The catastrophic summer of 2018 (death penalty change to Catechism, McCarrick, Pennsylvania Report, Vigano, China agreement) confirmed what had become obvious: the Catholic Church is in the grip of a severely dysfunctional papacy. We are like a family where the mother or father is addicted...to drugs, anger, gambling, sex or whatever. Three paths emerge: to collude with and enable the compulsion; to intervene forcefully; or to distance oneself and pursue one's own sobriety and peace in an alanon-type program. The first is itself a co-addiction; the last two can fruitfully complement each other.
1. In his customarily brilliant Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell narrates how a high accident picture for Korean pilots, who compare in all ways with other nationalities, was finally linked to their deferential "cockpit culture." Even when facing imminent danger and obvious pilot error, subordinate staff were resistant to confronting the pilot because of a deep-seated Korean subservience to authority. Something similar inheres in Roman Catholicism: we have so much respect for our hierarchy that sometimes we fail to confront them and thus enable abuse. Priest sex scandal! This applies to pastor, bishop and yes even the pope. And so, the pious, sentimental propensity to repress any criticism of pope (or bishop or priest) is contradictory of the deeper Catholic intellectual traditions as well as dismissive of the profound sense of human sinfulness that effects even our popes, beginning with Peter.
2. The anti-Francis resistance has opted to intervene and assert long-standing beliefs that are being undermined by this Pope and his allies. In the hierarchy itself this is a very small, but strong and lucid group: notably Cardinals Burke, Sarah and Mueller. Each is extraordinary in theological depth, loyalty to the Church, and lucidity in articulation. It is unlikely they will impact this papacy, but they are a source of light and hope for so many of us who are troubled by the reigning confusitoi From where I sit, the resistance is strongest from the laity: Reno and the First Things crowd, Rober Royal and The Catholic Thing, Raymond Arroyo and EWTN, Philip Gleason and others. The laity enjoy a greater freedom to engage critically and I for one am greatly heartened by their clarity and condor.
3. The predominant response may be exemplified by Pope-Emeritus Benedict himself. he has not engaged the papacy in its foibles! Rather, he... quietly, peacefully, prayerfully and confidently...goes about his own now-retired life, no doubt praying, resting and waiting on the Lord. Even as the Francis regime undermines his work (consider the destruction of the John Paul II Institute in Rome) the retired Pope rests serene in God's providence and the marvelous legacy he has left the Church. It is my impression that most of the loyal laity, clergy, episcopacy and college of cardinals pursue a similar path: not overtly resisting, but persevering in the Gospel truth as we have received it. The lay leaders I most respect..including charismatic Ralph Martin, Kiko Arguello of the Neocathecumenal Way, The Schindlers and others at the John Paul II...have not directly criticized or contradicted the Pope (to my knowledge), but they continue to develop and articulate the legacy of John Paul and Benedict with energy, brilliance and conviction. The American bishops are exemplary also. Archbishop Chaput, perhaps the strongest American hierarchical resistance to this papacy, is muted and flawlessly respectful. The the recent American bishops conference, proteges of Francis (Cupich, McElroy) attempted to dilute the episcopal pro-life stance, in the name of Pope Francis, by removing the word "preeminent" in regard to abortion among other social issues (immigration, global warming, etc.) Bishop McElroy went so far as to say that this emphasis contradicted the teaching of Francis. Chaput forcefully insisted that the American bishops were indeed in union with the chair of Peter as they resisted the horror of abortion. His strong but respectful words were greeted with applause. His position was validated in a vote of 2-1. The American bishops remain faithful, at this point in time, to the legacy of the dual pontificate, but in a reverent, peace-making manner.
To conclude: filial loyalty to the papacy, like love for one's own dysfunctional father, does not preclude but requires calm, deliberate correction when required. There is a certain Catholic genius for balancing loyalty and confrontation, for preserving unity while unveiling error. Thank God for the resistance, and also for the loyalists who work in a more peaceful, quiet manner!
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Who's to Blame for Donald Trump?
The liberals are to blame: the Democrats and the cultural elites in media, academia, and entertainment. For a number of interrelated reasons:
1. Bill Clinton, and his collaborator Hillary. Trump as a public figure, in the nauseatingly vile way he speaks of and treats women, is unthinkable in a America prior to the Clinton-Lewinski event-from-hell. Trump, along with Clinton, Epstein, Weinstein and a litany of others are all children of the sexual revolution. Society's full acceptance and approval of Clinton after his abuse of a young woman the age of his own daughter was the tipping point: the precise moment when the Revolution prevailed in America and the West. In a satanic game plan, the Democrat prepared for the Republican in a culture progressively degraded by unrestrained lust. Hillary, by enabling her husband and discreding his victims, herself played a key role in preparing for the Donald. Is there a chance she has a clue about this? None!
2. Breakdown of family, community and identity. Along with cooperating historical forces, cultural liberalism has destroyed the foundation of life in marriage, fidelity, family, and community. Strangely, this negative effect has been much less on the affluent class that advocates it; and worst on the lower economic classes who have been devastated by a double blast of economic change and moral-spiritual decline. The Trump victory was not about an ideological vision for society; it was certainly not about racism (many voted for Obama and then Trump!). It was the anguished, enraged cry of a class and a culture that had lost its economic as well as its cultural-religious roots.
3. Contempt of elites for the "deplorables." This flows from the previous point: the elites, even as they have destroyed the basis for decent family life have evident contempt for the lower class, those who they see as stupid, who "cling to guns and religion" and who lack the pedigree of a liberal education. We are in the midst of a class war, but it is not about money (although the materialistic left can think in only those terms): it is about respect, honor, status, identity. It is about religion: what is important and worthy and sacred!
4. Militant secularism. By an inconceivable irony, Donald Trump, who embodies in preternatural exaggeration the materialistic greed, narcissism and sexual excess of the USA at its very worst, became president because he rallied the support of moral conservatives, Evangelicals and Catholics. As bad as he is personally, politically he is resistant to the hegemonic regime of the liberals: genocide of the unborn and "useless", oppression of religious liberty, totalitarian and diabolic tearing of sexuality from its roots and purpose in spousal fruitfulness, and the deconstruction of paternity/maternity in their sacredness.
The hysteria intrinsic to liberal "Trump Derangement Syndrome" is rooted in an unconscious guilt and dread that they have created a world...fatherless and motherless, sexually liberated, destructive of the most powerless...where a moral monster, a moron, a helpless incompetent...is preferred electorally to their own barren, deathly, hopeless ideology.
1. Bill Clinton, and his collaborator Hillary. Trump as a public figure, in the nauseatingly vile way he speaks of and treats women, is unthinkable in a America prior to the Clinton-Lewinski event-from-hell. Trump, along with Clinton, Epstein, Weinstein and a litany of others are all children of the sexual revolution. Society's full acceptance and approval of Clinton after his abuse of a young woman the age of his own daughter was the tipping point: the precise moment when the Revolution prevailed in America and the West. In a satanic game plan, the Democrat prepared for the Republican in a culture progressively degraded by unrestrained lust. Hillary, by enabling her husband and discreding his victims, herself played a key role in preparing for the Donald. Is there a chance she has a clue about this? None!
2. Breakdown of family, community and identity. Along with cooperating historical forces, cultural liberalism has destroyed the foundation of life in marriage, fidelity, family, and community. Strangely, this negative effect has been much less on the affluent class that advocates it; and worst on the lower economic classes who have been devastated by a double blast of economic change and moral-spiritual decline. The Trump victory was not about an ideological vision for society; it was certainly not about racism (many voted for Obama and then Trump!). It was the anguished, enraged cry of a class and a culture that had lost its economic as well as its cultural-religious roots.
3. Contempt of elites for the "deplorables." This flows from the previous point: the elites, even as they have destroyed the basis for decent family life have evident contempt for the lower class, those who they see as stupid, who "cling to guns and religion" and who lack the pedigree of a liberal education. We are in the midst of a class war, but it is not about money (although the materialistic left can think in only those terms): it is about respect, honor, status, identity. It is about religion: what is important and worthy and sacred!
4. Militant secularism. By an inconceivable irony, Donald Trump, who embodies in preternatural exaggeration the materialistic greed, narcissism and sexual excess of the USA at its very worst, became president because he rallied the support of moral conservatives, Evangelicals and Catholics. As bad as he is personally, politically he is resistant to the hegemonic regime of the liberals: genocide of the unborn and "useless", oppression of religious liberty, totalitarian and diabolic tearing of sexuality from its roots and purpose in spousal fruitfulness, and the deconstruction of paternity/maternity in their sacredness.
The hysteria intrinsic to liberal "Trump Derangement Syndrome" is rooted in an unconscious guilt and dread that they have created a world...fatherless and motherless, sexually liberated, destructive of the most powerless...where a moral monster, a moron, a helpless incompetent...is preferred electorally to their own barren, deathly, hopeless ideology.
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Five Movements of the Symphony that is Catholic Life
I like to see our Catholic life as an interaction of five eventful loves, which are distinct yet co-inhere in each other in a rich flowering and flourishing: Wonder at Being in all its Truth, Beauty, Goodness; the evangelical love for the crucified, risen-ascended, Spirit-sending person of Jesus Christ; compassion and love for those who suffer physical and spiritual desolation; devotion to Truth, in all forms of human knowing including the dogmatic splendor radiating from God's revelation; and the life of prayer and worship in its personal-intimate, communal and public-liturgical dimensions.
The sense of wonder at existence in all its glory, common to all people, manifests itself especially in the artist, the poet, the philosopher. We see it in people of all types of belief and unbelief, even as its interior logic moves towards the source of all the Good, the True and the Beautiful, the very Creator!
The specific Christian genius is the personal encounter with the Jesus Christ, the absolutely unique divine-human person, as Lord, Savior, and Friend. It includes a sense of his distinctive holiness, his self-described intimacy with his Father in the Holy Spirit, his horrendous suffering for us, his victory over death-guilt-evil in all forms, and his specific love for each of us precisely in our sins. The entire Catholic life...traditions, prayers, dogmas, morality, liturgy...flow lucidly, passionately, fruitfully from this primal personal encounter.
Empathy for the poor and suffering, like the initial sense of wonder, characterizes human life in all its forms, but is given immense depth and focus in the following of Jesus who himself took on ALL the suffering and pain of the world. Additionally, the Catholic pathos is for physical, emotional and also spiritual suffering: only in the Church do we speak of "hunger for souls" by which we mean the yearning to satisfy the deepest cravings of the human heart, the desire for eternal life in unbounded, endless Beauty, Truth and Goodness.
Truth unveils itself to the inquiring human subject analogically at all levels of existence: mathematical, scientific, historical, journalistic, philosophical and more. The Church, however, is uniquely entrusted with the splendid Revelation of God in Jesus Christ in all its dogmatic consequences. Not all of us are equally equipped to ponder, grasp and articulate this reality (just as few of us grasp the deepest truths of physics or neurology), the the hierarchy is specially guided in this task.
Lastly, is the cultivation of our communion with God in personal prayer, small group wrorship, and public liturgy. Particularly in the Eucharist, this is the heart and soul of the Church; the inner form and essence of Catholicism. We experience this in the quiet solitude of our personal prayer; in the intimacy of shared prayer with family and friends; and in the exquisite, magisterial liturgy of the ancient Church. It is here that the Bridegroom makes live to his ecclesial Bride. Out of this communion flow all the social energies and cultural fruitfulness of Catholic life in its overflowing abundance.
Individuals, communities and entire historical epochs vary in the degree to which they express the five movements. But Catholic life, on earth and in heaven, is an unbounded effervescence, an overflowing eventfulness, a symphonic masterpiece of continuity/stability and serendipitous surpise!
The sense of wonder at existence in all its glory, common to all people, manifests itself especially in the artist, the poet, the philosopher. We see it in people of all types of belief and unbelief, even as its interior logic moves towards the source of all the Good, the True and the Beautiful, the very Creator!
The specific Christian genius is the personal encounter with the Jesus Christ, the absolutely unique divine-human person, as Lord, Savior, and Friend. It includes a sense of his distinctive holiness, his self-described intimacy with his Father in the Holy Spirit, his horrendous suffering for us, his victory over death-guilt-evil in all forms, and his specific love for each of us precisely in our sins. The entire Catholic life...traditions, prayers, dogmas, morality, liturgy...flow lucidly, passionately, fruitfully from this primal personal encounter.
Empathy for the poor and suffering, like the initial sense of wonder, characterizes human life in all its forms, but is given immense depth and focus in the following of Jesus who himself took on ALL the suffering and pain of the world. Additionally, the Catholic pathos is for physical, emotional and also spiritual suffering: only in the Church do we speak of "hunger for souls" by which we mean the yearning to satisfy the deepest cravings of the human heart, the desire for eternal life in unbounded, endless Beauty, Truth and Goodness.
Truth unveils itself to the inquiring human subject analogically at all levels of existence: mathematical, scientific, historical, journalistic, philosophical and more. The Church, however, is uniquely entrusted with the splendid Revelation of God in Jesus Christ in all its dogmatic consequences. Not all of us are equally equipped to ponder, grasp and articulate this reality (just as few of us grasp the deepest truths of physics or neurology), the the hierarchy is specially guided in this task.
Lastly, is the cultivation of our communion with God in personal prayer, small group wrorship, and public liturgy. Particularly in the Eucharist, this is the heart and soul of the Church; the inner form and essence of Catholicism. We experience this in the quiet solitude of our personal prayer; in the intimacy of shared prayer with family and friends; and in the exquisite, magisterial liturgy of the ancient Church. It is here that the Bridegroom makes live to his ecclesial Bride. Out of this communion flow all the social energies and cultural fruitfulness of Catholic life in its overflowing abundance.
Individuals, communities and entire historical epochs vary in the degree to which they express the five movements. But Catholic life, on earth and in heaven, is an unbounded effervescence, an overflowing eventfulness, a symphonic masterpiece of continuity/stability and serendipitous surpise!
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Loving the Democrat; Hating the Democratic National Party
I hate the DNC; but most of my family, friends and almost everyone with whom I work are Democrats! What a dilemma! How do I handle this?
When I say I hate the Democratic Party, I mean I loathe, despise, abhor, renounce, scorn, detest it! This is not just a feeling or emotion; with my intellect, will, passions, spirit, all my energies and powers I hate it. This disgust is personal, passionate, perpetual. I was raised to respect and trust this party; so the betrayal that occurred around 1970 with the sexual revolution and abortion is very particular for me. Imagine how women feel about bedbugs! How Jews feel about Nazis or Afro-Americans about the KKK! How we all feel about sexual abuse of children! How the embryo feels towards her abortionist! That is what I am talking about! For me, just about 1970 the Democratic Party became, essentially and structurally, an embodiment of hell on earth! It is as if my very best friend seduced my wife and raped my daughters.
And so, I see that otherwise intelligent, decent, well-meaning people...admirable in almost every way...are overcome by a (virtually) invincible ignorance as they collaborate with the genocide of the unborn and other types of "unworthy" human life. How does this happen?
I am aided by the words of Jesus from the cross: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." "...they know not what they do." St. Paul reflected about the disbelief of the Jews, which grieved him greatly, and wondered that God in his Providence had allowed a darkness, a cloud of unknowing and disbelief, to descend upon them, in order to carry out his greater plan of saving the gentiles and eventually the Jews and all the nations.
With regard to evil in its many forms, there seems oftentimes to be more ignorance than ill-will. Those who vote habitually, faithfully for the DNC are not subjectively conscious of participation in the massacre of the innocent and unborn; they feel righteous as they support gun control or a stronger safety net or medicare for all. Indeed, they probably view me as deficient in my moral judgement. We mirror each other in our mutual moral disapproval!
I have another, lesser problem: a contrasting, smaller group of family and friends support and vote for Donald Trump, a lesser evil (in my view) but morally repulsive for a host of reasons. So, in 2019 I feel like a German in the 1930s: almost half the community are Nazis, almost as many Communistes!
It is discouraging and disheartening! The world truly appears to be in the hands of the Evil One! I can only cling, all the more fiercely and gratefully, to my Savior and his Church!
When I say I hate the Democratic Party, I mean I loathe, despise, abhor, renounce, scorn, detest it! This is not just a feeling or emotion; with my intellect, will, passions, spirit, all my energies and powers I hate it. This disgust is personal, passionate, perpetual. I was raised to respect and trust this party; so the betrayal that occurred around 1970 with the sexual revolution and abortion is very particular for me. Imagine how women feel about bedbugs! How Jews feel about Nazis or Afro-Americans about the KKK! How we all feel about sexual abuse of children! How the embryo feels towards her abortionist! That is what I am talking about! For me, just about 1970 the Democratic Party became, essentially and structurally, an embodiment of hell on earth! It is as if my very best friend seduced my wife and raped my daughters.
And so, I see that otherwise intelligent, decent, well-meaning people...admirable in almost every way...are overcome by a (virtually) invincible ignorance as they collaborate with the genocide of the unborn and other types of "unworthy" human life. How does this happen?
I am aided by the words of Jesus from the cross: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." "...they know not what they do." St. Paul reflected about the disbelief of the Jews, which grieved him greatly, and wondered that God in his Providence had allowed a darkness, a cloud of unknowing and disbelief, to descend upon them, in order to carry out his greater plan of saving the gentiles and eventually the Jews and all the nations.
With regard to evil in its many forms, there seems oftentimes to be more ignorance than ill-will. Those who vote habitually, faithfully for the DNC are not subjectively conscious of participation in the massacre of the innocent and unborn; they feel righteous as they support gun control or a stronger safety net or medicare for all. Indeed, they probably view me as deficient in my moral judgement. We mirror each other in our mutual moral disapproval!
I have another, lesser problem: a contrasting, smaller group of family and friends support and vote for Donald Trump, a lesser evil (in my view) but morally repulsive for a host of reasons. So, in 2019 I feel like a German in the 1930s: almost half the community are Nazis, almost as many Communistes!
It is discouraging and disheartening! The world truly appears to be in the hands of the Evil One! I can only cling, all the more fiercely and gratefully, to my Savior and his Church!
Saturday, November 9, 2019
The Right Not to Vote and the (Sometime) Obligation Not to Vote
I did not vote this past election day. I usually don't vote. I have never voted in a school board election and probably never will, as I have always been committed to Catholic schools. The right to vote is highly regarded...for good reason! It is the foundation of democracy; without it we are under some tyranny. But the right not to vote is underrated! And the obligation not to vote, in many situations, is entirely ignored.
It is an error to proclaim some general duty to vote. It is senseless to vote if one is not informed about the candidates and the issues. Most of us, most of the time lack the time, energy and interest to study the situation: most of us should probably not vote most of the time.
Most important social functions are performed by a select group: not all of us need do surgery, repair roofs, pray and fast daily, or even marry and beget children! Not every must pay taxes! And so, the vote is the right and privilege of those who give time, energy and effort to studying the issues. Many are called but few are chosen.
One of the deepest dysfunctions in a democracy like ours is the habit of always voting for the party of one's family or tradition. In a place like Hudson County, NJ, where I live, this makes for deep political corruption. Or consider the Afro-American vote which goes over 90% of the time for the party that coordinates the systematic, state-sponsored genocide of about 65% of conceived babies of that race in New York City! Is that a moral...an intelligent decision?
In the context of our current national politics, the obligation not to vote asserts itself with unusual force. In a hypothetical face-off between a Hitler and a Stalin, a crude calculation of the "lesser evil" would be morally unthinkable! I see our current situation as similar, if less extreme. As a never-Trumper, I am deeply troubled that those I love and respect could vote for a man who blatantly enacts vile, despicable values. But, as a never-forever-fanatical-passionate-zealous anti-Democrat, I am more horrified that others I love and respect could vote for the Party of Death!
It is an error to proclaim some general duty to vote. It is senseless to vote if one is not informed about the candidates and the issues. Most of us, most of the time lack the time, energy and interest to study the situation: most of us should probably not vote most of the time.
Most important social functions are performed by a select group: not all of us need do surgery, repair roofs, pray and fast daily, or even marry and beget children! Not every must pay taxes! And so, the vote is the right and privilege of those who give time, energy and effort to studying the issues. Many are called but few are chosen.
One of the deepest dysfunctions in a democracy like ours is the habit of always voting for the party of one's family or tradition. In a place like Hudson County, NJ, where I live, this makes for deep political corruption. Or consider the Afro-American vote which goes over 90% of the time for the party that coordinates the systematic, state-sponsored genocide of about 65% of conceived babies of that race in New York City! Is that a moral...an intelligent decision?
In the context of our current national politics, the obligation not to vote asserts itself with unusual force. In a hypothetical face-off between a Hitler and a Stalin, a crude calculation of the "lesser evil" would be morally unthinkable! I see our current situation as similar, if less extreme. As a never-Trumper, I am deeply troubled that those I love and respect could vote for a man who blatantly enacts vile, despicable values. But, as a never-forever-fanatical-passionate-zealous anti-Democrat, I am more horrified that others I love and respect could vote for the Party of Death!
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Does the Amazon, Does the World Need More Priests? Married Priests?
I think NOT! It is not about numbers: I would rather encounter one holy priest...radiant with love, humility, sanctity...once yearly, than encounter half a dozen mediocre priests daily. What we do need, desperately, is two realities: the Eucharistic presence of Christ and the Word of God.
The Eucharist is sum and summit of Catholic life; but I am going to say something to upset our liturgists. Even more than the celebration of the mass, I am personally consoled by the abiding presence of our Eucharistic Christ in the tabernacles of the world. It is the permanency, the reliability, the constancy that I cherish! Let's be honest: daily mass is over in 28 minutes; Sunday mass in 58 minutes. Most of the time my own mind is wandering. Even when I focus on the paschal mystery being enacted my intellect and emotions remain dull and not equal to the event. But I take great consolation that Jesus abides in our midst twenty-four seven, every day of the year except for late Good Friday through Holy Saturday. He is with us: As we scurry about on a million errands, He is there! When we sleep, He is there! When we wander into sin, He is there! Always present to us! Always waiting on us! Always patient and available and merciful!
Let's play overrated/underrated! What is, absolutely, the MOST UNDERRATED reality in the history of our cosmos? No-brainer! The Eucharistic Presence! Christ present is the most wonderful thing imaginable, and yet He is almost entirely ignored. That indifference and neglect extends also to liturgical fashion after Vatican II in that it emphasized the liturgy as banquet and experience and downplayed the abiding physical presence of our Lord in the tabernacle.
The first thing the Amazon and the entire world needs is a craving for and delight in our Lord's physical presence. I imagine a remote village in the jungle that sees a priest once a year. They await him eagerly with joyous anticipation: it is the highlight of the year! Throughout the year, however, they find time to abide with the Eucharist, in silent adoration as well as shared prayer including communion services. Every month a group does pilgrimage to where the priest is to confess, celebrate Eucharist, receive instruction and encouragement, and return with the Body of our Lord for reception at regular gatherings. The theologically correct criticism of this approach is that it seems to minimize or marginalize the actual event-encounter celebration of the Eucharist. Fair point. We need balance here! My hope, however, is that the silent adoration and the deprivation of the actual celebration will feed a hunger and eventually an increase in genuine priestly vocations. In this way the Church grows in Eucharist adoration and craving.
The second, absolute necessity is the Word of God. In this we do well to emulate our Pentecostal brothers and sisters. In the Amazon area and throughout Latin America there is concern about the exodus of Catholic into Pentecostal churches. I do not share this concern: I greet it happily. For the most part, those "converting" are coming closer to Christ in a fervent act of surrender, an intenser form of ecclesial communion, and a devotion to the Word of God. Pentecostalism is spreading like a forest fire...and without eco-conversion, without liberation theology, without married priests, without pagan syncretism. They are spreading because they love Christ, live in close communion, and listen to the Word of God. They should be our best friends and role models. In a Church with fewer priests I imagine an emergent laity, a la Pentecostalism, on fire with the Word of God...let thousands of Scott Hahns flourish!
The two paths of renewal suggested here are quite different: the first, a revival of late-Tridentine love for the abiding Eucharistic presence; the second a radical ecumenical communion with the fiery Pentecostal movement. Both, however, center in the person of Jesus Christ, in sacrament and word. The Church need not moan and groan about numbers of clergy; She needs to delight in her Lord in His physical presence and in His Word!
The Eucharist is sum and summit of Catholic life; but I am going to say something to upset our liturgists. Even more than the celebration of the mass, I am personally consoled by the abiding presence of our Eucharistic Christ in the tabernacles of the world. It is the permanency, the reliability, the constancy that I cherish! Let's be honest: daily mass is over in 28 minutes; Sunday mass in 58 minutes. Most of the time my own mind is wandering. Even when I focus on the paschal mystery being enacted my intellect and emotions remain dull and not equal to the event. But I take great consolation that Jesus abides in our midst twenty-four seven, every day of the year except for late Good Friday through Holy Saturday. He is with us: As we scurry about on a million errands, He is there! When we sleep, He is there! When we wander into sin, He is there! Always present to us! Always waiting on us! Always patient and available and merciful!
Let's play overrated/underrated! What is, absolutely, the MOST UNDERRATED reality in the history of our cosmos? No-brainer! The Eucharistic Presence! Christ present is the most wonderful thing imaginable, and yet He is almost entirely ignored. That indifference and neglect extends also to liturgical fashion after Vatican II in that it emphasized the liturgy as banquet and experience and downplayed the abiding physical presence of our Lord in the tabernacle.
The first thing the Amazon and the entire world needs is a craving for and delight in our Lord's physical presence. I imagine a remote village in the jungle that sees a priest once a year. They await him eagerly with joyous anticipation: it is the highlight of the year! Throughout the year, however, they find time to abide with the Eucharist, in silent adoration as well as shared prayer including communion services. Every month a group does pilgrimage to where the priest is to confess, celebrate Eucharist, receive instruction and encouragement, and return with the Body of our Lord for reception at regular gatherings. The theologically correct criticism of this approach is that it seems to minimize or marginalize the actual event-encounter celebration of the Eucharist. Fair point. We need balance here! My hope, however, is that the silent adoration and the deprivation of the actual celebration will feed a hunger and eventually an increase in genuine priestly vocations. In this way the Church grows in Eucharist adoration and craving.
The second, absolute necessity is the Word of God. In this we do well to emulate our Pentecostal brothers and sisters. In the Amazon area and throughout Latin America there is concern about the exodus of Catholic into Pentecostal churches. I do not share this concern: I greet it happily. For the most part, those "converting" are coming closer to Christ in a fervent act of surrender, an intenser form of ecclesial communion, and a devotion to the Word of God. Pentecostalism is spreading like a forest fire...and without eco-conversion, without liberation theology, without married priests, without pagan syncretism. They are spreading because they love Christ, live in close communion, and listen to the Word of God. They should be our best friends and role models. In a Church with fewer priests I imagine an emergent laity, a la Pentecostalism, on fire with the Word of God...let thousands of Scott Hahns flourish!
The two paths of renewal suggested here are quite different: the first, a revival of late-Tridentine love for the abiding Eucharistic presence; the second a radical ecumenical communion with the fiery Pentecostal movement. Both, however, center in the person of Jesus Christ, in sacrament and word. The Church need not moan and groan about numbers of clergy; She needs to delight in her Lord in His physical presence and in His Word!
Monday, October 28, 2019
In Praise of Extending Sexual Latency
Classically in psychology, the period of sexual latency is the period prior to puberty ( up to 12 or so) during which the sexual energies are quiet, dormant and peaceful. This calm is ended with the onset of adolescence, explosively so for the boy who finds himself overwhelmed by erotic passions and involved in the agonistic struggle to achieve masculine identity. The girl's itinerary, it seems to me, is briefer, more telescoped, less eruptive physically, but maybe even more intense emotionally. I want to argue for a second, culturally created, period of latency and peace through adolescence, from 12 to about 20 years old or so. I envision a cultural/social arrangement in which young men and women engage in a variety of wholesome activities and interact with each other unburdened by romantic/ and sexual involvement. Clearly, there are major advantages to single-sex high schools in light of this vision.
In Eric Ericson's stages of development the achievement of identity belongs to adolescence, ant that of intimacy to early adulthood. We do violence to the organic growth of our youth when we allow them to be pressured into physical and emotional intimacy before their identity is matured. Better for them to throw themselves into academics, sports, work, family, same-sex friendships and a moderate degree of social, chaste friendship with the opposite sex. This allows for the steady, solid formation of identity, uncomplicated by the volatile roller coaster of dating.
And so, when my older children were approaching high school, I told them I would like them to avoid serious dating until well into or after college. This did not go over well at the moment. But for the most part, I can happily report that my own seven children emulated the pattern of my own family cohort of nine: little or no dating until at least late in college. The outcomes have been excellent: solid, happy marriages.
Old fashioned dating may be a thing of the past, but a new danger has emerged: the obsession with LGBTQ sexuality. Now we have Catholic high schools sponsoring clubs that support this movement. This can only be detrimental to the development of teen boys especially. Surely we want to discourage all forms of bullying and hate, especially in a Christian environment. But the drumbeat of gay militancy is harmful for both those who do and don't experience same-sex attractions. The high school will benefit from a degree of quiet, anonymity, and even avoidance of these issues.
For our Catholic youth, for sure, we need a clear, candid and reverent catechesis of the sexed human body in regard to: the inner meanings of masculinity and femininity, sexual chastity as an aspect of purity of heart, the importance of fidelity even to one's future spouse, the unitive/procreative nature of sexual intercourse, the power of concupiscence and its disordered consequences, the mercy of confession, the vocations of virginity and celibacy, and the grave, indeed horrific, nature of romance and sexuality uprooted from marriage and family and therefore sterile, extrinsic, manipulative and dominating.
The intrusion of the gay agenda into the Catholic High School is problematic in several ways.
1. Obviously, it's affirmation of gay identity and activity clearly contradicts the Catholic view of sex as a sacred encounter of man-and-woman, within a sacrament ordered to new life and a community of two that is exclusive, permanent, and the bedrock of society.
2. Secondly, it is a big mistake for a young man, whose emotions and identity are in flux, to fix, as in cement, his identity as "gay." More broadly, it is ill-advised and narcissistic for anyone to center their identity around sexual proclivities, but this is even more disastrous for the teen. It is not irrational to imagine future law suits as those formed by LGBTQ clubs sue the schools that sponsored them.
3. For the heterosexual youth the LGBTQ presence is also disturbing. The young man is insecure in his own identity, vulnerable to shame about his sexual feelings, and involved in often brutal competition with boys who are hostile and belittling. It is not by accident, nor mere homophobia, that aggressive young men intuitively use contemptuous language around homosexual acts to demean and insult each other. It is because here is an inherent indignity, a violence, a lack of mutuality, a toxicity and a dominance/subservience in the very nature of homosexual intercourse. It has been this way and probably always will be: notwithstanding the laws, taboos and disapproval out of the gay movement, in the crude, primitive, and violent culture of insecure male teens, the two privileged instruments of contempt and humiliation are the insult to the mother and the allegation of homosexuality as servility, weakness and lack of virility. This is unfortunate, but probably not avoidable. The argument here is that the sponsoring of gay clubs, pride, parades, rainbows and causes will not repress this regrettable dynamic but may inflame it.
A benign neglect of the gay agenda is important within Catholic education. A clear and comforting catechesis on sexuality will prepare teenagers of all types to receive, calmly, the chaos and violence of sexuality and concupiscence, whatever its presentation. And our youth will enjoy a relative quiet and peace in which to strengthen their identity and prepare for intimacy.
In Eric Ericson's stages of development the achievement of identity belongs to adolescence, ant that of intimacy to early adulthood. We do violence to the organic growth of our youth when we allow them to be pressured into physical and emotional intimacy before their identity is matured. Better for them to throw themselves into academics, sports, work, family, same-sex friendships and a moderate degree of social, chaste friendship with the opposite sex. This allows for the steady, solid formation of identity, uncomplicated by the volatile roller coaster of dating.
And so, when my older children were approaching high school, I told them I would like them to avoid serious dating until well into or after college. This did not go over well at the moment. But for the most part, I can happily report that my own seven children emulated the pattern of my own family cohort of nine: little or no dating until at least late in college. The outcomes have been excellent: solid, happy marriages.
Old fashioned dating may be a thing of the past, but a new danger has emerged: the obsession with LGBTQ sexuality. Now we have Catholic high schools sponsoring clubs that support this movement. This can only be detrimental to the development of teen boys especially. Surely we want to discourage all forms of bullying and hate, especially in a Christian environment. But the drumbeat of gay militancy is harmful for both those who do and don't experience same-sex attractions. The high school will benefit from a degree of quiet, anonymity, and even avoidance of these issues.
For our Catholic youth, for sure, we need a clear, candid and reverent catechesis of the sexed human body in regard to: the inner meanings of masculinity and femininity, sexual chastity as an aspect of purity of heart, the importance of fidelity even to one's future spouse, the unitive/procreative nature of sexual intercourse, the power of concupiscence and its disordered consequences, the mercy of confession, the vocations of virginity and celibacy, and the grave, indeed horrific, nature of romance and sexuality uprooted from marriage and family and therefore sterile, extrinsic, manipulative and dominating.
The intrusion of the gay agenda into the Catholic High School is problematic in several ways.
1. Obviously, it's affirmation of gay identity and activity clearly contradicts the Catholic view of sex as a sacred encounter of man-and-woman, within a sacrament ordered to new life and a community of two that is exclusive, permanent, and the bedrock of society.
2. Secondly, it is a big mistake for a young man, whose emotions and identity are in flux, to fix, as in cement, his identity as "gay." More broadly, it is ill-advised and narcissistic for anyone to center their identity around sexual proclivities, but this is even more disastrous for the teen. It is not irrational to imagine future law suits as those formed by LGBTQ clubs sue the schools that sponsored them.
3. For the heterosexual youth the LGBTQ presence is also disturbing. The young man is insecure in his own identity, vulnerable to shame about his sexual feelings, and involved in often brutal competition with boys who are hostile and belittling. It is not by accident, nor mere homophobia, that aggressive young men intuitively use contemptuous language around homosexual acts to demean and insult each other. It is because here is an inherent indignity, a violence, a lack of mutuality, a toxicity and a dominance/subservience in the very nature of homosexual intercourse. It has been this way and probably always will be: notwithstanding the laws, taboos and disapproval out of the gay movement, in the crude, primitive, and violent culture of insecure male teens, the two privileged instruments of contempt and humiliation are the insult to the mother and the allegation of homosexuality as servility, weakness and lack of virility. This is unfortunate, but probably not avoidable. The argument here is that the sponsoring of gay clubs, pride, parades, rainbows and causes will not repress this regrettable dynamic but may inflame it.
A benign neglect of the gay agenda is important within Catholic education. A clear and comforting catechesis on sexuality will prepare teenagers of all types to receive, calmly, the chaos and violence of sexuality and concupiscence, whatever its presentation. And our youth will enjoy a relative quiet and peace in which to strengthen their identity and prepare for intimacy.
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