Career-Free

It is not for everyone, that's for sure!  We are a rarity, an elite, a remnant. To be career-free is a kind of a poverty or deprivation, but is also a blessing, a charism, and a mission.

A career is, of course, a good thing. It is the way our complex, technological/scientific, bureaucratic, professional, managerial world works. A career is a lifelong occupation that requires education, credentialization, progression upward in responsibility and renumeration, social status, and economic security. It often entails a valued human service to the community so can be an expression of altruism. It is usually situated within a large bureaucratic network. It becomes a key aspect of one's social identity.  It draws upon a deep, broad body of knowledge, technology, beliefs, ideas and practices.  My seven children and their spouses all have careers: I am proud of them and happy for them and their families. 

But...within the Catholic economy it is very good for some of us to be career-free. This for many reasons:

Careerism is the belief that one's personal identity and worth flows from career status. Imagine a 20 or 30 or 40 year high school reunion: be honest...we size each other up on a scale of achievement, income, and status. This is normie, bourgie mediocrity at its worst. Some of us have to step outside the paradigm and simply say: "Career wise, I am nothing. I am a loser in that game. I am career-free and proud of it!"

Bipolar Class Structure.  In my lifetime, our society has become increasing polarized into the upper and lower classes. The upper class is professional, educated, successful, economically secure, more liberal (politically and religiously) and inbred as they marry their own. The lower class (of diverse races and ethnicities) is career-less, unschooled, financially precarious, MAGA-inclined, and more vulnerable to social pathologies of addiction, single motherhood, unemployment, homelessness, mental illness, crime, and violence. A blessing of being career-free is a certain transcendence of this divide: ideally, one is not entrapped within either world but free to navigate back and forth, a dual-citizenship of sorts. Such a person need not be a Trump-fan, but will sympathize with the motives of those who are.

Identity.  Unbound to a profession, one enjoys the liberty to explore identity in many alternate ways: faith, family, art, culture, service, study, and other. For the Catholic, one is free to explore and deepen one's relationship with Christ; to surrender to serendipitous movements of the Holy Spirit outside of the protocols of "normie-ness." Discipleship in Christ can, of course, entail a profession. But the Spirit does like to act in creative, transgressive ways as well.

Intellectually one's thinking is not pre-structured by some dominant academic paradigm so one is free to roam in and out of disciplines, movements, schools of thought and especially personal and communal encounters. This makes for creativity, cross-fertilization, synthesis, breath and depth of thought. 

Catholic Priesthood. In our Church, the priesthood is clearly a career. It requires extensive training across a variety of disciplines; it entails very particular capacities including prayer, pastoral-emotional intelligence, acceptance of celibacy, and a minimum of organizational and academic ability. Obviously, the cleric is part of a brOoader, indeed global institution. It is also a hierarchy involving higher positions. In this it can incline to a corrupt clerical careerism. Readers of this blog will know that the author has a special fondness for "maverick priests" who do not fit into the program, who fail in competence in some way, but often compensate with intuition, compassion, charity, holiness and eccentricity, as they give headaches to their ecclesial authorities. 

Religious Life by contrast is inherently, in form, career-free. Many religious are in fact professors, teachers, doctors and so forth. But that career or ministry is subordinate to the primary focus of the vowed or consecrated life: intimate surrender to the person of Jesus Christ. This takes a variety of forms, including the solitude of hermits and consecrated virgins, but more frequently it entails participation also in a community of prayer and charity. Normatively, the specific service or ministry of a professed person (teaching, care for the poor, etc.) is tertiary: flows from the primal union with Christ and the secondary engagement with a specific community.

Lay Movements. It is worth noting that contemporary lay movements differ in the value they place upon career, secular or religious. Opus Dei and Communion and Liberation see great spiritual value in ones profession or career. By contrast, the Neocatechumenal Way is more working/lower class and focuses upon family and Church and devalues career. Other radical, anti-bourgeois Catholic groups include Dorothy Dayu's Catholic Worker and Madonna House with Catherine Doherty's "little mandate." St. Charles de Focauld, in his imitation of the simple life of Bethlehem, has been an inspiration for Kiko Arguello and Catherine Doherty and others in their embrace of simplicity, humility and praise and detachment from the benefits of career profession.

Conclusion

Life in Christ is a descent...down into our baptism, into poverty of spirit, into humility, simplicity, service, charity and praise. A holy woman said: "I want to go to the poorest nation; find the most destitute province; identify the most deprived town; ask for an extremely suffering family...and serve them." 

The normal middle class career trajectory is different: upward...greater education, credentials accomplishments, status, celebrity, financial security and wealth. It is possible, but not easy, to pursue such a path and yet answer Christ's call to humility, simplicity, and praise.

But it is good for some of us to remain unprofessional...professing simply the love of Christ for those who are simple, poor and faithful. 

Mentors and Womentors

Mentorship is a specific friendship in which two share in some endeavor but one, usually older, is more advanced and therefore guides, corrects, encourages and sponsors the mentee. It is a one-on-one, exclusive friendship, not unlike romance, so that the two attain a degree of intimacy. In this it differs from teacher or coach as both these instruct a group. While there are formal "mentorship programs," normally the friendship arises spontaneously, organically, serendipitously. More often, the mentor initiates as he sees potential in the younger one who is largely unaware of it. But it is self-chosen by both. It is temporary and transitional,  as the mentee eventually achieves maturity in the field and so becomes equal in the friendship. It is a hybrid relationship: like normal sibling love or friendship, but there is a quasi-paternal/maternal element of authority and docility.

I suspect many live and die entirely unmentored. It is not a necessity of life. I entered adulthood, graduating college at the age of 22, aware of only one mentor. I grew up surrounded by uncles and aunts, older cousins, and hundreds of teachers (laity, Sisters of Charity, Christian Brothers, Diocesan/Maryknoll/Jesuit priests) . None were for me a mentor. I was never coached as I did not play organized sports. In my work life I fended for myself without mentors. As oldest son of nine children I was accustomed to being older brother. In my UPS supervision career of 25 years there was no mentor: the managers above my level were aggressive, competent men but insecure in their own position and therefore lacking in generosity to us below them. As director of a residence for women I knew no one who had done this before so I found my own way. One exception: in the catechesis of the young, I did enjoy one womentor.

These days, approaching my 79th birthday, I marvel at how blessed I was,  mostly in early adulthood, by a number of such mentoring relationships. Almost all were younger than my own parents, 5-20 years older than me, the "silent generation." These assisted me, not in a career, but the three fundamental foci of my life: prayer, catechesis of the young, and companionship with the poor. They fall into two categories: spiritual directors and big brother/sisters.

Spiritual Directors

This is a strong Catholic practice, common in priestly and religious life, but more rarely among the laity. It is a form of counseling which focuses primarily on one's relationship with God and prayer life, but inevitably reaches into practical and personal areas of significance, including vocation, ministry and sin. Often the director is also confessor although they can be separated. In the years since the Council increasingly lay people seek and some even are trained in direction. It is especially appropriate for those with an intense spiritual life, who require more direction and correction than is normal.

Direction is an option, but not at all normative for the Catholic laity. In this it resembles much of the rich banquet of Catholicism: pilgrimages, retreats, devotions, rosaries, novenas, men-or-women prayer or Scripture groups, sacramentals, icons, conferences, associations, movements and other available but not obligatory practices. 

In my college seminary days we were assigned a spiritual director whom we would see once or twice a year. These I recall as entirely inconsequential. That we were assigned was not a good idea. At the time Rogerian counseling was in fashion and our directors typically sat, waited for our input, and offered little or no direction. A plain, steady life like mine did not elicit energy in direction.  It was an awkward, tiresome exercise, although the priests were often good, holy men.

In early adulthood, I associated with Jesuits, the experts in direction by virtue of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, the gold standard of direction. And so, I got into the habit; I have been blessed by a litany of directors:

Fr. Neil Doherty S.J.  1972-4. My department head when I taught religion at Jesuit Xavier H.S. NYC, he was typical of many Jesuits of his generation: Irish, quiet, modest, intelligent, educated, holy, humble.

Fr. Paul Viale 1975-80. A dear, close friend; a priest in the Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group in Christ the King, Jersey City; Paul was a most holy, decent, gentle, humble, delightful priest.

Fr. Tim Tighe C.P.S. (Passionate) 1990-93). Gifted, dynamic preacher; quite a character; very familiar with the 12 steps, including the codependency part. He said he never lived anywhere (family, seminary, many rectories, etc.) where there was not an alcoholic. A "maverick priest": insightful, energetic, quirky, interesting.

Fr. John Wrynn S.J. 1980-89, 1995-2018). Irishman and Jesuit; an erudite historian; gentle, refined, holy. He led me through the Spiritual Exercises in daily life. To confess and receive absolution from him was to be transposed from earth to heaven!

Fr. John Wassel 2026-current. Actually a few years younger than me, he is also a charismatic of many years. Another man of prayer, humble, gentle, wise.

Normally the directee initiates the relationship by asking for direction. A good director (like a therapist) is not easy to find as it requires: holiness, wisdom, theological erudition, and compatibility with the one receiving direction. The session might be one hour perhaps once monthly. The content is generated from the directee. 

Big Brother and Big Sister

Lacking a big brother and sister biologically, I have delighted in these friendships. In contrast to spiritual direction, these involve no formal agreement, but emerge organically, fluidly, happily.

Pat Williams 1966-69. Layman, father/husband, librarian, pugilist, Marine, autodidact, catechist, insightful student of culture, Pat befriended and had a tremendous influence on me.

Sister Maria Martha Joyce 1972-6. Partner in teaching religion in St. Mary's HS, Jersey City, she was a dear friend, tons of fun, another salty character, prone to temper tantrums and so a good disciplinarian, Sister of Charity of Convent Station.

Sister Virginia Keane 1973-8. Another Sister of Charity, Convent Station, bright, confident, assertive, she lived in the housing projects and took me in as junior partner in service of the poor. 

Sister Patricia Brennan 1973-80. A third Sister of Charity, she is the closest I have seen to St. Paul, missionary and evangelist. She led group of women who brought Charismatic Renewal to Jersey City. She was our teacher but took a direct, mentoring interest in each of us.

John Rapinich 1973-2014. My little/big brother (I was his big/little brother); my best friend ever. We met in Charismatic Prayer Group. He lived in our house as brother and uncle to our kids. Artist, friend of beatniks Ginsburg and Kerouac, another insightful  autodidact. Precious friend and brother.

Brother Ray Murphy 1984-current. Brother of the Christian schools, fine history and religion teacher, holy and humble, role model and another little/big brother.

Sister Joan Noreen 2005-2022. Foundress of Our Lady's Missionaries of the Eucharist, an outstanding teacher on the spiritual life, she was for us teacher and mentor.

Rev. Cindy Wilcox 2024-5.  Presbyterian minister, she is about 20 years younger than me but my mentor as she welcomed us into volunteer hospital chaplaincy. She opened up a new vista of ministry in the hospital by modeling how to witness to God's love, free of any religious trappings that might not attract. She brought me to the psychiatric ward where we offer sessions on spiritual care, much like the 12-steps. I would accompany her 6 AM on cold winter mornings in the ER overflowing with homeless folks as she easily engaged them in conversation and was soon praying with them, so fluidly and comfortably. This was a very unexpected (at my age, late 70s), delightful relationship.

Conclusion

It is remarkable that of the 8 mentors, 4 happened in early adulthood, in the 1970, my 20s. Three were Sisters of Charity: one guided me in prayer and the life of the Holy Spirit, one in service of the poor, one in catechesis of the young. It makes sense: if you are career-free and interested in these three arenas, who dominates the fields? Women. Later in life, I was again mentored in the spiritual life by Sister Joan and in ministry to the afflicted by Rev. Cindy. So 5 of the 8 were women; and so I have coined the word "womentor." I am deeply indebted to these five women, as well as many others (including Dominican and Felician sisters) with whom in later years I have shared friendship and mission. Blessed am I among women!

I invite you, Dear Reader, to consider those who have personally guided and inspired you over the years, as we surge with Joy and Gratitude to be surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses!

 

It's a Big Table

 Catholicism is an abundant table...nutritious, delicious, extravagant, costly, inebriating. I have myself dined sumptuously of the many flavors. And so I have become a quite distinctive Catholic flavor myself. I know no one like myself. Other than the Church herself, I pledge allegiance exclusively to no school, movement, or party. I am a complex compound of many. 

My background is standard: raised in a large, happy, pious, stable, working class family in the postwar Church, I came of age in the excitement of the 1960s, even as I was sheltered from the drugs-sex-rock-and-roll of the Cultural Revolution in a semi-cloistered college seminary. But the strongest influences on my Catholic thinking are:

Divine Mercy Revelations. Received by St. Faustina, they were propagated throughout the Church by St. John Paul II, specifically in his Encyclical Dives in Misericordia.

Charismatic Catholic Teachings. Our personal experiences of "baptism in the Holy Spirit" as well as the dramatic global explosion of the last half century were given authentic form, deeply Catholic and yet ecumenically enriched from the Evangelical and Pentecostal traditions, by Ralph Martin and his, largely lay, collaborators.

St. John Paul II Papacy. In addition to his teaching on Mercy, he focused on: the Person/Event of Jesus Christ, the inestimable dignity of the human person, a groundbreaking catechesis on sexuality, an anthropology of work, and more. Along with his teaching he modeled for us Christlike virility.

"Communio Theology" of Ratziner, Balthasar and others. The scriptural personalism of Ratzinger and the aesthetics/dramatics of Balthasar along with the thought of John Paul came to me largely through the American school of the David Schindlers, Hanby, Healy, Lopez, Prosperi, Walker and Co. In the partnership-papacy of JP/Ben we also receive the authoritative interpretation (of continuity) of the Council.

Culture War. Through the 1970-80s, as elite culture, including within the Church, became progressive, with many I reacted fiercely in defense of unborn life, masculinity/femininity, the family, religious liberty and other. 

Remaining Working Class Viewpoint.  As Catholic adult, I viscerally renounced the now sexually liberational Democratic Party, but as son of a union organizer I retained my allegiance to the worker and the underdog. Now a registered but dissonant Republican, I leaned moderate/liberal on economics.

Neo-Thomism of Gilson and Maritain.  In college, these two clear  thinkers fortified my Catholicism against the forces raging against it at that very time.

Jesuit Teachers Joe Whelan and Avery Cardinal Dulles.  Each is a stand alone: Whelan himself a mystic taught the theology of prayer; Dulles is the model of balanced, encyclopedic, deep Catholic theology.

Catholic Psychologists Including Paul Vitz, Benedict Groeschel, Joseph Nicolosi, Elizabeth Amberly, Conrad Baars, Fr. Charles Curran (not moral theologian), Richard Fitzgibbons and others helped me to harmonize Catholic basics with the emergence of the therapeutic.

12-Step Spirituality. This Catholic-friendly, ecumenical approach offers us a deep, thorough program to address deep addictions and compulsions. 

Mimetic Theory of Rene Girard.  As received through his remarkable American disciple, Gil Baile, this anthropological theory is Catholic friendly and deeply insightful.

Friendship with the Poor of Mother Theresa, Dorothy Day, Catherine Doherty. These combined Catholic mysticism, closeness to the poor, brilliance and radiant femininity. There are many such: Madalene del Brell, Caryl Houselander, Heather King, and oldies like Rose Hawthorne, Cabrini, and Drexel.

Ivan Illich, again in my college years, along with Ellul and Schumacher, provided a deep critique of techno-bureaucracy that helped me keep my soul intact as I navigated a business career in UPS.

Neocatechumenal Way of Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez. Walking in this way for several years, gave an added depth and perspective to my faith.

Communion and Liberation.  Through my daughter especially I am a friend, a "fellow traveler" and admirer of this wholesome movement.

First Things of Neuhaus/Reno encourages me in my moral conservatism against sexual license as well as my strong internationalism in defense of human rights against bad players around the globe. My economics is more left and working class, however, than that of most of the Catholic Neo-Conservatives, more like the New Right of Sohab Amari and JD Vance.

Jewish/Christian Encounter.  Reading of Monsignor John Ostereicher, studies at the Seton Hall Institute (with Fr. Frizzell and Rabbi Finkel) and random encounters over the years fed my fascination with Judaism and love for the Jews. 

These seventeen influences are a rich blend, you will agree Dear Reader, of the academic, populist, countercultural, mystical, eccentric and non-bourgeois. Strangely, the variety here contains (for me) no contradiction or dissonance. There is, to be sure, creative tension among them. It makes it all more interesting and fruitful. Most of these influences are somewhat dated: I am current or fashionable.

In any case, the six decades since the Vatican Council has been a great time to be Catholic! 

Thick Irish Catholic Melancholy of "State of Grace," the Movie

This is the most underrated mob movie ever! It was released in 1990 at the same time as "Goodfellas" which understandably grabbed all the attention. I would put it in a league with that, the Godfather movies and others as top ten gangster movies. (The singular masterpiece "On the Waterfront" stands alone as unchallenged number one.)  The ensemble acting compares with all the greats. The friendship between co-protagonists Terry Noonan (Sean Penn) and Jackie Flannery (Gary Oldman) is incomparable and heartbreaking. Penn quietly emanates the deep, restrained sadness and interior conflict of undercover cop Noonan who strives to be loyal to his friends as he infiltrates the mob. Oldman is outstanding as a wild, drunken, fight-loving, endearing Irish lowlife. This puts the film also in the top ten best buddy films. But there is more: rock solid performances by stalwarts like Ed Harris, John Reilly, John Turturro. The stunning natural beauty of a young Robin Wright only enhances the poignancy of her heartbreak as she longs to escape her family background with an "uptown job," therapy and her romance with Terry. By the way, the chemistry between Penn and Wright on screen is not artificial: they started an affair and conceived a child while making the film.

It may be the saddest movie I have ever seen. Even though my Irish Catholic world (devout, serene, respectable) is far from theirs, they are still "my people" so I took the movie personally. They felt to me like dear, doomed cousins.  The sadness operates at different levels, which indwell each other.

It is set in the lower Manhattan West Side, "hell's kitchen," in the 1980s as that world was disappearing due to gentrification. And so, there is a dense cloud of hopelessness about the entire thing. Much of Jackie Flannery's rage is against this loss. In this, the movie might serve as an enactment of the disappearance of the ethnic (in this case Irish), Catholic, working class neighborhoods that disappeared from our cities over the last decades of the 20th century. The sentimentality and nostalgia is heavy and very Irish. You feel like you are at a wake, you have drunk too much, and you are starting to cry. And the sadness is very specific, personal, concrete...in each character.

Oldman's performance as Jackie is off the charts: he seems so familiar. Angry, alcoholic, reckless, fearless, impulsive...yet you become endeared to him. And you don't know why. You just like him. Reilly plays their childhood friend: addicted to gambling, he is in big trouble but has a gentle heart that evokes tenderness from Terry,  Jackie and the viewer.

The Penn/Wright romance is flaming, tender, respectful, but excruciatingly poignant. Each is seeking to find..."the state of grace." They want freedom from a past of violence, inebriation, deceit, betrayal, crime, and heartbreak. They are desperate for peace, stability, integrity, loyalty and quiet. Terry is a conscientious cop. Kathleen has moved uptown (above the 40s), has a decent job, and is in therapy. Their attraction to each other is cosmic. But the situation is impossible: he is infiltrating her brothers' mob.

In the key, revelatory scene towards the end, Terry, with tears, reveals his soul to her. He explains that this entire idea of him infiltrating the gang was an enormous mistake. He unveils the meaning of the movie's title.  "You believe in angels or the saints or there's such a thing as a state of grace. And you believe it, but it's got nothing to do with reality. It's just a fuckin idea." 

Here we come to the heart, the tragedy of the movie. He, and she, and everybody really, is seeking for this "state of grace." But it is, for them, unattainable. Terry wears a cross around his neck throughout the entire movie. This is important. There is nothing in the movie faintly approaching genuine Catholic piety. But they talk about the Church: rosary, priests, etc. Two scenes unveil the Catholicism beneath and around the entire drama.

Terry and Kathleen are unable to find Jackie when he is in big trouble with the Italian mob and the police and is intoxicated and then they find him in the Church. They sit together and intimately recall as children hiding together in that Church. They grieve their murdered friend Stevie (Reilly) as Jackie stumbles around, damaging the Church irreverently in a drunken stupor, saying he is "making a saint out of Stevie." I confess that I wept in the scene. The feeling of loss, of sadness, of longing was unbearable. They long for a lost state of innocence and peace. Vaguely there is some sense that the Church is attached to this longed-for state.

The finale of the movie crystalizes this sadness. (Spoiler alert!) In the wake of so much violence and death, the St. Patrick's Day parade is passing St. Patrick's Cathedral, bagpipes playing, and Kathleen (Wright) is alone in the crowd, her lovely face blank and impassive.

The parade signified the tragedy of the Irish: the loss of faith. We see this in Ireland itself today. But also, largely, among our own Irish-Americans. This is the sadness of our time. The loss of faith.

It is my view that an Irishman or Irish-American who embraces his Catholic faith is a prince, a warrior, a sage...however flawed! But an Irishman without faith falls into despair. He is a nobody. Remember: we Irish were for centuries serfs, slaves under the English. 

{ Aside: contrast cinematic presentations of the Italian and Irish mobs. The former has about itself the elegance, the stature of Italy: fine wine and food; gorgeous women; the Renaissance;  stigmatists and mystics; the Vatican; the Roman empire. The latter are low class: drunken, fighting, crude, and low on class.  Contrast "On the Waterfront's" Johnny Friendly (loud, vulgar) with Pacino and Brando as the Corleone's. A small but telling scene in "State of Grace" has Frankie Flannery (Irish mob boss Ed Harris) at a sit down in a good restaurant with Italian boss Borelli (Gambino-Genovese type guy.) Frankie brushes the crumbs off his table onto the floor. Borelli calmly, authoritatively tells him: "Frankie, don't make a mess." By contrast with a classy Italian mobster, the Irish guy is sloppy, crude, loud, impulsive and usually drunk!}

Yes, there are Irishmen who are good writers. They make tough boxers. They do well in middle distance running. You do want them as police, firemen, soldiers, and FBI agents. 

But even at their best, they are a waste if they remain in the "state of sin." That is to say, in disbelief. That is to say: in toxic, dysfunctional patterns of betrayal, deceit, dishonesty.

The perennial appeal of the gangster movie is, in my view, that the drama always revolves around betrayal and loyalty. The magnetism of the mafia is the code of loyalty. But that code, based on the immoral, inevitably turns into betrayal. The mob protagonist always encounters a dilema of loyalty: Terry Malloy (Brando) turns against the brother and mob boss who betrayed him to be loyal to something good ("On the Waterfront"); the youthful protagonist in "Bronx Tale" finds loyalty to the mob boss (Palmitieri) contradicts his filial fidelity to his father (DeNiro); "Donnie Brasco" has the real life undercover agent "going native" and loyal to his antagonists; and of course the multiple drama lines of the Godfather saga. 

And so, theologically, we ask: What is the state of grace for a Catholic. It is fidelity. It is the fidelity of God to us: absolute, manifest in the crucifixion of Christ, in the abiding Eucharistic presence. It is our own flawed, often failing loyalty to our own: spouse, vows, family, our God and his Church. 

The power of the mob movie is the drama of betrayal and fidelity. 

The power of "State of Grace" is the longing for that fidelity.

Filial Reception of Magnifica Humanitas

As a loyal son of the Church, I am very deliberately receiving this new encyclical in the positivity of trust, gratitude and docility. Genuine obedience is far from blind, mechanical compliance; the word's etymology is from the Latin audire, "to listen attentively." This is not the suspension of the critical faculties into thoughtlessness. Rather it is eagerness to receive, to penetrate deeply with the presenter, to use all ones faculties (intellect, will, passions, desires) in the urgent search for the True, the Good and the Beautiful. 

Several forces motivate my intentional docility:

1. This is an authoritative papal instruction and therefore evocative of trust and receptivity.

2. St. Ignatius of Loyola advised us to always put the best possible interpretation on another's words. This applies doubly to Church authorities.

3. Temperamentally and philosophically, I am strongly disposed to a "catholicity" that embraces all that is good, whatever its circumstances.

4. I have been pleasantly surprised by the encyclical. My expectations were low so I was shielded from disappointment. Leo is many good things; he is not a first rate theologian. Really, we do not know much about AI. Even the brilliant engineers driving it don't really know where it is going. I did not think this topic was a good idea. But reading it, I now see lots of good in it. It is what we are given. Thanks be to God.

Let's consider some of the strengths and then the weaknesses of this teaching. The majesty, the magnificence, the mystery of Catholicism is: that the Divine comes to us infleshed in the finite, fallible, deficient and even sinful Church. The human and divine come to us as one Reality: we receive the first with patience, compassion and generosity; we receive the second in thanksgiving and adoration.

The Best of Magnifica Humanitas

1. The Tone.  In accord with Leo's personality, style, and charism the teaching is steady, reassuring, calming, and sensible. He is critical, but not pessimistic. He is positive, but not utopian. Ross Douthat admired that he is critical, aware of dangers, as he "normalizes" it. By this Douthat means that he sees it for what it is: a form of technology. A tool. However sophisticated, it is just a tool. In a world of exponential change, fluidity, and transience, we need a voice of stability, calm, permanence: who better than the Pope to give us this?

2. Human Dignity.  This, more than AI itself, is the prime theme of the teaching. The inexpressible worth, preciousness and beauty of the human person is the prime concern. Any technology, ideology or social order that threatens this is rebuked by the Church and this pontiff.

3. Spiritual Teaching.  In the introduction and conclusion both, Leo gives solid spiritual principles to guide our path. The initial offering is a comparison between the Tower of Babel and Nehemiah's rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. The first is Godlessness, arrogance, power; the second is humility, adoration, fraternity. The conclusion brings us to Mary, her Magnificat, and the Eucharist. The most important parts of any essay are the beginning and the end: this piece is strong in both.

4. Summary of Catholic Social Teaching.  The value of this large section is that it presents Catholic social teaching as an organic, living, developing whole. He summarizes the contributions of popes since Leo XIII as well as the Vatican Council. All the basics principles are presented (solidarity, subsidiarity, common good, natural moral order, etc.) but are woven together into a lively body of wisdom. He sees this a living organism, much like the Church herself as well as our broader dogmatic/moral legacy. Here he manifests his personal propensity for unity and peace. The section exudes a Catholic confidence: we stand upon a deposit of wisdom and are well prepared to face the challenges that present themselves. 

5. Modesty.  Again, like the person of Leo, this teaching is modest, humble, unpretentious.  It presents no master narrative or innovative insight. It reverently receives the tradition given to us. It acknowledges the complexity and enormity of the challenges, but does not yield to despair. It properly challenges all of us in our own domains...engineers, policy makers, politicians, families, educators...to a calmness in cooperation and agency with God's assistance.

The Deficiencies in Magnifica Humanitas

1. Our Progressive, Pelagian, Pacifist Augustinian?  

Scattered among the encyclical's "wheat of wisdom" are "weeds" of a toxic, dysfunctional progressivism. The most egregious is: "...just war theory...is outdated." This unfortunate statement will attract more popular attention than the parts of the document that merit such. 

"Out of date" is itself a most non-Catholic, progressive, technological phrase. It indicates that something is now obsolete, useless, replaced by newer technologies. The phrase is antithetical to the organic, continuous, reliable nature of Catholic teaching, including on the political order. We might contrast three attitudes to the past/future: the revolutionary despises the past and seeks to destroy and replace it; the progressive looks always to advance, improve and also replace the past; the wholesome (Catholic) conservative, unlike a sclerotic reactionary, looks to conserve, protect, develop and enhance a  precious heritage received from the past. "Out of date" is, if not revolutionary, a progressive term, certainly not Catholic. Relentlessly we are harangued: 

Capital Punishment, Just War, Patriotism, Justice as Retribution...out of date!

Sex as unitive/procreative, Marriage as irrevocable, Contraception-Homosexuality-Fornication as sin, Masculine Priesthood, Human person as male/female...out of date!

Latin Mass...out of date!

Underlying this quasi-absolute rejection of just war is a Pelagian confidence that war can be replaced by dialogue, compassion, negotiaon/compromise, open-mindedness, "the synodal way," renunciation of power and selfishness. It is the same presumption that would replace police with social workers; that displaces capital punishment with an unwarranted pride in our prison system; and mistakes just retribution with hateful revenge. 

We recall that the heresy of Pelagius, decisively renounced by Augustine, was just such a confidence in the ability of the human will to achieve salvation. Augustine, with his understanding of the City of God and the evil City of Man, is rightly applauded for his sense of the depth of evil and his articulation of the just war theory. It is striking that our Augustinian Pontiff has such a Pelagian perspective.

Consider: Putin's gratuitous invasion of the Ukraine,  Iranian terrorism and nuclear ambitions,  the violence of Jihadism against Christians in Africa, and above all the imperialist ambitions of totalitarian Communist China. What we need today is precisely an improved, updated Just War theory, aware of technological and political realities. We need precisely to deter such bad actors from inflicting their diabolical regimes upon the rest of us. It is astonishing that in the face of these threats Leo should lean into such a soft, Pelagian, progressive pacifism.

The defining diabolic catastrophe of the Church in our time is the priest sex scandal: not only the abuse of the innocent, but the failure of the hierarchy to address it. It was an omission, a tolerance, an avoidance, a passivity in the face of evil, a failure in virility and paternity. Underlying this grave dereliction was an erroneous, illusory credulity; a softness; a confidence in rationality, therapy, and the goodness of human nature; a denial of the reality of sin, evil, the demonic. In the face of Jihadist terrorism, totalitarian-imperialistic Communism, national fascism and aggressive sexual libertinism, we risk a Church going soft, irenic, passive, effete and complaint with if not submissive to Evil.

2. Lack of Metaphysics.

Perhaps even more silly, disturbing and troubling is Leo's repetition of the chant of Francis: "Time is greater than space." This makes no sense at all! The two cannot be compared as there is no value in which they can be measured against each other. It is like saying: "the air we breathe is better than the earth we walk on."  What??? "A grand slam in the bottom of the ninth is better than a hole in one." What???  "Ballerinas are better than power forwards!"  What???

This can, of course, be given a positive interpretation. Francis resented a negative stability of law, dogma, stagnation, moralism, and control. He valued openness, patience in growth, hope in the future. There is a promise in time and a stability in place. They mutually inform each other: like present/past/future. Reality is always a symphony of stability and change: to elevate one over the other is nonsensical. Time itself is relentless change, death to everything. This is overcome by promise and fidelity: a stability within time, a triumph of the permanent over the evanescent. The "time is superior to place" chant, philosophically, implies the triumph of change over stability, of existence over essence, of death over life.

A more Catholic view:  "The Eternal transcends both time and space but visits and dwells in both." They are not the same; they are neither equal nor inequal, they are incomparable. They are distinct. A Catholic sensibility values stability: we have sacred places, pilgrimage sites, and Churches. Above all, we have the Eucharistic presence in a specific "thing" and place. Especially in "fluid modernity" we desperately need a sense of the stable, the reliable, the permanent and even the Eternal. For Leo to continue the crusade of Francis against stability and permanence, exemplified in the "synodal way," is gravely mistaken. 

This singular, misguided dabbling into ontology leads us to an important omission in the teaching: a lack of just such metaphysics. What sets AI apart from any previous technology is precisely its simulation of human INTELLIGENCE.  Leo is emphatic that a human is not a machine and a machine is not a human. But he is not conceptually clear, deep and precise in his definition of human intelligence. Douthat pointed out that the founder of Anthropic, Chris Olah, who accompanied Leo in the presentation, himself challenged the entire premise of the encyclical in suggesting that "Claude" is approaching human states of "joy, satisfaction, fear, grief and unease." That is, of course, the fundamental challenge of AI. Leo in effect dismisses it, but does not clearly address it. 

Much of the answer is already available in classical, Thomistic metaphysics of form and essence. Interiorly, a computer is still a thing, an inert object. It lacks a vegetable soul, an animal soul, and of course a human soul. Despite its complexity, it is interiorly nothing, it is like a sand castle on the beach, a compilation of things; any unity is not internal, but exterior, configured by the creators. By contrast, human intelligence is a spiritual capacity, the ability to "know" or interiorize the other, Truth, and reality in all its splendor.

Happily, this was addressed in an astute manner at the recent 2026 Academy of Catholic Theology Conference in Washington DC by Rev. Joseph Laracy S.T.D. in a talk entitled "Persona et Machina: the Ontological Limits of Artificial Intelligence."  Laracy, who teaches science and theology at Seton Hall University, drew upon his own engineering/science background and especially the  groundbreaking thought of Rev. Stanley Jaki O.S.B., to clarify that human intelligence is a principle of inner unity capable of freedom, self-consciousness, wonder, intentionality, curiosity, and other. He contrasts the contemplative wonder of intellectus with the rational calculus of ratio, seeing that AI has high ability  for technical computation but zero capacity for contemplation.

It is just such conceptual, philosophical clarity that would have greatly enhanced Magnifica.

It is understandable that Leo avoided this important resource. He is himself quintessentially American, a pragmatist, a man of action, of the people, a mathematician, a competent administrator and governor, a get-the-work-done type, a "Martha" more than a "Mary." He came of age in the theological fog of the 1970s. The Vatican Council itself avoided the language of Thomistic metaphysics; but Rev. Thomas Guarino has showed us that fundamental principles of Aquinas (like "analogy") were implicit in the theology of that Council. The theologians and bishops who authored the documents were all breaking beyond the boundaries of a narrow scholasticism to engage the modern world as well as the Fathers, but they were all fully grounded in the metaphysics of Thomas which quietly informed their thought. 

Unfortunately, the students of Rahner-Lonergan-Kung-and-Company lacked that philosophical grounding and much of the increasingly progressive theology of the post-Council era drew more from social sciences than from philosophy. The result was a default conceptual grounding that was superficial, pragmatic, uncritical, and vulnerable to secular fashion.  This philosophical incompetence already predated the Council. It is my view that the impressive post-war (1945-65)  American Catholic edifice (vocations, parishes, buildings, schools, hospitals, etc.) collapsed so quickly and catastrophically because the foundations were weak in two ways: spiritually not grounded evangelically in the person/event of Jesus Christ; and intellectually not rooted in solid Catholic philosophy/theology.

Conclusion 

To its credit, this is a modest effort. It is best understood as a first salvo, a "draft." Critics see a failure to really engage the unique challenge of a simulated humanity. I do not fault Leo here. We still do not really know where we are going. Yuval Levin pointed out that Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum was written when we were well into the Industrial Revolution so the outlines of that world were clear and a definitive Catholic response possible. We are not there with AI; perhaps in 20 or 30 years we will be.

Going forward, Leo would do well to:

1. Look to Augustine for realism about the hardness of Evil, the City of Man and the necessity of forceful resistance.

2. Look to Thomas for a philosophy that unveils the interiority of things.

3. Realize we are in a now-perpetual war...always and everywhere...with three enemies that intend to destroy our faith and our world: Communism, Jihadism, and Cultural Liberalism. Dialogue, compassion, empathy have their place in this world. But so do combat, courage, decisiveness, and just use of mortal force.

4. Embrace the "Benedict Option" of Rod Dreher which sees the fragmentation, dysfunction and toxicity of mainstream mega-institutions and advocates a relative detachment to concentrate energies on smaller communities: family, local Church, schools, intermediate organizations and movements.

5. Use the "Christian Strategy" of Adrian Vermuelle: detach, in some degree, from ideological and partisan allegiances in a willingness to cooperate, in limited ways, with all actors in the pursuit of goods. Like Joseph of ancient Egypt or Daniel of Babylon, we find a place within an alien empire to protect our own faith community and advance the common good of all. So, we are open to collaboration, in the good, with Muslims, Communists, Fascists, Maga-istas, and even Cultural Liberals.

We are grateful for this encyclical and its author, Pope Leo. We are always grateful for what we are given, even as it is finite and flawed. 

Leo is a pope of the poor, prayer, intelligence, sobriety, integrity, unity, reconciliation, dialogue, steadiness, modesty, competence and good governance. His weakness is a softness, a reluctance to decide, a disinclination to engage in combat.

So, as we thank God for him and his evident gifts, we ask that the Holy Spirit compensate for his weakness with gifts of wisdom and counsel, clarity in thought, courage and decisiveness in combat.

Come Holy Spirit!

The Masculine Glance Upon the Madonna with Child

 "The male gaze" is a concept of feminist aesthetics which identifies in art, and especially cinema, the toxic, male configuration of the female as a voyeuristic object of pleasure, objectified, and herself devoid of dignity and agency within the dramatic narrative. It expresses the "patriarchic" devaluation of the feminine. What follows will not challenge that idea, which is in its way an accurate diagnosis of a real pathology. 

Today, the day after Pentecost,  being the feast day of Mary, Mother of the Church, we will consider an alternative,  positive, healthy and even holy reality.

The "Madonna with Child" is arguably the most profound, powerful and pervasive image in Catholic art and imagination. There are others of course. The crucifix, with the tortured male body of Christ, has a certain primacy, especially in contrast to an iconoclastic Protestantism which prefers the bodyless cross, in a flight from the flesh, the incarnation, and the ultimate bloody sacrifice. There is also the Pieta: again the mother holds her son, now an adult corpse, the other bookend of the story. Happier than these is the Holy Family: father, mother, son...wholesome, happy, whole. 

As a male, however, I prefer the mother with child. Joseph being absent, I take his place looking upon wife and child.  This icon is incomparable in that it works, for the male, on several different emotional and spiritual levels. 

1. Identification with Infant.  

Subliminally, there is a regression to infancy, a recall of the warm, tender, protective embrace of the mother. Mary is always beautiful, but also  modest, chaste, holy. She is generous, nurturing, and extravagant. Jesus in the arms of Mary is an incomparable image of safety, contentment, peace, trust and gratitude. 

This is probably more powerful for the male because masculine identity requires, from the moment of birth when the mother recognizes the "otherness" of her child, a gradual but radical detachment from the maternal. Fruitful, mature paternity requires, eventually, autonomy, independence from the maternal. By contrast, fruitful, mature maternity builds upon a continued bond with the mother.

The suggestion here is that psychoanalytically the male carries, inevitably, a wound from the detachment from the womb, the breast, the arms of the mother. He longs, unconsciously, for a return to that enclosure of warmth and safety. His "passover" to the "world of men," to identification with the father, to the world of camaraderie, competition and combat, involves an itinerary of pain, injury and sacrifice. 

By this interpretation, the male, notwithstanding his enhanced testosterone-based aggressiveness, carries interiorly a propensity to regression, to retreat, to cowardice. In this view, the "male gaze"...voyeuristic, pornographic, objectifying...is itself a toxic regression, a "death wish," a retreat from the AGON of the masculine journey. It shares with other addictions...alcohol, drugs, etc...an "anti-virility" of passivity.

By contrast, the prayerful, reverent, tender contemplation of Madonna with Child allows the man to subconsciously bring his deepest insecurities, vulnerabilities and anxieties to the Holy Mother, who herself reflects the Mercy of the Father, as she is holy, pure, tender, loving and beautiful. In Marian devotion, the Catholic man configures his own personal reminiscence of feminine, especially maternal, love, with the person of Mary and also with his enclosure within the Maternal Church. This return to "childhood" in a state of rest, serenity, trust and reception allow for a mysterious healing and interior strengthening. 

2. Admiration of the Woman.

In this icon, the woman is the protagonist, the child the recipient. The Great Antagonist, the Evil One, is entirely absent, repelled to hell by the holiness of Mary. The absence of Joseph, the father, allows the male observer to assume the position of husband and father.  This is first and foremost a glance of reverence, of awe before the immense dignity, gratuity, and elegance of the mother. The self-gift, the sacrifice, the generosity of a mother is incomparable to anything else in human life. The closest a man can come is spilling his own blood, as a martyr or hero. In Catholic lore, the Virgin-Martyr is perhaps comparable in valor and goodness to the natural mother. In Mary, the Catholic sees Virgin and Mother. She is queen of angels and saints, and of martyrs. She assumes a position as queen that is unequaled by any mere man or angel.

We see that the masculine gaze of admiration of the feminine is the polar opposite of the "male gaze" which devalues and objectifies. The seeing, with admiration, of such holiness, penetrates the male heart, intellect and spirit and sanctifies him with a gentle, but audacious virility.

3. Tenderness for Mother and Child.

In her embrace of the infant, woman herself shares with the little one a vulnerability, a precious fragility. She is so given over that she herself becomes defenseless. In that sense maternity is the most profound form of human vulnerability. The man who is secure within his own identity, strength and masculinity, surges with tenderness, protectiveness, affection for both mother and child and the dyad itself. Masculine strength and assertiveness finds here its formal and final cause, its ultimate purpose: protection and provision for this precious, sacred twosome. Timidity, anxiety and insecurity are banished as a ferocity both lionlike and lamblike surges within the mans breast.

4.  Humility of God.

The most profound, impenetrable Mystery is that this tiny, fragile, incompetent infant is God's very self, the Son, the Word, the Second Person of the Trinity. Absolute Being, the source of all that is true, good and beautiful is present in one so small, needy, powerless. This is The Mystery of our faith. This we cannot understand, explain, analyze or utilize. We can only drop to our knees, like the three kings, and adore. 

But there is more. The Almighty God continues to come to us, each of us and all of us...in the very least, the very smallest, the incompetent and powerless. This is the infant, the embryo, the demented, the insane, the very poorest. 

God has lowered himself to become an infant, entirely dependent upon his mother. And so, in a million ways every day, he presents himself over and over again: in the needy, the dependent, the disabled. And each of us has the incomparable dignity of serving him. His very weakness elicits our own strength and nobility.  

To Conclude...

With an invitation to all men, myself first of all, to calmly sit before the Madonna with Child:

To be as a child in the arms of the mother, myself small, fragile, weak and vulnerable.

To admire the incomparable Splendor of Mary our Mother, and of every woman as virgin and mother.

To surge with the flame of virile tenderness, protectiveness, and gentle strength.

To adore Christ incarnate as an infant, and present in every person as vulnerable, suffering and poor.

Top Ten Best Catholic Programs for Holiness

Consider: we all (especially we self-obsessed Boomers) know that physical health requires a solid, steady program or routine: a good night's sleep; balanced, temperate, nourishing diet; and daily exercise of some sort. Consider: some high schools and colleges produce competitive, championship-level teams year after year because they have good programs, rigorous workouts and high motivation. Even more does our spiritual thriving require a good program.

In 1973, the year my wife and I dived into the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, as that movement was surging powerfully, John Haughey S.J. published his classic: Conspiracy of God: the Holy Spirit in Man. He intended the word "conspiracy" in its etymological, Latin sense: "to breathe with." So, we "conspire" with God when we breathe with him: aspire, collaborate, journey, commune together. He distinguished three types of spirituality: programmatic, which emphasizes habit, institutions, traditions; pneumatic, which seeks the interior inspiration of the Holy Spirit; and autogenic, which highlights the agency of the person, in freedom, initiative and love. At the time I read the book, I happily identified with the pneumatic or charismatic which I saw as superior to the autogenic social justice politics of my late adolescence as well as the institutional Catholicism of my childhood. In the half century since then, I see that a wholesome spirituality blends all three, but the programmatic is fundamental. 

The enthusiasms of "the Spirit" easily vanish and the agency of the Self proves itself to be largely volatile and impotent. We are communal: we need steady support of others. We are creatures of habit: we need good ones. We are sinful: we need rituals of repentance, encouragement, pardon, support. A good Catholic is one with a good program. My grandfather used to say: "Just go to confession every other Saturday, as a habit." Catholicism is a programmatic, institutional,  traditional faith.

Poison of Protestant Individualism

Our nation is deeply Protestant, or late-Protestant if not post-Protestant. In its various forms...mainline, progressive, Evangelical, fundamentalist, Pentecostal...it can be a living, lively Christianity, but its core infection is individualism. At its origin in Luther, Calvin, Henry VII and the others, it renounced the Church community in favor of some individual, subjective faith. And so, through the centuries it has proliferated into thousands of different denominations. Many today identify simply as "Christian." This means that they follow no authority or tradition, but contrive their own system...or they follow some local, rando pastor who has contrived his own religion.

American Catholics have mostly gone "protestant." In our hospital visits, between 10 and 20% who identify as Catholic practice their faith. By this I mean: attend mass every Sunday. Most of the others, if they still identify as such, explain that they relate to God, they pray on their own. It is, in other words, an isolated, lonely faith. It is not nothing. It is faith. It can be highly Catholic in flavor: devotion to Mary, the rosary, the saints, sacramentals and such. Of course I do not challenge or correct these people of faith, however anemic, who are sick in bed. But as we pray together, almost always the Our Father, my hope for them is that our shared prayer will awaken a desire to return to communion with the community, the Church.

We are NOT created to live and pray in isolation. We need communion with each other. We need steady, reliable patterns and habits to carry us when we are weak. We need resources to correct, encourage, revive, inspire and eventually sanctify us. We need program. Let's consider ten good ones.

1. Classic Tridentine Catholicism

Counter reformation Catholicism, reactive to Protestantism and defined at Trent, is arguably the most programmatic, institutional religion imaginable. The subjectivity of "faith alone" of Luther was countered by a solid, objective program.

"It's all bullshit, pure bullshit! All this liberal Vatican II stuff! All you need is two things: the commandments and the sacraments. That is all you need!"  This was my conservative high school friend Frank who disapproved of my liberal enthusiasms, in 1965. Frank served as a Catholic priest for 25 years; as an Episcopalian priest for 25 years; and is retired. Now he is the progressive, I am (obvi!) the conservative. We get together every few months for burger and drink, but don't go too deeply into theology. Nevertheless, my buddy provided a succinct summary of the Catholicism in which we were raised. Clear, defined, objective. Obey the commandments. Receive the sacraments. Fidelity to your state in life (marriage, priesthood, religious life.) Hard, durable, clear, simple.

In its full baroque grandeur, it was magnificent: art and architecture, missionary accomplishments, religious orders, theology, religious devotions (Mary, the cross of Jesus, penance for sin, sacramentals) and more. It's singular weakness was that it was not always firmly rooted in the foundation: the person and event of Jesus Christ. To the extent that it lacked this, it tended to and was perceived as dogmatic, moralistic, ritualistic, clericalist...all in the negative sense. 

In the form we received it (1950s) it was still intact, but already leavened by our postwar prosperity, implicit ecumenism, and positivity. It was, for those two decades 1945-65 a thriving, exuberant American Catholicism. But its spiritual, intellectual roots were not deep. The bonds of communion and prayer were not deep enough to renounce the subjectivity, the individualism, the therapeutic narcissism at the core of the Cultural Revolution. And so, Catholicism entered into a 60 year period of steady decline. The Latin Mass is, of course, an admirable endeavor to preserve and retrieve much that was best in this Catholicism.

2. Evangelical, Pneumatic Catholicism of John Paul and Benedict

These two pope fully engaged Vatican II, especially the recentering on the person of Jesus Christ. They interpreted the Council in continuity with the past, as they engaged modernity, critically, but appreciatively. So, they strongly affirmed the best contemporary developments in the Church and the world: ecumenism, dialogue with other religions, appreciation for Judaism, centrality of religious freedom, the role of and call to holiness of the laity, social justice for the poor, the positive accomplishments of science and technology, liturgical and biblical revivals. Patiently and peacefully they resisted the progressive assault on Catholic principles around incompetent life, sexuality/gender/family, objectivity of morality, and the balance of faith/reason. Their authoritative teaching aligns with and mutually strengthens the lay renewal programs below.

3. Catholic Charismatic Renewal

This movement of the Holy Spirit, which exploded in Duquesne University in 1967, is arguably the most significant of our time as it is part of the broader Pentecostal movement that started in 1900 and has spread around the globe in many churches. In terms of Christianity writ large, within and beyond the Catholic Church, this is the most consequential development of the last 126 years and going into the future. In part this was a brilliant synthesis into Catholicism of elements of Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism: love of Scripture, focus on Jesus as savior and lord, invocation of the Holy Spirit, gifts of the Holy Spirit (tongues, prophesy, etc.), spiritual warfare, gender roles, authority, emphasis on praise and strong spiritual community. 

4. Divine Mercy

The revelations to Saint Faustina constitute the most significant development within Catholicism and are the interpretive key to the pontificate of John Paul. They are a revival of traditional themes but with a new clarity, emphasis and luminosity. Practically, there are simple practices: the litany of Divine Mercy, the image of the merciful Jesus and the celebration of Mercy Sunday a week after Easter.

5. Neocatechumenal Way, Communion and Liberation and Lay Renewal Movements

These all flow from a distinctive encounter with Christ in the unique charism of the founder and find expression in practices and habits that are creative, novel, and fruitful as they draw deeply from tradition.

6. Monastic Rule of Life

The epitome of this is that of St. Benedicts which he built on the shoulders of the Dessert Fathers and was the foundation of Medieval Christendom. It develops later into the medicant friars, the active religious orders, ands most forms of Catholic life. It interweaves prayer as personal and communal, silence, work, study, and community. It is the quintessential "Catholic Program of Holiness."

7. 12-Step Groups

Not explicitly Catholic, these might be conceived as "anonymous Catholicism" (with a nod to Karl Rahner's famous "anonymous Christian." Famously, they aspire to be "spiritual" rather than "religious" rather than associate with baggage attached to institutional faiths. In clear, definite practical manners they practice the fundamentals of Christianity and Catholicism: awareness of weakness and need, trust in God, accountability, community of support, and a clear body of literature and practice. In the deeper etymological sense, it is itself a "religion": a "bonding" of a community through shared beliefs, values ands practices. It does not inherently replace or compete with other faiths, but is best practiced as an "accompaniment" to them. It addresses addiction and provides a path to sobriety and does not ambition to be a total plan of life as a full religion does.

8. Our Lady's Missionaries of the Eucharist and similar Traditional Programs

About a dozen years ago my wife and I made promises to OLME, Our Lady's Missionaries of the Eucharist, of now deceased Sister Joan Noreen, a gifted spiritual guide. It is a refreshing synthesis of the traditional elements of Catholicism: Eucharist, Mary, obedience to the Church, the sacraments, liturgy of the hours and simplicity of life. There are many such traditional movements: Opus Dei, Regnum Christi, Legion of Mary, and others.

9. Liturgical and Devotional Year and Holy Places

The Church year with its seasons, it feasts and fasts, its "saint of the day" is a dazzlying program for holiness in itself.

The Catholic soul is particularly fascinated by the Eucharist and the Mother of God: daily mass, visits to the Church, 40-hour devotion, processions, rosary, Marian feast days, and other.

As time is sanctified by our Catholic calendar, so space is made holy also. Holy places are the destination of pilgrimages: Israel, Rome, Santiago, Fatima, Lourdes, Guadalupe and so many more. Every parish Church is holy...and every chapel, cathedral and basilica.

10. Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy: Service of the Poor and Suffering

Within the Catholic economy of grace, special blessings come with programmatic, systemic, habitual service of the poor and suffering. This is strikingly evident in saintly figures such as St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Dorothy Day, Catherine Doherty and a litany of others.

Conclusion

In addition to the above, Catholicism offers a rich banquet of optional programs: novenas, devotions, retreats, spiritual direction (including the famous Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius), pilgrimages (my favorite being the Camino of Santiago in Spain) and other. No single person could practice all of these. They all feed into and draw from the presence of our Crucified-Risen-Ascended-Spirit-Sending Lord in his Church incarnated in Word and Sacrament.

The core, essential program of the Catholic: Sunday mass. You have to show up Sunday morning. You don't have to be pure and holy; you don't have to receive communion; you don't have to fully believe in everything Catholic; you don't have to pay attention for the whole time. You have to show up. You have to be there, in the flesh, in Church, for an hour, whatever high jinks your monkey-brain performs. 

The key Catholic word is:  EFFICACIOUS.

The sacraments are efficacious: they effect what they symbolize. This is not magic. It is Mystery. They effectively and fruitfully give us Christ's grace, of their very nature. They do not depend upon the merit or worth of the minister: an evil priest still confects the Eucharist; he still pardons sin in confession; he still heals body and soul in anointing of the sick. 

Their full force is released only with the cooperation, the ascent, the surrender of the recipient. But their power is not limited by that subjectivity. For example, imagine someone receiving a sacrament in a state of distraction and inattention. Subjectively, consciously the mind is elsewhere: anxieties, regrets, resentments, sadness. Nevertheless, if there is even a faint intention to receive Christ in the sacrament than that grace is given, miraculously, gratuitously, abundantly.

The entirety of Catholic life flows from the sacraments. In this it contrasts sharply with the subjectivity inherent to Protestantism and its offspring narcissistic, therapeutic, moralistic individualism.

By analogy, the rest of Catholicism shares a certain, lessor but nevertheless miraculous efficacy inherent to the sacraments. So simple practices themselves, in their form, give grace, even when the subjectivity is distracted: carrying a rosary, wearing a medal, hanging a crucifix in  a room, blessing yourself when passing a Church, donating to a Church or charity, receiving ashes, casually saying "God bless you."

Modernity is isolated, individualistic subjectivity. Catholicism is communal, connected objectivity.

My own joy is that I have participated in all of these programs...if poorly. My personal motto: "Anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly." I am excellent and exemplary in nothing. But I have done very good things very poorly. And the things themselves are efficacious. 

May we all, celebrating Pentecost today and moving into ordinary time, deepen, strengthen and intensify our Catholic program of holiness of life!