Possible Doctors of the Church of Our Time (2 0f 3): the Spousal, the Feminine, the Lay

Jesus sent his disciples out in "twos." Additionally, we are so aware today (amidst the pandemic of gender confusion) that the spousal balance/synthesis/communion/fertility of the masculine/feminine is at the core of human thriving and holiness, at every level, from the person to the family to the universal Church: maternal/paternal, bride/groom, brother/sister, Marian/Petrine. Let's consider some possible partner doctors. We already have non-doctor partners in holiness:  Benedict/Scholastica, Francis of Assis/Clare, Vincent de Paul/Louise de Marillac, Francis de Sales/Jane  de Chantel, Claude de la Columbiere/Margaret Mary Alacoque, In our age, the Holy Spirit has raised up many such sanctified dyads. 

John Paul II is hands-down the strongest candidate of our age; he is lapping everyone else by virtue of his holiness, brilliance, and historical influence. (I know this is not a competition. But St. Paul did speak about "running the good race" and JP was an athlete!) His witness will be even stronger with a partner, especially in light of his passionate appreciation of the feminine and his own iconic virility. It happens that four of the next strongest contenders are all closely related to him. Three of the four are already canonized women; the forth his close collaborator and with him (and Balthasar) compose the trinity of great Catholic intellects of the twentieth century.

St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta is, along with JP, the dominant Catholic figure of the last half of the 20th century. No one approaches these two as far as holiness, heroism, influence. One is mother, the other father. They knew and related, he in authority and she in obedience. The pope notoriously did not allow her to retire to a life of prayer, keeping in her in her famous purgatory on earth, an extended night of the spirit, deepening her holiness. In her prolonged descent into hell, she may have exceeded him and even the great mystics in sanctity. The two make a incomparable partnership in mission, wisdom and holiness.

St. Faustina was the Polish recipient of the revelations of Divine Mercy which John Paul made the cornerstone of his pontificate. I consider his encyclical On Divine Mercy the single greatest document of our age. It changed and defined my own life. This is the "partnership in Divine Mercy"...perhaps the single greatest visitation of the heavenly on the earth of our time. Her diary and the entire cult of Divine Mercy (image, litany, Sunday after Easter) may exceed the sanctifying influence of our women Doctors of the Church Avila, Lisieux, Sienna and Hildegaard. John Paul was her partner in certifying and spreading the cult and infusing his own pontificate with it.

St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, born in Poland and died in Auschwicz at age of 51 when John Paul was 22, living not far away. Like him, she combined exceptional holiness, heroism and intellectual brilliance in synthesizing the best of classic Thomism with contemporary personalism/phenomenology. Academically, they embody...with Blondel, Marcel, the Hildebrands, the Maritains, Mounier, Day/Maurin...20th century's Catholic reception of the best of contemporary thought.

Pope Benedict VI worked closely with John Paul as his right hand man. Comparably brilliant, he also combined expertise in tradition and contemporary thought. His holiness is obvious but not yet certified by canonization. The mission of these two popes, both participants in Vatican II, was one.

Best case scenario: this quintet are named doctors together.  Four are already canonized; three religious sisters, one active the other to cloistered; two popes; three Poles; three intellectual geniuses; all of them mystics. The probability of some of these five being named doctors is very high. Those that follow below are far less likely.

Spiritual, Virginal Partnerships

Hans urs Von Balthasar and Adrienne von Speyr.   Balthasar is unrivaled in the century for his encyclopedic erudition including tradition and culture. He considered his primary contribution to be conveying the mystical insights of the lay, non-theologian, twice-married, physician Speyr. In their partnership, they embodied what they explained as the spousal, the Petrine/Marian, the masculine/feminine. 

Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez. Another chaste, powerful evangelical partnership. Carmen was a trained theologian, schooled at the time of the Council. Kiko is artist, musician, and spiritual genius. Theirs is a marvelous expression of the faith, drawing from tradition and contemporary life. The fertility of their legacy...new communities, large families, tons of religious vocations...will bring increased credence with time to their status as doctor candidates.

Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. Here we find an eccentric, fascinating, serendipitous partnership. Dorothy is really the founder of the Catholic Worker, the one who made things happen. But her work would have been impossible without her mentoring in the Catholic tradition by this ragamuffin, mendicant, self-taught, common-man, homegrown philosopher-mystic.

Lay, Spousal Balance of the Masculine and the Feminine...Informal, Undeclared "Doctors"

Here we are clearly dealing with the JV: very few of the following are on the formal canonization track. We know that practically speaking lay people, especially the married, leave no organizational legacy to advance the formal cause. This may change as the leaders of lay renewal movements go on to their rewards. Perhaps we might develop a Catholic devotion to undeclared, informal doctors, like we with do with All Saints Day and daily prayer to the saints. Such would be those, including the married, who present in their lives admiral synthesis of holiness, charity, erudition, and loyalty to the Church. 

Jacques and Raissa Maritain. Early in their relationship, bereft of faith, they pledged mutual suicide if they did not find meaning in life. They were grasped by God; married in 1902 and a decade later pledged to voluntary celibacy, a "Josephite marriage." Both first rate thinkers and authors. Jacques was and is immensely influential in communicating the wisdom of St. Thomas to today's Church.

Dietrich and Alice von Hilderbrand. Alice, 34 years younger, married Dietrich after the death of his first wife. Dietrich, called a "20th century doctor of the Church" by Pius XII, is in the league of Edith Stein and John Paul as brilliant synthesizers of Thomism and contemporary philosophy, specifically phenomenology and personalism. Alice continued his work up to her death in 2022 at the age of 99.  

Catherine and Eddy Doherty. Russian nobility emigre, Dorothy-day-type lover of the poor, mystic, charismatic, married-then-annulled to her first cousin, Catherine married Eddy, renowned reporter, twice-widower. They started Madonna House, a lay community very close to the very poor and neglected. As founders of that community of celibates, they apparently lived also a Josephite marriage. Eddy became a Melkite priest, still married, in union with Rome, at the age of 78. In this case, Catherine is the stronger candidate.

Frank Sheed and Maisey Ward are another delightfully eccentric Catholic couple: talented writers and speakers, they founded Sheed and Ward publishing company which fueled the Catholic anglosphere intellectual revival 1930-65 by making readily and inexpensively available the best literature of the time.

Scott and Kimberly Hahn. Here again, two first rate theologians, exemplary Catholics. Scott is already a legend in his time: dizzyingly erudite in study of scripture, hypnotically dynamic in presentation, he is the "Cardinal Newman" of our time as he has led a long parade, of high-quality theologians and clergy into the Church.

David C. and  Jeanne Schindler. David inherited from his father (David L.) the crown of the Communio School of theology in the USA. I doubt there is a Catholic metaphysican in the Anglosphere that compares with him. Yet he emulates his father's deep critique of our culture. Add to that, (I know him), he is a down-to-earth, easy-to-approach, modest, humble guy. Jeanne I understand is his partner and a thinker in her own right. 

Kevin and Dorothy Ranaghan were founders of the People of Praise charismatic Catholic community in South Bend in 1971. They were then and have remained among the most influential of the lay leaders of that movement. Kevin is an ordained deacon. They remain active now, in their mid-80s.

Peter and Debra Hebrich are leaders of Renewal Ministries, charismatic-Catholic-global. Each is writer and speaker of renown. They are model of a evangelizing marriage. They are typical of many couple leaders in the lay movements including Neocatechumenate, Communion and Liberation, Focolare and other.

Ralph Martin and Steve Clark.  (No, this is not a gay marriage!😅) Steve (now passed) was a vowed celibate, Ralph enjoys a happy marriage/family with Anne who is not a prominent intellectual-activist. But together they were the strongest leaders of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal from 1970 to around 1985. At that time they had a painful, passionate parting of the ways. Steve directed the umbrella group of covenant communities (Sword of the Spirit), Ralph founded Renewal Ministries, a more specifically Catholic vehicle of evangelization, much in tune with John Paul II. They surely are among the most influential Catholics of the last 50 years. Will the fruit of their work give evidence of their holiness and qualification as doctors? I would not count them out! They would be (with JP2 and B6) our first "bro-doctor-saints."

Conclusion

We see in these 16 dyads or partnerships the prominence of the spousal, the communion of the feminine and masculine.  Most (23) are lay. Four clergy (2 popes, 2 priest,) three consecrated religious. Eight married couples. Twenty-two males; twenty-one females. The feminine is equal in prominence to the masculine, but always in spousal balance. Each is personally iconic in virility or femininity. 

The streams noted here all find exquisite expression and support in the incomparable papacy of John Paul. Recalling the reflections of the previous essay on this topic of contemporary doctors, it becomes clear that the significant movements of the Holy Spirit in our time converged in this person and mission:

- Engagement of personalism and Thomism. (Stein, Hildebrands, Maritains)

- Intimacy with the poor. (Day/Maurin, Dohertys, Mother Theresa)

- Mysticism of Divine Mercy. (Faustina, Mother Teresa, Doherty, Stein)

- Heavenly aesthetics on earth. (John Paul as poet, actor; Benedict as musician; Kiko in art and music; Sheed/Ward and literature; 

- Spousal love as iconic, in family and the entire sacramental cosmos. (Schindlers, Benedict)

- Feminine as prominent and esteemed in collaboration with the masculine as distinct/complimentary and the two as fruitful in communion. Devotion to our Mother Mary.

- Emergence of the lay in communion with the ordained and religious, especially in renewal movements.

John Paul is our champion, our captain, our commander. He leads, in our time, our company up the mountain of holiness. He is assisted by a splendid squad of saint-doctors.

Pray for us, all you 20th century holy, wise ones!

In Praise of the Parochial, Normie, Diocesan Priest

My friend, Stephen Adubato, in his unfailingly provocative and entertaining Substack "Cracks in Postmodernity," finds that religious order priests give better homilies than the diocesan clergy.

Correct.  But.....

Obvi, men drawn to religious orders are moving away from mundane, no-frills, bread-and-butter parish Catholicism. They want to be extreme, deep, rad, alternative:  missionaries, vowed friars/monks/hermits, scholars, artists, mavericks and mystics. Every order, like every lay renewal movement, is a specific counterculture, an alternate to the mainstream, creative and original in accord with the charism of the founder(s).  So, we can safely expect something different, novel, creative, offbeat, inspiring-or-annoying from religious order priests.

My wife and I are church-hoppers. We regularly attend perhaps a dozen churches in Jersey City and near our home in Bradley Beach at the Jersey shore. If you add in vacations and visits to our children we are in at least 25 parishes and hear from maybe 60 priests a year. We recognize other church-hoppers but we never speak to each other in accord with the unwritten code intuitively obvious to all us OCD, introverted eccentrics. (Recall the Ed Norton character in the early part of Fight Club?) I am no number-obsessed sociologist, thank God, but I know what I am talking about!

Religious order priests are more often progressive: perhaps 25% militantly so. No more than 10% are conservative, and probably not as assertive. In recent years, anecdotally (this stuff is immune to measurement), progressive, gay cultures seem to thrive more in religious orders and seminaries like the Jesuits, Oblates, Franciscans. Usually, the white-robed Dominicans are more old school, Thomistic, scholastic. Maryknollers (whom I know well), close to the poor around the world, lean liberal politically but abstain from the culture war. If a parish is hanging out rainbow banners, BLM proclamations, and obnoxious "all are welcome" signs, it is probably run by a religious order.

Secular priests are unexceptional. Actually, they are... amazingly, reliably, predictably... moderate, calm, thoughtful, balanced, moralistic, non-controversial, informed, short-winded, punctual, prudent. As the mass is the same everywhere you go, so secular priests are the same wherever you go. Some are more amusing, musical, informative, prayerful, erudite, emotional, playful, serious, narcissistic, comedic, eccentric, cranky and so forth. You almost never hear heresy. You won't hear much politics, from the right or the left. You will not stand up and storm out in protest. You will not be moved to tears of contrition or surges of joy.

It is a credit to our seminaries. They vet, generally well (ok, we know of many exceptions. This is a difficult art, not a science!). Priests are generally intelligent, mature, emotionally balanced, pious in a lowkey, wholesome way. The years of theology(4 or so) are well spent as their preaching is reliably within the boundaries of our deposit of faith. They are like our Church itself and its institutions (buildings, schools, sacramentals, magisterium, episcopacy, sacraments): rocklike, stable, plain, ordinary, unpretentious, durable, permanent. They are phenomenal, miraculous in the fluidity, volatility and chaos of (post)modernity. 

My own favorite priest at the moment is about my age, pushing 80, well past retirement, but offers mass about 3 days a week and hears my confession about twice a month. His homilies are painfully boring, simplistic, moralistic, mundane. Mercifully, he often refrains from giving one and when he does they average 2-3 minutes each. He is a humble, sweet, loving, good, holy man. I dearly love him. Going to confession to him is like going to a gelato shop in Rome. Short and sweet.

When I am bored by a priest's homily, I give thanks that this ordinary man has done the extraordinary: given his life, surrendered romance/sex/wife/kids/legacy/homestead/affluence/willfulness, to bring us the Eucharist every day, absolution when we have sinned, healing when we are sick, prayer-guidance-support-correction when we need it, burial when we are dead.

The ordinary, mundane, normie parish priest is iconic of Jesus in his Eucharist demeanor in the tabernacle: quiet, small, plain, unpretentious, humble, and quietly surging with holiness, charity and mercy.

May our Lord continue to call many ordinary men to the priesthood, and fill them quietly with extraordinary holiness!

Worthy, Reverent Reception of the Eucharist and Spiritual Communion

In our over-regulated world, I am cavalier, loosey-goosey about rules. I do 80 in a 65;  jaywalk, run red lights and roll through stop signs. As a UPS supervisor with tractor trailers my specialty was pulling loads rejected by the union drivers for silly things like bad breaks, flat tires or missing lights. The mechanics called me "Mad Dog." Affectionately? I am years behind in my IRS returns. The home I direct is currently in non-compliance with perhaps 23 regulations from state, county, city, etc. (Our board members and the regulators do not read this blog so my confidence is safe with you, Trusted Reader!) You might call me an anarchist...not professionally like the Catholic Worker or the bomb-throwing types. As an amateur, an avocation. Psychoanalytically, I am in recovery from a strong superego, my ego now strong enough to be playful with my id. I indulge in potty-talk to the delight of my 2-4 year old grandchildren. 

But when it comes to the sacraments and the Church, I go by the book. This is sacred. We do not fool around. Do not make up our own rules. If the Church says to pat your head and pick your nose while confessing you sins...you pat your head and pick your nose. No argument. No dialogue. Obedience!

If you invite me to your house for dinner I do it your way. If you say bring a salad, I bring a salad. If you say wear a tux, I wear a tux. If you say take off your shoes, I wear socks with no holes and take off my shoes. Or, of course, I don't come at all.

How much more with the Church and the Eucharist! Respect!

Requirements for Reception of the Catholic Eucharist

Are clear, simple, straightforward, sensible:

1. Be a baptized Catholic having received confession and first communion. (With rare exceptions for Catholic-adjacent Churches, Orthodox and Coptic, under specific circumstances.)

2. Have fasted for one hour from liquids and solids. (Water/medicine allowed; dispensation for sick/elderly.)

3. Believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament.

4. Be in the state of sanctifying grace: free of conscious, unconfessed mortal sin. 

Exceptions to the above in serious, specified emergencies such as imminent death.

The first two are empirical, objective, and straightforward. The third involves intellectual consent. Is the bar of certitude high? Pastorally, the Church is lenient and merciful. The forth is most difficult. This is left to the conscience of the recipient. The minister cannot judge the soul so denial of communion would only be in the face of obvious scandal. (I took someone to mass once who approached communion munching on a Big Mac; she was refused. Young people obviously intoxicated at Christmas midnight mass need to be denied.)

Widespread catechetical ignorance causes us an epidemic of irreverent, sacrilegious reception. The most common mortal sins, requiring confession prior to worthy reception, are missing mass on Sunday and sex outside of sacramental marriage. The ignorance is possibly invincible and involuntary on the part of the recipients. Perhaps more vincible and deliberate is the responsibility of catechists and ministers.

This sounds easy enough. It is not. I share my experience in four ministries.

Sunday CCD

Most of my 7th grade students do not attend mass on Sunday. They come to class and then go home. It is not their fault. Their parents want them to be confirmed, but otherwise are detached from sacramental life.  Do I clearly tell them this is a mortal sin? No. Pastorally, that would be upsetting and unhelpful. I treat the topic lightly. In explaining the precepts of the Church, I note it without undue emotion or attention. I encourage devotion to the Eucharist by visits to the Church and prayer before the tabernacle. It is delicate catechetical dance: drawing them to Christ in the Eucharist without arousing guilt or judgment against the parents. I trust their young but robust consciences and intelligences to make some sense of the reality: recognize Catholic practice and their families' non-compliance, in a gentle, kind tone.

Eucharist at Magnificat Home

About once a year, Fr. Tony Azzarto S.J. (of happy memory) would visit our residence for low-income women, with an amiable group of volunteers, bringing a good diner and celebrating the Eucharist. There has never been a priest more loved, kind, gentle, holy, endearing than Fr. Tony. Our women all LOVED the visit and especially the liturgy. BUT: Fr. Tony was excessively informal. He preferred the living room to a beautiful chapel. He welcomed all, of whatever belief or disposition, to receive. After mass he tossed the remaining hosts into a bag in careless fashion. For me personally this was a difficulty: on the one hand pastorally fruitful, but also irreverent. I still cannot get my mind around it. I would guess that Christ is mostly pleased. But I am not at home with it.

Hospital Ministry

Fr. Ceasar, the Catholic chaplain, firmly, clearly directed that we dispense communion discretely, in accord with Church practice. This took some getting used to, but now we are comfortable. About half the patients (like the rest of NJ) are Catholic; 10 %  or so of these practice Eucharistic worship. We may visit 30 patients and dispense 3 or 4 hosts. Often we know right away that we can offer communion as they volunteer the name of their parish. Otherwise, I do not to hesitate to ask: Do you go to Sunday mass? Many volunteer: I need confession. I have been away. Very feeble, elderly folks, obviously unable to get to Church on their own, are given some leeway. They also will admit that they are not prepared. Sometimes, we will place the pix, with the sacrament within, on their chest, as when awaiting heart surgery, so the physical presence of Christ is invoked for healing. Often, they express a desire to return to Church. If appropriate, we ask if they want to see a priest for confession/anointing/communion. The ministry has become comfortable and immensely rewarding. With Catholics we do Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be and communion. With Protestants the Our Father. With observant Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists we might offer shared silence. Spontaneous prayer of healing for all. With Pentecostals we strongly invoke the Holy Spirit; with Baptists and Evangelicals we center on Jesus. Most agnostics and even atheists go along with it. Some decline. Often those are obviously practicing Catholics who do not like this informal, "holy roller" prayer stuff. Many of my own family might well decline. But those who decline often offer thanks for the offer. With them I feel a unique, special bond.

Jail Ministry

Our Catholic Communion Ministry, stable and simple, is warmly welcomed in the Ocean County Jail, by Protestant chaplain, prisoners, and even guards (who sometimes receive communion themselves.) Security there is intense and we are disciplined and compliant. (Here I am not the rule-breaking anarchist described in the first paragraph above. I would not dare mess with the tattooed, muscular chaplain who is clearly tougher than any convict in the place.) We share a simple communion service and then discuss the mass readings for the following Sunday. Perhaps 40 minutes. The participants are reverent, attentive, grateful and very impressive. There is some sharing. We leaders talk a little but not too much. It is a deeply holy experience. In presenting Communion, we declare that it is the real body and blood of Christ and that they may, if they believe, receive. If not, they fold their arms and receive a blessing.

This is important but, in my view, not adequate. An unbaptized man that I have been preparing for entrance into the Church told me this week  that he has been coming to the sessions and receiving. This is not right! There is no blame for him. But we ministers have to explain better the practice. When explained clearly, simply, reverently...most  comply happily. 

Particularly important is the practice of spiritual communion.

Spiritual Communion: Unknown, Unpracticed, Underrated

If unprepared for worthy reception one can simply, quietly pray:  "Jesus, I am not prepared at this time to receive you in your body and blood. I ask you to come to me spiritually, in my heart and soul, unworthy as I am."

One might be unworthy for any number of reasons: just ate or drank prior to the service, have been away from Sunday mass, had sex outside of marriage, living in a non-sacramental marriage, and other.

Reception of communion in any of these states is irreverent and sacrilegious, possibly more serious than the sin impediment itself. Eating an egg sandwich 25 minutes before reception is a minor act in itself; but in defiance of Church direction is grave. Cavalier dispensation of the sacrament in defiance of rubrics is false mercy, irreverent and sacrilegious. 

When I personally see participants at mass abstaining from reception I am edified: they love our Lord enough to come; but they are humble before the Eucharist such that they refrain for some reason unknown to myself. They remind me of my own unworthiness; of the unmerited mercy of Christ.

Conclusion

Spiritual Communion is the great secret of the Church. It is largely unknown and unpracticed. It's usage will increase genuine Eucharistic devotion for all of us. We who catechize have to especially be clear on this and worthy reception of Holy Communion.

Catholic Engagement With Modernity

Richard Niebuhr's classic 1951 Christ and Culture  provided an invaluable typology of the ways the Church engages culture: Christ of culture, Christ against culture, Christ above culture. The first is adversarial; the second approving; the third involves itself three subtypes of conversion, dualism and synthesis. What follows will draw upon these models to consider the varying ways Catholicism has engaged modernity, over the last 80 years, in our USA.

Modernity

Is the underlying structure and form of our culture: complex, dense, Godless, disenchanted, bureaucratic, technocratic, market-based, consumerist, capitalistic, scientific, constitutional/democratic, individualistic, state-regulated, automated, meritocratic, release from tradition, mobile, class-stratified, mega-capitalist, saturated with social and entertainment media.  (That is 20 adjectives if you are counting!)

We will contrast the pro-modern, the anti-modern, and an integrally Catholic approach. We will see things are not always so simple: some movements are embracive of aspects of the culture but reactive against others. The culture itself is complicated and contradictory; and Catholicism offers a banquet of values and options; neither are monolithic.

We will be seeing "hybrid-Catholicism" of different sorts:  dualisms which maintains along side our faith and values an alternate, often dissonant or contradictory system of morals.

Of Culture: Pro-Modernity

The bulk of contemporary Catholicism accepts and accommodates mainstream culture, but in a variety of ways: progressive, neo-conservative, suburban-bourgeois. 

Catholic Progressivism dominates across elite, affluent, highly educated groups. It retains the traditional Catholic alliance with unions and the poor even as most adherents themselves enjoy affluence and power.  Configuring themselves as anti-establishment through identity politics and anti-racism, they leave the class structure unthreatened  as they sequester themselves safely in areas removed from the poor.  Most importantly, they accept the Cultural Revolution's liberation of sexuality from procreativity/union and embrace contraception, legalized abortion, LGBTQ causes, and a relaxed attitude to pornography, cohabitation, and fornication. Anti-modern elements include concern for the environment, support for a strong safety net, progressive taxation and regulation of corporate capitalism. Here we have Commonweal, America and National Catholic Reporter...and lots of liberal boomers.

Catholic Neo-Conservatives are Republicans, a la Reagan or Trump, fierce defenders of capitalism (even the corporate sort), economic liberalism as low taxes/regulation, nationalistic. Against the sexual liberals they defend traditional family and sexual ethics. On these cultural/moral issues they are anti-modern. The pro-life stance against legal abortion aligns them with the Republican Party which is itself a party of corporate expansion, technology and of modernity. On economics they are pro-modern; on sexual morals anti-modern. They are First Things, Crisis, National Catholic Register and EWTN.

Catholic Bourgeois Moderation is your typical suburban parish. Political liberals and conservatives are equally comfortable as politics is avoided. Also avoided: moral topics like masturbation, contraception, homosexuality, and IVF. The pastoral sensibility is irenic: do not disturb, do not challenge. And so, American Catholics cohabit, contracept, divorce,  and abort at the same rate as other groups. Elements of Catholic practice that contradict mainstream culture are cancelled in favor of toleration, accommodation and peace.  Some priests will lean more left or right; but in our polarized society the degree of moderation and tranquility in parish life is striking. A strong Catholic impulse is to reconcile and unify; even if at the cost of a dilution of the faith, "Catholic Lite."

Against Culture: Anti-Modernity

Serious Catholic anti-modernity is found in small quantities, outside of parochial life, in a fascinating variety of contrasting countercultures which accentuate specific Catholic values against a hostile society. We consider six.

The Latin Mass cherishes and protects ancient traditions around the mass but also classic Tridentine Catholicism in elements that have been diminished in the post-Council Church. Largely it is an aesthetic of chant, Latin, incense, art and solemnity. It is favorable theologically to Thomism. Pro-life, it will lean Republican. I have personally experienced their generosity towards our non-profit. The pastor of a parish with different ethnic groups tells me the Latin Mass group gives far more money than any other. They may homeschool in reaction to woke education. They often are high-achieving  in  mainstream career paths and so not so anti-modern professionally. Since the papacy of Francis, their war for survival is against the progressive Church, rather than a pagan society. They have been criticized by my friend Stephen Adubato, with some validity, as being a form of modernity, an ideology, rather than flowing authentically, organically from tradition and authority.

Catholic Worker is smaller; far more radical in its life with the very poor, classic Catholic piety,  bohemian renunciation of bourgeois normalcy,  ruralism, pacifism and anarchism. These last stances are ideological and therefore forms of modernity. It is an uneasy, unstable hybrid in its wedding of classic, deep Catholicism with political extremism. In pure form I think it is rare, if admirable.

Covenant Communities of Catholic Pentecostalism, came out of  the broader charismatic renewal and took an extreme anti-modern form in the 1980s. Many gathered under the authoritative umbrella "Sword of the Spirit," brain child of the brilliant,  intellectualist Steve Clark. He developed intensive communities, with strong authority structures, detailed protocols and flamingly traditional gender roles which militantly resisted a culture now seen as pagan and diabolical. In contrast to Ralph Martin, his collaborator in the earlier days of the Renewal (1970s), he downplayed specific Catholic elements in favor of more pronounced Evangelical/Pentecostal practices. In effect, this entailed an alternate ecclesiology and hierarchy so that many of the communities (in Newark, Steubenville) fought with local bishops, not unlike the struggles of the Latin Mass. Famously, Justice Amy Coney Barrett hails from such a community in South Bend. The People of Hope here in north NJ has now reconciled with the Archdiocese and settled into a steady routine, sponsoring a fine alternative Catholic school and a summer camp which has been a blessing for my own grandchildren. They seem to live, however, in many ways a standard suburban life, pursuing careers in finance and skillfully navigating higher education and networks to ensure bourgeois success.

Neocatechumenal Way is the most systematic, intense, comprehensive Catholic anti-modern counterculture. Theologically and morally it is unabashedly Catholic and militantly anti-modern. Communities gather at least twice a week around Scripture and Eucharist. They have very large families and lots of priestly vocations. They are already having a pronounced influence on local Churches where they flourish. They detach from politics other than being pro-life and protective of religious liberties. Focused intensively on community and family, they steer clear of careerism, materialism, and consumerism fluidly, without ideological articulation. Their most "modern" feature is their liturgy which, in sharp contrast to the Latin Mass, developed in the progressive euphoria after the Council in the 1960s. It rejects centuries of Catholic liturgy as temple/sacrifice/silence/solemnity in favor of a Passover model of the Eucharist. Even beyond worship they aspire to an "originalist" pre-Constantinian ideal of the early Church. They have an extremely negative view of modernity as pagan and implicitly view the broader Catholic Church as weak in the face of a hostile world. They are already wielding  immense influence in the Church, almost all for the good (in my view.)

Benedict Option is not an actual, sociological reality, but a proposal by conservative thinker Rod Dreher. Highly anti-modern, he sees that all our major mega-institutions, for example both political parties, are fragmented, dysfunctional and post-and-anti-Christian. He urges us to detach, with due prudence, from the larger institutions, and focus our energies locally and concretely on our families, local Church/ school, and smaller organizations that flow from and into them. In different ways, the forms explained above follow this ideal, although not deliberately. Another example would be the creation of home school organizations in  informal, close community. As it is not an organized movement, it is impossible to measure. It has been a hot topic in conservative circles and is surely having influence informally.

Ethnic Parishes in urban areas, such as the northeast (NYC, Boston, Philadelphia) are a residual, diminishing force for anti-modernity. Diocesan policy and clergy do not encourage these but implicitly accept the standard homogenous ideal. In the 1960s, Catholic clergy imbibed the liberal ideals of civil rights (basically a good thing) but unfortunately abandoned the practices of ethnic, urban parochialism (positively understood) as Catholic rose up the economic scale and moved to the suburbs. However, the magnificent Churches, traditional feasts and holy days, and nostalgic memory all remain as connections with the Catholicism of our fathers, even for those of us most thoroughly modernized. 

In contrasting ways, these six groups are admirably fearless, fierce, intense and loyal to the faith of our fathers in a world increasingly hostile to us. Their temptation is to anxiety, resentment, victim-complex, and condemnation of those outside their circles. They can detach and rash judge normal Church parochialism now seen as compromised and weak. They can tend to become sect-like, losing a confident, positive Catholicity that welcomes God's grace wherever it is found.

Integral Catholicism

In line with the best traditions of the Church, integral Catholicism avoids the dualism of hybrid identities,  engaging modernity to criticize, strongly if necessary, but also assimilate and synthesize what is best. This was, of course, the practice of the early Church fathers with regard to Greek culture and of St. Thomas with regard to Aristotle: the famous "spoils of Egypt" whereby the escaping Hebrew slaves took with them the best of Egyptian culture. This was clearly the aspiration of the bishops in the Vatican Council, even as the implementation of that providential event was significantly highjacked by progressivism. It avoids the credulous embrace of culture by the liberals. It overcomes the hostility, anxiety, victim complex and resentment that tempts conservatives and traditionalists. 

In a highly intellectual form, it finds pure expression in the legacy of John Paul/Benedict and the Communio school that follows them. Adjacent to this is the slightly left-leaning Communion and Liberation movement and (in its better moments) the more right-leaning First Thing or the refreshingly balanced, non-Catholic Plough from the Catholic-friendly Bruderhof community.

Locally, concretely it is found in a million expressions in the best of ordinary parish life, in the more prudent and moderate forms of anti-and-pro-modernity, and in myriads of societies, movements, retreats, schools and others.

The Holy Spirit is active and effective among us, guiding us to take from our storehouses the best of the old and of the new, embracing what is good, renouncing what is bad.  

 

Who (after Newman) is Our Next Doctor of the Church? (1 0f 3)

James Keane ("Bernard Lonergan: The Second English-speaking Doctor of the Church?" America, 8/26/25) strongly advocates for the brilliant Canadian Jesuit as next declared Doctor after St. John Cardinal Newman. Let's review what a doctor is and evaluate Lonergan along with other possibilities. 

We have 38 doctors, including 4 women. Since 1600 and the Counter-Reformation, we have only had three doctors: Alphonsus Liguori (1787), Theresa of Lisieux (1897) and imminently, John Cardinal Newman (1890). They are few and far between: about one every 141 years recently. 

Requirements:

1. Holiness of life. Specifically a doctor must already be a canonized saint.

2. Breath, depth and brilliance of erudition.

3. Orthodox and inspirational in strong influence on the Church. 

Here we will suggest five groupings of candidates, from the least to the most probable.

Virtually Impossible

Lonergan belongs here, along with fellow progressive Jesuit contemporaries Rahner, Chardin, and Courtney Murray. These share a vast erudition, including grounding in tradition and engagement with contemporary thought, as well as direct influence on the Council or broadly on the Church coming out of that event. They enjoy reputations of sound moral character and holiness of life, in a modest dimension. On erudition and influence they score very high. Not so much on sanctity and orthodoxy.

Their sanctity appears to be ordinary, not evidently heroic or miraculous. None, to my knowledge, are on the canonization track. We have no reports of anyone reading Insight (or Phenomenon of Man, We Hold These Truths, or one of Rahner's 674 books) and being miraculously cured, repenting of sin, plunging into hermetic life or service of the destitute. Rather, the "Lonergarian Condition" is very specific as intellectual/spiritual/aesthetic: one becomes infatuated conceptually and enters a state of steady euphoria and ecstasy. This joy draws one into further reading, writing for journals, participation in seminars and conferences at places like Seton Hall University.

The effect is benevolent and highly irenic: nice people become nicer, more inclined to be open minded, dialogic, accommodating of the culture, reconciliatory, adverse to conflict...intellectual, cultural, spiritual. To those of us outside of this eco-chamber, the condition is incomprehensible.

(Aside: you feel the affection, Dear Reader, in my teasing. I have never met a Lonergarian I have not like. My favorite, by far, is the much loved and esteemed Monsignor Dick Liddy. He is brother-in-law to my wife's first cousin. Doesn't every family have a Lonergarian?)

(Aside:  My son, a flaming Balthasarian like myself, as well as a Kikoian, wrote a piece for the Lonergan Review, highlighting the most Balthasarian elements in the Canadian's thought. A very Lonergarian gesture...welcoming, unifying, reconciling. At the time he was teaching at Seton Hall. When in Rome...)

These four thinkers did their best work in the thriving progressive build up to the Council. They share a weakness that became evident in their disciples in the following decades: confusion regarding the foundational nature of marriage and family, the unitive/procreative nature of gender/sexuality and related issues. These issues are the foundation of our culture but also of our sacramental ecology. 

Given this foundational intellectual disorder, along with the high bar of holiness required, it is unthinkable that these brilliant theoreticians become doctors of the Church.

Possible, Less than Likely Candidates

This second group rival the first group in depth and breath of erudition, grounding in tradition and engagement with contemporaneity. What separates them is fidelity to the Catholic ethos of sacramentality, authority, sexuality and gender. For scholarship and influence  but also for ecclesial fidelity they score very high. In holiness they resemble our first group: they are known for lives of modest holiness, but no vivid display of the heroic or miraculous. 

These include; Dulles, D.L. Schindler, Hildebrandt, Maritain, Gilson, DeLubac,  Danielou, Congar, Cardinal Suenens. The most brilliant of all: Balthasar. The most likely to meet the bar for canonization as well as brilliance, influence and erudition: Pope Benedict.

Reasonable Probability Due to Holiness and Practical Impact

These are canonized saints, already certified in sanctity, who have left a body of teaching that is practically edifying and orthodox. They are not academically erudite. They resemble doctors like the two Theresas, Catherine, and Hildegard: pious and inspirational. These are St. Faustina, St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta, and St. Jose Escriva. A personal favorite is St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, a mystic similar to our women doctors although her influence is limited. 

Special Cases

These are unusual, but striking candidates. 

Adrienne von Speyr was an extraordinary mystic who inspired much of the theology of Balthasar. In many circles she is suspect for the mystical phenomena. I am personally a believer.  

Founders of the Lay Renewal Movements are strong candidates for their holiness of life and the immense influence upon the Church and world through their movements. This includes Monsignor Luigi Giusanni of Communion and Liberation, Chiara Lubich of Focolari, and Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez of the Neocatechumenal Way. Kiko is the only candidate here suggested that is still alive; he is not a favorite of the clergy. These are highly probable because their flourishing movements will be able to organizationally advocate for them. Clearly, their cause for canonization is prior to their case for being a doctor. 

Long shot, dark horse candidates:  Most probable post-abortive, bohemian, anarchistic doctor is Dorothy Day. Most probable homosexual doctor is Henry Nouwen. 

Very Strong Candidates

Our two best bets are both canonized saints of strikingly heroic sanctity; world class thinkers who marry classical Catholic wisdom with the best of contemporary phenomenology/personalism, and dramatic personal witness. 

John Paul is the strongest possible case as pope, brilliant theorist (including catechesis on the human body), and dramatic agent in world history. He is a no-brainer, a slam dunk. I cannot imagine him not a doctor within 50 years.

Theresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) is striking in contrasting ways: a world class philosopher herself, she is of Jewish descent, a cloistered religious, and a martyr in the Holocaust. She is also close to a definite choice, in my view.

Conclusion

The office of "doctor" is significant as it embodies Catholicism's intuition of the mutual indwelling of holiness of life, erudition, and loyalty to our deposit of faith. This is the "kneeling theology" of Balthasar, the communion of faith/reason/tradition. 

The recommendation of Lonergan as doctor of the Church indicates an ignorance of or indifference to the requirement of sanctity and even canonization as intrinsic to the office. This highlights the fundamental defect of progressive theology: the disconnect of prayer, worship and holiness from theology, now reconfigured and abstracted as an intellectual exercise, non-mystical, non-sacramental, non-practical.

The most probable candidates for doctor are Saints John Paul and Theresa Benedicta of the Cross. After that, St. Faustina, St. Mother Theresa and St. Jose Maria. After that, I would put money on Pope Benedict, Chiara, Luigi and Kiko/Carmen and Speyr/Balthasar.

We stand, even in our own time, on the shoulders of giants!

You holy doctors...pray for us!

Afterthought

A personal, longshot favorite of mine is a local from Bayonne NJ, Blessed Maria Teresa Demjanovich. She is solidly on the path to canonization with miracles and a life of quiet, pronounced holiness. As a young novice with the Sisters of Charity of Convent Station she so impressed her spiritual director that he asked her to write her reflections and he delivered them, anonymously, to her own classmates. She died at the age of 26, leaving a legacy of sanctity and inspiring reflections. I am personally fond of her because, prior to entering the convent, she taught in a Catholic Jersey City high school where she struggled painfully with discipline...an travail that I myself underwent in early adulthood. 

Imagine: The Theresa's of Calcutta, Auschwitz and Bayonne join Lisieux and Avila as doctors! So Cool! I challenge you, Dear Reader, to name five saints with comparable holiness, charity and wisdom. I have a dear younger sister and a lovely niece with this name. It is the best female saint name (followed by the many Catherines.) My granddaughter Brigid chose this as her confirmation name (when I happily stood as sponsor!) I am not sure if she favors one of the Theresa's or if she just likes the name. There is no canonical impediment against her invoking all five as patron saints! 

Joyfully I commend my sister, niece, and granddaughter, as she launches bravely into the worlds of journalism (internship with America) and law, to the intercession of these marvelous women!

Boastful Name-Dropping

I spoke with Mother Theresa and Dorothy Day. I knew Avery Dulles and David L. Schindler. I attended conferences with John Paul, Benedict, Kiko, Suenens as well as Lonergan. 

( Aside: when I heard Lonergan in St. Peter's College circa 1971 my life path was decided: I was so bored I resolved never to pursue an academic career in theology despite my love for the discipline. I have kept that vow and remain a lay, mendicant, amateur student happily free of credentials and degrees. Do you see why I got so agitated at the advocacy of him as doctor?)

I am the Catholic Forest Gump of our time (but not a great runner.) Since holiness, wisdom and charity are highly contagious, I am counting on their continued influence and intercession!

My Singular Boast: I Follow

I am a follower, a copycat, an imitation, an echo, an acolyte, a disciple, a docile lamb, a "me too," a protege. 

I am NOT: a heroic solitary, a self-made man, an originator, an individual, a creative genius, a self-starter, an inventor, an independent thinker, a founder, a lone wolf, a pioneer, a "modern man," a postmodern, a mastermind, or even "my own man." 

From the magisterial Rene Girard, via his protege, my mentor, Gil Baile, I know: we humans, created to image God, are always and everywhere and in every way mimetic...we imitate.

Ultimately, we mimic our Creator...or the Adversary, Lucifer. But these are themselves always mediated.

The primal question, Dear Reader: Who do you follow?

I follow Jesus Christ, my Lord, Savior, God, Brother, Companion, Model.  He himself is a mimesis, in  his humanity and in his divinity within the Absolute Event of Love that is the Trinity, of his Father. 

He comes to me personally in solitude: in prayer, worship, Eucharist and sacraments, his Word. But he comes to me mediated, within his Body the Church, through mentors who are themselves proteges, however flawed.

So, working backwards from the present, I esteem and thank my mentors and praise the Lord.

For several months, I have been watching Pope Leo XIV as he radiates peace, reconciliation, listening, stability, modesty, quiet, fidelity, compassion, confidence, integrity.

During these same months I am under the influence of Stephen Adubato, less than half my age, a Memores Domini, a disciple of Luigi Giusani and Dorothy Day, a student of hip-popular culture, edgy, ironic, humorous, bohemian, erudite in an eccentric fashion, curator of the substack Cracks in Postmodernity.

For over a year my leader in our local Catholic jail ministry is Jim Collery: ex-Marine, formerly UPS manager (I myself was a mere supervisor), solid, common sensical, balanced, good natured, devout, unpretentious, salt-of-the-earth guy.

For well over a year my formator in our volunteer hospital chaplaincy was the riveting, effervescent, Jesus-loving, Spirit-filled, Presbyterian, Princeton-educated, Reverend Cyndy Wilcox. Much younger than myself. Exploding with life. Helped me talk with the homeless in the ER and those in the psych floor. Demonstrated how to bring the love of Christ, explicitly or covertly, to everyone of any belief. I never figured out her politics or her theology: She is so hip (liberal?) but so in love with Jesus (conservative?) She seems like a NYC radical and a Southern Evangelical! So Cool!

For over a decade, until her death in 2022, Sister Joan Noreen of Our Lady's Missionaries of the Eucharist, was our spiritual guide. A holy woman. Her presentations (about classic Catholic stuff like papal teaching, saints, prayer etc.) were inspiring: something from heaven. Spiritually intelligent, her taste in speakers and literature was impeccable. She spoke with authority, unchallenged in the group, except by me. She was strict with me. For example early in the papacy of Francis, she sternly rebuked my criticism and directed me in obedience to read two of his homilies every day. I will tell you: he was a terrific homilist. Strangely, I took morose delectation in her angry punishment of me. It was as if I was reliving all the discipline we received from sisters in Catholic grammar school but now from a posture of confidence, affection, peace, and good humor. I was her problem child. Once she told me she would never have excepted me into the community except as a favor for my daughter Clare whom she loved. She also told me, when I made my promises, that I was her favorite. 

In founding, with family and friends, our Magnificat Home, residence for low income women, I was especially inspired by Dorothy Day, Catherine Doherty, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Jean Vanier, and Father Benedict Groeschel and the Friars of the Renewal. Our home has its own personality, contrasting with those, but influenced by them.

Around the end of the century, I spent time "walking" with two different Neocatechumenal communities. Through the catechists, I was discipled by Kiko Arguello, the singular lay spiritual genius of our time. This deeply effected me: especially the deep awareness of sin. We are all of us...a mess! It is so good to realize this. So relaxing! So nice to be free of moralistic stress and guilt. This influence continues through my son who is deeply engaged therein.

Providentially, at the same time I came in contact with the 12-step tradition of Bill W. and Doctor Bob and attended meetings of various sorts (even Emotions Anonymous and adjacent groups like Suicide Survivors Support and the Recovery Groups of Dr. Lowe for the nervous.) All of this made me comfortable with human frailty, starting with my own. 

Throughout my adult life, (but not recently), I was blessed with wise, holy confessor/spiritual directors: Neal Doherty S.J., Fr. Paul Viale, John Wrynn, Fr. Tim Tighe, Fr. Raymond McKeon.

Additionally, I have been steadily edified by intimate friendship with "older-brothers-in-Christ" John Rapinich, Brother Ray Murphy, and Merryl Jacobson.

Throughout my mature adulthood (ages 29-71; 1978-2013) my theological mentors were John Paul and Benedict. Very strong influences. A third figure of importance influence: Hans Urs von Balthasar. These were themselves mediated to me by the remarkable Communio school of theology closer here at the John Paul Institute in DC: David L. Schindler and son David C., Antonio Lopez, Paolo Prospero, Nick Healy, Michael Hanby, and the entire school. Adjacent to Communio is the Communion and Liberation Movement of Monsignor Luigi Gisanni, in which my daughter Margaret Rose is engaged, which has also effected me with their annual New York Encounter and other.

Over 25 years (1977-2013), at UPS, mostly in supervision, I was without a mentor. I was on my own. Given a gentle temperament and a personality already formed by seminary/Church, I was an exception, an outlier in a macho, dog-eat-dog, kick-ass managerial culture. We supervisors as peers were friends and mutually supportive; the managers above us defensive, often hostile, and always pressuring us for performance. I enjoyed the challenge of the work and the friendships as I survived on competence and relationship skills. A friend said I was the most underrated supervisor: a compliment, in a way?

Through the 1970s, 1973-80, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal greatly impacted my own spirituality, our marriage and indirectly our family. Ralph Martin has been the strongest influence even to the present as my own journey has mirrored his: drawing deeper into our Catholic roots. Immediately and intimately, we were closely, deeply guided by a remarkable groups of devout Charismatic women who moved into Jersey City and directed our prayer group under Father Jim Ferry's People of Hope community: Patricia Brennan (Charity), Marge Jarocz (Dominican), and several gifted lay women Kay, Betty, Gloria Jean, and Joan. More distantly, I was guided by a remarkable group with immense intellectual/spiritual gifts: Clark, the Ranaghans, Scanlan, McNutt, Manning,  O'Connor, Francis Martin, McConnell, Montague, Ruth Carter Stapleton, Cardinal Suenens, and more recently Mary Healy.

Contemporaneous with our charismatic engagement, I taught religion in St. Mary H.S. Jersey City with remarkable Charities of Convent Station: dear, admirable "big-sisters-in-Christ" Maria Martha Joyce, Alberta, and Peggy McCarthy. Each a gifted, holy woman. Each with endearing eccentricities. Superb friends. 

Another Charity of Convent Station, again contemporaneously in the early 1970s, Sister Virginia Keane engaged me to assist her in a marvelous ministry in Duncan Housing Projects in Jersey City. She welcomed me and entrusted me with a simple catechesis for mostly non-Catholics. She lived in the projects herself; she was deeply engaged and much loved there. An inspiration for me.

In the years immediately after college (1969) and early in our marriage (1971) I studied at Woodstock Jesuit Theologate, NYC, where  under mystic-theologian Joseph Whelan, the strongest single spiritual influence on my life. Secondly, I was also taught by the  Avery Cardinal Dulles, arguably the greatest Catholic American theologian of our time. At the same time I very the best liberal Protestant theologians at Union Theological. I enjoyed some marvelous friends: a Puerto Rican, Tony Petrosky, who taught with me at Puerto Rican Community Development Project; an ex-seminarian roommate George Lissandrello living in the emergent gay community of Manhattan's lower East Side; Peter Murray and some other Jesuit seminarians. 

In college (1965-9), Maryknoll College Seminary, Glen Ellen, Illinois, we were proctored and instructed by fine Maryknoll Priests, but always from an emotional distance. Philosophy professor Fr. Tom McGinn had a big impact on my as he taught both 19th century and medieval thought. Here I saw the immense contrast between the Masters of Suspicion (Hegel/Marx/Nietzche/Darwin) and St. Thomas as mediated by his heirs (Newman, Gilson, Maritain, Pieper). Obviously:  I went with the later. Ever since, I have enjoyed an underlying intellectual clarity and certitude in the oppression of modernity and the chaos of post-modernity.

My singular personal mentor of the time, so significant for my own identity and self-esteem, was Pat Williams, librarian, ex-Marine, voracious book worm, husband/father, maverick-eccentric-lay-intellectual. Perhaps the most positive influence on my personal development. More intellectually, ending college I was passionately impacted by the iconoclasitic/anarchisti/yet/mystical/traditional teachings of Ivan Illich.

My high school years were happy and serene in Seton Hall Prep, a good school with lots of fine priests. I did not have a close or influential relationship. The same for the brothers (grades 5-8), sisters (k-4) and priests in our parish. 

It goes with saying that my early influences were mother/father; rich network of uncles/aunts/grandmothers/older cousins/friends. Equally, in adult life my wife. Increasingly, my children, their spouses and children. These are, of course, organic often egalitarian and not what we mean by mentor/protege. 

You see, Dear Reader, that I have been miraculously blessed. Is there anyone alive...in NJ? USA? the world?...with a richer network of influence? Possibly not!

Perhaps my singular grace is that I follow: that I am drawn to such people. That they have attracted me; inspired me; attended to me; responded to me; guided me; cherished me. They number over 60. Less than half priests: a balance in style of the clerical and lay. About 20 women, just over half of them religious; strong feminine influence. All were older than me except the last four; it is hard to find older mentors at the age of 79! About 15, one quarter, are alive. Just under one half, 30, I knew personally.  Other than our Lord Jesus, I am not specifically discipled to any single figure; but the most important would be Pat Williams, Joe Whelan, John Rapinich, the Catholic Charismatics (led by Ralph Martin) and the Communios (led by John Paul.)

Whatever in me is true, good and beautiful springs from my encounter with these 60 mentors, as well as a rich network of family and friends.

May God bless each and every one of them: living and deceased! 

My Favorite Ignored, Forgotten, Underrated Thinkers

In no particular order:

Gil Baile

Ivan Illich

Paolo Prosperi

Adrian Walker

Paul Vitz

Brennan Manning

Myles Connolly (Mr. Blue)

Dietrich von Hildebrandt

Larry Chapp

Stephen Adubato

Joseph Whelan S.J.

Frank Sheed

Fr. Charles Curran (Rogerian psychologist)

Edward O'Connor, Francis Martin, Killian McDonnell, George Montague

Catherine Doherty

Adrienne von Speyr

Joseph Nicolosi Sr. and Elizabeth Moberly

E. Michael Jones

Bishop Eric Varden

Archbishop Luis Martinez

Mary Harrington

Baron Friedrich von Hugel 

If you don't know these names, Dear Reader, do not be embarrassed! That is the point: Nobody seems to know them! 

The above largely blend eccentricity, brilliance, holiness. They deserve attention.