When Pope or Cardinal Speaks on Political Policy...

 ...We Catholics listen...respectfully and receptively. Not obediently. Critically.

In the current pope/president brawl, JD Vance said two things that are helpful in that they contradict but thereby correct each other. On the one hand, he minimized the dispute in that such differences are ordinary and to be expected. On the other hand, he suggested the pope stay in his lane of faith and morals and avoid policy. Logically, if the pope avoids policy then disagreement will not be normal. 

To be precise, the pope is not infallible in faith and morals. He is only fully infallible in the rare occasions when he speaks "from the chair" in a clearly articulated use of that authority. We believe his charism is to teach authoritatively but his statements are on a scale of authority. Casual comments to journalists on the jet ride home are very low. Higher would be, for example, the redefinition of capital punishment by Francis in the Catholic Catechism where it is ruled permanently impermissible. That too, however, is fallible. Many of us reject it in fidelity to centuries of magisterial teaching that allows it, aware that he did this without consultation with bishops, dismissive of tradition, and with clerical authoritarianism withdrew it from the  prudential discretion of the the political process. The death penalty is not really pure morality but political policy, so not the realm of papal definition. Nevertheless, even in the worst case scenario, the pope enjoys in morals and faith charismatic authority and the presumption of obedience. 

Regarding political policy the pope enjoys no such charism. Does that require him to remain apolitical and "stay in his lane?" No!

He has freedom of conscience and of speech. Beyond that, as universal pastor of the Church he has a pastoral concern for the world even beyond the boundaries of the Church. Part of his role is to address the moral dimensions of policy, 

Consider: Catholic approval of labor unions throughout the 20th century; support from many Churches for MLK and civil rights; John Paul's endorsement of the Solidarity movement in Poland; the Vatican's sometimes critical but then conditionally supportive view of liberation theology in South America. 

It is the task of the hierarchical Church to teach broadly on the morality of public policy. But it is another thing to cross a line into endorsement of specific policy, parties, ideologies, and personalities. In the examples above (unionism, civil rights, solidarity, liberation theology) the Vatican and bishops in general respected the line between principle and concrete practice. 

Political Messianism of Catholic Progressivism

Unfortunately, Pope Francis saw himself as a global guru on key policy issues: open borders, global warming, anti-populism, and other. He habitually crossed the line into concrete policy. This indiscretion is continued by his disciples in the USA: recently the progressive trio of cardinals (Cupich, Tobin, McElroy) went on 60 Minutes to inflame the pope/president fight with a partisan attack on Trump. Apparently,  Trump watched this show and went on to insult the pope in his typical vile manner. It seemed that he conflated the cardinals with the Vatican. McElroy stated authoritatively that the Iran action was unjust by Catholic teaching; he recognized no ambiguity, uncertainty, possibility of legitimate disagreement or exercise of prudence. He pronounced it absolutely. Tobin condemned the masking of ICE agents as allowing them to abuse innocents but showed no concern for the safety of the agents themselves. With this unrestrained, ideological righteousness the three misuse their authority. Of course, they are known to be the "squad" of the episcopal left and are outliers within the body of bishops who on the whole maintain proper restrain and balance. 

Pope Leo

Our American pontiff is a man of discretion, restrain,  modesty, balance, and respect for institutional boundaries. He is admirably passionate in his empathy for victims of warfare and refuge homelessness. But he has erred in stepping over the line into social advocacy.

By encouraging the American bishops to oppose Trump's policy he risks associating himself with a political position, alienating those who disagree, and increasing polarization.  Regarding his recent meeting with David Axelrod, I am not critical as the pope meets with many people without endorsing them. But immigration policy...for example that of Biden and Trump...is complicated and open to honest dispute. Leo risks reprising Francis' role as the anti-Trump.

Along with his appropriate Easter calls to Peace, he exhorted Americans to call representatives to demand immediate peace in Iran. That is a mistake. "Peace at any price" is not a binding moral imperative when dealing with imperialist totalitarians as in Iran.

Why to Trust and Why to Scrutinize the Pope on Policy

We do well to receive respectfully papal pronouncements, even if they slip over the line into advocacy, for several reasons. First, his is a clear conscience, informed by Revelation and the natural law. Second, he is global, transcendent of nations/ideologies/parties, and relatively (but not absolutely) objective and free of prejudice. Third, he has pastoral concern for all peoples, all religions, all ethnicities. Fourth, he draws from a rich tradition of international diplomacy. Fifth, he has connections with all groups...Jews and Arabs, leftists and rightists, poor and rich...and so has an unrivaled catholicity or ecumenicity of perspective.

However, he is not absolutely free of prejudice but does have a specific position or perspective which itself is finite, limited, and not entirely universal or objective

Firstly, Churchmen of our time are temperamentally, educationally, and professionally disposed to mercy, understanding, dialogue, healing, reconciliation, and forgiveness. They are systemically unprepared to deal firmly with psychopaths, terrorists, murderers, totalitarians, pedophiles and the like.  Innately, popes and bishops are the least qualified to deal with the Putins, Ayatollahs, and Xi's  of the world. It is like pitting a ballet dancer against a Sumo wrestler. 

Secondly, the Vatican itself as an institution with a long memory and strong perspective. For example, despite deep differences it retains a positive attitude to the United Nations. There are strong practical reasons for this. But this is not infallible teaching. In many ways it is European. It renounces the modernity of the West in many of its anti-Catholic dimensions. But under Francis it clearly imitated much of elite cosmopolitan elite culture: embrace of the LGBTQ agenda; environment; anti-populism.

Thirdly, the particular pope has his own history and perspective. Regarding the USA for example, John Paul and Benedict shared an implicit gratitude to the our country and the Allies for the defeat of Hitler and eventual release from the USSR. Critical of the dark side of our culture, they nevertheless shared a core positivity about our role in the world.  By contrast, as a South American man of the poor, Francis did not disguise his disdain for American power, wealth and conservatism. Leo is more complex: a moderate, politically Republican American he spent his adult life as a missionary in Peru and an administrator in Rome. Not professionally a theologian, he came of age in the catechetical confusion of the USA 1970s. She shares Francis' inclination to a soft theo-politics of the Left: quasi-pacifism, pro-immigration, aversion to use of force. The abomination of Trump's behavior and rhetoric cannot but provoke him.

Conclusion

Imagine: a troubled boy in a Catholic high school has become a problem: bullying, disrupting class, theft. The Dean has administered progressive discipline and now wants his expulsion for the good of the school. The Counselor has been working with him and sees progress. She knows his father has abused the family and just abandoned them while his mother is depressed. She see him benefiting from from friendships and coach mentors in the school. She strongly advocates for him. The Headmaster makes the final call: he must weigh the factors against each other.

When it comes to political policy, the pope and bishops are like the counselor. They are not the headmaster. The political authority must make the decision to go to war, to arrest the undocumented, to use the death penalty. So, like the headmaster listening attentively to the counselor, the political authority, including us as voters, listen to the pope/cardinals on policy. But we are not bound to their opinion as they have a specific, valid, but limited point of view.

And so, Vance, a newborn in the faith, is right in both statements. The pope's mission is faith and morals. But he does have a role to play as a moral voice about public policy. But his perspective is itself limited and biased in specific ways so it is not binding upon the Catholic conscience in the way of his authoritative teaching. And so, we listen to the Church on things like war and immigration. We expect a strong advocacy for welcome and nonviolence. And we expect some disagreements along the way. 

In Praise of Spanish and Italian Catholicism

In the Olympics of Catholic sanctity and mysticism, France gets the bronze, Spain the silver, and Italy the gold. Italy has the advantage: Rome. Catholicism is properly understood as the co-inherence of Athens [reason], Jerusalem [faith] and Rome [order, law]. But the breathtaking Italian legacy of holiness goes well beyond the legal and institutional. Let's consider the contributions of the two leading nations to the Church in three aspects: religious order, mystics and saints, recent lay renewal movements.

Religious 0rders

Italy has given us the Benedictines, Franciscans, Passionists, Redemptorists, Servites, Poor Clares, Filippini and many others. 

Spain has given us the Jesuits, Discalced Carmelites, Dominicans [founded in France by Spaniard Dominic] and many military orders involved in the Reconquest.

No other nation has made comparable contributions in this area. We have to give Italy the edge in this category. But Spain is a very strong second. 

Saints and Mystics

This is where Italy dominates overwhelmingly:  St. Francis of Assis, St. Clare, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Catherine of Genoa, St. Padre Pio, St. John Bosco, St. Angelina of Foligno,  Gemma Galgami, St. Maria Gioretti, St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis Xavier Cabrini, and recently St. Gianna Molla, St. Pier Girgio Frassati, and St. Carlo Acutis. Italy has the largest number of canonized saints and blesseds, with Spain second and France third. But precise numbers are hard to establish as there is no official master list. Consider a single category: stigmatists. We know of almost 500 such since St. Francis of Assis; 90% are women; 70% are Italian; the two most famous are Italian men, St. Francis and Padre Pio.

Spain had a bumper crop of mystics in the 16th century, the Baroque era, even as it was colonizing and evangelizing much of world: St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, St. John of Avila, St. Francis Borgia, and St. John of God. Earlier there was St. Isidore the Farmer, and St. Dominic Guzman. More recently: St. Josemaria Escriva and the martyrs of the Spanish Civil War.

Contemporary Lay Renewal Movements

The sixty years since the Council have been catastrophic for the Catholic Church in many ways; but perhaps the single brightest development is the thriving of lay renewal movements. These differ greatly but all manifest: mostly lay, not clerical or religious leadership; strong evangelical focus on the person and event of Jesus Christ; saturation in the Word of God and the liturgical life; intensive community life; vigorous outreach; and a positive reception of Vatican II within a firm Catholic orthodoxy.

Italy has given us Communion and Liberation, Focolare, and San'Egidio.

Spain has given us Opus Dei (earlier, and more clerical in origin), Cursillo, the Neocatechumenal Way,  

The competition here is close. In overall influence the future will tell but I see more intensity in the Spanish movements.

Conclusion

Both national Catholicisms are passionate and pervasive, even in the face of secularization. A useful way to contrast them is to consider the pivotal historic events that formed them.

Italians have the Renaissance: a sublime high point in the integration of the faith with culure, especially painting, sculpture, architecture and literature. Even among those who do not practice the faith, Catholicism is deeply woven into the fabric of life. It seems to go with the flavor of their food, the beauty of their women, the richness of their history.

By contrast, the Spaniards had the Reconquista (720-1492): about 750 years of military combat. Theirs is a martial, agonistic ethos. The triumphant conquest was followed by the expansion into South America. Something like it exploded in the Spanish civil war of the 1930. The Spanish mystics, religious orders, and lay movements all carry an intensity, a passion, a sense of drama. 

Richard Niebuhr classically contrasted the relationship of Christ and Culture. Italy is the epitome of Christ within Culture (although also above) while Spain has always pitted Christ against the antagonist (Moor, Communist, etc.)  And so, we find in Communion and Liberation a renaissance-like confidence and serenity in relation even to a culture turned against God. By contrast, Opus Dei and especially the Neocatechumenate are militant in their battle with enemies of the faith. Italy is Athens; Spain is Sparta. 

The fascinating contrast of these two influential, promising movements will merit a follow-up essay.

 and serenity in culture. By contrast, Opus Dei and especially the Neocatechumenate are militant in the face of enemies of the faith. The fascinating contrast between these two renewal movements will require a follow-up essay.oooooo

Temptation of Femininity to Pantheism: Monist, Anti-Paternal, Non-Transcendent, Asexual, Sterile

 Men are Atheist; Women are Pantheist

In the USA 65% of atheists are men. They are overwhelmingly young, white, college-educated, male Democrats. In his classic The Psychology of Atheism, Paul Vitz showed that the famous atheists all harbored deep resentments of their fathers: Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, and Feuerbach. Turning Freud on himself, he showed atheism to be quintessentially a masculine psychic violence against the father. It is neither rational, scientific nor intelligent, but emotional, volitional and pathological. It is psychic male violence against the father, male-on-male combat. Militant disbelief is the projection of deep, oedipal psychological forces.

The transcendent Creator God is by definition not knowable by the unaided human intellect. He is not a knowable being, but Being-its-very-self. He is not in or part of the universe, but transcendent of it and yet intimately immanent but never measurable or identifiable in a scientific way. Agnosticism is a reasonable, honest viewpoint as none of  us really know God. The proofs of God's existence are not empirical evidence or logically compelling for the intellect-not-inclined-by-wil- to-believe. "Belief" in God is precisely a volitional act of trust, in some witness, intelligent in its own way, which grants access to a reality unavailable to the unaided intellect. Within belief there is a certain agnosticism:  acknowledgment of human limitation and of divine transcendence. 

The relati0nship of son to father, unlike that of the daughter, includes a battle, an agonistic struggle of one masculine will with another. We recall Abraham's aborted sacrifice of Isaac and even Jesus' initial resistance to the will of his Father in Gethsemane. The daughter's more docile, trusting nature disinclines her to fight with her father. The son must do so, in some manner, to define his own identity and mission. 

And so, male resentment and aggression can take the religious form of atheism. Female atheists [with exceptions like Rand and 0'Hair] are like female chess grand masters: rare. Vitz showed that feminine disappointment with the father more frequently shapes itself as pantheism or humanistic/nature mysticism.

Pantheism: Feminine Rejection of the Masculine

"Pantheism" from the Greek "pan" [all] and "theo" [God] affirms that divinity is present in all life, but not distinct from the universe as we know it. It contradicts theism which affirms an independent Creator who is the source of all being but independent and yet mysteriously immanent as love within Creation. It is not denial of the Divine; but rejection of transcendence, of the paternal and therefore of the "hyper-masculine" transcendence of God. Unlike the hard, decisive, assertive atheistic assault, pantheism is a passive-aggressive diversion, an avoidance of the paternal. It is:

- Monist.  Alterity, "otherness"  is banished: all is harmonious and monotonous. Tensions, binaries, contradictions are eliminated: creator/creation, male/female, natural/supernatural, time/eternity all evaporate into amorphous uniformity.

- Empathy and Compassion, the defining posture of femininity, dominate in response to suffering.  But the physical/emotional sensitivity, without balance of the moral/intellectual/religious, tends to disordered sentimentality: self-righteous, even indignant advocacy of abortion, euthanasia, gender surgery for the young, obsession with faux-victimization, and resentment of the newborn as threatening to scarce resources. 

- Asexual: The violent tension, attraction, fascination, dissonance, asymmetry and mystery of the masculine/feminine is dissolved into monotonous, androgynous gender-as-self-construct. 

- Anti-Male as the distinctively virile is suspect as "toxic masculinity" and the preferred man is reconfigured as soft, sensitive, gentle, passive, and impotent.

- Anti-Female as the distinctively female as virginal and maternal is despised in an angry feminism that apes the depravities of disordered masculinity including careerism, sexual license, and narcissism. 

- Sterility is preferred to fertility which is treated as a pathology by contraception and abortion in the catastrophic rupture of sex from fecundity.

- Animal-idolatry diverts the paternal/maternal instincts to sentimental affection for pets seen as equivalent of the human child.

-  Freedom, Agency and Responsibility of the person are denied as the individual is viewed as determined psychologically by trauma and social circumstances. The reality of judgment, particular and general, as retribution, reward for good and punishment for bad, is despised as cruel. 

- Scientism elevates the empirical method beyond its proper domain into a comprehensive philosophical worldview as that natural mode of knowing is not balanced by metaphysical and religious thinking. And so the invisible, non-measurable and spiritual are systematically excluded from the real. 

- Anosognsic, emotional, unaware as the pantheist does not think ontologically and so does not self-identify with, say, the pantheism of Spinoza or Hegel, but feels union with the divine of nature and denies any transcendent reality. 

- Hysteria as passivity, anxiety and vulnerability in the absence of the paternal and the presence of threats including global warming, fascism, homophobia, racism and other.

- Spiritual, not Religious as pantheists practice individually, rejecting historical-traditional-organized religion. Most identify as "Nones." However the belief system seems strong in mainstream liberal  Protestantism and among more progressive Catholic nuns.

- Cult of the Body.  In the absence of an immortal soul and the afterlife, the human body itself becomes divinized so that health, fitness, diet, looks, and exercise become obsessional. 

- Disenchanted Nature Mysticism. The ecstatic union with nature is trivialized and depleted as the natural order is no longer expressive of transcendent Truth-Goodness-Beauty but is reduced to what is knowable to the human mind and scientific method.

- Desecration, the opposite of consecration, of the human person and the natural world as both are ripped away from communion with the Creator and isolated in sterile, meaningless futility

Conclusion

Pantheism is pervasive across theological liberalism, New Age fashions, and the retreat from traditional Christianity to the impersonality and passivity of alternatives from Asia. 

Like the fruit offered  Eve by the serpent in the garden, it assumes the absence of masculine companionship and replacement of trust in the Father with what is immediate, attractive, seductive. 

It is a sadness to see our sisters lonely, suspicious, sterile... suspicious of God our Father, of their own radiant femininity, and of our iconic, if flawed, masculinity. 

JMJ     Jesus, Mary and Joseph...Pray for Us!

   

,Women atheists, like Ayn Rand and Madalyn 'Hair) are like female chess grand masters: rare and exceptional.

Prayer Before the Eucharist

 Lord Jesus

My friend, brother, captain, king, savior and God

Present in the Eucharistic host,

     so thin, white, light, quiet, humble

Make me like Yourself:

Small, simple, silent, serene,

Poor, powerless, patient, persevering, pure,

Receptive of...and radiant with your holiness.

Amen.

I Am Roman Catholic...

Roman Catholic of a specific type...

- Irish American, fully embracive of the faith I received from family, parish, parochial schools in working class, urban, ethnic, postwar America.

- Vatican II Affirming, in the nuanced, sophisticated hermeneutic of continuity of John Paul and Benedict.

- Boomer Child of the 60s, observant of and fascinated by the Cultural Revolution of my late adolescence and early adulthood, from the serene, safe posture as  Maryknoll college seminarian.

- Philosophically a disciple of the classical Thomism of Maritain/Gilson and the Personalism of Buber/Marcel/Blondel; adversary of the "Great Masters of Suspicion" Marx/Darwin/Freud; follower of the deep-Catholic cultural radicalism of Illich/Schumacher/Ellul/Freire as an alternative to the then fashionable New Left and hippie movements. 

- Jesuit-Trained Theologically, in the classic Catholicism of my teachers Avery Cardinal Dulles S.J. and the saintly Joseph Whelan S.J. and his mentor, the great mystic lay modernist Baron Fredrich von Hugel.

- Evangelically Catholic, after personal encounter with my Savior and Lord, the Divine/Human person of Jesus Christ in a Cursillo at the age of 25 in 1973.

- Charismatic, experiencing "baptism of the Holy Spirit," again in 1973, along with intensive ecclesial community, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, an ecumenical urgency, intimacy with the Trinity, and flaming zeal to share my faith.

- Theologically of the Creative/Orthodox "Communio" School, of John Paul, Benedict, Balthasar and their American disciples led by David Schindlers, junior and senior. 

- Vocationally, non-professionally a Catechist, zealous to hear and echo the voice of Christ within my Church, time and place.

- By aspiration, Friend of the Poor, seeking to emulate, in my limited way, Mother Theresa, Dorothy Day, Catherine Doherty, and countless holy ones...in Magnificat Home (residence for low income women founded and supported by our family and friends), happy visits to local hospital and jail, and variety of rich, random friendships.

- Culture Warrior, battling Catholic progressivism in the Church and Sexual Liberation in society.

- Politically Non-MAGA Republican, prolife enemy of the reconstructed, post-1970 Democratic Party, with economic/political sympathies for the poor and working class.

- Devoted to the Mercy of Christ, as mediated by St. Faustina and St. John Paul. Not so much the diluted, weakened form fashionable under Pope Francis.

- American, patriotic in my embrace of all that is coherent with my Catholic faith [freedoms, rule of law, constitutional democracy, free markets] but critical of residuals of anti-Catholic Protestantism including sexual liberation, consumerism, materialism, individualism,  and unrestrained capitalism.

- Parish and Catholic School are, aside from family, the defining instituti0ns of our faith, despite my youthful infatuation with Illich's "de-schooling" and my admirati0n for homeschooling and my expl0rati0n 0f small, intensive faith c0mmunities. 

- Friend and Fellow-Traveler, adjacent to but not fully immersed participant in Communion and Liberation, Neocatechumenal Way, and 12-step spirituality.  Additi0nally, friendship with the Latin Mass, Cursill0 and Marriage Enc0unter. 

- Associate member of Our Lady's Missionaries of the Eucharist (OLME), with promises (irregularly kept) around Eucharistic and Marian devotion, liturgy of the hours, simplicity of life, and others.

- Philo-Semitic-Judaic, in the tradition of Monsignor John Ostereicher, the Catholic Vatican II reevaluation, and my teachers Rabbi Finkel and Father Frizzel of Seton Hall. This is a fascination and admiration for Jews, their faith, and their amazing cultural achievements, even the problematic ones (Freud, Marx, aggressive Zionism.)

- Philo-Hispanic after time in Mexico and Puerto Rico and especially the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

- Diplomatically [Catholic} Internationalist and Realist [Niebuhr}, preferring Churchill to Chamberlain in a world full of Hitlers. In my lifetime: Stalin, Tito, Mao, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Serbian Milsevic, Rwandan genocide of Tutsis, Saddam Hussein, Castros, bin Laden, the North Korean Kim's, the Ayatollahs, Putin, and Al Queda, This is a rejection of [quasi]pacifism, optimistic global progressivism, as well as isolationism and idealized America-first-ism, 

The Catholic world in which I dwell is dizzyingly, heart piercingly, flamingly Beautiful!

I can never be adequately grateful!   

The Loneliness of the Parish Priest

 This essay was inspired by the post by my friend Stephen Adubato in his Substack "Cracks in Postmodernity," "Our Priests are in Trouble: we gotta help them."  With his customary sensitivity, insight and good humor he considers the crisis in the American priesthood. He sees this primarily in our ordinary diocesan clergy who lack the support, accountability, and encouragement enjoyed by those in religious orders, or close to lay renewal movements or others in strong ethnic communities. I find his diagnosis to be accurate. It caused me to consider the nature of Catholic priesthood and its condition in our time. By numbers alone, we are in crisis.

The solitude that defines masculinity (in contrast to the connectedness inherent in femininity) is intensified in the priest. The primal aloneness of Adam was relieved by his ecstatic embrace of Eve "at last...bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." And so it is with the husband/father. But the Catholic priest, in the violence of sacrifice ("make holy"), renounces that communion. He emulates Jesus alone in the desert and in Gethsemane. There is a fundamental loneliness about the priesthood. A solitude with God and for the Church, bride of Christ.

Let's Go to the Movies

Consider:

- the fornicator-whiskey-martyr-priest in Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory,

- Karl Malden raging at Johnny Friendly's thugs in On the Waterfront, 

-the humble, dignified missionary Gregory Peck in Keys to the Kingdom, 

- the virile Jesuit Jeremy Irons facing down the ferocious Robert DeNiro in The Mission, 

- the depresed alcoholic curate of  Edge of Sadness, [this is a book, not a movie.] 

- Montgomery Cliff heroically defending the seal of confession in Hitchcock's  Confession, 

- Alec Guinness's good natured Monsignor Quixote, 

- Javier Bardem's tormented Fr. Quintana chastely comforting a ravishing Olga Kurylenko in  Into the Wonder,  

- Spenser Tracey's Father (now Venerable) Flannigan of  Boy's Town, 

- Richard Burton's Becket, 

- Mark Walberg's endearing  Father Stu,  

- Max von Syndow's seasoned cleric in  The Exorcist,   

- France's classic Monsieur Vincent, 

- Raul Julia's breathtaking Romero, 

- the levitating St. Joseph of Cupertino in  The Reluctant Saint, 

- another Gregory Peck as  the historic Vatican rescuer of Jews in Scarlet and the Black,  

-  De Niro's careerist cleric facing off his tough detective brother Robert Duval in True Confessions,  

- G.K. Chesterton's charming Father Brown, 

- Pat Obrien mentoring gangster Jimmy Cagney in Angels with Dirty Faces, 

- Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary's. 

That's 20 off the top of my head. In each we see a man, a priest, standing alone, heroically. 

[If you, dear Reader, have not seen at least 10 of these films, you are not an authentic, certified Catho-Cinephile like myself!]

Loneliness of the Contemporary Priest

Solitude as configuration to Christ and gift of self to the Church is heroic and holy, But on the negative side, the temptation is to the life of a bachelor: self-centered, ungenerous, detached from the feminine, sterile...however charming, educated, and refined. This toxicity is heightened today as priests are more isolated than ever. In my own parish we have two churches, two rectories, two priests...each lives alone in his own rectory, one mile away from each other.

It was not always this way. In the Church of my childhood, thriving postwar urban America, a typical parish had four or more priests. The pastor was probably well beyond his prime, enjoying his role and a community he had known for decades. He left the running of the large parish (school, nuns, organizations, devotions) to his competent second-in-charge, probably in his 50s or 60s. The youngest priest worked with youth, the school, catechesis, CYO and sports. There might be additional priests with particular ministries, responsibilities and interests. At its best it was a wholesome brotherhood.

Today the 1-priest rectory has become normal. A young priest who shows himself to be competent and reliable will be given charge of a parish within a few years, without the benefit of years of mentoring, friendship and experience.

To survive and thrive as a priest today one needs the moral integrity, resilience, fortitude and wisdom of the 20 priest heroes of the movies mentioned above.  Happily I have known many such priests, over the course of my lifetime. Studies also show a good measure of happiness and wholeness among our priests. The quantity of priests is down; but the quality is high. We are in crisis. But it is not catastrophic. On the whole, I am less critical than my friend Stephen Adubato...edgy, urban, avant-garde, counterculture, anti-bourgeois, no lover of anything suburban.

Society of Jesus and of Maryknoll

Besides diocesan priests here in Newark NJ, over the years,  I have befriended many Jesuits and Maryknolleers. In the individualism of their spirituality and charism they are more like secular clerics  than the mendicants and monks. Their focus is not primarily on the shared life of charity and prayer, but apostolic action. Maryknoll was originally committed to the conversion of pagans but shifted after the War to corporal works of mercy with the poor. This, joined with their American pragmatism,  inclined them post-1965 to sympathy with leftist politics. Their intimacy with the poor, however, has ensured a closeness to Christ. The Jesuits, with their focus on education and upper echelon academics, were even more vulnerable to the errors of the Cultural Revolution. Both are prone, in complex ways, to the fragilities of isolation and loneliness associated with the bachelor life.

The Thriving Priest

What qualities are evident in happy, wholesome priests?

1.  Personal holiness, deep prayer life, intimacy with our Lord Jesus.

2.  Emotional balance, integrity, clear masculine identity, ease in deferring to and wielding authority, substantial if not impeccable freedom from deep-seated compulsions around sex, approval, insecurity, money, status, alcohol/drugs.

3. Realistic, honest reckoning with his own personal weakness and need for God's grace.

4. Solid, chaste, brotherly friendships with other priests.

5. Love for Catholicism in all its richness: liturgical/sacramental, theological, moral, social.

6. Wholesome relationships with laity, including women.

7. Support from family of origin or surrogate.

There are other qualities...administrative ability, personal charm,  intellectual capacity and erudition... nice but not necessary, accidental but not essential to the priesthood.

We continue to benefit from such priests: wholesome, virile, confident, steadfast, sober, balanced, and independent. But their numbers are decreasing. They were common in the prosperous post-war American Church of large families, thick ethnic communities, and Catholic revival. Particularly among us Irish American Catholics. 

The Holy Spirit works in different ways: some predictable; some random and counterintuitive. We see priestly vocations coming from non-religious families; from conversions out of dark lives; and later in life. Not a few are gifted, devout, sincere but afflicted with psychological disorders and compulsions.  These, when not deep-seated and when countervailed by strengths, need not be invincible impediments. We need such numerically. But we also benefit to the degree they confess and surrender to God's healing grace. Familiarity with their weaknesses, failings and addictions make them, for us, "wounded healers."

We cannot depend upon the paradigm of priest as lone ranger without Tonto;  as Shane who rides into town, kills the bad guys, rescues the widow and child, and rides lonesome into the sunset; as John Wayne who rescues his Natalie Wood niece from the Indians, in The Searchers, and moves on in a mysterious solitude.

Communion in Intimacy, Transparency, Accountability, and Support

The contemporary priest needs, not independence-autonomy-isolation, but a strong network of support, candor, vulnerability, and accountability. This can take many forms: friendship, family, spiritual direction, priest support groups, counseling and therapy. It is particularly strong in:

- Twelve step groups. These are absolutely necessary for the priest enslaved by addiction. As an ealier generation benefited from AA priests, so today, with the pandemic of pornography, not to mention the homosexual priest abuse scandal, priests benefit from Sexaholics Anonymous, a program that precisely mirrors Catholic understanding of chastity and sexual sobriety. 

- Lay Renewal Movements. Outstanding here is the Neocatechumenal Way which fosters an environment of startling honesty. Openly, in the company of men and women, participants speak candidly of personal struggles with chastity, within family and marriage, and other. With my own Irish Catholic background, I was taken aback at first. But I could see that it represents a certain wholesome "triumph of the therapeutic." I understand it is good for priests. 

The priest's role is to represent Christ as teacher, authority, presider over liturgy, leader-king, and moral exemplar. This is a heavy burden to carry continually. "Walking" as a brother in the "Way" provides a space of freedom, honesty, accountability and encouragement. 

 A different reality is operative in Communion and Liberation which does not provide the same intensity but the lighter, fresh, liberating, wholesome, serene positivity of founder Luigi Giusanni in the male/female friendship.

- Some religious orders.  My family has close familiarity with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a young order, birthed nearby in NYC, which has a strong charism: closeness to the poor, fervor in evangelization, flawless loyalty to Catholic teaching, an ethos of priestly virility, embrace of much that is new-yet-Catholic in the Church. These friars cultivate a brotherly intimacy that is strengthening.  By contrast, many of the older orders, robust in 1965, now in decline, retain the lonesomeness-autonomy of the lone ranger without Tonto. 

Ethic Parishes?  In the above, I entirely agree with Stephen's post. Not so much with regard to ethnic parishes. Such are a thing of the past. I have spent my entire adulthood in Jersey City, close to NYC, Newark and the Oranges. Ethnic parishes are a relic of the past. Stephen is nostalgic and sentimental here, attached to the idealized urban Italian Catholicism of his memorable grandfather. What is remarkable, however, especially with Italians but also us Irish, Polish and others: despite the baptism into bourgeois mediocrity of suburban life, secularity, careerism, consumerist materialism, sexual liberalism, upper class conservatism, and even the mafia, ethnic Catholicism retains a deep grip on the soul. My experience with lapsed Catholics, non-practicing and absent from the sacraments for decades, is that they retain intense, deep if sporadic attachment to the faith of their families. This cannot be unrelated to the indelible seal received at baptism. It will serve them, especially with the last rites, at death and particular judgment. 

Seminaries now require a new "propaedeutic year" of formation in personal spiritual and emotional health, before theology. My hope is that a key focus is on the building of a permanent network.

Communion with the Bishop

A pronounced element of our priestly crisis, clear in recent studies, is the disconnect from the bishop. In wake of the Dallas Charter, priests distrust their "father figure" as the sheriff, prosecutor and judge of wrongdoing. Fr. Tom Guarino of Seton Hall has carried on the prophetic mission of Avery Cardinal Dulles in challenging this injustice. 

I see the problem as systemic, not the personal fault of our bishops who are on the whole decent, intelligent, competent, loyal priests. The Church has exploded malignantly in institutions like schools, hospitals, social care and other. The bishop is in fact the CEO of a multi-millionaire organization. The time has come for the hierarchical/institutional Church to divest, surrender the works of mercy to the laity, and focus upon the actual purpose of the priesthood as: announcement of the Word, celebration of liturgy and sacraments, fostering of holiness, and strengthening of communion in charity.

Conclusion  

Two urgencies present themselves:

- Cherish, in gratitude, our priests who sacrifice themselves to bring us Christ in Word and Sacrament.

- Pray for our priests, pray for more priests, pray for our own children/grandchildren to answer the call to priesthood and religious life.

Thank you Lord for the priesthood and our sacramental life.

Thank you for each of our priests.

Sanctify them with your Holy Spirit.

Send us more priests and consecrated.

Choose from our own family men and women to serve you in this special way.

 

Prayer for my Mission

 Make me Lord

An agent of your Mercy.

The servant of your little ones.

An echo of your Truth.

A radiance of your holiness.

Amen.