of our age.

This has been made worse by our two recent Presidents: Biden and Trump. In contrasting ways, they are scandalous, effete, narcissistic, idolatrous, depraved, contemptuous. 

The response to Charlie Kirk indicates a craving for the restoration of masculinity.

By virtue of who he is, how he carries himself, Leo is such a restoration.

May God richly bless him with even more Christlike Virility! 

A Catholic Take on the Jew, Judaism, Israel and Anti-Semitism

 Philo-Semitic, passionately; 

Pro-Judaism, with reservations; 

Pro-Israel, with conditions and criticisms; 

Scapegoating, God-hating, Satanic Envy of Anti-Semitism

Philo-Semitic, Passionately

God passionately, intimately, everlastingly loves the Jews. We who love God follow suit. They are God's first and final love. We gentiles are add-ons. With all their infidelities He continues to love them. And so do we. God gave them...and us...the initial covenant, the scriptures, the patriarchs, Moses, prophets, kings, temple, John the Baptist, Joseph, Mary, Jesus, the apostles, Paul and the initial Church. Spiritually, all Christians are Semites. 

Their legacy of fidelity (albeit imperfect) in suffering and affliction, through three millennia, is incomparable.

Despite sin and through the purgation of suffering, they have preserved their covenant and identity as God's people in study of the Word, prayer, virtue.

That ancient heritage is preserved mysteriously in their spiritual-moral-intellectual-emotional-aesthetic DNA. There is about the Jew...secular/observant, male/female, wealthy/poor...a distinct charism, a grace, an appeal, an interior depth, a graciousness, an insightfulness, a sense of humor, a radiance from heaven.  Of all peoples, nations, ethnicities, they are exceptional, graced, and afflicted by persecution.

This grace is not removed even when they are unfaithful, no longer believe, do not observe the commandments. They are still specially loved. They still carry an indelible interior radiance. We Catholics might compare it to the indelible seal received in baptism, confirmation and orders. It is an endowment of the soul that cannot be erased. It continues to radiate even in strange manners.

As volunteer chaplains in our local hospital, my wife and I stop in each room to offer spiritual support. We are well received. But by far the most responsive and warm are Jews. This includes very secular ones and observant ones...both of which often decline for different reasons. But the surprise: after a courteous refusal, they unfailingly offer a most heartfelt appreciation for what we are doing. It is very touching. It comes from a depth, an intensity, a striking spiritual luminosity. They are a special people!

Pro-Judaism with Reservations

Catholicism was never Anti-Semitic; but for 2000 years was Anti-Judaic. From the initial family feud between the Jesus-believing and the Non-believing Jews as well as the Judaizing controversy (some Christian Jews wanted to require the entire Jewish law including kosher and circumcision on the gentile converts) Christianity carried an Anti-Judaic resentment. Without denying the initial covenant, focus was upon the rejection of Jesus by Jewish leadership. This is evident even in the Gospels. The rejection of Christ became the defining theological feature of Judaism after Christ. This, combined with their strangeness, led easily to scapegoating, hatred and pogroms. But the hatred on the part of the Church (contrast with populist Anti-Semitism which the Church often resisted) was never directed to Jewish blood. Rather, the Church intended the conversion of the Jew from a defective, Jesus-denying Judaism to salvation in Christ.

In the wake of the Holocaust and theological renewal leading to Vatican Council II the Church strongly changed to a Pro-Judaic perspective. There was surely contrition that a prior Anti-Judaism may have contributed, although not deliberately, to the history of persecution and genocide. But more essentially, scripture study revealed powerfully the Jewish roots of our own faith. And we were able to see in the ongoing Judaic community a fidelity to the initial divine covenant. 

This theological shift, clearly announced in Vatican II, was (in my view) the most significant, drastic and necessary change of that Council (which is not considered a dogmatic  so much as a pastoral council.)

While I passionately endorse this shift, I see a new, contrary imbalance in mainstream ecumenical Catholic theology since the Council. With the overdue, newfound appreciation of historic Rabbinic Judaism, there has been a repression of candid criticism from the Catholic perspective. Historic Judaism is descended from the Pharisee movement of the time of Jesus which was passionately devotional and ethical, not as attached to temple worship, but legalistic. It did, in critical mass with exceptions, reject Jesus and his message. That decision is carried down within the spiritual DNA of the Jew, along with the previously noted intimacy with God. And so, there is a split personality in the Jew as encountered today: on one extreme the fastidious observance of a complicated moral code, on the other hand the secular Jew drawn to alternatives like Marx, Freud, Hollywood/pornography, and militant Zionism. Along with this imbalance, we also see a pronounced movement (Buber, Heschel) within the Jewish community into Gospel perspectives, even short of full conversion.

This unbalance is noticeable in the esteemed Seton Hall Judaeo-Christian Studies program from which I have greatly benefited. For example, when the controversial Mel Gibson movie The Passion of Christ was released, that program held a conference on it. The Jewish concerns were forcefully, and properly voiced by all speakers. However, there was no expression of a positive Christian view of the film. Likewise, I have noted over the years that prominent Jewish leaders, who are energetically pro-legal-abortion, are honored in an overt repression of Catholic values.

The argument here is not a return to the past but that respectful dialogue with our Jewish partners will benefit from candor on the Catholic side of the conversation.

Pro-Israel with Conditions and Criticisms

Catholicism does not endorse the view, strong in American Evangelicalism, that the restoration of the state of Israel is playing a part in the return of Christ. The Church therefore has entertained a pragmatic balance, a sympathy for both Palestinians and Israelis. Of particular concern, of course, is the small but significant community of Arab Catholics, who are often mistreated by Jew and Muslim both. There is, of course, a history of violence from both sides. But this is not to assert a moral equivalence. 

My own view of the Gaza conflict is that the state of Israel has really no choice but to destroy Hamas. As that group is dug into civilian populations this unavoidably entails a horrific degree of civilian deaths. That the civilian population overwhelmingly supports the Oct 7 atrocity and Hamas makes it all the more difficult to respect the standard combatant/civilian distinction. 

On the other hand, the withholding of food and medicine is another matter. This is not intrinsic to the destruction of Hamas. This is a moral evil of immense gravity. I do not fault our two presidents for supporting the Israeli offensive but I do find them negligent in failing to force Israel to open the gates for food and medicine, even now as I write.

Roots of Anti-Semitism: Envy

They are God's special people. It is like Joseph and the other sons of Jacob who envied the beloved one. With some dissention, they agreed as a group first to kill him and then sell him into slavery. They were simply jealous. They were insecure, resentful. At the end of the day, of course, they love him passionately. 

The Jews are simply more intelligent, heartfelt, deep, funny, intense. They are the chosen ones. So you have to love them and join them or hate them. 

They are to the nations what Duke is to college basketball, Notre Dame to football, the Yankees to baseball, the Kenyans to marathons. They are always in the lead. You cannot be neutral or indifferent: you have to hate them or love them.

There are many reasons to hate them. Many are great lawyers, doctors, business men and have money. In the NY/NJ area they gather in areas and live their different ways, not real friendly to others, indifferent to other minorities, working the system well for their own schools and other benefits. In the Culture Wars they are inordinately represented in Marxism, psychoanalysis, entertainment, music, and culture/art in general. They are highly influential politically in relation to their numbers, including about support for Israel. 

It is startling (especially for us boomers who came of age in the wake of WWII) to see the emergence of this hatred on both the left and right. On the left it comes with sympathy for the Palestinians and identification of the Jew with the oppressive, powerful, white Man. On the right is merges into MAGA xenophobia, paranoia and isolationist jingoism. 

In both expressions, the underlying root cause is the same: envy flowing from deep insecurity, anxiety, and an overwhelming sense of weakness and oppression. 

As an Irish-American, I cherish my heritage and my country. But I do not think the Irish are the greatest people and I certainly do not see the USA as the greatest nation ever. I am well aware of the flaws of both the Irish and the USA. My love is realistic and critical. I was always embarrassed by the fuss over the Irish on St. Patrick's Day and even more ashamed by "American First" MAGA jingoism. 

Another root cause of hatred of the Jews, in my view, is the Envy of Satan himself. Of all the peoples, he sure despises the Jews the most. It is from the Jews that his final defeat came. It is like his hatred of women! Mary was destined from eternity to be Queen of Angels and Saints. A woman! A Jewish woman! So Lucifer specially despises women and Jews. 

If you want to foil Satan and glorify God, start with veneration of this Jewish woman. And then give your reverence to all women and Jews! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!

A "Thick" Catholic in a "Thinning" Church

We are indebted to David Carlin for this helpful "thick/thin religion" binary. He was buried last week, age 87, in Rhode Island, where he taught sociology/philosophy in community college, wrote, and remained active in Democrat state politics well into this century. He is among the last  authentically pro-life, active Democrats. That species became extinct in the 1970s but Ray Flynn of Boston is still alive; Sargent Shriver and Bob Casey Sr. have both passed. He wrote with clarity, insight, passion. He was, like Fleckinstein (who aspires to emulate him), a thick Catholic in a thinning Church.

Eternal Rest grant unto him O Lord, and let the perpetual light shine upon him, may his souls and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in Peace!

A thick religion is sharply different from the broader society: deep roots, sharp edges, clear identity. Examples: Amish, Orthodox Jews, Catholic Worker. Thin religion is one that blends into the broader culture without sharp differences. Examples: Reform Judaism, mainline liberal Protestantism, the freemasons in the USA. 

Carlin recalls the thicker Catholicism of our postwar childhood/youth. We Catholics, increasingly accepted into the broader society in the ecumenical postwar euphoria, still retained our identity: schools, meatless Fridays, sacramental practices, etc. In the 1960s, however, a four powerful historical developments coalesced to undermine this clear, thick identity.

1. The fabulously prosperous economy, in contrast to the preceding World War and great Depression fostered a confidence, a materialism, a secularism increasingly indifferent to the supernatural.

2. Catholics were fully accepted into society, including the upper echelons and better schools. They moved from urban ghettos to suburbs. They accommodated into bourgeois society.

3. The Vatican Council deliberately engaged modernity in a positive, credulous, arguably uncritical attitude just as society was, at the elite levels, turning dark.

4. The Cultural Revolution exploded in the late 1960s with its sexual liberation, attack on tradition, and reconstruction of the isolated, genderless Individual.

Pope Paul VI

Humanae Vitae prophetically, defiantly rearticulated the thick, Catholic view of sexuality as procreative and sacred. It definitively divided the Church: thick vs. thin. The rejection of this teaching within the Church opened the doors to all that followed: abortion, pornography, divorce, homosexuality, transgenderism, and a misogyny disguised as feminism. The Church of the 1970s fell into polarization, confusion, and a pronounced "thinning" in academia and much of the hierarchy/priesthood. 

John Paul and Benedict

The dual pontificate was a firm, profound, sophisticated and nuanced articulation of a thick Catholicism that embraced what is best in modernity but renounced the bad. Their teaching and hermeneutic of the Council had immense influence, often outside of prestigious academic and Church circles. It conspired with spontaneous eruptions of thicker Catholicism: lay renewal movements, Latin Mass, populist devotions to Mary, the Divine Mercy and others.

Francis and Leo

This second dual pontificate can be understood as a  "thinning" of Catholicism to appeal to those who are offended by it. There is no clear change of dogma. But there is a shift in emphasis, a downplaying of the sexual teaching, for example, and a focus on things congenial to mainstream cultural progressivism.

Temptation of Thick Religion to Become a Sect

Thicker religions tend to become sectarian in the negative sense:  anxious in a dangerous world. defensive,  judgmental against those on the outside, incapable of seeing the Good-True-Beautiful beyond their own borders. Ecumenism and (small c) catholicity are weakened. 

Pastoral Impulse

Catholicism is urgent to share, to embrace the Good wherever it is found, and to charm others. The pastoral impulse is to meet the other where he/she is; to present what is most appealing; to downplay what offends.  In this sense, the apostolic style of Francis and Leo is deeply Catholic in its outreach to those distant. Our bishops and priests reflect a long spectrum in regard to the balance between a thickness that preserves our faith and an appropriate thinning in outreach to the distant. The perfect balance, of course, found in wise, holy souls is loyalty to the faith along with pastoral sensitivity.

Foundations of Thick Catholicism

1. Primacy of Prior Revelation. The foundation of our faith is an earlier, definitive and final revelation of the Divine here on earth. That revelation is preserved by a continuous, historical Church with a pattern of worship, life, authority, teaching and tradition. All change and development is organically from within the given Revelation: we do not look to relevancy, fashion, science, psychology or politics for definition.

2. Extravagance of the Miraculous, the Sacred, the Supernatural. Creation is enchanted, infused everywhere with the Divine, from the original Creation, the Fall and the Redemption, we live with: angels, saints, demons; miracles; healings; virgin birth; transubstantiation; absolution of sins; levitation; bilocation; incorruption; exorcism; prophesy; stigmata; relics; heaven, hell and purgatory.

3. Gravity of Evil. The Dark Kingdom of Lucifer; original and actual sin; the seductions of "the world;" demonic activity; the weakness of the flesh; confession; exorcism; the eternity of hell.

4. Worship. The "greater thing" chosen by Mary, sister of Martha, is prayer, liturgy, and communal worship. All good action flows from this primacy of the mystical.

5. Sacredness of Sexuality, Family, Vowed Life.  In sharpest contrast to our contraceptive culture, Catholicism cherishes a cult around marriage/family and the religious life. Both of these are inexplicable to the broader culture.

6. Poverty. In a society addicted to affluence, a thick Catholicism values poverty: in the religious life and in other forms such as the Catholic Worker.

7. Politics is Diminished. Life in family, Church and immediate communities is valued so that political ideology is reduced in importance. The thick Catholic will have political views and vote, but there is a relative detachment generally and an aversion to a sacred allegiance to any party, policy or ideology.

Characteristics of a Thin Catholicism

Obviously, a thin Catholicism is the opposite of the above. 

-The past is viewed with suspicion as ignorant, phobic, oppressive as hope is placed in a present and future of technological, scientific, educational, psychological enlightenment. 

-The material universe is viewed in reductively scientific terms, secular and disenchanted. 

-Evil is metaphysically null and void; it is reconceived as psychological dysfunction and political oppression. 

-Worship is replaced by meditation, therapy, and culture. 

-Sexuality becomes companionship and recreation rather than the gift of self in a sacred vow. 

-Poverty is viewed only as affliction. 

-Politics becomes a new religion.

Catholicisms: Thick and Thin 

Happily, the Church is always a tension between competing dynamics: the return to the sources (thickness) and movement to engage and share with others (thinness). 

The thickest Catholicism is surely the Catholic Worker as classically articulated by Day and Maurin. First, it is orthodox and therefore  defiant of the Sexual Revolution. Secondly, it profoundly embraces the poor and poverty itself, in imitation of St. Francis and so many saints. Last, ideologically it is anarchistic and pacifist. This last is not, to my mind, an enrichment of the Catholic faith, but it surely makes it even more thick culturally. 

A competitor would be the Neocatchumenal Way with its intensity around worship, the Word and community as well its large families, alternative Catholic counter-culture and many priestly vocations. 

Other groups and movements are thick/thin in complicated combinations. For example, Charismatic Covenant Communities became fiercely countercultural in regard to gender and family life, but sometimes embrace other aspects of mainstream middle class culture. The same can be seen with the Latin Mass groups. Communion and Liberation is more expressive of the positivity and eagerness to engage of the Vatican Council and therefore less thick but not thin in a pejorative way.

The Church of Francis/Leo is urgent to communicate with those distant but slow to defend much that is most precious in Catholicism. This is troubling for us thick Catholics. It presents a challenge. We are called to witness, in life and word, to the Truth received. This is a significant mission. Above all, we need to do this in a posture of interior serenity, confidence, generosity, humility, positivity and charity. To the degree we ourselves surrender to the Truth revealed and received, we will in turn charm and attract our brothers and sisters to Christ and his Church.

Spiritual Exercises

This is not the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Every other Thursday morning, it is my joy to offer a "spiritual care session" on the psychiatric floor of Jersey Shore Medical Center, where my wife and I are volunteer chaplains. 

I introduce myself to about 12 (out of a census of 25 or so) who come voluntarily. I especially explain our residence for low-income women in Jersey City. As many in the group are familiar with homelessness this is a good start.

I note that if I were a physical trainer, I might do exercises (stretching, weight resistance, walk in place, etc.) that might be helpful to everyone, regardless of body type (large/small, male/female, young/old). And so, we will consider spiritual exercises that are helpful for all of us, regardless of religion or lack thereof, because we all have a human spirit.

1. Gratitude.  I ask what is one thing for which they are grateful about being there on that hospital floor.  Then they share a a specific thing about their childhood for which they are grateful.  I  a small bottle of water and several accept and say "thank you."  I point out that in those few seconds of gratitude, accepting and thanking, they are not in depression, anxiety, anger, jealousy. They nod. We discuss the nature of mental attention: we focus on one thing at a time, as with vision, as everything else fades into the background. 

An Oprah Winfrey episode of many years ago: a series of celebrities testified that their lives changed drastically when they developed a habit every night before sleep of listing 5 things of the day for which they were grateful. They witnessed to decrease in anxiety, depression, anger, jealousy; increase in peace, joy, freedom, generosity, agency. 

They are invited to quietly count on their 10 fingers 10 things in their life for which they are grateful. Giving thanks:  the path to peace, joy, freedom.

2. Powerlessness and Surrender. This is straight from the 12 steps of AA: (1)"Admitted we were powerless over _________(alcohol or other) and that our lives had become unmanageable." Each of us has one or more "dragons"...addiction, emotional affliction, compulsive habit...which is about 100 times more powerful than our will power. They react with interest that I had attended EA meetings (Emotions Anonymous) in which participants shared powerlessness over anger, depression, anxiety, jealousy and other. (2) "Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity." Invitation to surrender. To cease the fight. To look for help from "higher power" of whatever name. " Higher power" that is not myself but is powerful, kind, merciful.

A runner in the Rockies crashed into a Grizzly Bear who started to tear the man apart. He recalled that a punch to the nose of a bear would shock him so he tried that. It only excited the bear to become more violent. He surrendered. He went limp and fell to the ground. A rustling sound nearby startled the bear who ran away. The man survived, crediting an angel with his rescue. In any case, he was wise to give up the fight, surrender.

Similarly, a swimmer caught in a rip tide is NOT to swim against the tide, which will lead to immediate fatigue and drowning. Rather, "go with the flow" so as to conserve stamina, attempt to swim parallel with beach and wave for help. Again: don't fight the tide, go with it, and call for help.

Skid class for driver of auto: the impulse in a skid is to brake strongly and steer out of the skid. Wrong! The locked tires will continue straight in the skid. Rather: accept the skid, steer directly (however counter-intuitive this is) into the skid while gently pumping brakes to regain traction and only then steer out of the skid. Again: not direct combat but surrender and cooperate with a "higher power."

3. Network. Most in the group are benefiting from the supportive environment of professionals and fellow-sufferers. So, they are invited to consider the network of support outside the hospital: who makes you feel happy? With whom can you be truly honest? Who makes you a better person? And how can you strengthen and build that network: call a friend or family member, get back to temple/church/support group? Social worker or counselor? 

4. Give or Ask for Forgiveness.  

The film Straight Story is a true account of Alvin Straight, in his 70s and poor health, who learns his brother, with whom he has not spoken in 10 years, has suffered a stroke. He decides to go to see him hundreds of  miles away in Wisconsin and does so on a John Deere lawnmower tractor which moves about 3 miles an hour. He drives slowly from Iowa on a kind of spiritual pilgrimage, with eventful, touching encounters along the way.  Upon arrival, his brother beckons him to a rocking chair next to him. They sit quietly, without words. Then the brother asks: "Alvin, did you drive here on that lawn mower?" Alvin nods yes. Tears stream down his brothers face. End of movie. Tremendous work of art!

My friend Coleen, a  passionately spiritual woman, went to see Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ about 20 times, with different people, recalling her sins. She called the kid she had bullied brutally in 7-8th grade. After catchup talk she said: "I was cruel to you; I am so sorry; I ask your forgiveness." He, now married, with children, in his 40s dismissed it: "We were just kids. Don't worry." She persisted; he dismissed again. A third time, quietly, solemnly she said: " I know I hurt you deeply. Please forgive me." Silence on phone. Then sobs. Then heartbrokenly he says: "I could never understand why you hated me so much!"

We discuss how difficult it is to say those words: "I was wrong. Forgive me." 

And so, the invitation here is to ask forgiveness. Or to give forgiveness.

I hesitated to present this. This is a psych ward. There are deep traumas and wounds. It would be cruel to issue a moral imperative with an implied condemnation. But I have found that offered in a light manner, in the form of stories, as an option, not an obligation, it has (so far) been well received.

Sometimes these sessions get interesting, for example, if someone acts out in a manic fashion. Normally there is a compulsive talker or interrupter.  Additionally, people come and go as they need to get meds, meet with professional, or even lose interest and want to take a walk. But there is a raw, manifest, even desperate hunger and interest manifest. To meet with them and discuss this stuff is awe-inspiring. It is the high point of my week.

The Great Catholic Counter-Liberation 1968-2025

Catholicism: Attacks and Counteroffensives 

Among the greatest attacks upon the Church we distinguish those from the outside, those that divided us and those from the inside.

 From the outside: 1. The barbarian invasions of the ancient Roman Catholic world. 2. The Islamic devastation of Christian civilization across the Middle East and Northern Africa which reached up into Spain and was repelled by the Reconquista, at Lepanto and other battles. This war continues around the globe today. 3. The Enlightenment-inspired revolutionary movements from the French Revolution up until the Mexican persecution of the Church and the Spanish Civil War. 4. Communism, Soviet and Chinese.

Those that divided us: 1. The East-West schism. 2.Protestant Reformation.

Those from the inside: Arianism. Iconoclasm. Other heresies. 

Arguably worse than these is the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. It was an attack from an exterior enemy. But it also penetrated, like a viral infection, into the Church itself in the form of theological progressivism. It has the Church institutionally united but theologically divided.  

In the history of the Church, real apostolic synods have decisively guided the Church. Nicea renounced Arianism; Nicaea eliminated iconoclasm. Trent contradicted the Reformation: clearly, authoritatively, efficaciously, finally. Trent triggered a robust, revived Catholicism: Ignatius and the Jesuits, Philip Neri, Charles Borromeo, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, Francis DeSales, Vincent DePaul, the missionary orders all over the globe, the entirety of Baroque culture. 

Vatican II

By a misfortune of chronology, Vatican Council II predated by a few years the explosion of the Cultural Revolution. So it was not a response to that attack. It was not a preparation for it. Unfortunately, it weakened the Church in its ability to fight this attack. It lowered the Catholic immune system, just as a bacterial infection was about to attack. It embraced an openness, a positivity, a credulity just when that world was turning dark.

It was an authoritative act of the Church, surely inspired by the Holy Spirit. It was many things:

-A refocusing of the Church on its Evangelical center: the person/event of Jesus Christ.

-A return to the sources of the early Church.

-A reconciliation with what is good/true/beautiful in modernity.

-An ecumenical reconciliation with the Churches and world religions (especially Judaism).

-A quintessential expression of the post-War Church and the various movements thriving in it (ecumenism, scripture, lay leadership, etc.)

-The culmination, the final closure of the Tridentine Church. It was a splendid conclusion to a historical era. It was not the defining statement for a new Church.

Curiously, it failed to address the battles the Church would wage in the coming decades. With regard to both Islam and Communism it advocated mutuality in respect and dialogue and avoided candid witness to the violence that continues from these adversaries. More significantly, its positivity towards contemporary culture left it unarmed for the assault about to be mounted. A future historian looking at the documents and then at the travails of the Church that followed would have to note the dissonance.

What followed the Council was the collapse of the institutional Church from within and continued persecution from Communism, Islam and Cultural Progressivism. 

If the Reformation elicited from the Tridentine Church an explosion of energy, is it possible that the Cultural Revolution did the same for the Church of our time? A Catholic Counter-Liberation?

Catholic Counter-Liberation

Yes, we have in our time just such a counter-liberation. The problem with the Vatican II documents is that their positivity gives encouragement to the progressive affirmation that a new Church was initiated by that event. The so-called "Spirit of Vatican II" was a vulnerability, a openness to the viciously anti-Catholic virus of the sexual revolution, an impulse to accommodate to, to surrender to that assault. And so, we look beyond the Council for other dynamics that provide a correct hermeneutic for it and directly confront the sexual-cultural revolution.

Let's go back to 1968.

- The Cultural Revolution is exploding. 

- The thriving institutional Catholicism of the past 23 years is about to collapse catastrophically. Mainstream Catholic leadership and theology is clueless.

- I myself am a mild-mannered, introverted student spending endless hours in the Fleckinstein Philosophy Reading room, Maryknoll College Seminary, with the uber-Catholicism of Etienne Gilson, Jacques Maritain and Ivan Illich. 

- Catholic charismatic renewal is spreading from its birth in Duquesne University in 1967 to Clark/Martin in Ann Arbor, to Notre Dame and then beyond. 

-The disciples of Monsignor Luigi Giussani (previously  encouraged by Archbishop Montini of Milan) form Communion and Liberation in response to the radical student rebellions.  They adopt that name signaling that genuine liberation lies in communion with Christ in his Church. 

-Amidst that same Italian/global unrest, Chiara Lubich founds the Focolare Gen Movement for young people 15-30 years old. 

- Kiko and Carmen arrive in Rome to spread their Neocatechumenal Way beyond Spain. Giuseppe Gennarini converts from leftwing radicalism and becomes the apostle of this "way" to the USA. 

- Pope Paul VI, tutored by the brilliant Polish Cardinal Wojtyla, is about to issue Humanae Vitae, the defining authoritative statement that divided the conjugal mystics from the political activists. (SO MUCH is happening in Italy!) 

- Initial conversations begin among Ratzinger, Balthasar, Boyer, DeLubac and others regarding the Communio journal to be founded in 1972. 

- Ratzinger himself, observing the violence of the student protests, retains his theological grounding but repositions himself from Vatican II progressive to culture war conservative and publishes his influential Introduction to Christianity. 

- Cardinal Wojtyla initiates the beatification process for Sister Faustina of the Divine Mercy as he develops his catechesis on sexuality, covertly wages war with hegemonic Communism, and becomes famous for his support of the Jews among anti-Semitic student protests.

- Mother Teresa of Calcutta expands her work around the globe as she enters her extended dark night of the soul. We see that 1968 is the year the Cultural Revolution exploded across the West; even as the Great Counter Liberation was percolating quietly, humbly, anonymously, hopefully.

The primary dynamics and agents of the Great Catholic Counter Liberation include:

1. John Paul and Benedict. Their output, authoritative and scholarly, lucidly defines the Great Counter Liberation, as Trent did for the earlier Church.

2. Von Balthasar. His theology, unparalleled in depth and breath, brilliantly compliments that of John Paul and Benedict.

3. Charismatic Renewal. A powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit; bringing ecumenical communion between Catholicism, Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism; and a fresh communion with the supernatural to a Catholicism whose mainstream was tending strongly to the progressive and secular.

4. Lay Renewal Movements. Neocatechumenal Way, Focolare, Communion and Liberation and others.

5. Evangelical-Catholic Culture War Alliance. Unified Christians against Cultural Liberalism even as it risked intimacy with rightwing, Republican ideology.

6. Divine Mercy Devotion. Encouraged by John Paul and articulated in his masterful Dives in Misericordia, this articulated a powerful message of God's compassion but always in tension with divine truth, justice and wrath against sin.

7. The Latin Mass. Pope Benedict especially appreciated the value of maintaining practice of this rite in a healthy diversity.

8. New, Strong Catholic Colleges. 20 such schools (another 5 provisionally) are recognized for strong Catholic identity in contrast to the marked liberalization across most of higher education: Franciscan, Benedictine, Ave Maria, Dallas, Catholic University, Christendom, and others.

9. Homeschooling. Since the pandemic, the number of students homeschooled has been stable at 4 million, 10% of the population, up from 3-4% previously. A major motive is religious education with the widespread radicalization of the public schools and collapse of many parochial schools. Anecdotal evidence indicates good fruit.

10. New, Small, Orthodox Religious Orders. Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Community of St. John, Sisters of Life and several new Dominican orders of sisters are vigorously orthodox in contrast to mainstream orders in swift decline.

11. Martyrs, Especially across the Communist and Islamist Worlds. Mainstream, liberal media gives little attention to the very large number of martyrs across the globe. In the economy of the Church, however, we know that "blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."

12. Enduring Catholic Practices: Worship, Service of the Poor, Family Life. Overall, of course, more important than all these significant developments, is the steady, based, humble practice of our Catholic faith by countless families, parishes, priests, brothers, nuns all united around the Eucharist, within the Communion of Saints, in confession of sins and aspirational holiness, fidelity to our legacy, service of the poor and suffering, and loyalty to state of life.

What is the Great Counter Liberation?

-The affirmation that genuine liberation of the human person and community is found in communion with the person/event of Jesus Christ in his Church.

-Articulation of core, perennial Catholic values in a fresh, contemporary vernacular.

-Vigorous, militant resistance against cultural liberalism as: rupture of sexuality from the spousal union, deconstruction of gender, genocide of the helpless, disconnect from authority-revelation-tradition, denial of the supernatural, exaggerated trust in science, adulatory elevation of the isolated-sovereign-Self.

-A conjugal mysticism that finds in Christ's spousal love for his bridal Church the hermeneutical key to sexuality, gender, family, sacramental life, priesthood and religious life.

-Eucharistic, Marian, aspirational of holiness, chaste, faithful to vows and state of life, docile to the hierarchical Church, close to the poor, detached from political ideologies, Philo-Semitic, ecumenical.

If counter-reformation was the interpretive key to Catholicism after Trent, counter-liberation as explained above is key to that after Vatican II. Similar to Baroque Catholicism, it is defined by opposition, contradiction: not of Protestantism (with which it largely reconciled in Vatican II), but against cultural liberalism including its penetration of the Church as theological progressivism. 

In contrast to Baroque Catholicism which prevailed up to the Council,  Counter-Liberation:

1. Not only reconciles with the Reformation, but restores a balance to Catholicism with a fresh evangelical focus on Christ and an enhanced grasp of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.

2. Is a sophisticated, intellectual engagement with modernity, discerning the good from the bad, especially in the brilliant intellects of John Paul, Benedict, Balthasar and others.

3. It ponders more deeply, in response to the Cultural Revolution, the Mystery of spousal communion: that of Christ with the Church, within marriage/family, and at the core of the Catholic cult of worship, sacrament, priesthood and religious life.

4. It engages confidently, assertively, always in truth and love, with global adversaries including communism, Islamism, cultural liberalism, and various disordered political ideologies.

It is a singular blessing to be Catholic in the time of the Great Counter Liberation.

We, the Church Militant on earth, are always at war. Always under attack, from the world, the flesh and the devil. Always under attack by our adversaries. But more importantly, always on the offensive. We are assured by our Savior that the gates of hell will not prevail. Our eventual victory is assured. But we do play the long game. We are assertive, confident, zealous, fearless...with John Paul, Benedict, Luigi, Kiko and Carmen, Mother Teresa, those who have gone before us and who march with us now.

Dueling Catholicisms: John Paul/Benedict vs. Francis/Leo

The Durbin affair was a clear disclosure of the divide within our Church. Cardinal Cupich planned to prominently honor the senator for his work on behalf of immigrants despite his longtime, fervent advocacy of legal abortion. Durbin's bishop Thomas Paprocki was joined by nine in strongly protesting this as a blatant violation of the episcopal policy to not honor pro-abortion leaders. Of the 441 active and retired bishops, none came to the support of Cupich. That makes 2% of our bishops who defended the agreed upon policy. We see that the default of our episcopacy is to avoid conflict.

Durban cannot receive communion in his own parish or diocese of Springfield, but in the Archdiocese of Chicago next door he is feted as a hero. Clearly we are dealing here with two different religions: Catholic Thick and Catholic Lite.

Most significant was the response of Pope Leo. With a candor and transparency more typical of his predecessor, he responded that "if you are against abortion but indifferent to immigrants you are not prolife." This off-the-cuff, non-authoritative response was telling: clearly the deportation of  immigrants is more troubling to him than the destruction of the unborn.

It is now clear that  Francis and Leo share a theological vision that contrasts sharply with that offered by John Paul and Benedict. Before contrasting the two, lets see what all four popes have in common.

Fervent Evangelical Catholics

Each is a man of prayer, clearly close to the person of Jesus Christ, and zealous in the mission to share this faith with the world. They all love the Church. They are complex personalities who combine aspects that might be considered progressive and conservative. 

They differ primarily in their responses to the cultural revolution that swept the West in the 1960s. John Paul and Benedict articulated a clear, strong contradiction of sexual liberalism; Francis and Leo are accommodating and conciliatory, seeking to downplay the conflict. A second difference is that the more recent popes present a political, global agenda as integral to Catholicism. The prior pontiffs do not disagree with the values in this political vision but resist giving them such prominence as they see more clearly the limits of papal competence in political policy and the inevitability of diversity in ideology among Catholics in prudential matters. The two are not in absolute contradiction of each other. As Catholics, we profess allegiance to every pope. But the inconsistencies and incompatibilities, blatant in the Durbin affair and other issues, are evident and require a decision from the thinking Catholic: Which vision do I follow? Most serious thinkers fall into one school or the other: to fail to decide is to remain indecisive, confused and ambivalent.

What follows will consider the heart of each vision, here described as "conjugal mysticism" and "social justice activism," and then highlight major differences.

Conjugal Mysticism

At the very start of his papacy, John Paul presented a long "catechesis on the human body" (later known as "theology of the body") that decisively answered the sexual revolution as it deeply developed Catholic teaching on the human person, body, gender, sexuality, marriage and family. He highlighted masculinity and femininity as God's creation and as mutuality in self-gift between the spouses and together to family and the broader community. In continuity with Catholic tradition, he brought illumination from contemporary thinking, especially phenomenology, to unveil the sacredness of sexuality and marriage. This deeper penetration into the Mystery of sexuality also illuminated the "spousal" nature of Catholic liturgical/sacramental life. Pondering the scriptural/Pauline view of Christ as Bridegroom of the Bridal Church, light was thrown upon the masculine role of the priesthood, the feminine-virginal identity of the Church, the primacy of the Marian over the Petrine dimensions of the Church, the bridal nature of professed virginity and more. With a novel freshness, classic Catholic principles around fidelity to vows and state of life, personal chastity, marital and religious stability were given new life and perspective. This teaching, in my view, was the most significant development in Catholic theology in the 20th century. It is not an abstract philosophy, but practical and concrete, especially inspiring for those of us who struggle with chastity.

Ratzinger-and-then-Benedict worked closely with John Paul so that their teaching can be seen as a unity. He combined brilliance in scholarship, erudition in scripture/tradition, a philosophical personalism similar to John Paul's with an inspired catechetical touch. Theirs can be considered one papacy.

Differences Between John Paul and Benedict

Along with the unity, we can see that two such original thinkers did differ in emphasis on certain matters.

Benedict was more positive and supportive of the Latin Mass which he elevated. He loved that tradition. John Paul, to my knowledge, did not strongly address the issue one way or the other. We know that Leo apparently will continue the repression of the rite begun by Francis.

Ecumenically, John Paul collaborated with the Islamic countries at the UN conferences in Cairo and Bejing to fight the abortion imperialism of American and Western sexual liberalism. He also participated in the Assis ecumenical event which appeared to join Christianity/Judaism/Islam in prayer together.

Benedict was not comfortable with the relaxed theological grounding of that ecumenical event. Additionally, early in his papacy he delivered the (in)famous Regensburg lecture in which he defended the Catholic synthesis of faith and reason as he critiqued the West for a reason without faith and Islam for a faith cut off from reason. This was, in my view, a brilliant presentation which exemplified his theological clarity and depth. But it provoked violence across the globe from Muslim crowds. So we see a difference in their relationship with Islam. It seems obvious that both reacted to real realities in that religion, the bright side and the dark side.

Social Justice Activism

Neither Francis nor Leo intend to change Church teaching on sexuality. Rather, they want to avoid the topic. Early in his pontificate, Leo hosted James Martin S.J., thus continuing his predecessor's close collaboration. Martin does not explicitly contradict Catholic teaching. Rather, he ignores it. He implicitly devalues it. His gay-affirmation crusade intends, of course, to welcome those who feel rejected by the Church. In doing so, he devalues the sacred significance of sexuality, including the gravity of sins against chastity. In effect, he declares the spousal meaning of sexuality (fruitful, exclusive, faithful, free, male/female) as insignificant.  In gospel of gay affirmation, homosexual practice is reconfigured from a sin to be confessed to an expression of wholesome affection. This requires, obviously, a resolute avoidance of the evident indignity and pathology of the specific acts. If these acts are benign, then the Church is indeed homophobic, hateful and condemnatory. If they are disordered, than Martin, Francis and Leo are supporting patterns of sin. And so we have the blessing of homosexual unions which affirms the goodness, even of the physical dimension.

The heart of Francis/Leo Catholicism is care for the suffering, the violated, the poor, not just in traditional works of mercy practiced by Mother Theresa and so many saints, but in social policy. They articulate a global, political vision: welcoming of immigrants, green policy for the environment, prohibition of the death penalty, redistribution of wealth. A few years ago Cardinal Joe Tobin of NJ, close friend of both popes, identified Francis as the political protagonist against antagonist Donald Trump. 

The problem here is that they swerve out of their lane, as authoritative on faith and morals, and exercise a "clericalism" that presumes authority about complex, prudential matters. Social policy is properly the expertise of political processes and leaders, assisted by scientists, theorists, activists, and others. The basic moral vision is properly the concern of the pope. But when the pope involves with concrete policy (like border walls, etc.) he depletes his authority, polarizes the Church and alienates those who come to different practical conclusions about the best policies to follow.

Difference Between Francis and Leo

Leo has consistently said he will continue the policies of his predecessor. He is man of his word.

But the difference in temperament is startling. Francis was impulsive, indiscrete, intentionally provocative and disruptive. He was viscerally hateful of the Latin Mass, "clericalist" priests, the USA Evangelical-Catholic coalition against abortion, and "rigid" traditionalism. 

Leo is restrained, modest, steady, institutional, moderate, and looking to reconcile and stabilize the Church. In the same week he met with Fr. Martin he met with Cardinal Burke and allowed a Latin mass in St. Peter's. 

Style has about it already a substance. This is why I have hopes for this papacy. My hope is that he will listen to the voices that Francis repressed; the voices of many devout Catholics; the voices of John Paul,  Benedict, Augustine and others. My hope is that he will bring peace to the Church by hearing what is true in the views of those opposed to Francis.

Key Issues of Difference

Chinese Church.  While the agreement of the Vatican with the Communist state remains secretive, it is clear that Francis surrendered control of the Church to the government. This contrasts sharply with the war John Paul waged and finally won against Soviet Communism. This will surely rank as the most disastrous, shameful policy of Pope Francis. We wait to see how Leo will proceed.

Sexuality. Francis destroyed the John Paul Institute for the Family in Rome. This had institutionalized the magisterial legacy of John Paul and Benedict. Leo said he will continue the Francis direction. He avoided laying out a theological vision but intends it to be a more practical assist to family life. He shares an anti-intellectualism with Francis: an indifference  or aversion to the deep philosophical legacy of that school.

The Latin Mass.  Indications are that Leo will continue the repression of this rite. His meeting with Burke and allowance of the rite in St. Peter's signal that he will be less heavy handed and more open to dialogue with that important movement in the Church.

Synodality.   Influential participants in Vatican II, John Paul and Benedict understood "synod" to be a gathering of bishops to exercise their apostolic authority. Leo follows Francis' novel contrivance of "synod" as an open, democratic, dialogic process. It is an unprecedented, alternate source of Church authority which includes even those who reject the Catholic legacy. Vulnerable to manipulation by progressive activists, it excludes many voices who are loyal to the Church, including those who avoid it as a big mistake.

Dogmatization of Political Policy.  The elevation of leftist, Western ideology into Catholic dogma is best exemplified in the death penalty. Perhaps our widest catechetical error is that "the Church is against the death penalty." John Paul and Benedict both strenuously opposed it for prudential reasons. They argued, for example, that contemporary prisons are so good that we do not need capital punishment to protect society. By this logic, they upheld the traditional teaching that use of lethal force for protection of society is the duty of the state when necessary. They maintained the issue as prudential, about which Catholics can disagree. It is not inherently/always evil (like adultery, abortion, rape) but dependent upon circumstances (like warfare, theft (of bread to feed starving) or lying (to gestapo about Jews in attic.)) They knew the limits of their finite, practical opinion; they realized they had no authority to unilaterally change an ancient teaching. What I know of American prisons makes me skeptical. And I am sure many other countries are worse. Neither they nor Francis consulted with the world's bishops or produced a scholarly, authoritative study considering the classic aims of retribution: deterrence, protection, rehabilitation and retribution.  Impulsively, dictatorially Francis ruled the practice as "inadmissible as a violation of the dignity and inviolability of the human person." He presents here a moral intuition that is taken to be self-evident but is not part of our tradition. It is a rupture with a consistent practice.  It is supported by no historical legacy, no episcopal consensus, no authoritative argument. Rather, Francis, with most of the secular ("no afterlife") progressive West does not like the thing.

Will Our Unity Hold?

The German Church seems to be moving towards schism. But on the whole, I see no danger of a catastrophic global divide. We have lived with this divide for 60 years. Powerful dynamics, interior to Catholicism, hold us together.  The sources of our union are dual: truth and love. The truths in dispute are all hills upon which we are willing to die. But that dedication to truth is infused by, as it infuses, love of the brother and sister. The exigency to witness to truth coexists with the urgency for unity. 

Catholic leadership at its best retains a generosity, a tolerance for difference, a reverence even for the adversary. Francis was weak on this: he emotionally attacked those with whom he disagreed. Leo by contrast, from the start, shows a deep intention to maintain unity and listen to all sides. This is a good thing! The response of the American episcopacy to the Durbin controversy also shows this valuation of unity.

Going Forward

The pronounced divide in our Church is not normal. But it is not unusual. Our Church is not a sect, with clearly defined, protective boundaries setting us apart. Rather, we mingle in the broader society; we seek to influence it; but we are also unavoidably influenced by it. And so, a tension between accommodation and resistance is unavoidable. 

In the long game, thick, countercultural Catholicism is far more promising than the thinner version, which adapts to the surrounding world. Consider, for example: which is more likely to move our youth to priestly and religious vocations...conjugal mysticism or social justice activism? Clearly, one passionate about the immigrants, global warming or economic inequality will more likely want to be an activist, a politician, a policy expert. Which will draw our young to have large families: the ethos of chastity and fertility or that of contraception and gay-affirmation? The questions answer themselves.

John Paul and Benedict were world class theologians of the calibre of our Church doctors. Their teachings will be forming seminarians and students of theology far into the future. It was a sadness that Francis rejected their vision. We hope that the Catholic intuitions of Leo will overcome the superficial theological heritage he received from his predecessor.

 

 

Sin of Omission (2): Praying for My Enemies

"Fredo, you're my older brother and I love you, but don't ever take sides with anyone against the family with anyone, ever, again."  Michael Corleone to brother Fredo in Godfather.

 I confess: I do not much pray for my enemies. 

Well, I don't have many enemies. Will Rogers famously said "I never met a man I didn't like." I don't go quite that far, but pretty close. My wife says I like people more than they like me and I think they like me more than they do. She may be right. But this is a good problem to have. I have no intention to correct it.

My enemies are intellectual: Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, Freud. They are dead. I would do well to pray for their souls.

In this diverse American society, I have always been keenly aware of my cultural-religious tribe: Catholic. We are in competition with other tribes: mainline WASP Protestants, Evangelicals-Fundamentalists, Jews both secular and orthodox, Black Evangelicals and so forth. But raised in the harmonious, ecumenical post-war period, I see these more as competitors or benign adversaries, not enemies, like in a wholesome recreational athletic league. 

And so, I do not have a personal animus against those from other tribes: Clintons, Trumps, Obamas, Bushes, and so forth. They are what they are; they don't know better.

Rather, the enemy I despise is the Catholic who betrays our family and our values: politicians like the Bidens, Kennedys, Pelosis, Cuomos, and such who crusade for abortion, force Catholic agencies to place adoptee children with gay couples, force the Little Sisters of the Poor to pay for contraception, force our daughters to compete with biological boys. 

Worse still are the Church leaders...theologians, priests, bishops...who betray us in the Culture War by blessing gay unions, tolerating abortion, abandoning our deposit of faith to accommodate fashion: Cardinals like Fernandez, Cupich, McElroy, Parolin and others. 

These are to me what Fredo was to Michael Corleone. 

It is important that I pray for them...for a number of reasons.

First of all, for my own soul. That I grow in charity; and not surrender to contempt, resentment, hatred.

Secondly, to enhance my own witness to Truth since I will be far more effective when I speak from a heart of serenity, love and openness. 

Lastly, for the good of the Church. By speaking the truth always in love, out of prayer, humbly and open-mindedly, I contribute to the unity of the Church.

Yes...praying for my political-theological enemies within the Church is a salutary exercise: for my own heart, soul and intellect...and for the good of the Church.

 

Sin of Omission: Praying for the Souls in Purgatory

Today being the last day of November, the month of the last things and the souls in purgatory, I publicly confess: in my Catholic adulthood of 60 years I have almost never, excepting wakes and funerals, prayed for the souls in purgatory. I never confessed the sin until Friday. The priest, who is about my age, clearly resonated and seemed to almost co-confess with me.  I knew about the souls, of course. But I didn't care. Purgatory was not part of my lived world. 

It is not just me of course. I am a product of my society and age. At the time of the second Vatican Council, our society, including Catholicism, turned increasingly secular...right about 1965 as I graduated from high school. I ingested the flavor of the age and lost interest in the souls. On purgatory we Catholics for practical purposes went Protestant. No need for purification or reparation: God's mercy is all that matters. Souls pretty much go smoothly, directly to heaven: they are "in a better place." And so, we gather "to celebrate a life." Judgment, wrath, purgatory, retribution, reparation, purification...all that is SO pre-Vatican Council!

It was not always so. Medieval and Tridentine Catholicism placed great emphasis upon prayer for the souls. The Mystical Body of Christ was a sophisticated economy of grace: the saints in heaven (Triumphant) pray for us who struggle on earth (Militant) as we assist the souls in purgatory (Suffering). Prayers, masses, and sacrifices for the souls was a foundation of Catholic life. Our generation learned this from the Baltimore Catechism, but we cavalierly discarded it after the Council in our implicitly arrogant dismissal of our legacy. 

My emergent consciousness is not unrelated to my age. Born 8/20/47, I was conceived circa 11/20/46 and so have just completed 79 years alive and begun my 80th year. Life expectancy for men in the USA is around 75. So, purgatory is becoming increasingly probable and imminent!

I hope my family and friends are more diligent in prayer for my soul than I have been for those who have gone before me.

The "saint for the day" in Magnificat for November 2025 has been "saints who teach us about purgatory." This has opened my eyes. My favorite is Blessed Christina the Wonderful. She died; in the middle of her funeral mass she sat up in the casket and levitated up to the rafters of the Church. Later she explained that she had gone to heaven, hell and purgatory and seen in each people she knew. She was told she could go to heaven or return to earth to pray for sinners and the souls in purgatory. She opted to return and spent the rest of her life doing just that. 

Saint Maria Assunta Pallotta prayed the "Eternal Rest" prayer 100 times a day to help the souls. This is very doable and salutary. The prayer takes about 5 seconds to say, without rushing. So, said 100 times is 500 seconds which comes to under 10 minutes a day. It is a good aspiration: short, direct, inspiring. It can be said while walking, driving, or restless in bed at night. It fruitfully occupies a mind that otherwise can become distracted, discouraged or restless.

No, this is not "salvation by works." It is a work, an act, but it is inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is not human initiative. It is a work of Christ in his Church.

Prayer for the souls is a win/win/win. It helps them to get to heaven. They help us from heaven. But in addition, like any meritorious act...prayer, act of mercy, sacrifice...it sanctifies our soul. After I pray for the souls, I am flowing with faith, hope, charity, serenity, gratitude, joy, and integrity.

I had an argument with Sister Joan Noreen, of happy memory, who insisted that the souls in purgatory pray for us and that we can pray to them, as well as for them. I resisted: insisting we pray for them, not to them. When I looked into it a little further I saw that it was unclear. Most of the earlier fathers and doctors have us praying for, not to them. They are passive; dependent upon our prayers. But more recent authorities, including a statement in the Catechism have them also praying for us. It seems to me to be something Catholics can disagree about as the teaching is not clear. But my position is "lex orandi, lex credendi." "The way we pray is the way we believe." Our traditional prayers and liturgical practices NEVER have us praying TO the souls. So why start now?

I pray daily TO those I know who lived holy lives, who are not canonizable, who had evident flaws, but lived in the state of grace and are surely in God's presence, even if serving a mild purgatory: Sister Joan Noreen herself,  my father/mother Ray and Jeanne, Aunt Grace, Betty Hopf, Fathers Joe Whelan S.J., Avery Cardinal Dulles S.J., John Wrynn S.J., Neal Doherty S.J., Paul Viale, John and Mary Rapinich, Sisters of Charity Patricia Brennan, Virginia Kean, Maria Martha Joyce, Alberta, Peggy McCarthy. 

Souls I did not know but pray TO:  Pope Benedict, Baron von Huegel, Dietrich and Alice von Hildebrandt, Maurice Blondel, Jacques and Raissa Maritain, Etienne Gilson, Fr. Schleeben, Elizabeth Anscombe, G.K. Chesterton, Ronald Knox, C.S. Lewis, Fathers Delubac, Danielou, Congar, Boyer, Phillips, Cardinal Suenens, Archbishop Martinez, Popes Pius XII and John Paul I, Caryll Houselander, Dorothy Day, Catherine Doherty, Adrienne von Speyr, Madaleine del Brel, Elizabeth Leseur, Rose Hawthorne, Mother Margaret Cusak, and others I cannot recall at the moment.

My friend Tim does not the "Eternal Rest" prayer. He understands "rest" to be absence, negation, privation. I differ. I see "rest" in the context of prayer as plenitude, reception, joy, gratitude, praise, liberation from stress and striving. I see that genuine, wholesome, holy action always springs forth from deeper grounding in "rest" as abiding, reception, communion, plenitude. In God and his life, of course, the polarity of rest/action that structures our finitude is transcended in an eternal rest that is at the same time an eternal event of love.

Eternal Rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let the perpetual light shine upon them.  May their souls and those of all the faithful departed rest in peace.

Fierce Women: Mary Crushing the Head of the Serpent and Maccabee's Mother of Seven Sons

 Rightly, we honor Our Lady of Sorrow's in the Pieta, the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, the seven sorrows prophesized by Simeon. The heartbreak of a mother seeing her son suffer  is a staple of Catholic piety. Put perhaps there is a problem of balance: she is also the one who crushes the head of the serpent. She is Our Lady of Victories. With her son she is triumphant over sin, death, guilt, the world and the devil. She is determined, steadfast, ferocious, fearless, courageous, long-suffering, hopeful, magnanimous, longanimous, exultant and victorious. She is not pitiable. She is not a victim. She, with her son, is victor.

Recall the mother of seven sons in Maccabees. Her sons are being tortured to death, one at a time, by the gentile Greeks who insist they eat pork and adore false gods. She is free of a soft, sentimental pity. She does not seek to shield them from pain and suffering. She exhorts them to courage, perseverance, loyalty to God and their faith. 

The masterful Mel Gibson film The Passion of Christ is overheavy with pain and torture but redeemed by many scenes. The crucial one is half way through the movie: Christ falls under the cross and Mary bends down close to his face. He looks at her, his face grotesque with bleeding. Serenely, confidently, even ecstatically he says: "Mother, see, I make all things new." This was a brilliant touch by Gibson. We have, of course, no record of him saying this on his walk up Golgotha. But it is the point of the entire drama: he is making all things new by his passion and death. When he stretches out his arms, in pain, on the cross, he embraces the entire world, and every sinner, as he turns and tells his companion " this very day you will be with me in paradise." This was the ultimate moment of victory!

Consider also Jesus encounter with the women of Jerusalem, recalled in the 8th station of the cross. Falsely, it is usually called "Jesus Comforts the Women of Jerusalem." This is blatantly wrong. There is not comfort here. He flatly rejects their pity and comfort. He says: "Do not weep for me but for yourselves." He warns them of the suffering to come upon themselves and their children as a day of judgment is coming. He is calling them to repentance from sin. And to ready themselves for the imminent suffering. This is severely discomforting. It is a call to conversion, to courage and endurance. It is a word meant to sober and strengthen. There is here severity, ferocity, brutal honesty.

Contemporary Catholic, especially progressive piety, is saturated with an effete, toxic ethos of sentimental pity and victimhood. The "bleeding heart" grieves victimhood in Ukraine, Gaza, the ghetto, the "LGBTQ community." This does not spring from a genuine, holy femininity...that of Mary and the Mother of seven. Rather, from a decadent feminism. It flourishes in distance from the actual people pitied. The Ukrainians are tough, resilient people who want to fight the Russians for their sovereignty. The Palestinians in large number approve of the slaughter/rape that started the war. The gay community is now privileged, affluent and powerful. Black men are not powerless, pitiable victims of systemically racist police.

Protestants mostly avoid crucifixes with the suffering body of Jesus. Catholics glory in that image, and in the 14 stations, the 5 sorrowful mysteries, the Pieta and our Lady of Sorrows. But, Jesus suffered for three hours on the cross. It was temporary. He reigns, with his mother-virgin-queen at his side, eternally in unending Joy. 

I imagine that Jesus in carrying his cross and looking down from it, to Mary and John and the women, in his fragile, vulnerable flesh was heartened by the presence of his mother, the women, and his beloved disciple. He did not feel viewed with pity, as a victim. Rather, he was heartened by their pride in him, his courage, his fidelity, and his triumph. 

May we be just such encouragement to each other. 

Dialing Down the Temperature...in the Political and Theological Wars...in the Time of Trump and Leo

Napoleon Bonaparte: "If you want to understand a man, look at what was happening in his world in his 20s." I was 20 in 1967, exactly as the Cultural Revolution exploded in the West. That remains, for me, the defining Event of my world/time. EVERYTHING ELSE...fall of the Soviets and rise of China, immigration, global warming, internet/AI, wars in Vietnam/Iraq/Afghanistan/Ukraine/Gaza, Islamic terrorism, Civil Rights, gun violence...EVERYTHING ELSE is a sideshow, a subplot. What matters most is the dignity and value of the human person (especially the small, vulnerable and incompetent), of marriage, family, sexuality, gender, chastity, fidelity, tradition, the sacramental life, revelation, the Eternal. It took me a little time: I graduated college 1969 and married 1971 as a moderate liberal. But by 1975, under the influence of some holy, brilliant Jesuit theologians and Cursillo/Charismatic Renewals, I recognized the new structure of the world. I have been a culture warrior for the last 50 years. This war is only intensifying.

I am not retiring from the conflict. But I am drawn to dial down the heat: to be serene, confident, gracious, open-minded, 

Perhaps I am old, tired, mellow? A "made man" who has nothing to prove? Who is less anxious, threatened, indignant, angry?

Perhaps I am returning to the more innocent, positive world of my youth, the early 1960s, the robust American Catholicism at the time of the Council, serene, confident and ecstatic in urgency to engage and embrace everything, in the world beyond the Church, that is Good, True and Beautiful. 

It has to do with the amygdala! We know this is the primary cerebral location of the emotions: fear, anger, anxiety, hatred, indignation. If the passions here are raging furiously it is difficult for the intellect, largely located in the prefrontal cortex, to function well: soberly, perceptively, intuitively, empathetically, wisely. Rather, disordered emotions of anxiety, rage and indignation distort the intellectual apprehension. 

In this age of Trump, everyone's amygdala seems to be aflame. The underclass and we moral conservatives are enraged at the progressive, overclass hegemony and have rallied around Trump as our champion. Our feelings of vulnerability, threat, rage and indignation can be so overwhelming that we lack sobriety and clarity. Progressives, on the other extreme, are apoplectic. And so, Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), as inflamed amygdala, is epidemic on both sides of the political divide.

Similarly, in the Church, the theological civil war rages on undiminished. John Paul and Benedict gave the definitive, lucid response to theological progressivism. But the more recent dual-pontificate has taken a different direction. They have not directly contradicted the Catholic legacy on the nature of the human person, but have downplayed it, diverted attention to political issues (environment, immigration) and sought to appease the progressives. 

Our Catholic civil war of over half a century continues under Leo. He leans to appease the left. But, in contrast to Francis, he embodies a sincere intent to listen to both sides, to maintain harmony, to steady the bark of Peter. He intends to minimize conflict. To do this he will, in my opinion, compromise on fundamentals of our heritage. But the underlying pastoral intent has value. 

And so, in American politics and the Church we do well to lower the temperature, to diminish the anxiety and rage, to relax a little.

This is also good for the soul. My own sense is that God is drawing me into his peace, to a relaxation, to cessation of anger and anxiety, to "abide, thrive and bear fruit in Him." With regard to Trump and MAGA we all do well to lighten up. With regard to Pope Leo, we do well to emulate his tranquility, his pastoral compassion, his stability, his desire for unity and harmony. 

This does not mean we compromise on the truth. Rather, with charity, patience, serenity and graciousness emergent, our witness to the truth will become more gentle, confident, and appealing.

Above all: we invoke the Holy Spirit...to inflame...not our amygdala...but our souls ...with simple praise and thanks, with liberation from resentment and fear, with supernatural charity, with quiet zeal,

Be Still My Soul!

Come Holy Spirit! 

In Praise of In-Laws

In-Laws: underrated. Underappreciated. Rarely discussed, considered, studied. 

They are TERRIFIC! I know because I have a ton. Oldest of nine, happily married, father of seven...I am "well connected." In the "social capital" that counts...spiritual, moral, cultural, intellectual...I am more wealthy than the Trumps, the Russian oligarchs, and the Saudi princes all together!

They are family, not by blood, by covenant. How marvelous: every marriage is a unique, unprecedented "creation from nothing" whereby God gives life to a new family, which combines two distinct families, and promises an entirely novel legacy going forward.

When I look at my grandchildren I swell with amazement: they belong to me, the are "mine," but they are so much more, they are also "other," as they come from the other side as well, and they move into a novel, new, promised future largely obscure to me, in God's good Providence.

There is a mutual belonging, a bond, a covenant with in-laws. In ancient societies we would come to fight for each other when attacked. Royal families married to form alliances. 

That doesn't happen now, but there abides a deep, unspoken connection. In  this era of isolation, loneliness and individualism we do well to appreciate our in-laws!

Last week I attended the wake-funeral-repast of my brother's wife's brother. I got to know the family. I was deeply touched and impressed. Their flaws and gifts are so different from those of my family; but so fascinating, impressive, talented, and charming! I am thrilled that my brother married into this family; that my niece and two nephews belong also to this family; and I and mine are well connected.

There is a deep Catholic intuition in the appreciation of the in-laws. Some societies allow and even prefer, for example, marriage of 1st cousins. This may help explain some of the fierce, tribal militancy of some Muslim groups. The Church forbids (with dispensation possible) marriage of 1st cousins and so urges us to move beyond boundaries of blood to bond with other families. This expresses the "catholic" passion to move outward, to share our faith, to unite with all peoples to the ends of the earth.

Beyond family, a similar, analogous bond unites us with other groups. There are many to which I do not fully belong but am connected. As a charismatic Catholic, I am bonded with all Evangelicals and Pentecostals. As a non-MAGA Republican, I am part of the broad, diverse conservative movement. My daughter "married into" (as a professed participant) the Memores Domini of Communion and Liberation and my son and his family into the Neocatchumenal Way. My son-in -law works in Jesuit secondary education and my granddaughter now for America magazine. I am close to the Jesuits, Maryknoll, CFRs and some Salesians as I have worked closely with religious women Dominicans, Felicians and Charities.  I am friend of Catholic Worker, the Latin Mass and the  Bruderhof.

I am proud member of the Fox Family (with Brett, Martha, Shannon), the CNN Family (Erin, Anderson), the NY Times (Ross, Maureen, Bret, Nicholas, Ezra, Thomas), and (as non-subscriber) the Wall Street Journal  (Peggy, Kimberly, Daniel, Jason, Allysia) but moreso of Communio, Crisis, The Catholic Thing, EWTN, and National Catholic Register.

Obviously, I cannot endorse all the positions of all these groups. Every family has its flaws as well as its gifts, charisms and charms. The problems and sins do not stop us from loving them.

You can see my Catholicity urges me to engage even my intellectual adversaries: to draw close, to listen, to embrace what is good. I cannot retreat into a culture war silo or tribe. I cannot shrivel up in the bunker in rage, anxiety and indignation. Rather, I learn from my enemy; I pray for him; I delight in what is good and true; and I assist him, by my affection-respect-prayer, as I am myself assisted, to overcome the errors that entrap. 

To the Catholic sensibility, the "otherness" ... of the in-laws, of the theological or political adversary...is not something to be feared, but to be cherished.  And that is why it is such a blessing to have in-laws! 

The Charism and Charm of the Fat Guy

I got thinking about "fatness" after reading my friend Stephen Adubatto's provocative Substack (Cracks in Postmodernity)  on priests fat, skinny, weight-lifting and so forth. 

My mother and her mother did not like fat. I think that is common among the Irish. Our society is relentless in its distaste for it as ugly and unhealthy. "Diet and exercise" we hear endlessly. Okay! But lets be honest: when it comes to the body you are pretty much stuck with what you are given...short/tall, skinny/muscular/fat. There's not a lot you can do. You know: genetics, metabolism, etc. The implicit moral judgment that the heavy person is somehow indulgent and lazy is a vile rash judgement. (By the way: rash judgment is by far the most prevalent sin! It is a sin of the intellect but rooted in an uncharitable and lazy will.) Fear and loathing of fatness is widely prevalent, especially among our young women. 

What is true is that oftentimes the fat guy/girl is the most fun, funny, humble, self-effacing, intuitive, generous, ironic, eccentric, warm, intelligent and holy person in the group. 

Consider:

St. Pope John XXIII

St. Thomas Aquinas

Monsignor Lorenzo Albicette

Servant of God Catherine Doherty

Winston Churchill

G.K. Chesterton

Chris Farley

Oprah Winfry

Jackie Gleason

Lou Costello

Luciano Pavarotti

Oliver Hardy

Burl Ives

John Goodman

Rush Limbaugh

Obesity is a serious suffering, a cross, physically-socially-psychologically. But spiritually, there is possible a profound irony, a la Flannery O'Connor type insight: when suffered graciously it yields fruit in compassion, humility, comedy, intuition, and wisdom. By a strange paradox, the "dis-appeal" of the heavy body comes to manifest as a startling temple of the Holy Spirit. 

So, fatness becomes a sacramental of the transcendent and the eschatological. Our appearance, here and now, in time and history, in the flesh...is not the ultimate. What is ultimate is the life of the soul, in union with God, starting now and going forward into eternity. 

PLEASE...PLEASE...PLEASE...Do not tell me "If you have health, you have everything!" That is so so so so wrong. People lack or lose health...do they have nothing? That may the the stupidest statement I have ever heard.

Fatness is similar to vowed poverty, chastity and obedience. Gratefully, generously, humbly accepted it points beyond to the deepest meaning of life, under the appearance of the appealing and the healthy...to the soul in communion with God. 

I think with gratitude and respect of my father-in-law, Al, a big man who danced like Fred Astaire, was smart and funny and humble and a good husband and father to my bride.

I think of our classmate, friend John: undisputed leader of our class, mature, hilarious, fatherly, generous, super-fun, gifted. Recovering from alcoholism, he embraced 12-step spirituality, and went on to do superb work for the addicted, homeless and mentally ill. Always a Joy to be with.

Another college roommate and friend, George. Italian, he was the first one to point out to me the Irish bias against the fat. He was a two-pointer. He was also homosexual. That, like fatness, is an affliction of suffering that is often accompanied by interior charisms like empathy, intuition, intelligence, charity, wisdom, creativity. George, of happy memory, was also a Joy to be with.

I honor the memory of Al and George by gratitude for those we love who free us from our fear, shame and loathing and bring light and levity into our lives.

Grieving the Charismatic Movement while Riding the Pentecostal Current

 'The Charismatic Renewal is not a movement, but a current of the Holy Spirit."

The above was spoken by Cardinal Suenens half a century ago and more recently by Cardinal Raniero Cantalamesa. These are the only two charismatic Catholic cardinals that I know. They have impeccable credentials. Suenens was one of the presiders at the Vatican Council, a prelate of immense prestige and influence at the time, and the ecclesiastical godfather of the Catholic charismatic renewal. Cantalamesa was papal preacher for 44 years, in service of John Paul, Benedict and Francis. That these three distinctive popes would all surrender to his influence is extraordinary. To disagree with such authorities takes a lot of chutzpah. Fleckinstein does not hesitate: With due respect, your Eminences, but, as in most things Catholic, this is not an either/or. This renewal was a movement, as it continues as a Pentecostal current. But first, a confession.

Craving the Renewal of the 70s

Nostalgia is at least a near occasion of, if not an actual sin: a disordered attachment to an idealized past and thereby a disconnect from the actual graces of the present as they move us into the promises of God for the future. I stand guilty as charged: I have been longing for the Renewal of the 70s.

They were the best years of my life...in regard to zeal for God and the things of the spirit.

Spring 1973, we were happily married for two years when we made Cursillo and joined a charismatic prayer group. Our lives changed drastically. We entered into intimacy with Jesus as our Lord and Savior and then received the "baptism of the Holy Spirit," an internal surge of the Spirit, within a community of prayer, and a defining sense of God's powerful, loving presence and guidance. We filled up with praise of God, prayed in tongues, experientially received clear guidance, and surged with Joy and Hope. For the remaining 7 years of that decade, we participated fervently in the prayer group and life took on a steady ecstatic tone. From joy to joy!

We received our first three children. My wife, fully engaged with me in this new life (at once, and miraculously, Pentecostal and Catholic), stayed home with the children. I made just enough money to get by. I taught religion in a tough Jersey City Catholic high school and fought the good fight to maintain discipline and share the faith in a time largely disinterested in the things of the spirit. I was employed by a local parish to connect with Spanish-speaking families in a housing project and to teach summer bible camp. For 18 months  I was without a steady job, bounding from one thing to another: painting homes of friends, loading trucks, teaching school, riveting trucks at the Ford plant, going to job interviews. We always received, providentially, just enough money, just in time, to meet our needs. I was blissfully unconcerned, although our parents were not so fortunate. My serenity was in part my temperamental positivity, in part the result of coming of age in a thriving economy in which I always found a job, and largely our intense trust in God's perfect providential plan and guidance. Things like career planning and financial security were nowhere on my horizon. Why worry about such trivia when every day brought a fresh encounter or revelation...spiritual, intellectual, dramatic. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be given to you."  And so, November 1977 I had no work and went to UPS which was hiring seasonal help; they hired me for my typing skills as a clerk at $9,000 annual, almost enough to support us with some raises and overtime. That became a 25 career, mostly in supervision. Praise the Lord!

The Charismatic MOVEMENT

My son reminds me that lay leadership in the Neocatechumenate, like the Cardinals quoted above, are averse to the word "movement." Perhaps they associate it with movements of human agency: civil rights, farm workers, peace, etc. I firmly believe both are actions of the Holy Spirit, but they are also human, sociological, empirical phenomena. Cardinal Suenens said "there are no founders to the Renewal." This is accurate. But there were clear leaders who shaped it in specific directions. The foundations of the Charismatic Renewal as a movement:

1. Baptism in the Holy Spirit.  This is a very specific event, which manifested in the Pentecostal movements from 1900 and across the denominations in mid-century. It is not primarily emotional. It is the prayer, in expectant faith, to receive the Pentecostal anointing of intimacy and empowerment that the apostles, with Mary, received in the cenacle 10 days after Jesus ascended. It includes: intimacy with the powerful Holy Spirit, prayer in tongues, ongoing guidance through interior messages-scripture-communal discernment, divine healings, deliverance from demons, prophesies, and more.

2. Prayer Meetings.  In contrast to traditional formal Catholic liturgy these were informal, spontaneous, characterized primarily by praise in words, song and tongues along with attention to readings from scripture, teaching and personal witnesses. These spread all over the country in the 1970s; and largely disappeared as quickly going into the 1980s.

3. Pentecostal/Evangelical Teaching. With extraordinary efficiency and speed, a gifted elite of lay leaders, especially Ralph Martin and Steve Clark, emerged spontaneously and worked together to incorporate elements of Pentecostal and Evangelical spirituality into the Catholic Charismatic Renewal: strong sense of the supernatural, spiritual combat with demons in deliverance ministries, openness to the miraculous in healings and guidance, strong traditional gender roles, new forms of authority including in very personal direction, the emergence of covenant communities. 

4. Countercultural, Anti-Progressive.  These Pentecostal/Evangelical elements were entirely contradictory of the broader cultural-sexual liberalization and specifically theological progressivism dominant in academia and clerical/hierarchical circles. This included opposition to abortion and homosexuality, emphasis on supernatural, more literal (but not fundamentalist) reading of scripture, traditional family patterns and other. Predictably, this led to conflicts with more liberal bishops.

5. Strong form Catholicism. Along with the movement into Pentecostalism, in tension with but not complete contradiction, was the move into stronger forms of Catholicism: Marian devotion (Medjugorje), Divine Mercy practices from St. Faustina, sacramental life (especially Eucharist and Penance), and fidelity to the magisterium. 

6. Vast Theological Literature.  A large, comprehensive body of practical, theological literature surged, largely from Martin, Clark and other lay leaders. These were lay in two senses:  non-clergy and non-credentialed academically. Martin and Clark had walked together away from doctoral programs in philosophy, Martin at Princeton and Clark at Yale, to serve the Lord in Cursillo and then Charismatic. They stand out as among the most dynamic, talented and influential partnerships in Catholic history. They were also assisted by a cadre of outstanding Catholic academic theologians who combined holiness of life, solid scholarship, and pastoral sensibility: Francis Martin, Killian McDonald, George Montague, Edward O'Connor...all clergy and credentialed academics. 

7. Huge Rallies and Conferences.  Thousands of people would convene (in NJ in Atlantic City) to hear inspired teaching in a charged atmosphere of ecstatic, expressive praise. These were markedly ecumenical, deliberately including gifted preachers from other denominations. 

What Happened in the 1980s?

Our own prayer meeting, sponsored by the People of Hope Community in Christ the King Parish, Jersey City, disbanded around 1980. Strangely, the same happened across the country. All these prayer meetings disappeared instantaneously as they had appeared, like the annuals of early Spring. Rallies that had drawn 30-40,0000 were getting a few thousand.

It did not completely disappear. But the flourishing revival among white, middle class Catholics diminished greatly. The movement is powerful in Africa and parts of Latin America and Asia. It remains among Hispanics and Philippinos in the USA. It  consolidated into small, intense covenant communities; as the broader movement merged into the Evangelical Catholicism of John Paul/Benedict. This later was zealously Evangelical in its focus on the person/event of Jesus Christ, as it interpreted Vatican II positively, in continuity with tradition, with strong sense of the centrality of family, sexual chastity and marital fidelity in opposition to progressive theology's embrace of the sexual revolution. 

Paradigmatic for the broader movement was the split between Ralph Martin and Steve Clark. Martin reveals how painful that was in his recent memoir. He spent the early 80s in Brussels and Rome, working on the international renewal with Cardinal Suenens. He aligned himself closely to the New Evangelization of John Paul and threw himself into study of the Catholic saints and mystics. He deepened his Catholicism, although retaining a sharp Evangelical edge.

Meanwhile, Steve Clark had guided a new coalition of covenant communities into an even more pronounced Pentecostalism, stridently countercultural on gender roles and authority structures and micromanaged into a detailed, monastic-like rule of life for families. The two parted ways. They did reconcile years later before Clark's passing. 

Martin's journey was typical of most of the Catholic Renewal. It blended into more mainstream Catholic currents, including the New Evangelization of John Paul. Martin maintained an amazing zeal in this effort, worked with EWTN, continued to preach and write, gained a doctorate in theology at the Angelicum, and taught at Sacred Heart Seminary in Michigan. The specifically charismatic elements (tongues, healings, extreme gender and authority views) were downplayed; communion with the broader sacramental Church emphasized; and focus remained on the salvific person/event of Jesus Christ. 

My own path was similar: I was simply enamored of the theology of John Paul, Benedict and their colleagues. Like many charismatics, I was encouraged by the revelations on the Divine Mercy of Saint Faustina, the messages of our Lady at Medjugore, and the entire John Paul/Benedict agenda. 

This pattern seemed to be across the Church. Evangelical crusades like N.E.T. and FOCUS had immense influence as an energized, appealing Evangelical Catholicism without much attention to the extraordinary charismatic gifts. Franciscan University thrives as a center of hardcore Catholicism, retaining a strong, but not overwhelming charismatic charism.

The Sword of the Spirit, with its own alternative hierarchy had problems with the American episcopacy, notably in Newark and Steubenville. But they seemed to have weathered the storms. In NJ, the People of Hope, after a long quarrel with the Archdiocese, is back in good graces and manifesting good fruit. They sponsor a thriving school, Koinonia Academy, and a dynamic summer camp which has had a strong impact on our own family. For instance, one granddaughter is studying at Franciscan University and a number of great-nephews are planning to go there.  

The influence of the movement is broad: music, healing prayer, deliverance ministry, focus on Scripture, an ecumenical awareness. Many moved on to more normal parish life and ministry with greater depth and passion.

Going Forward in the Holy Spirit

We cannot replicate the fervor of the 70s. We know the Holy Spirit remains with the Church of Christ, if in a quieter mode. Yet, I personally ambition to retrieve the fire, the zeal of that time.

1. Primacy of Praise. Recently, Cardinal Cantalamessa exhorted charismatics to rekindle the fire of praise that inflamed all those prayer meetings and conferences. In our own small prayer group, one woman seemed to especially exercise the gift of prophesy. She was a simple, humble, charming, local Afro-American woman, Harriet, and she tirelessly repeated the same prophesy: "Ma people: Continue to praise me!" Every time she said that, in her modest, straightforward manner, it seemed to be words directly from heaven. I believe that message was from the Holy Spirit and meant for us then, now and into the future. I have been trying to inflame my life with thanksgiving and praise, even as I yearn for more communal ways to do so.

2. Ecumenical. Cardinal Suenens had said that the heart of the renewal is the reunion of Christians in the love of Christ. That surely is correct. Many of us leaned more deeply into our Catholicism. This is good. But the Holy Spirit surely is urging us to union with others, especially Evangelicals, Pentecostals and Orthodox. My wife and I are volunteer chaplains in our local hospital and enjoy the opportunity to pray often with non-Catholics. This is a great blessing. It was the Renewal that prepared us to pray with them.

3. Closeness to the Poor. Pope Francis encouraged the Renewal, especially to be close to the poor. This was a message that was heard in the Renewal, but not very powerfully. The two covenant communities in our area of north NJ seemed to be suburban, bourgeois, middle class, career and security focused. Our encounter with the People of Hope was in our prayer group in a  poor area of Jersey City: we benefited from engagement with the Renewal and also with the poor.

4. Deepening, Intensifying of our Catholic Faith.  As noted, the ordinary itinerary of the charismatic Catholic post-1980, strikingly exemplified  by Ralph Martin, has been deeper engagement with Christ and his Church in prayer, liturgy/sacraments, charity, morality, theology and all arenas of life. 

5. Covenant Communities? I have not followed developments within the Sword of the Spirit. They have been quiet. This is a good sign. Good fruit is evident. Consider our Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. And, as noted, after a rupture with the Archdiocese, the People of Hope are positively impacting our Church, specifically in their school and summer camp. Praise the Lord!

6. The Young? My own primary concern has always been the passing of our faith to the young. Working a variety of jobs, my professional vocation is  catechist, one who "echoes" our faith. The singular Joy I share with my wife is that our seven children, along with their spouses and families, all live our Catholic faith with vigor and enthusiasm. They received our Catholic faith, but not in its specifically charismatic dimensions.   Realizing the toxicity of our culture, our philosophy in raising our family was that Catholic family/school/parish was insufficient so we methodically exposed them, especially summers during high school, to a variety of intense encounters with Catholicism: Youth 2000, NET retreats, service trips, Friars of the Renewal, Magdalllen College summer programs, Scranton Charismatic Conference. These were not fully Pentecostal, but surely charismatic-adjacent in their evangelical fervor. And so our children received a charismatically-flavored Catholic faith.

So my big question: how have the covenant communities done in passing on the faith? How many of their children and now grandchildren practice Catholicism? How many are charismatic? Are any charismatic but not Catholic? I have been told that the People of Hope, under the Sword of the Spirit, is a stronger, bigger community and more successful than the smaller, unattached Community of God's Love. 

This is the same question I bring to the other lay renewal groups: especially the Neocatechumenate and Communion and Liberation.

The Holy Spirit continues to breathe in many ways in the Church. Ours has been the age of the lay renewal movements. As the religious orders have declined, we have seen surges of zealous, lay spirituality. The currents of renewal are many: all moving us into the Kingdom. The charismatic renewal remains an important one.

I myself am eager to inflame the gift of praise that burned brightly in the 1970s. Out of that foundational praise, including tongues, personal and communal, the Holy Spirit moves us deeper into the Church, into communion with our Evangelical/Pentecostal brothers and sisters, and companionship with the poor and suffering. 

Above all, we pray for our young:  COME HOLY SPIRIT1