Let's Not Overrate the Papacy; Let's Not Underrate the Holy Spirit, and Spiritual Subsidiarity

The death of a pope; convoking of a conclave! Heady, exciting times for us serious Catholics!

With many others, I breathe a sigh of relief that the Francis era is past. But I am not building up my hopes for the conclave and new pope. I am quietly, serenely detaching from the Vatican, in order to love the Church more passionately, soberly, purely.

We make too much of the papacy. It is overrated. He is our Supreme Pontiff, our dear vicar of Christ on earth, worthy (whatever his personal flaws) of our affection, reverence, loyalty and obedience. He is a significant, but small part of the  magnificent edifice that is the Roman Catholic Church. There is so much more besides the papacy. The Holy Spirit is working in millions  of ways, whatever the bishop of Rome is doing.

Widely, we have developed a co-dependency upon the papacy. A spiritual regression. A lack of wholesome subsidiary. An diminishment of the local-concrete-specific and an exaggeration of the upper tier, the distant, the top of the hierarchy. This is analogous to our American politics: we see in recent months widespread derangement symptoms on the left because Trump won the election. And so within the Church, we do well to "get our own lives" as we draw closer together in worship, attention to the Word, service, mutual charity and delight. 

Global media is part of the problem. Any ill-considered, throw-away comment by a fatigued, elderly pope returning on a jet from an exhausting trip becomes major news around the globe.

Celebrity culture is a problem. The hero of my youth was John F. Kennedy; the hero of my adulthood John Paul II. Can you think of anyone, in our lifetime or even the history of mankind, in their league with regard to super-intelligence, charisma, charm, vigor, moral vision, raw masculine appeal, and a mysterious radiance of leadership? Both also had a deep seated humility. But they left a cultural legacy of celebrityhood in regard to leadership. Donald Trump is fundamentally a celebrity. Pope Francis was a celebrity. There is something to be said for the boring, industrious, modest fidelity to the institution of a Pius XII, Paul VI,  Benedict or even the two Bushes.

By a spiritual subsidiarity we do well to recognize the workings of the Holy Spirit at every level of the Church, but primarily at the concrete, specific, local...the parish, the local priest, the prayer group, friendship circle or family. The decisions and words of the pope do matter; but not as much as family prayer; or forgiveness; or concrete acts of charity. We overrate the papacy.

Progressives widely anticipated the "Francis Effect" which would bring a breeze of liberation in the Church including increased mass attendance, conversions and an open, welcome atmosphere. After 12 years, we have decreased attendance; large numbers leaving the Church; a polarized, hostile divide;  and disappointment among both progressives and conservatives. More surprising: priestly vocations are level or slightly down but there are virtually NO seminarians and young priests in the mode of Francis. We have almost two generations of "John Paul and Benedict" priests and seminarians ever more traditional.  There are  "Francis cardinals and bishops" but no "Francis Priests." 

This is surely the nightmare of our recently deceased pontiff and his generation: more "rigidity, regression, clericalism, dogmatism, legalism!" His first exercise in purgatory will surely be a clear-eyed vision of the effects on the Church of his leadership. His second purgative exercise may well be an unending synodal session in which he listens to, reverently embraces and seeks pardon from all those cassock-wearing, Latin-praying, canon-law-abiding, novena-counting, dogma-loving, tradition-conserving clerics...past, present, and future... he has so long disparaged. (Can you, dear reader, please obtain a plenary indulgence for him? I have a previous list I am working on and will not get to him before the end of the Jubilee Year!)

Christ is the head of the Church; he is the Bridegroom; he is our captain. The pope is a vicar. Often flawed and defective. But he is still our father. As we pray for the repose of Francis and anointing of the Holy Spirit on the conclave of cardinals, we mostly open our hearts to the workings of our Lord in our own concrete, small, specific locations.

Come Holy Spirit!

My Plenaries

Holy Year of Hope; Pilgrimages; Indulgences

Yesterday I got my 2nd plenary indulgence for this Holy Year of Pilgrimage in Hope. But who's counting? Actually, I am. I want to get plenty of plenaries, but not too many. I don't want to go crazy about this. How many are enough? I would say at least 5 but not over 20. That's just one man's opinion. We can differ on this. I understand we can only obtain one per day. Since the Holy Year runs from Dec. 24, 2024 to Jan. 6, 2025 one could not exceed 377 (I presume one would not be obtained today, Holy Saturday, the great sabbath day of rest). 

Spiritual realities should not be overly numbered. But we are ourselves material and numbers structure our reality: 3 persons in 1 God; 7 sacraments; 10 commandments. A holy hour is 60 minutes; not 57 or 67. 40 days of lent; 50 of Easter. You get the idea. Numbers bring to our finite intellects a finite logic and order. God in his infinite condescension adapts heavenly realities to our finite, earthly, mathematical intellects.

I always liked spiritual bouquets. As a child, for mothers/fathers day I might offer:  500 Hail Marys, 50 Our Fathers, 5 masses, 5,000 aspirations. This meant more to my parents than any other conceivable gesture. The Philippinos keep this tradition. An otherwise holy and sage but sarcastic, now deceased, Irish descent priest used to refer to our more devote parishioners from the Philippines: "Here comes 10,000 Hail Marys!"

For sure, such numbering can be abused in a mechanical manner. At the very start of his pontificate, Pope Francis condemned the error of claiming spiritual efficacy through our human efforts. Unfortunately, he used as an example a spiritual bouquet he had must received (no doubt from Philippino Catholics) detailing large numbers of prayers. His comments were the first sign that we had a problem in our new Holy Father: it was the ingratitude yes; the public shaming yes; but also the lack of appreciation for a simple, possibly misused, but childlike, innocent, trusting gesture of faith.

Let's bring back spiritual bouquets!

 Indulgences: Underrated!

While we all learned in history that Dominican Friar Tetzel triggered the Protestant Reformation in his fundraising efforts for the construction of St. Peter's in Rome by exchanging indulgences for donations, we also know that any sale of spiritual goods is the sin of simony. The Church has never condoned such. 

Indulgences are an exercise of our communion in the Mystical Body, the intimacy between us on earth (Church Militant), those in heaven (Church Triumphant), and souls in purgatory (Church Suffering.) By a symmetric, orderly spiritual accounting system, God's mercy and justice are both manifested: and we get to participate directly in it.  Two key concepts are at work: temporal punishment due to sin and merit. Both realities are incoherent, if not ridiculous to the non-supernatural imagination.

In God's justice, sins that are already absolved, in confession, still carry a debt of punishment, a temporal (but not eternal) consequence that must be paid. Imagine the deathbed conversion and confession of a lifelong hitman/adulterer/criminal. His sins are forgiven. But even he himself, when facing his Savior and recalling the evil he committed, will insist on doing reparation. Jesus words on the cross to the repentant thief suggests that he granted him absolution but also (probably plenary) indulgence.

Merit, in the supernatural sense, means that acts of goodness (charity, service, martyrdom, pardon of the enemy, suffering born patiently, prayer and fasting, etc.) carries with it an excess of "credit" which can be shared with 1hers. Analogously, for example, a wealthy man can share his riches with the poor; so the spiritual endowed can share their merit with those in need. 

And so we can imagine in purgatory an immensity of debt owed; but in heaven an infinity of merit, that of Christ himself of course, but also of Mary and the saints. That overflow in heaven seeks passage to those in need in purgatory; and that pathway is provided through the Church. She makes available, in discrete portions, the merits of heaven to be shared with the souls suffering by designating specific actions as ways of obtaining and sharing the merits: pilgrimages, prayer, sacrifices, devotions and such.

It is simple and straightforward: one does the specified act, with the correct conditions, and the indulgence is granted. The recipient can receive it for himself or share with a soul in purgatory.

This is a marvelous thing: the act is usually simple enough; it opens us to the magnanimity of heaven; and in empathy to those suffering in purgatory. It awakens an awareness of our communion with both the saints and the souls. It roots us in the enchanted Catholic universe.

Conditions for an Indulgence

1. Do the specified action, with the correct intention. In this case, the action is pilgrimage for a religious service to a Church designated by the local diocese for such.

2. Confess sins before or after the action, generally less than 20 days.

3. Pray for the intentions of the Pope. An our father/hail mary/glory be or something similar should suffice. (This is especially salutary for us critics of Pope Francis!)

4. Be free of attachment to sin.  This is the kicker: What is attachment to sin?

Did I Get the Full Plenary?

In my case, the first three are cut and dry. Our diocese of Trenton has designated six Churches for the pilgrimage indulgence: the Cathedral in Trenton, the Co-Cathedral in Freehold, and a specific Church in each of the four counties of the diocese. I already went to St. Robert Bellarmine Co-Cathedral and to Our Lady Star of the Sea, Long Branch NJ, for yesterday's Good Friday services.

But what about "attachment to sin?" Would attraction to sin qualify as attachment? If so, only the greatest saints among us would qualify. Example: a man who sleeps with his mistress a few times a month is surely attached to adultery. But what about the man who flirts with his secretary? Who lustfully imagines himself with her? Who sometimes thinks of ways he could satisfy this attraction?

Attachment can be understood as a remaining affection for the evil; a failure to truly repent; a refusal to hate the evil forcefully. Even a momentary lingering in the fascination for sin indicates, I would think some attachment. 

This line of thought leads me to consider that I may not have gotten the full plenary. But it moves me to acts of the will, renouncing the evil that I at the same time desire. In this I also acknowledge my weakness and need for God's grace to definitively renounce the sin. So, in my state of concupiscence and vulnerability, the prayer for the plenary intensifies my urgency: my sense of need but also my hope in the grace of Christ.

And so, while I may not have gotten the full plenary, I am very happy with a partial. And happy for the push to detach from sin in any form.

What I Did With My Penaries (or Partials?)

The first I gave to Fr. ("you are a priest forever") Ted McCarrick. Why? Lots of reasons. Enough for a different blog essay!

My second I gave to my friend Bob who died a month ago. Bob suffered so much in this life that I know his purgatory in the hereafter was not great. I imagine him now in heaven praying for me and mine. Thanks Bob! 

Holy Year, Hope, Indulgences

I will not be making pilgrimage to Rome for the Holy Year. (But I do hope to babysit grandchildren while my son and his wife go!) Instead, I look forward to pilgrimages to a number of designated Churches. This is not hard. It is fun to visit different Churches. I get to be the beneficiary and the dispenser of many graces! I am loving this Holy Year of Hope!

 

The Anti-Liberal: Good Trump/ Bad Trump

How we play this game: I say something Trump has done. You answer: Good Trump. or Bad Trump.

Close the southern border.  Good Trump.

Send an immigrant, without proof of criminal behavior or due process, to horrific Salvadorian prison. Bad Trump.

Prevent biological males from competing in female athletics. Good Trump.

Abandoning Ukraine to Russian terror. Bad Trump.

Supporting Israel in war against Hamas. Good Trump.

Surrendering himself to narcissistic grandiosity, manic impulsivity, disconnect from reality. Bad Trump.

Combating antisemitism and anti-Christianity. Good Trump. 

Weaponizing DOJ for revenge against his personal enemies. Bad Trump.

Aligning Israel and Sunni states against an aggressive Iran. Good Trump.. 

Recklessly eliminating agencies which provide desperately needed humanitarian aid. Bad Trump.

Assertively eliminating waste and fraud in a bloated government. Good Trump. 

Crowning himself as King-Dictator and displacing the dispersion of powers, the role of judiciary, and the autonomy of agencies like the Fed. Bad Trump.

Stopping, forcefully, or at least pausing, if not reversing, the advance of Cultural Progressivism (Marxist/Freudian) through our higher institutions. Good Trump.

Speaking of others, anyone who opposes him, with contempt, without decency or respect. Bad Trump.

Aggressively engage China as our global adversary. Good Trump.

Allow TikTok to continue despite legislation and harm to our society. Bad Trump

Voicing the rage of the underclass. Good Trump.

Enacting tax policy that favors the rich, investor class. Bad Trump

Defending traditional religious freedoms and values around vulnerable life, gender, marriage. Good Trump.

Disrupting the entire global economy with contradictory, irrational tariff decisions. Bad Trump.

Recognizing the emergent, multipolar world order and requiring a fair share from our allies. Good Trump.

Alienating valued allies with tariff policy and antagonistic, xenophobic, arrogant postures. Bad Trump.

Firmly addressing trade and financial deficits. Good Trump.

Impulsively, erratically, emotionally making global decisions without coherence, foresight, study. Bad Trump.

That makes 12 good and 12 bad. Have we ever had such a convoluted, complex, dizzying leader?

Democrats enjoy a simplistic, indignant, apoplectic rage at Trump as pure evil.

Trumpians enjoy an equally simplistic dismissal of the negatives and buy into his self-adulation. 

He can be understood as the Great Anti-Liberal, in two distinct ways.

On the negative side, he is a megalomaniac crypto-fascist who aspires to unlimited power and is systemically undermining the structures of the America-led global era since WWII: rule of law, due process, autonomy of multiple agencies, tone of respect in discourse, cooperation with allies in contest with adversaries, (mostly) open trade, humanitarian assistance to the suffering, defense of national sovereignty. 

On the positive side, he is our great champion against Cultural Progressivism.  (Here I prefer to maintain the positive senses of "liberalism" and use "progressivism" as a pejorative.)  In policy he has forcefully defended traditional religious values of the dignity of the person (however powerless), sexuality, religious freedom, marriage, and other. He has done this while his personal deportment is despicably transgressive. 

We live in interesting times!

The Rock Hard Objectivity of Catholicism

 The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.                     Robert Lewis Stevenson

You are Peter and upon this ROCK I shall build my Church.    Jesus Christ

At its core, and in every dimension and radiation, Catholicism is solid hard, durable, objective.

It flows from the facticity, the hard, historical, empirical reality of the Incarnation, Passion-Death-Resurrection, Ascension-and-Spirit-sending of the Singular Person, Jesus Christ.

It is stable, rooted, perpetual, hard, objective in:

- The apostolic office, the priesthood, the papacy, episcopacy, synods (but not "synodality").

- The canon of Scripture, teachings of the father and doctors, witness of martyrs and saints, ongoing magisterium, the Catechism.

-Stone and brick buildings, many hundreds and thousands of years old, including churches, chapels, cathedrals, monasteries, schools, convents, seminaries, cemeteries, rectories, and hermitages.

- The liturgical/sacramental economy: calendar, rituals, music, prayers, seasons, feasts and fasts, sacramentals, icons, devotions, relics, indulgences, pilgrimages.

- Vowed states of life: marriage, priesthood, religious life.

- Attention to the poor, homeless, marginalized, sick, rejected.

- The hidden anonymity of hermits, anchoresses, cloisters.

- Fidelity, to Tradition,  that is ever fresh, fecund, serendipitous, eventful.

- Unbounded heritage of beauty in art, music, architecture, and culture.

- Communion of the Church Triumphant (heaven), Suffering (purgatory), Militant (on earth.)

- Above all, the core, invincible, absolute objectivity is the indwelling, corporally, of the Trinity in every Eucharist and every single consecrated host in the world.

This objectivity all sits upon the mystery of Creation. All the marvelous, wondrous, enchanted objects that populate reality were first imagined by the Great Subjectivity: our Triune God. Each...every grain of sand, every galaxy, every dinosaur, every fetus...was already imagined, thought, and then created out of Love...extravagant, gratuitous, generous, free, intelligent, intentional, decisive, all-powerful Love.

Contrast Modernity and the progressive theologies that accommodate it:

- Formless, disenchanted, objectless, fluid, malleable, vacuous, futile, random, uprooted.

- Metaphysically nihilistic; epistemologically skeptical, relativistic, subjectivist, solipsistic. 

- Obsessed with sexual indulgence, oppressor/oppressed, technological manipulation, the "progressive arc of history."

- Reduction of science to measurement and motion (faux objectivity). Reduction of religion to feelings. (faux subjectivity).

- The entrapment of the sovereign, narcissistic, isolated Self in its own loneliness. 

As modernity and progressive religions continue on their dismal arc of isolation and despair, so will the durable Splendor of the Church shine more brilliantly, attracting to herself desirous, sensitive spirits.

   

Holy Saturday: Sabbath Rest, the Caesura of Time

 Looking forward today to Holy Week, Saturday stands out as the most mysterious, underrated, interesting day of the week. Most would probably rate it as the least of the days of the Triduum: Thursday we have the Eucharist, priesthood, and the washing of the feet; Friday the passion and death of our Lord; Saturday is nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

That is what makes it so distinctive. The only day of the liturgical year when there is nothing: no mass, no sacraments, no public rituals. The tabernacle itself is empty: even the ever-present Eucharistic Christ is absent. From sunset Friday to sunset Saturday: Nothing at all. 

Significantly, it is the seventh day, the Sabbath. In the passion accounts, after Jesus burial, the women go home to practice Sabbath rest. I find this comforting. They have just been engaged by the defining tragedy of human history; but they still maintain their religious custom. Here we see stability, habit, steadfastness. The very death of God does not disrupt this routine, established by God at creation.

The Sabbath is rest. Peace.  Recall of paradise. Anticipation of heaven. Joy. Freedom from work, stress, suffering, death, guilt, shame, sin, conflict, separation, fear and anxiety. 

Jesus work is done. His earthly life as a distinct man is over. His mission on earth accomplished. He is not here.

He has not yet resurrected. Not yet appeared for 40 days. Not yet ascended. Not yet sent the Holy Spirit. Not yet reigned, until the end of time, over his Church from heaven, through the Holy Spirit indwelling his body, his bride, the Church. 

This day is the defining Caesura of time, of history, of creation. The defining Break, Rupture, Discontinuity. The Great Pause. Everything stops. The old order is no more. The new order has not begun. Time, history, the drama of creation pauses. Creation takes a huge breath, looking back, suspended above time, waiting.  

We see two Times; two Histories. Pre is everything before Sundown Friday. Post is everything after Sundown Saturday. That one day, Saturday, is not in history, neither pre nor post. It is suspended, transcendent, a moment of Eternity.

Before Sundown Friday, all of Creation was yearning for the coming of the Messiah. After Sundown Saturday, all of Redeemed Creation is exulting in the accomplished work of Christ; and yearning for  its consummation in the Parousia. Upon waking Sunday morning, all of Creation is in the end times.

The apostles and disciples are in hiding, in shock, in despair. Abandoned. Comforted only by their camaraderie in grief. 

Mary remains in the deep quiet grief of the Pieta. But she is at rest. A rest above all strife, effort, agency. She is at the same time in deep Joy. In this day Faith, Hope and Love reach their highest pinnacle. She knows. She does not need an appearance. She knows...naturally, maternally, supernaturally, miraculously...that her Son lives, eternally, humanly, in the Trinity.

This one day we suspend all else. We join Mary in the Silence of Faith-Hope-Love. We recall in quiet the graces of our personal and communal histories. We wait. We rest.

Resurgence of Conservative, Religious Virility

"Nunc Dimittis" Simeon prayed upon encountering the Christ child in the temple, "Now, Lord, let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled. For my eyes have seen the salvation you have prepared in the sight of every people."  Luke 2:29-30

With Simeon, I can now go in peace. In the current resurgence of conservative, religious virility I see the restorative work of the Lord. A light is shining. I can go in peace!

With Gen Z, more boys are religious than girls. This was unheard of in prior generations. Politically men across all ethnicities are becoming more conservative. Donald Trump is many things (some good, some bad, in my view), but he is masculine (if toxically), a renunciation (however crude) of the cultural liberalism that denies the forms of femininity/masculinity, and a resurgence (in large part depraved) of masculinity. His electoral victory was in part the preference of young men for his machismo over the eunuch-like impotence offered by the party of Biden.

The Intention of the Sexual Revolution

The Luciferian target of the Sexual Revolution was the iconic, natural, sacramental, heteronormative family in it triune form: destroying the newly alive; transitioning the mother into homo-phobe (in  the literal sense of "suspicious of men") and murderess-of-the-unborn; and reconfiguring the male as rapist or impotent eunuch. For over half a century,  we have been inhaling the noxious atmosphere of cultural liberalism, the sexual revolution that targeted the family by contra-ceptively liberating sexuality from fecund, faithful conjugality; torturing/murdering the innocent, powerless unborn; dislocating the now isolated individual from nature/family/community/tradition/transcendence; technologizing the sacred mystery of the spousal union; ;  violating the feminine in its formally interiority as virginal and maternal; and (most importantly for this essay) castrating masculinity. 

"Men want to be men" my son-in-law Joe told me yesterday. I would add "Women and children want men to be men." Everyone (who has not been brain-washed into resentful, androgynous masculine-o-phobia) wants men to be men.

What is a Man?

Guest in classroom of boys in a Jesuit prep school, I asked: "What is a real man? A good man? What is real virility?" They looked pensively, wonderingly, quietly at me. This is not a question that had been asked of them before. I recalled the refusal of now-Supreme Court Justice Brown to answer the question "What is a woman?" A student raised his hand and said: "One who takes care of his family." Bingo! Extra credit for him! A man takes care of his women, children, and the suffering, poor, oppressed!

By design of nature and the Creator, masculinity and femininity face each other in the mutuality of tenderness, desire, reverence, purity, sacrifice, generosity, fidelity and fecundity. Together, as one, they face and embrace the newborn, the unborn, and those entrusted to their care. The male itinerary is through being son, brother, bridegroom to father. The female from daughter, sister, bride and mother. They are not the same. In contrasting, complementary ways, they express the True, the Good, the Beautiful and the Holy Trinity. 

The Latin vir for man is the root for virtue and virility. Ancient traditions of chivalry, drawing from heroic cultures of warrior honor and the imitation of Christ, understand virility as the sacrificial, even to death, gift of self to those who are threatened, involving gentle strength, courage, chastity, sobriety, prudence, humility, and justice. 

The most decisive assault of the cultural revolution was upon virility as paternity and all that entails: protection, provision, generativity, heroism, authority, tradition, chastity, humility, and devotion to God the Father in his Son and the Holy Spirit. The suspicion of and resentment towards the masculine, in code language of "patriarchy," (even as it is not without basis in male violence against women) has worked to deconstruct gender, rendering the woman also isolated, fearful of her newly conceived, and hostile toward masculinity. This cultural ambience has intensified male tendencies to violence or weakness or both.

The Current Resurgence and the Church

This resurgence is not entirely a supernatural, Holy Spirit inspired happening. It is a natural eruption. The masculine/feminine is inherent in Creation, by God's design. It is NOT merely a social construct or personal option. It is like a volcano that is flaming under the ground. Masculinity can be despised, repressed, dismissed.... only for so long. Eventually, it erupts. It is erupting now. These virile energies need to be channeled, disciplined, encouraged, corrected, guided. Thank God for Jordan Peterson and others like him. 

But I fear that our Catholic Church is not well positioned for this task. In the world of my childhood, the 1950s, the Church was brimming with virile priests, many of the veterans of WWII. The entire generation had returned from the war as "made men": tested in the fire of combat, quiet, humble, modest, religious, loyal in marriage, unpretentious, confident, generous, grateful. Most of my peers, even the very bad boys, wanted at some point to be a priest. But today the Church, like the broader society, is in crisis of masculinity. We are getting few vocations. We are scandalized and devastated by the sex scandal which continues today in high profile cases  like Rupnik. There is a hidden but pernicious gay culture within the clergy including at high levels. At elite levels there is acceptance of theological progressivism with its distrust of virility. A style of effeminacy prevails across progressive leadership in society and the Church.

But: Not to worry! The Church is, always has been, always will be a boundless font of vital, fruitful masculinity/femininity. It is already baked into the cake of Catholicism. It is hardwired into the machinery: dogma, liturgy, sacraments, religious life, matrimony, everything. To be immersed into the (efficacious) sacramental life and the (infallible) announcement of the Word is to be enlivened in filiality, fraternity/sorority, maternity/paternity. The Church is our Mother, we her sons and daughters. The Church is the bride, Christ the bridegroom. The femininity of the Church is deeply, passionately, intimately lived in vowed religious. The priesthood is masculine in its representation of the Groom. The Protestant Reformation was already a desecration of  the masculine/feminine in its devaluation of matrimony and holy orders, abolition of religious life, iconoclastic violence, and disenchantment of the entire sacramental universe. The romantic enchantment, natural and supernatural, of the Romance and Drama of the masculine/feminine  is the very life of the Church. In the biological order, we know that by our chromosomes, each of us is in form masculine or feminine, whatever accidental irregularities occur. So, the DNA of Catholicism is the life of the Trinity now expressed in the romancing of Christ, the virile Bridegroom, of his womanly Church.

Conclusion

Virility is irrepressible and unstoppable. It is like the Spring that is bursting forth, as I write this, in the daffodils and tulips. It is an invincible force of nature, when it is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

In my encounters with young men, in my family and beyond, including random engagements, I sense a powerful hunger for virility. They want to become men. Not androgynous eunuchs! Not rapists! Virile, virtuous men. Strong in a gentle mode, reverent, chaste, tender, generous, serene and confident, fruitful. Filial, fraternal, paternal...expressive of the Love between the Father and the Son!

Heavenly Father, through  Mary our mother and St Joseph, send upon our virility the Holy Spirit, that we may manifest the glorified masculinity of Jesus your Son.