Roman Catholic of a specific type...
- Irish American, fully embracive of the faith I received from family, parish, parochial schools in working class, urban, ethnic, postwar America.
- Vatican II Affirming, in the nuanced, sophisticated hermeneutic of continuity of John Paul and Benedict.
- Boomer Child of the 60s, observant of and fascinated by the Cultural Revolution of my late adolescence and early adulthood, from the serene, safe posture as Maryknoll college seminarian.
- Philosophically a disciple of the classical Thomism of Maritain/Gilson and the Personalism of Buber/Marcel/Blondel; adversary of the "Great Masters of Suspicion" Marx/Darwin/Freud; follower of the deep-Catholic cultural radicalism of Illich/Schumacher/Ellul/Freire as an alternative to the then fashionable New Left and hippie movements.
- Jesuit-Trained Theologically, in the classic Catholicism of my teachers Avery Cardinal Dulles S.J. and the saintly Joseph Whelan S.J. and his mentor, the great mystic lay modernist Baron Fredrich von Hugel.
- Evangelically Catholic, after personal encounter with my Savior and Lord, the Divine/Human person of Jesus Christ in a Cursillo at the age of 25 in 1973.
- Charismatic, experiencing "baptism of the Holy Spirit," again in 1973, along with intensive ecclesial community, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, an ecumenical urgency, intimacy with the Trinity, and flaming zeal to share my faith.
- Theologically of the Creative/Orthodox "Communio" School, of John Paul, Benedict, Balthasar and their American disciples led by David Schindlers, junior and senior.
- Vocationally, non-professionally a Catechist, zealous to hear and echo the voice of Christ within my Church, time and place.
- By aspiration, Friend of the Poor, seeking to emulate, in my limited way, Mother Theresa, Dorothy Day, Catherine Doherty, and countless holy ones...in Magnificat Home (residence for low income women founded and supported by our family and friends), happy visits to local hospital and jail, and variety of rich, random friendships.
- Culture Warrior, battling Catholic progressivism in the Church and Sexual Liberation in society.
- Politically Non-MAGA Republican, prolife enemy of the reconstructed, post-1970 Democratic Party, with economic/political sympathies for the poor and working class.
- Devoted to the Mercy of Christ, as mediated by St. Faustina and St. John Paul. Not so much the diluted, weakened form fashionable under Pope Francis.
- American, patriotic in my embrace of all that is coherent with my Catholic faith [freedoms, rule of law, constitutional democracy, free markets] but critical of residuals of anti-Catholic Protestantism including sexual liberation, consumerism, materialism, individualism, and unrestrained capitalism.
- Parish and Catholic School are, aside from family, the defining instituti0ns of our faith, despite my youthful infatuation with Illich's "de-schooling" and my admirati0n for homeschooling and my expl0rati0n 0f small, intensive faith c0mmunities.
- Friend and Fellow-Traveler, adjacent to but not fully immersed participant in Communion and Liberation, Neocatechumenal Way, and 12-step spirituality. Additi0nally, friendship with the Latin Mass, Cursill0 and Marriage Enc0unter.
- Associate member of Our Lady's Missionaries of the Eucharist (OLME), with promises (irregularly kept) around Eucharistic and Marian devotion, liturgy of the hours, simplicity of life, and others.
- Philo-Semitic-Judaic, in the tradition of Monsignor John Ostereicher, the Catholic Vatican II reevaluation, and my teachers Rabbi Finkel and Father Frizzel of Seton Hall. This is a fascination and admiration for Jews, their faith, and their amazing cultural achievements, even the problematic ones (Freud, Marx, aggressive Zionism.)
- Philo-Hispanic after time in Mexico and Puerto Rico and especially the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
- Diplomatically [Catholic} Internationalist and Realist [Niebuhr}, preferring Churchill to Chamberlain in a world full of Hitlers. In my lifetime: Stalin, Tito, Mao, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Serbian Milsevic, Rwandan genocide of Tutsis, Saddam Hussein, Castros, bin Laden, the North Korean Kim's, the Ayatollahs, Putin, and Al Queda, This is a rejection of [quasi]pacifism, optimistic global progressivism, as well as isolationism and idealized America-first-ism,
The Catholic world in which I dwell is dizzyingly, heart piercingly, flamingly Beautiful!
I can never be adequately grateful!
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