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.