Top 10 American Catholic Prelates of the Last 80 Years

10. Cardinal Timothy Dolan;  Bright, vivacious, charming, orthodox, balanced, stable, engaging.

 9. Cardinal John Kroll: Solid, great builder, collaborator with John Paul II, moderate, orthodox.

8. Cardinal Raymond Burke: Clear, courageous, authoritative corrective to the imbalances of Pope Francis.

7. Cardinal Terrence Cook: humble, holy, competent, decent.

6. Cardinal Francis George: brilliant theologian and culture warrior.

5. Cardinal Sean O'Malley: charismatic, prayerful, talented, man of the poor, steady and reconciling influence in the wake of the priest scandal.

4. Archbishop Charles Chaput: gifted theologian, loyal to Church but badly treated by Pope Francis.

3. Cardinal John O'Connor: virile champion of the unborn, comrade of John Paul, charming, orthodox, a true leader.

2. Bishop Robert Barron: gifted evangelist-catechist, widely influential, first-class moderate theologian.

1. Archbishop Fulton Sheen: brilliant, holy, flamboyant, entertaining evangelist; immensely influential in the Church and broader society in the postwar period.

Special Cases 

The following were broadly, significantly influential but flawed in an important way.

Cardinal Cushing, powerful Boston prelate in midcentury, was a tremendous builder, strong liberal voice in Vatican II especially on the Jews, ecumenist. Less impressive: he was friend and advisor of the Kennedy family. We cannot blame him for the tragic trajectory of that family, but he seems associated with a hidden weakness of thriving midcentury liberal Catholicism; surrender to the militant cultural progressivism of the late 1960s.

Cardinal Spellman of NY, contemporaneous with Kroll and Cushing, was another master builder and the most powerful prelate, in  both Church and national politics. As the kingpin of a political machine, he is not inspirational for us in an entirely different world.

Cardinal Joseph Bernadine of Chicago, greatly gifted, was the most influential prelate of the 1980-90s. Theologically a moderate liberal, he was an irenic figure, working for unity and peace in the Church. He famously engineered the Bishops' statement on nuclear arms (with the nuanced, but not finally coherent agreement that it was morally licit to keep them, for deterrence, but not use them.) He is best known for his famous "seamless garment" ethic of life. This is arguable, if properly understood, from a Catholic perspective, but disastrously has been used by liberals to obscure the fundamental difference between morally absolute evils (e.g. intentional killing of innocent human life)  and prudential policies on issues (like border/immigration, capital punishment, hunger, war, tax and economic policy) about which Catholic legitimately disagree.

Causes of Scandal

The following had impressive ecclesiastical careers but also caused scandal, confusion and polarization.

Cardinal Law had a sterling episcopal career in Boston: civil rights, theological orthodoxy, ecumenist, excellent speaker. I recall that in those years he seemed to be speaking and travelling everywhere. I often reflected that administration of his archdiocese was certainly in the hands of his vicars. However, Boston became ground zero of the priest sex scandal and he became identified with the scandalous episcopal coverup and negligence. With McCarrick, he has faced his judgment already so we need not wonder what he knew and allowed. He lived out his years in a comfortable position in Rome. I do not find fault with this myself. But I did wish that some prominent bishop like himself would take responsibility, ask forgiveness and surrender to a life of humility, poverty and reparation. That would have been good for the Church.

Theodore McCarrick died as a pariah, a pedophile predator. In his last years as Cardinal of Washington DC he was a shameless enabler of the progressive, prochoice Catholic democrats. However, in his years of service as Archbishop of Newark, NJ, he was collaborative with John Paul, amazingly energetic and competent, and did good in many ways. This good is not entirely erased by what we now know of his secret depravity. He has now met his Maker and his judgement: May God's Mercy and Justice be glorified in him.

Archbishop Rembert Weakland was a gifted, popular, Benedictine liberal in the 1980-90s. He retired in disgrace as he was found to have paid almost half a million dollars to an ex-male-lover. He is emblematic of the sexual disorder that infiltrated the hierarchy after the Council and the notorious homosexual "lavender mafia."

Cardinals Cupich, McElroy and Tobin, the Francis-favored, progressive triumvirate in the USA apparently enjoy the approval of Pope Leo. They, of course, renounce the classic Catholic sexual ethic of John Paul and Benedict in favor of a gay friendly and extremist ideology, theological and political, of the left. They are out of synch with the broader American episcopate which remains moderate and in part loyal to the magisterium of JPII/BenXVI so their influence is stronger in the Vatican than in this country. A positive word about Cardinal Tobin whom I know in my lifelong Archdiocese of Newark: he is a pureblooded progressive, but the most quiet and humble of the group. He is a decent man, a man of faith, and he has been fair to Catholics with different theological visions, including the Latin Mass, the Neocatechumenate and the charismatic renewal. As progressives go, he is a good one!

Archbishops of Newark NJ

A word of gratitude for the  six Archbishops of Newark: Walsh, Boland, Gerety, McCarrick, Myers and Tobin. Excepting the homosexual practices of McCarrick, they are consistently intelligent, competent, charitable, prayerful and of sound moral character. All six are of Irish descent. Postwar prelates Walsh and Boland were strong builders. After the Council, we find a wide range theologically: Gerety was a strong Vatican II liberal, but well within the boundaries of theological orthodoxy. He did ban the charismatic People of Hope for their anti-modernist positions on authority and gender. McCarrick, as mentioned, was a moderate, John Paul II collaborator. Myers was considered conservative, but he was personally low-energy (apparently suffering health conditions) and did not stir the pot for the more liberal-leaning presbyterate. Finally, Tobin is a more extreme progressive, pushing with Francis against traditional norms. 

Most striking over the 8 decades is the stability, calm, and "catholic" tolerance. A wholesome "live and let live" attitude has prevailed continuously. We have never seen anything like the Pope Francis destruction of the John Paul Institute or his repression of the Latin Mass. In this they have served well and merited the respect of priests, religious and laity. We...whether more liberal or conservative...are grateful!

Pope Leo XIV, Bishop Robert Prevost

Still a young pope, he may go on to dwarf the above in significance. He is already widely admired and loved, especially in the USA. Holy, intelligent, competent, humble, he is an institutionalist and already a movement to unity and stability in the Church. Unfortunately, he shares with his predecessor and the Church in which he came of age (USA 1970s), a theological softness, a vulnerability to liberal emotionalism and activism. In our agonistic combat with communism, cultural progressivism, jihadism and other diabolical powers, we need a combative Churchill, not an accommodating  Chamberlin. So, we pray that he receive from the Holy Spirit the required theological clarity, depth, decisiveness and courage.

Conclusion

We have considered here the standouts: the scandalous (Weakland, McCarrick, Law, Cupich, Tobin and McElroy); the influential but flawed (Bernadine, Spellman, Cushing); the inspired evangelists (Sheen, Barron); the fine theologians (George, Chaput); the voice of fidelity to tradition (Burke); and strong, holy,  virile leaders (Kroll, Dolan, O'Malley, Cook and O'Connor.)

Most American bishops, it seems to me, are close to a clear type; emotionally steady, prayerful, theologically educated and moderate, pragmatic, with strong leadership and administrative skills. Because American dioceses, after World War II, expanded so powerfully, a primacy has inevitably been  placed upon administrative ability. And so, bishops are not normally outstanding for intellectual brilliance, holiness or inspiration. 

I for one believe that the American Church will benefit from a reversal of the postwar expansion: from a deconstruction, a decluttering, a deinstitutionalization. If organizations (schools, hospitals, etc.) are shifted into the hands of the laity, the hierarchy can properly attend to the Gospel, the liturgy and the life of prayer. They can emulate the apostles who delegated deacons to take care of the distribution of bread.

Nevertheless, considering the difficulties and challenges of our time, we have been well served by good, prayerful, competent bishops. We do well to give thanks as we invoke the continued guidance of the Holy Spirit upon them!

Afterthought

Of the 25 prelates named above, 20 are of Irish descent. Yet, only 16% of American Catholics are of Irish descent. (Surprisingly 51% of Americans of Irish descent identify as Protestant, due to earlier immigration waves.) Why do the Irish disproportionally dominate the American hierarchy? Are they more religious? Saintly? Theological? Unlikely. But we do see that working class Irish have advanced themselves historically in politics, the labor movement,  civil service including police, fire department, army, FBI and other. And so, their strong ecclesiastical power is analogous to those trends.

Top Antagonists and Protagonists of the 20th Century

 Human life and history is always Drama: the engagement of Freedoms, the clash of Good and Evil, the Agon or contest between the protagonist and the antagonist.  Now 26 years away from the last century, we consider it with a degree of detachment. Here are my rankings:

Top Ten Antagonists

10. Mob Bosses: Capone, Luciani, Gambino, Bulger. Worse than them: cartel bosses like Pablo Escobar. Even worse is the Russian mafia.

9. Priest Predators and Negligent Bishops. This double, late century scandal involved predation, mostly upon adolescent males, and the failure of the hierarchy and their advisors to address it.

8. Right Wing Fascist Dictators:  Mussolini, Pinochet, Marcos, Samoza, Batista, Petain, (Please note: not included here are right wing, anti-communist regimes where violations of rights occurred but were countervailed by strong Catholic-friendly principles. These include Salazar, Franco, Diem, and others.)

7. Left Wing, Communist, Totalitarian Dictators:  Castro, Tito, Ortega, Chavez/Maduro, 

6. Jihadists, Sunni and Shia: Ayatollah Khomeni, Osama bin Laden and others.

5. Sexual Liberationists of 1960s: This is a legion but includes: Mead, Marcuse, Reich, Kinsey, Masters and Johnson, Hefner, Lawrence, Beauvoir, Millett, and others. Aligned with them are more private, but important bad actors including JFK, MLK, Chavez and an army of celebrities and power brokers.

4. Abortion Advocates in midcentury USA: Notably the Justices who signed Roe:  Blackmun, Burger, Douglas, Brennan, Stewart, Marshall, Powell. Leading organizations: ACLU. NOW, NARAL, Planned Parenthood. Most tragically, we must include here the majority of Catholic Democrat leaders who violated their faith by collaborating with the Abortion Revolution: Kennedys, Cuomos, Pelosi, Biden, Kerry, Drinan and others.

3. Psychotic, Genocidal Dictators:  Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Hutu militia in Rwanda 1994, Armenian Genocide under Turkish Pasha, Kim of North Korea, 

2. Hitler, Mao, Lenin/Stalin:  A three-way tie for position 2.

1. Lucifer:  The primary Protagonist of the Evil of the 20th century. Evil is a supernatural Mystery, beyond our comprehension; but it becomes even less intelligible if we deny a Supernatural Actor, and his cronies,  working with us humans in our fragility. Lucifer is collaborator in all of the above as well as dark evil forces, powerful and pervasive across cultures in different forms, not clearly identified with individual protagonists. Chief among these: violation of women, abuse/neglect of children, hatred and contempt in biases of racism and antisemitism, and the weaponization of religion. 

Top  Protagonists: Political and Spiritual

Political Protagonists (In no particular order. Note: these significant, positive, political protagonists were often not entirely pure, in politics or personal morality.)

 African Populist, Nationalist Leaders who advocated a moral order distinct from the bipolar Communist/Capitalist offerings:   Catholic Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Nelson Mandela of South Africa (although he was communist early in adulthood), Hailie Selassie of Ethiopia, Anwar Sadat of Egypt. 

Labor Leaders of the mid-century union movement including George Meany, Walter Reuther, Cesar Chavez (notwithstanding his personal failings in marital fidelity and abuse of women), Philip Randolph, John Lewis. Importantly, this movement enjoyed the moral support of the American Catholic Church and was itself a practical ecumenism uniting the best social justice traditions of Catholicism and Judaism. 

Martin Luther King  and the Civil Rights Movement, notwithstanding his grave, significant moral failings in marital fidelity and abuse of women. This is another practical ecumenism uniting Catholics, Jews, Evangelicals, and seculars of all races and ethnicities.

Gandhi of India for his non-violence.

Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, John Paul and Lech Walesa: In downfall of Soviet Union.

Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt:  In downfall of Nazi Germany and Japan.

Prolife Movement, USA, post-Roe, in political protection of the unborn and concrete assistance to pregnant women in distress.

Architects of Post WWII Global Order and Cold War:  Marshall (plan in Europe), MacArthur (Japan), Truman, Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles,  Keynes (financial order), Italy's De Gasperi, Germany's Konrad Adenauer, U.N. Dag Hammarskjold, Charles de Gaulle, Jean Monet. 

Spiritual Protagonists

12. Bill W., Doctor Bob, and Sister Ignatia of 12-steps and AA. The crucial role of Sister Ignatia is not widely known.  An equally well kept secret is the  founder Bill W.'s sexual addiction, an affliction he shares with others on this list. 

11. Padre Pio: Stands out, by himself, as a solitary, hero protagonist against Lucifer.

10. Fathers of Vatican II:  Popes St. John XXIII and St. Paul VI, bishops and periti. 

9. Founders of Orders and Renewal Movements:  St. Jose Maria, Chiara Lubich, Monsignor Luigi Giussani, Kiko Arguello, Ralph Martin and colleagues, Brother Roger of Taize, disciples of Focauld,  Fr. Benedict Groeshel and fellow friars, 

8. Evangelists:  Billy Graham, Fulton Sheen, Billy Sunday, Fr. Patrick Peyton, Oral Roberts, and others. Along with these we recall and honor humble, anonymous missionaries...priests, religious, lay; Catholic and those of other denominations...who brought the Gospel around the globe, particularly with good fruit in Africa which is now a font of evangelical zeal and orthodoxy, Catholic and Evangelical.

7. Martyrs of 20th Century: Largely anonymous. Killed by Communists, Jihadists, Nazi, in  and Spain. By this we mean, first of all, the classic Catholic martyrs who suffered and died for the faith (. Pro, Stein, Kolbe, etc.) But we also include other innocents, especially the Jews under Hitler, as well as those in Cambodia, China, Rwanda, Armenia, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Guernica, and elsewhere.

6. Women Saint/Mystics.  Early in the century, we had mystics including St. Theresa of Lisieux  (who died in 1899 but is probably the most influential figure of the century), St. Maria Gioretti, St. Gemma Galgani, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, Elizabeth Lisieux. 

5. Women Saint/Servants of the Poor. Later in the century, we have women who bury themselves in intimacy with the poor and suffering: St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Dorothy Day, Catherine Doherty, Madaleine del Brell, as well as St. Katherine Drexel, St. Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini. 

With both these groups stand the legion of humble, faithful religious who pray quietly in cloisters and hermitages and serve the poor and suffering.

4. Priests who quietly, anonymously announce the Gospel and sanctify us with the sacraments. 

3. St. Pope John Paul II is the definitive, human, non-heavenly Protagonist of our time. As stated above, he stood with Reagan/Thatcher/Walesa against the Soviet Empire. Earlier he defied the Nazis. He stood against Cultural Liberalism, allied with Islamic nations, against abortion at United Nations conferences. With his lieutenant and successor, Ratzinger/Benedict, he authoritatively defined post-Council Catholicism. His thought, like the best of the century's Catholicism (Stein, Hildebrandt, Blondel, Marcel, DeLubac, Danielou, Ratzinger, Congar, Boyer, Balthasar/Speyr, Schindlers) married classical Thomism with personalism/phenomenology. 

2. Our Blessed Mother Mary quietly, gently watches over us, intervening wisely and discretely (Fatima, etc.) just like the loving mother she is.

1. Holy Spirit is the prime protagonist, agent of the Good. He is collaborator, conspirer, colleague in all of the above. Noteworthy especially is the outpouring of Pentecostal graces in 1900, at Topeka Ka and later Azusa St. Los Angeles. This outpouring was preceded in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII's invocation of the Holy Spirit. This move is now fully global, renewing Catholicism and other denominations, and particularly strong in Africa where it challenges Islamic expansion and now sends missionaries to traditional Christian nations. Also, defining of our age, is the revelation on the Divine Mercy to St. Faustina which informed the papacy of John Paul.

Conclusion

Be heartened, dear Reader: you see the protagonists far outweigh the antagonists, in quantity and in quality. The antagonist...lonely, isolated, despicable and pathetic...can only destroy. The protagonist, in communion with heaven and earth, is procreative, communal, life-giving.

Please, dear Reader, do not hesitate to comment on this offering: who would you add or delete? Who promote or demote? 

On Sacramentals: I Prefer My Rosary Beads Cheap, String-and-Wood, Unblessed and Non-Sacramental

I couldn't find my beads so my wife gave me a nice pair, heavy wooden, masculine, blessed specially in Rome or somewhere, gift from a priest. She said I could use them but to take care of them. I gave them back to her and found my cheap pair. I did not want the weight of "taking care of them."

Rosary beads are to me like ball point pens: they are with me all the time, wherever I go. But I lose them; I leave them places; occasionally I give them to someone. I need them to be simple, practical, cheap, dispensable; not special, valuable or consecrated. I do not want them to be blessed and become a sacramental.

"Sacramentals" are a big deal to us Catholics. We have tons of them: crosses, crucifixes, statues, stain glass windows, holy water, medals, ashes, palms, candles, scapulars, paintings, icons, incense, chapels, basilicas, pilgrimage sites, altars, vestments, and other. This sets us off from other Western monotheisms: Judaism, Islam and Protestantism all disparage them as idolatrous, magical or superstitious. 

In the Catholic cosmos natural things are open to and welcoming of the supernatural, the heavenly, the eternal. This because God became physical in Jesus Christ. He remains physically with us in the Eucharist and all seven sacraments. But on a lower plane, many other places, persons and things can become holy; can become sacramentals. 

Only a priest, deacon or bishop can bless a sacramental. All of us can "bless" anything good by thanking God for it and receiving it as a blessing from heaven, a natural union with God. The sacramental does not undergo as deep a transformation as a sacrament; but it does change ontologically. It is no longer just a natural object. It becomes an expression of the heavenly. 

Imagine a boy joins two sticks together in the form of a cross. He might use this as a sword. But it is still two sticks together; the sword usage is external, not internal. If he hangs it over his bed to remind him of Jesus' death, it becomes a symbol, with a psychological meaning. But he still might use it as a sword if necessary. But if the priest blesses it, the thing changes. It becomes part of a sacramental world of things which point to heaven. He would not want to use it as a sword, even in play. If it is no longer usable, the wood is burned and the ashes buried.  

The sacramental is not efficacious in itself in the way of the seven sacraments. Its effect relies upon the psychological receptivity of the person: if I wear my scapular all week but never think of it, it may have little or no effect. But If I recall, at least when I remove it for my daily shower, that it expresses my consecration to our Mother Mary, then it has influence. 

A sacramental is "consecrated" or set aside to draw us closer to God. Disposal of such is important. Old, blessed rosaries or medals cannot be simply thrown in the trash. Rather, they must be "deconstructed" of their natural form, in which the supernatural presence abided. So, palms are burnt; rosaries might be burnt or cut up into small pieces; and then buried out of the way, the natural elements returned to the earth. When a Church is sold to become condos it must be de-consecrated. 

Religious jewelry is an interesting reality. I have myself no taste for use of such on my person. The value, of say a gold cross, would be a distraction to me. But costly art in Church is edifying. Also inspiring is the sight of a precious gold or silver cross or medal on a woman. It helps me, as a man, to recall, in a visible and physical way, her sanctity.

With the conception of Christ, by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the earthly became receptacle of the heavenly. With Pentecost this invasion of Mercy and Holiness surged around the globe. And so, certain very specific persons, places, times, events and things become the presence of the Eternal.

How happy, how holy...to live in a sacramental world!

 

The Catholic Geography and a Eucharistic Prayer

Each person carries interiorly an intimate geography: a psychological/spiritual map of the places of significance. Last week I spoke in the hospital with an octogenarian, devout Roman Catholic who grew up in the Jersey City neighborhood where we now have our Magnificat Home residence: Clerk Street off Claremont, Ocean,  and Arlington. He was delighted to talk with me. He explained that his home was on Arlington, around the corner from Our Lady of  Sorrows Church and school, around the corner from his father's butcher shop on Ocean. His entire world was contained in four loci within a few city blocks...and he recalled it with immense pleasure!

For most of us our geography finds its center in our home; and then work/school, church, and other things like bar, gym, basketball court, etc. When I travel, for example on vacation, I have three priorities: where will I sleep, where will I eat, and where is the Catholic Church.

For the Catholic, anywhere on the globe, the center of the world, indeed of the physical universe, is not NYC, DC, or even Jerusalem or Rome! It is our Eucharistic Lord in the tabernacle in the nearest church or chapel. The entire cosmos...and the flow of history...is lightened, warmed, purified, sanctified...by the radiance from this Mysterious, thin, white, light, quiet, humble wafer.

Recall: St. Charles de Focauld adoring the Eucharist, alone in the Sahara desert, hundreds of miles from any other Catholic community. Recall St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, during her conversion, sitting in the Anglican church but praying to the Eucharistic presence in the Church down the street.

It took a while for the Church to fully recognize the Eucharistic Mystery. In the early centuries, reservation was for practical purposes, the last rites of the dying, not for adoration. The tradition developed from about the 4th century and was fully in place by about 1100. The cult was in full bloom e by the institution of Corpus Christi, the 13th century, the age of St. Thomas Aquinas and a high point of Catholicism.

I pause at this point, dear Reader, to peacefully glance toward the Eucharist, present a few hundred yards from where I sit. I invite you to do the same where you are. 

And I offer a simple Eucharistic prayer, that can be prayed any time of day, directed physically to the nearest tabernacle.

Jesus,

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

Present Eucharistically in the host...

    so thin, white, light, quiet, and humble.

Make me like Yourself...

    small, simple, silent, serene;

    poor, powerless, patient, persevering, pure;

    receptive of and radiant with Your holiness!

Amen! 

The Ambiguity of Christian Zen

Is the practice of Christian Zen a step towards Christ or away from him? An enrichment or a distraction? 

This past week I participated, by Zoom, in a Zen "sitting" which honored a dear friend who recently passed away. Self-consciously Irish Catholic, Rosemary practiced her faith intermittently, but for decades zealously participated in the Zendo: working hard to organize it, participate daily, attend many retreats and nourish rich friendships. She had a curious, intelligent mind and memory; she was an encyclopedia of history and geography. But she couldn't explain Christian Zen. In part that is due to the nature of the thing: Zen is non-conceptual and anti-intellectual; it does not articulate truths or dogmas; it aspires to an "enlightenment" that is non-cognitive, mystical, intuitive. But in her case she suffered a deeper, personal wound: due to her parents' divorce, she attended Catholic boarding schools in the 1950s. She craved her mother and was hurt by Catholic teaching on divorce. She never recovered from that. As bright and experienced as she was, she suffered a deep incapacity to grasp the Catholic faith in its childlike simplicity. In that she perhaps resembles many of her fellow Zen practitioners: a restless, searching soul, allergic to the Catholic faith in some mysterious way.

I personally lack any expertise in or familiarity with Christian Zen. I enjoyed in college a course on "Oriental Philosophies" with an astute scholar from nearby evangelical Wheaton College, Illinois. At the time I was also reading Gilson and Maritain: I saw the sharp contrast between classic Catholicism and the Eastern religions and philosophies. I retained an urgent desire to go deeper into my own faith, but little interest in the alternatives. I was disappointed, for example, to see Thomas Merton, the great Catholic apologist of the 1950s, be distracted from his monastic vocation into the Catholic Left and dialogue with the East. Merton is perhaps also exemplary of the Zen Christian: sublimely gifted and insightful, he was a searching, restless spirit, incapable of rest and contentment in the faith and his vocation as given.

Christian Zen aspires to some synthesis of the two: it alleges that Zen practice does not contradict the Gospel, but can enhance one's engagement with it. So, I was curious to see if Christian truth was present in the meeting. I did not find much.

Demographics

Located in NYC and Jersey City, this community was what you would expect: older (mostly boomers), white (in the non-pejorative, non-ideological sense), educated, professional, affluent, liberal, and mostly women. {Aside: that last may have something to do with the Roshi: a tall, handsome, gracious, confident, charming, PhD in both theology and psychology,  nonagenarian Jesuit.} Many were raised Catholic. A small group retain Catholic zeal, observance and piety. More seemed to have replaced the practice of Catholicism with Zen mediation and community.

Catholicism and Zen: Incommensurate, Not Directly Contradictory

Catholic magisterium has been fairly gentle with Christian Zen. There has been no clear prohibition or condemnation to my knowledge. A 1989  Vatican document from then-Cardinal Ratzinger, with the approval of Pope John Paul II, warned about confusion and dangers. But it did allow for dialogue and some prudent use of meditation techniques and the  like.

This contrasts, sharply, with the way the Church handles competitive faiths: Islam, Mormonism, Marxism, Cultural Liberalism, radical Latin Mass traditionalists, and so forth. Zen is an entirely different thing. It is not a philosophy or religion in the Western sense. Mohammad, Luther, Joseph Smith, Karl Marx were all Christian heretics: they developed out of Christianity, but accentuated and denied aspects so as to propose an alternate faith. But Zen is something altogether different. It does not propose an intellectual interpretation of reality. It does not deny or affirm God, Jesus as Lord and Savior, our Bible, papal infallibility, natural law, the unitive/procreative nature of sexuality, or anything else in our faith. Zen theoretically can coexist with Christianity since it does not directly compete. It is a different game entirely. 

We see then that one might conceivably, without explicit self-contradiction, with caution, practice Catholicism and and some form of Zen. Thus the light approach of the Vatican. However, realistically, the two are incommensurate, not really compatible, if practiced with integrity.

Buddhism is an alternate path of life, an understanding of reality, a practice. Pursued in any depth and consistency, it leads not to the Person of Jesus Christ, but in a different, obscure direction.

 Non-Theistic

Zen does not cognitively assert the existence of a supreme, absolute Creator. It is not assertively-lucidly- militantly atheistic in the manner of Marx, Freud, Nietzsche and our Western masters of suspicion. It is probably closer to what we call pantheism or panentheism. God is for Zen the "null curriculum"...not mentioned one way or the other. In that way it is implicitly but really a form of unbelief as it offers a path to meaning devoid of God. The Buberian I-Thou that is the heart of Revealed religion is absent, and replaced by something else.

Anthropology: No Self, No Freedom, No Sin, No Salvation

Zen does not offer salvation as it does not believe in sin. It offers something else: release from suffering into peace by way of "Enlightenment" as freedom from the illusions of an autonomous Self. Suffering is an illusion because the Self is an illusion. Meditation leads to release from this. And it discards the entire  Catholic anthropology of the person as a image of God with freedom, intellect, will, and purpose.

No Revelation, No Event, No History

Catholicism is the reception, contemplation, and interiorization of a Revelation given over the centuries but culminating in Jesus. Zen knows no such thing. Rather the goal seems to be release from passions, concepts, aspirations.

Catholicism is eventful: it centers in the Encounter with Jesus Christ which saves us from sin. Zen knows no such thing. The "retreat" experience is different for the two. For Catholic many retreats resemble Cursillo in which there is a strong proclamation of the love of Christ in a way to radically change the lives of those listening. In the tradition of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, the retreatant is lead through particular meditations to an encounter with God's love that leads often to some form of life decision. By contrast, Zen practitioners can go to countless retreats but never experience a life-changing conversion, encounter or call. One gets the impression of a "groundhog day pattern": nothing new happens, but the pattern is repeated in accord with the cyclical nature of primitive religions.

History, salvation history, is the essence of Judaism and Christianity. God enters history; everything changes; we are on a journey to the Kingdom of God. Zen seems to be an escape from history and change into some state of non-binary tranquility. 

Content of Meditation

As we "sat" in silence, I kept wondering: "What is everyone thinking?" There was no content offered. In Christian meditation we focus on some aspect of life in Christ: events or teachings from Jesus himself or his saints. My understanding of Zen is that it observes, tolerates and detaches from the flow of thoughts and feelings. The end state is not clear. No external, objective gift is received. The goal is release from "self" but there is no one to effect that. Ratzinger has warned of a privatization, an enclosure of the self within itself. He spoke of an "auto-eroticism." It is puzzling: escape from the Self remains enclosed within that very Self. This is not promising from a perspective that looks for the self to transcend  in love for the Other, the Binary, for God and neighbor.

Broader Cultural Consequences

The serious, systematic practice of Christian Zen engages a very minute, niche demographic. As such it is not a prime pastoral concern of the Church. But Ratzinger said that a version of such may surpass Marxism as an alternative to Christianity. This would be broader, popular, less particular currents of spirituality that are very influential in informal, non-institutional ways.

We might call this: Therapeutic, Moralistic Pantheism. Zen aligns well with the triumph of the therapeutic: both focus on the Self. As there is no transcendence in God or the afterlife, there is concern for wholeness here and now. I would venture that many American practitioners of Christian Zen simultaneously are in private therapy. 

The goal of Zen is a moralism, similar to the Christian, of compassion and kindness, for the suffering. This is its most potent connection with Catholicism. But the mercy does not flow from a higher, supernatural source. Rather, it is an enlightened empathy, a sense of harmony, an overcoming of delusional self interests and a mystical communion with all of life.

Pantheism is not an organized religion in America, but is widely pervasive and influential. For example, Paul Vitz showed that lucid atheism is largely a male position associated with reaction against the father. Women, by contrast, lean less into assertive atheism than a pantheism that aligns well with radical feminism, eco-ideology, and nature mysticism.

Christian Zen may then be a clear, defined expression of a far broader, informal, influential, populist piety.

Conclusion

My observation: a consistent, vigorous observance of Catholicism and Christian Zen is an exception, an outlier, an eccentricity. More broadly, Christian Zen is a replacement, an alternative. It attracts a searching soul: sensitive, desirous of more, altruistic, possibly alienated from her childhood faith.  Christian Zen seems to be detached and ultimately distracted from the texts, sacraments, icons and practices that mediate our faith. 

It contrasts sharply with 12-step practices of AA which draw from our Christian legacy and pull in the same direction.  

It aligns with other dominant currents of middle class spirituality: individualism, the therapeutic, feminism, environmentalism, cultural and political liberalism, and the cosmopolitan sophistication of the upper echelons.

The question it raises is one that has haunted me since my youth: why is it that so many...intelligent, well motivated, good people...lack faith? We know that our faith is a gift from God; it is not merited or earned in any way. But why is it that so many have not received this gift? This is a Mystery...a sad and sobering Mystery! No simple answer presents itself.

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!