Catholic Twilight Zone

Most of the people I engage, in the various worlds I enter and exit regularly, are in a "twilight zone" with regard to the Catholic Church and faith. They are neither fully in nor fully out; they are in between somewhere. They are not in the flaming heat of the midday sun of Christ's love for his Church; nor are they in deep, cold darkness. They are a blend of light and darkness. This is also called "Catholic Lite" or "cafeteria Catholic" (choose what you want) or "thin Catholicism" (contrast to the "thick" or countercultural type.)

In NJ where I live, about 50% are Catholic. About 20% of Catholics "practice" their faith by the clear, specific habit of attendance at mass every Sunday. We Catholics have that very concrete, observable criterion: practice of our faith is clear in attendance at Sunday Eucharist. So perhaps 10% of our population are observant Catholics; about 40% are non-practicing (used to be called "fallen away") Catholics. That 40% practices their faith in a great variety of ways and intensities. Some come to Church on Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Easter; others attend mass randomly; many want baptism, communion, marriage and burial in the Church but have little interest otherwise. 

Many have formally left the Church for another religion but retain more than a minor residual Catholicism. There are different directions: some become "born again" in Evangelical or Pentecostal Churches; others retain much of their childhood faith in a convenient marriage with progressivism (women priests, gay marriage, etc.) in mainline Protestantism. We have a litany of high profile "Catholic" politicians who wear their faith on their lapels as they crusade militantly against her fundamental convictions. And SO many gifted artists who proudly retain a Catholic identity, albeit in a diluted form (Jack Kerouac, Bruce Springsteen).  And then there are the famous "Nones" without allegiance to any social body; but they may find themselves making the sign of the cross when passing a Church or cemetery. And of course we have the phenomenon of "reversion" or return back to the Church.

Beyond the institutional boundaries of the Church I find many people who have sympathy, attraction, and fascination with it. For example, many are influenced by a devout spouse, possibly attending mass and eventually converting.  In visitations as voluntary hospital chaplain, for example, I encounter secular Jews who use the rosary or are attached to St. Padre Pio. I just this morning read that Protestant President Ronald Regan had the Ave Maria sung at his funeral.  A Latin Mass friend of mine invited some Jewish friends: "Do you want to go to Christmas midnight mass with us?" He didn't expect the response: "Midnight mass? Are you kidding? What Jew does not want to go to midnight mass?"

Among my very favorite books is "The Christian Unconscious of Sigmund Freud."  Brilliantly, psychologist Paul Vitz highlights the fascination of Freud, the great antagonist of religion, for Catholic Churches and cathedrals, particularly in Rome. We see here that even the fiercest enemies harbor deep ambivalence about the Church. 

We also observe that some of the great secular, moral minds are drawn to the Church, but are unable to make the crucial step across the doorway, for reasons not clear. We think of Jordan Peterson, David Brooks, Ernest Becker and Albert Camus. We might call such "Almost Catholics."

I think of the Church as the mother, not always vigorous and thriving, who hovers over our society. Most of us are spiritually adolescents in crisis mode: still dependent, but desiring autonomy; and fluctuating in and out of resentment towards Mom.

I think of our society as a dynamic energy field, with the Church at the center, a powerful magnet, at once drawing us together, but also repelling many of us. And so, at any point in time we have complicated dynamics, with some fleeing desperately away from the Center, and others being drawn close. It is a thrilling, powerful Drama: at once a clash, and a romance of freedoms, human and divine and demonic. 

It is a great Mystery, the movements of our hearts and souls towards and away from God and his Church. And the subtle, profound ways we influence each other. 

May we all of us be drawn...and draw each other...into the midday Sun of God's love.