Four-Splendored Love: Filial, Fraternal, Spousal, Paternal/Maternal

 Four Loves by C.S. Lewis gave us the abiding, classical typology  of love: affection (storge), friendship (philia), romance (eros), and charity (agape). But I have come to prefer an alternate fourfold understanding based more clearly on the essential relationships that define the natural family...biologically, emotionally, spiritually. These loves are: filial, fraternal/sororal/friendship, spousal, paternal/maternal. These structure the family as they analogously inform all human relationships even as they image the boundless, diverse love(s) of the Holy Trinity.

Filial is love of the child for mother/father, of the creature for the Creator, of the receiver for the giver, of the needy inferior for the generous superior. It is rooted in receptivity as in the affection of Lewis. For Lewis affection is a low form of love as our pets have such for us. But human, filial love is a far deeper reality, at once emotional, moral, spiritual. 

It begins in the receptivity of the infant: the experience of comfort, pleasure, safety, delight while suckling at the breast and gazing at the mother's face. From here it flows organically into gratitude, trust (the first developmental stage for Eric Ericson), mutuality in affection, loyalty and loving obedience. Eventually it matures into respect, honor, reverence and adoration.

It is the essential, foundational love we have as creatures for our Creator. Human love is first and foremost always receptive. We did not decide to exist. That we live at all is entirely gratuitous. And so, the foundation of all love is gratitude. The only fitting response to grace and gift is thanks and praise. Nothing we do or achieve is adequate to reciprocate what we have received...except thanks and praise.

This primal love goes beyond our immediate parents to all who protect, provide, guide and care for us: grandparents, uncles/aunts, mentors, coaches, teachers, priests, police, military, governors as well as family, ethnicity, religion (Church), nation.

It is as well the root love from which flow the others: fraternal, spousal, paternal.

Fraternal, Sororal, Friendship is very close to Lewis's friendship or philia, but we root it here more deeply in love of brother/sister. It flows from shared blood, same mother/father and heritage. By extension, friendship beyond the family reflects a analogous form. There is a basic equality, notwithstanding differences in age, between siblings as between friends. It entails a symmetry in contrast to the asymmetry of filial/parental love.  There is a permanent union of blood and family. For friendship there is a sharing in some value, activity, belief or such. With this love there is more detachment than there is in filial, parental and spousal love. What bonds is a third factor...interest, faith, hobby, loyalty. It is more lighthearted and playful. It blends well with the other loves which are not absolutely exclusive of each other: father/sons who golf or fish and mothers/daughters who shop and plan gatherings. It is a prerequisite for a strong spousal love, even prior to the sexual, romantic, unitive and generative.

Spousal  love, flowering out of filial and fraternal, is the fulfillment of the eros or romantic love of Lewis. In our Catholic tradition, sexual or even romantic attraction, even when mutual, do not enjoy a stable, enduring ontological status of their own. Rather, they are dimensions of or moments within the greater, denser, complex reality of spousal, conjugal or marital love. On their own, sexual and romantic attraction are not genuine loves in the permanent, enduring sense. They are prone, inevitably, to frustration, heartbreak and tragedy unless they blend with charity, agape, Christlike or supernatural love. Romantic love itself, the passionate desire for union with the Beloved, can move, under the guidance of agape, in two directions: to fulfillment in marital communion or in the ascesis of renunciation and sacrifice when the consummation/fulfilment is not possible.  For example if the desire is not reciprocated, or is prevented by a prior commitment of vow, the longing is denied...and can be cursed or blessed by the one who suffers so. Even within the happy marriage the sexual/romantic normally goes through many "deaths" or frustrations through all sorts of difficulties. Here again, the deprivation can be cursed, leading to acrimony, or blessed and become fruitful of a deeper agapic-parental love. As noted earlier, spousal love always contains primordially friendship as a presumption. Spousal love is not a final end on its own but  grows into deeper forms of agape and generative love. So an enduring love never entirely loses the romantic dimension, but organically takes on more profound and fruitful form as agape and maternal/paternal.  Spousal love, we learned from John Paul, is: free, exclusive, sexual, permanent, generative. At the same time it is filial, fraternal, and generative. For example, in the symphony of marriage there come moments when the man, however mature, enjoys the maternal love of his wife; and vice versa. 

Spousal Love as Celibate and Virginal  Marriage itself is not the most sublime expression of human spousal love. That is reserved for the vowed life of celibacy/virginity. In this union, normal, marital, sexual, romantic and fecund relationship is renounced in favor of a deeper, purer, eternal, spousal communion with Christ himself. This communion already anticipates, here in this life on earth, our destiny in heaven, where we will not be given in marriage, but enjoy absolute, eternal intimacy with God. The vowed life enjoys, by anticipation, this reality already now in priesthood and/or religious life. The surrender of all the joys, energies, synergies and fruits of natural marriage serves to intensify not only the mystical union with Christ, but also, in a 100 ways, filial, fraternal, and maternal/paternal love.

Maternal/Paternal Love We prefer here the gendered/sexual distinction rather than the abstract, discarnate "parental." Similarly, we value the brother/sister binary over the bloodless, fleshless "sibling."  God created the human person as bipolar: male or female, a hard binary, no mixture of the two, no 3rd or 4th alternatives. The final goal of femininity is maternity, to give life. The final goal of masculinity is paternity, to give life. This means biological, but also moral, emotional, spiritual, social and intellectual life. The two contrast to each other in a splendor of complementarity, diversity, asymmetry, serendipity, playfulness, synergy and fecundity. Joined together in marriage they form an organic newness, a reality greater than each of them or the sum of both of them: the family. With this comes the agony and the ecstasy; the joyful, the sorrowful, the luminous and the glorious mysteries. As mentioned, the vowed religious and celibate priest themselves are generative in an even more profound manner. Even the unmarried, single person finds a multitude of creative ways to give life. Essentially, the mother enjoys an intimacy, receptivity, openness, and an organic generosity. The more structurally detached father must overcome a distance, assisted by the mother who (physically but more important spiritually) entrusts the little one into his hands. His mission is to image for the child our loving heavenly Father. The mother represents no one, but is always simply herself. The male role is inferior as representative while that of the woman is substantive in itself. The female is the high point of creation.

Benefits of this Family Typology of Loves

This very Catholic model has the value of overcoming the individualist temptation to view love as the activity or enjoyment of the basically isolated Self. By this erroneous view the Self has primacy and love comes secondarily, as a choice or activity. In reality however, the human person is always born into a preexisting communion of love. Created out of nothing, by the infinitely-generous Trinity, each person enters into a prior human community of love: the marriage, family, extended community, Church, tribe, nation. The "communion in love"...the Trinity, the marriage, family, etc...has an ontological primacy. Participation in this communion imbues the person with dignity, freedom, love, identity, mission and destiny. The person becomes his/her very self by loving others and loving the communion, in  a manner that is entirely unique, distinctive, personal, unprecedented, incomparable.

Consider even the boundless diversity of love within the family. We have 7 children; so the 9 of us each love 8 persons; so our immediate family has 9 x 8 = 72 loves. If we go even a degree beyond in the extended family to aunts/uncles/grandparents/cousins we are in the hundreds. If we go even two generations prior and after, the grandparents and grandchildren we personally know, we are into the thousands. 

Even the Holy Trinity is a pluralism of loves. It is absolute unity, but infinite distance between the Persons. The love of the Father for the Son is not the same as the love of the Holy Spirit for the Father. Even their love for us is distinctive. As a Triune One God they love us; but the Son has his own love, the Father his own, and the Holy Spirit a third. And so, in prayer, we can enjoy a colloquy now with Jesus, now with the Father, now with the Holy Spirit and now with One Holy Triune God.

In real life, of course, actual, concrete loves are always a blend of some sort. At my age (just turned 79) I expect to soon be reviving my filial love, entering more deeply into God's fatherly love for me, by receiving the care of my children/grandchildren as well as some network of nurses, doctors, and caregivers. Every single "love affair" is a creative, surprising "newness" that blends distinctively the fourfold splendors of love. 

In heaven, of course, these delights will be magnified infinitely! We have much for which to look forward!

Voices from Heaven, Voices from Hell

Our earth in our time, the 80 years since WWII, has been, as all times since the Fall, a battle between the Kingdom of God and the powers of Darkness. So, we do well to identify those voices which come from both kingdoms.

THE KINGDOM OF LIGHT

1. St. John Paul II. Singularly providential and inspired: proclamation of Jesus Christ, announcement of the Divine Mercy, participation in and interpretation of Vatican II, teaching on the gendered/sexual human body as definitive response to the Sexual Revolution, defense of human dignity, combat against Nazism/Soviet Communism/Cultural Progressivism, social teaching, blend of personalism and Thomism and holiness/heroism of life. Once in a Millennium the Church receives such a saint/hero.

 2. Silent witness of the martyrs. No words spoken: Stein, Kolbe and victims of Nazis, Communism and violent Jihadism.

3. (Mostly) Women who serve the poor and suffering.  Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Dorothy Day, Madeleine Delbrel, Catherine Doherty.

4. Mystics and Saints. Padre Pio, Adrienne von Speyr, Marthe Robin, Mother Teresa's dark night of 40 years. 

5. American Evangelists of Post War Period (1945-65). Fulton Sheen, Billy Graham, Fr. Patrick Peyton, Thomas Merton. 

6. Fathers of Vatican II.  John XXIII, Paul VI, the bishops and periti. 

7.  Leaders of Lay Renewal Movements.  Kiko Arguello, Luigi Giussani, Chiara Lubich, and Ralph Martin and others .

8. Thinkers who wed Thomism with personalism and the best of modernity. Hildebrandt, John Paul, Benedict, Balthasar, Schindlers, Marcel, Maritain, Gilson, Pieper, Blondel, Guardini, Mournier, (Jewish) Buber, and (Russian Orthodox) Berdyaev.

9. Critics of modernity as technocracy, scientism, bureaucracy. Ivan Illich, Jacques Ellul, EF Schumacher, Michael Hanby, Paul Kingsnorth, and others.

10. Articulators of a Catholic, Contemporary Anthropology.  PopeBenedict, Rene Girard, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Karl Stern, Paul Vitz, and others.

11. Champions of Human Rights and Freedoms.  Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Oscar Romero, Desmond Tutu, Vaclav Havel, Martin Luther King and Caesar Chavez (notwithstanding depraved personal behavior with women of the last two.)

12. Bill W. and Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous and founders of other 12-step programs.

13. Great Catholic Fiction Writers.  Flanner O'Connor, Walter Percy, Evelyn Waugh, (Anglican) C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Graham Greene, Edwin O'Connor, Myles Connolly, Sigrid Undset, Solzhenitsyn, and others. 

14. Marian Apparitions. Our Blessed Mother continues to come to us, inviting us to trust in God, prayer, conversion from sin, and reparation. Through the ages, there are 16 such appearances approved by the Vatican. These include: Guadalupe, Lourdes, Fatima, Knock, Miraculous Medal, La Salette, and (in our period 1981-9) Kibeho. In our time, the following are approved by local bishops: Of All Peoples 1947 Italy, Akita 1973 Japan. The remarkable, fruitful apparitions at Medjugorje (1981-present) remain controversial but were granted Nihil Obstat by the Vatican indicating the cult is tolerated but not guaranteed to be supernatural. For a Catholic, the voice of Mary is possibly the most influential.

THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS

1. Misogyny. Lucifer's defining envy and hatred is against our Blessed Mother Mary in her queenship and so his obsession is to defile femininity in every possible way: polygamy, honor killings, pornography, prostitution, militant feminism as denial of maternity in favor of "reproductive rights," trans-femininity and other.

2. Desecration of Fatherhood.  As the vocation and destiny of the male is to image our heavenly Father (even in our own sinfulness), the erasure of God's presence requires toxic and cowardly masculinity and resentment of "patriarchy." 

3. Sexual Revolution including abortion.  Contraceptive rupture of sex from spousality/fertility, deconstruction of gender, genocide of the unborn and otherwise incompetent, devastation of the natural family and all its consequences. Kinsey, Masters and Johnson, Hefner, Helen Brown, Betty Friedan, Margaret Mead, Marcuse, Reich, and an army of Freudian-Marxists.

4. Communism. Stalin, Mao, Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Xi, Pol Pot, Tito, the Kim's of N. Korea, as well as Western hemisphere communist-adjacent Chavez, Maduro, and Ortega.

5. Antisemitism.  After misogyny and Mary-Phobia, Lucifer's second obsession is hatred of the Jew. This is because Mary and Jesus are Jews. This sets it apart from broader forms of ethnic and racial hatred. Hitler was, of course, the embodiment of this as a unparalleled "anti-Christ." Communism may have killed 100 million through the decades, but it is not so personal and specific: it kills whoever resists it, indiscriminately. Antisemitism is viscerally, personally hateful, and implicitly aimed at Christ, his mother and his people. How troubling is the recent surge of such across Islam and our own political right and left!

6. Islamic Jihadism and Sharia Law. Sunni terrorism and Iranian Shiitism compete with each other in violence and repression. 

7. Scientism, Technocracy, State and Corporate Gigantism.  Not genuine science, of course, but the philosophical denial of the spiritual and the inflation of a reductive science into a religion is scientism. Conspiracy of gigantisms of technology, bureaucracy, state and corporations work to isolate the individual by deconstructing family/church/community and "progress" to totalitarianism.

8. Racial and ethnic hatred. In our time, happily, Jim Crow was overcome by the Civil Rights Movement and Apartheid succumbed in South Africa. Likewise, European colonies across Africa and Asia became free nations. At the same time, however, genocide prevailed in India/Pakistan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Cambodia 

9. Cult of Self: libertarianism of the left (moral) and the right (economic).  As Patrick Dineen sees, "liberalism" in the toxic sense of radical individualism expresses itself culturally in Hugh Hefner and economically in Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman. It has given us a pandemic of loneliness, isolation, despair, lack of self-agency, and nihilism.

10. Fascism.  Monopoly of power, suppression of rights/freedoms, toxic nationalism, xenophobia, cult of the leader...this complex poison remains operative in our time since defeat of Hitler/Mussolini: Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, Robert Mugabe, Putin, Gaddafi, Assad, Ayatollah Khomeni, Lukashenko, Chavez/Maduro, Ortega, Pinochet, Franco, Battista, Somoza, Marcos, Nasser, Peron and others.  Freedom House rates about 50 nations today as "not free," 59 as "partially free," and 86 as "free." So less than half of the nations enjoy substantial freedoms of religion, speech, assembly and related.

Conclusion

Do the math! Heaven 14 -Hell 10. It is not close. God wins!

Renounce the Luciferian voices:

SHUT UP SATAN! I AIN'T SCARED OF YOU! GO BACK TO HELL WHERE YOU BELONG!

Receive those heavenly voices:

SPEAK LORD! YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING1

Dueling Pontificates; Magisteriums, Clerical and Lay

 At the end of the 14th century we had two popes, one in Rome another in Avignon; the Council of Pisa in 1409 fired both popes and elected a third. As none of them stepped down, we lived with three popes until the Council of Constance resolved it. During this Western Schism, Saints Catherine of Siena and Saint Catherine of Sweden supported the Roman pope; St.Vincent Ferrer and St. Colette endorsed the Avignon option. 

Since the Council over 60 years ago, we have been in a similar,  de facto three-way schism. The minute traditionalist Society of St Pius X, which rejects Vatican II, is now officially in schism. More important, the progressive/conservative split has now found clear explication in the competing dual pontificates: John Paul/Benedict and Francis/Leo. They contradict each other on at least six significant issues:

1. Sexual Liberation. 

John Paul and Benedict together articulated a fresh, but traditional ethos of chastity and fidelity in opposition to the Cultural Revolution after 1965. Francis and Leo attempt to accommodate the progressive agenda: blessings of "gay marriages," communion for the divorce-remarried, destruction of the John Paul Institute for the Family, flirtation with ordination of women, and deemphasis of sexual morals.

2. Engagement with Communism. 

John Paul officially maintained the Ostpolitik accommodationist policy of Paul VI while he engaged in the ferocious cultural combat that helped bring down the Soviet empire. From his youth in Nazi Germany through his many years in Poland against communism to his defiance of sexual progressivism, John Paul was the Culture Warrior of the century. Francis (and now apparently Leo as far as we can tell to date)  by contrast defers to the Chinese Communist Party, now allowing them virtually free choice of bishops. The heroic underground church of martyrs has been entirely abandoned. This will be the greatest infidelity of the Francis legacy.

3. The Latin Mass

Benedict restored this rite and protected the coexistence of both as enriching of the entire Church. He saw that a rite that nourished the Church for many centuries is worth preserving. Francis decided to entirely destroy this practice. At the time of his decision, he claimed the support of bishops around the world but we now know that the episcopal consensus was for preserving the rite. This was clearly a Fauci-like duplicity. As with many things, we await decisions from Leo.

4. "Synodality"

John Paul and Benedict firmly regarded "synod" traditionally as an authoritative gathering of bishops under the pope. Just prior to the death of Benedict, Francis started the campaign for a new "synodality" by which laity and even those distant from or rejecting of Catholicism would participate in the governance of the Church. Understood as readiness to listen openly, empathetically, positively to others, this would be a wholesome, holy endeavor. But it is more than this: it is creation of an unwieldly bureaucratic process, without definition or purpose, other than to replace the hierarchical, apostolic Church we are given.

5. Capital Punishment

John Paul and Benedict argued strongly against the death penalty...on prudential grounds. Crucially, they did not reverse the ancient Catholic doctrine that the state has the responsibility to use lethal force for the common good when necessary, specifically for deterrence, protection, rehabilitation and retribution. They evaluated, for example modern prisons as adequate for protection of the community. This was a practical determination with which civil authorities and citizens (who are responsible for such decisions) might well disagree.  As a conscientious Catholic, by traditional norms I might well judge practically that this punishment is required and so implement it as legislator, prosecutor, judge, jury or executioner. Francis, unilaterally and without synodal consultation with the bishops, reversed the tradition, ruling such executions always and everywhere "unacceptable" ...without engaging the tradition and by an illicit authoritarian fiat.

6. Just War or Pacifism

Similarly, John Paul and Benedict hated war but never undermined the Church's just war tradition which requires the state to use lethal force when necessary to protect society. Francis and now Leo hold that teaching to be outdated, like the one on capital punishment. Conscientiously accepted and implemented by Christians around the world, this would effectively hand the globe over to communists, Ayatollahs, fascist dictators, and terrorists.

Leo has promised to follow Francis. We wait to see. We do well to take him at his word. This means that he will continue the Francis trajectory, although in a better tone.

On these six and a host of related issues, we clearly have two Magisteriums. We cannot follow both; we cannot split the difference; we cannot accommodate both (although that may be the ambition of Leo.) My own intention is clear: to follow the teachings of John Paul and Benedict as they are manifest in different ways.

1. Prelates Loyal to that Legacy.

Among Cardinals we have: Burke, Mueller, Zen, ,Scola, Sarah, Eijk. Outstanding bishops are Barron and Varden. Happily, a majority of American bishops follow John Paul and Benedict.

2. Teaching and Legacy of the Saints

In a certain way, the witness of the holy ones takes first place. Padre Pio, Mother Theresa, Elizabeth of the Trinity, Edith Stein, Adrienne von Speyr, Caryl Houselander, Madalene DelBrel.

3. Theological Schools Loyal to Tradition

Dominican priests, John Paul Institute for the  Family still viable in Washington DC.

4. Charismatic Lay Leaders

Kiko Arguello of Neocatechumenal Way, Ralph Martin of Charismatic Renewal, and others.

5.  EWTN and National Catholic Register

These, for the most part, present a moderate, orthodox, populist Catholicism.

Other

In the USA we have a number of groups and publications which offer a right-leaning, conservative Catholicism which counters the progressivism dominant in elite institutions. These include:  First Things, Crisis, The Catholic Thing, New Oxford Review as well as the smaller, countercultural Catholic colleges.  In their praiseworthy defense of freedoms and markets, they do not always balance their suspicion of big government with scrutiny of corporate capitalism. They can lean into an economic libertarian individualism that contradicts the profoundly communal nature of Catholicism. They can prefer bourgeois security, confidence, meritocracy and achievement over solidarity with the suffering and subsidiarity. They can privatize piety and charity, minimize the correct role of the state,  privilege the competent, strong, smart and connected. Nevertheless, they maintain Catholic values around sex, gender, family and the incompetent against assaults from Cultural Progressivism.

Conclusion

The good news is that Christ remains with his Church. The gates of hell will not prevail. The efficacy of the Truth will knock down those doors and the captives will be set free. We may not always hear the Word of God in its purity from the Vatican or the Chancery. But the Holy Spirit is alive and the Word of God is ever fruitful, if patient.

Haiti (3 of 3)

 Dignity

The strongest takeaway from Haiti is the dignity of the people. Scarcity, overpopulation, congestion, unemployment, omnipresence of garbage...yet, the people carry themselves in regal dignity. Emblematic: the erect, stately women who effortlessly carry large objects on their heads. That image is suggestive of the Haitian spirit: poverty is not heavy enough to crush the spirit.

Particularly striking: the manner of dress. In Church (which is always filled with people) everyone is pretty,  proper, refined. Unfailingly clean, modest, attractive with a touch of elegance.

Schooling

Everywhere there are school children: groomed, clean and proper in their school uniforms. For a Catholic, it feels like you have fallen into a Parochial School Universe. Education is super-venerated. Before sunrise, adolescents gather under overhead lights to repeat and memorize. Success in school is viewed as the only path out of poverty. This hope is unrealistic as hardly 1% will finish school and find employment. 

This cult of schooling would be critiqued by radicals like Paolo Freire or Ivan Illich as illusory, supportive of the status quo, and repressive of initiatives for change. In this the learner is devalued, inhibited in agency, and attains status only by replicating the "knowledge bank" and values structure of an oppressive, alienating culture. But one must ask: In the actual circumstances of Haiti, would such a pedagogy of liberation bring peace and prosperity? Or might it arouse discontent, frustration, mimetic jealousy and resentment?

Trust and Serenity

At the heart of Haitian culture one detects a childlike, pious resignation. The operative virtue: Patience. There is a serenity that flows from "accepting what we cannot change."

Such passivity is offensive to us "blancs"..."whites" which is to say American, Europeans. Whether one is an entrepreneurial, perhaps prosperity-gospel, capitalist or a leftwing social activist, the assumption is that our affluence, material well being and destiny is under our own control. This illusion is ridiculous in the face of the stark poverty here. Broadly, the ability to "change the things we can" is severely limited. But not absolutely. So there is a deep wisdom in a serene resignation, realism, religious gratitude for the very gift of life, and hope in the afterlife. Yes, Mr. Marx, opium of the people.

  Heaven

Heaven feels very close in Haiti. Worldly pleasures and distractions are scarce. Everywhere there is hunger, frustration, suffering. And people, people, people. Beautiful, serene, dignified people. BTW, the suicide rate in  Haiti was reported as virtually zero. For most, there is no hope for improvement and achievement. 

But there is always heaven! This is the Primal Catholic Fact:  every anemic infant and suffering patient (again that word patience) is created by God out of his infinite love for an Eternity of Joy! This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ: "Blessed are the poor." It is the source of the serenity of millions of impoverished people on a bare, dry island. It is, for us complacent, comfortable "blancs," the source of joy if we open our heart to God's Kingdom in our midst.

Haiti (2 of 3)

 The Missionaries of Charity Haven in Hinche defies description. Four sisters and many assistants attend to 150 sick, malnourished, orphaned children and adults. The stark human deprivation is offset by an overall atmosphere of peace and dignity. Every room has a large picture of Mother Teresa (whose presence is pronounced) along with classic Catholic icons of the Sacred Heart, Madonna with Child, Pope, Holy Family and Jesus of Mercy. Stark and simple, the place is immaculate and free of odor, surprisingly so given the incontinence of perhaps half of the residents, including infants. 

The children and infants clamor to be held. Six or seven gather around you, gazing with wonder, touching hair and glasses. Infants screaming in their cribs become quiet and serene when they are lifted and held. You are able to hold two at a time as they are light and give each 5 to 10 minutes but you wish you could hold them all, all day. Haitian women circle around quietly, cleaning, changing diapers, feeding the little ones. The sister in charge, a Brazilian who speaks good English, radiates a supernatural peace and confidence. 

In the women's section we join a group sitting quietly in a corridor. They are frail and sick. They do respond, however, to our rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," raising their hands to sing the chorus of "Glory, Glory Hallelujah!"

In the men's dorm I find men laying in beds, neat and clean, some without limbs or crippled in various ways. Overcoming my shyness, I extend a hand and say "God bless you." Some call me "Pere" (father) and point to their area of sickness or pain. I find myself laying hands, praying for healing, and signing their foreheads with the cross. Some respond with buoyant smiles and laughter; some with a sober but appreciative nod of the head. 

Finally, we pray in the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament. It too is simple, bare, stark: a large picture of Mary to the right, a relic of Mother Teresa on a table to the left. The aroma of Christ...serenity, faith, hope...pervades an atmosphere that would otherwise be startlingly, horrendously deprived. 

Haiti (1 of 3)

On Feb. 27, 2010 I arrived in Haiti, after the catastrophic earthquake there, accompanying my nephew David who was bringing help to an orphanage where he had worked. Yesterday I found a journal I had kept and here share excerpts.

The initial encounter with Haiti is a shock to the senses. Even before the plane lands, one is struck by the terrain: barren, treeless, dusty, rocky, dotted with small shacks of rusting tin. Baggage claim entails pushing through a crowd to a small window in chaos and inefficiency. Material scarcity all around; but most of all the people!

Ah, the people! The beautiful people! Especially the children! This is an uplift for the spirit and a consolation to the distressed senses. How can there be so many beautiful faces? Jet black, smooth skin; bright, shining teeth; deep-set eyes that gaze with attention, interest, curiosity, a serenity suggestive of innocence, resignation and a readiness for affection. We are surrounded by perhaps 50 children watching us intently, as if a spacecraft had landed in an elementary school playground. Each face is striking: one as beautiful as the next. Where am I? In a desert of scarcity? Or a paradise of loveliness? This is not the world, the earth I know! It is a hell of human want and suffering...and a heaven of childlike innocence and faith.

Saturday morning mass in the cathedral is enlivened by sweet, harmonious song. More than a taste of heaven. I find myself thinking constantly of heaven: so sparse here are earthly hopes and possibilities that the soul looks fervently beyond, to the afterlife, that is not so far away. 

The mass in Haiti is essentially the same mass anywhere: Word announced, songs, petitions, the Eucharistic sacrifice and communion. The priest is impressive: handsome, confident, joyful. The 200 children, most under 10 years of age, are composed and attentive. Very few receive communion; it seems most have not yet been prepared for first communion. A tone of reverence and peace predominates. The language is French but the music has an African beat. Haitians love to sing, especially in Church. They do so with joy, buoyancy, and rhythm. Extreme scarcity, lack of jobs and opportunity, meagre chances for improvement...and what do they do? They sing!

At the orphanage, the remarkable founder, Jean Louis, shows us around with a warm and respectful hospitality. It is very humbling. Around 200 children play around the dusty, rocky compound; but the overall peacefulness and quiet is striking. The chaplain, Xaverian Brother Michael McCarthy describes the place as a haven for otherwise destitute children. He worries that there is no follow-up or path forward for older children as they leave this still-young orphanage: no jobs, no economy, no opportunities. But there is still heaven, I keep thinking.

Students of all ages are passionately motivated to study and learn. At 4 AM one hears sounds of rote memorization by a group of students gathered under a solitary street lamp. Their belief is that education is the one path to a better life. But the truth is that 1 % of them will graduate college; and for this select group there are no jobs. Again, I think, at least there is heaven!

As guest instructor in morning English class of 35 students, I am stunned by their focus, attentiveness and respect. It is with all their strength and all their soul and all their heart that they desire to learn English. We read the Gospel in English and their questions are profoundly spiritual and theological: What does it mean to "see the speck in the other's eye?" How do we give pearls to swine? Do the righteous get to heaven? Does God forgive all sins, even sexual sins by one who knows what the Bible teaches? What is the Resurrection like? I find myself teaching basic Catechism truths with certainty and joy. 

A student states that God's forgiveness of sin requires our firm purpose of amendment. I heartily agree and say that in our weakness we need to call upon God's mercy to truly repent. Then I fall on my knees dramatically, squint my face, and fervently, slowly plead "Help me O God. I want to be good. But I need your help." They laugh with delight. 

More memories from Haiti to follow in subsequent blog posts.

Devotional Catholicism, Eucharistic and Marian, the Seventh, Best, Defining Catholic Culture

 Driving yesterday with my wife I wondered quietly to myself which of the six Catholic paradigms (described in previous blog essay as Notre Dame Americanism, Charismatic Catholic, Neocatechumenal Way, Neoconservative, Ignatian Progressivism, Communion and Liberation) she fit. I realized she fit none, but clearly, passionately exemplified a seventh, more significant model: classic, late-Tridentine devotional Catholicism, centered in the Eucharist, Mary, the sacraments, devotions, prayer, and the saints.

This is the ethnic, working class faith of our mothers and fathers which surged powerfully in the Depression, War and postwar period 1945-65: Fulton Sheen, family rosary of Fr. Patrick Peyton, Bing Crosby priest movies, Holy Name parade, Rosary Altar society, reverence for priests and religious. 

1. It finds its focus in the Eucharist understood as: a solemn, sacred, temple-like sacrifice of Calvary; the literal, corporal, abiding presence of Christ in the host; revered by silence, Latin, chant, incense, processions, holy hours, and more. 

2. Second in significance is devotion to our Blessed Mother Mary, especially in the rosary and interest in her apparitions at Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe and other. 

3. Sacramental life: Sunday mass is an absolute; regular confession is normal.

4. Devotions: stations of cross, Sacred Heart, miraculous medal, novenas, parish missions, fascination with the saints and the supernatural.

5.  Strict sexual ethos reserving such to marriage and esteem for religious and priests in their virginity/celibacy.

This hegemonic model suffered an immediate, severe decline immediately starting in 1965 with the problematic implementation the Council reforms and the cultural explosions of sexual liberation, civil rights, antiwar movement and related developments. Devotional Catholicism became unfashionable among Catholic intellectual elites as they gravitated to social justice, contraceptive  sex, secularism, individualism and the therapeutic. 

It did not disappear. It remained quietly as populist piety, largely in the laity: mothers teaching the rosary, faithful fathers, humble priests serving quietly. John Paul and Benedict maintained it in vigorous form as they renewed it in the genuine spirit of Vatican II. 

It has been revived and is entirely compatible with renewal models such as Notre Dame, charismatic renewal, neoconservatism, and Communion and Liberation. (Not to mention TLM, homeschooling, the prolife movement, classical schools and the new and orthodox mostly small Catholic colleges.)

Contradictory of Progressive or Ignatian Model

It is contradictory of hard form sexual liberation in its cult of chastity and spousal fidelity. In the last half century since the Council, it has responded to cultural progressivism, which has been in part embraced by the "Ignatian" model, with clarity, depth and ferocity in the spousal mysticism and theology of the body of John Paul, Benedict, Balthasar and company. 

In a diluted form, however, it continues to "sleep with" a softer form of progressivism. So we find Catholic devotion merged with a confused compassion for LGBTQ  "victim identities" that leads to affirmation of unchastity in pride masses and gay blessings.

Dissonance with Neocatechumenal Way

A more nuanced dissonance operates between this traditional devotion and the Neocatechumenal Way. Both are impeccably orthodox in morals and faith; both rooted in the sacramental life; but they present quite distinctive Eucharistic spiritualities. Traditional Eucharistic devotion (more intensely in TLM) accentuates adoration, solemnity, silence, sacrifice of Calvary, and temple-like worship. The "matter" of the sacrament, the host, contrasts in its humility with the majesty of God. The Neocatechumenal Eucharist is a strong contrast: in tune with the liturgical renewal leading up to the Council, it moves away from a "temple model" to recover the Passover meal dimension. 

Carmen Hernandez, cofounder with Kiko Arguello, at the beginnings (early 1960s), was studying theology and shaped this liturgy in accord with the fashion of the time. It has been approved and practiced for half a century and so is not heretical. Catechesis of the rite has tended to obscure if not deny the "sacrifice" dimension which so drastically separates the Catholic mass from Protestant versions. Properly understood, the two rites are not incompatible, but definitely in tension. 

For example, traditional devotion emphasizes the enduring Divine presence in the host. Great effort is extended to protect and revere the Sacred Host. And so, there is a visceral horror to see the "loaf of bread" matter broken and shared and the cup of wine passed from hand to hand as at a banquet. My own sense  (as a devotional Catholic) has been that this liturgy is a loss in liturgical depth. It contrasts with the broader catechetical program which is an awesome, passionate deepening of Catholicism. I may be wrong, but I credit Kiko with the positive and Carmen with the negative.

The distance between these forms is stronger than that between TLM and the Novus Ordo; but it is not unbridgeable. With so many young priests now coming from this Way, the hope is that clergy who are faithful to the broader Church and this model will reconcile them. 

My own view is that the Novus Ordo...valid, authentic, ordinary form of Catholic worship...is itself a weak form: overly verbal, mundane, lacking in solemnity, silence, elegance, passion, aesthetics, and energy. It needs to be enriched by a broad, rich liturgical smorgasbord: TLM, Neocatechumenal, charismatic, solemn high masses, adoration, holy hours, processions, pilgrimages and other. In this manner, this "Way" will become an enrichment of the broader Church, not an alternative form.

Eucharistic Devotion: Small-c Catholic as Inclusive, Welcoming, Diverse

Such devotional Catholicism is porous, fluid and open to the True, the Good and the Beautiful where it is found in a wide variety of lifestyles. It can present as far right or left, but the underlying foundation brings the two together at the altar of worship and communion. So the average parish is embracive of a wide range of viewpoints in a pastoral prudence of moderation.

In the Catholic Worker of Day/Maurin we find such devotion wed with closeness to the poor, agrarianism, communitarianism, anarchism, pacifism, localism, and ideological rejection of the techno-bureaucracy. Eucharistic devotion brings  no particular ideology, but it does draw us to love of the poor. So, most of our greatest saints and exemplars manifest both: Mother Teresa, Catherine Doherty, Madaleine DelBrell, Friars of the Renewal, Sisters of Life and other.

Such devotion flourishes even more on the other side of the spectrum where faith, family, nation, and traditions of freedom are synthesized: Opus Dei, EWTN, Regnum Christi, American Neoconservatism, homeschooling,  and TLM.

The Eucharist is for the rich and the poor, the left and the right, and for everyone in between. In Eucharist (word means "thanksgiving") the Church holds all that is good, purifies and strengthens it.