Catholic editorials

Hallowe'en: A Time to Reflect on Our Catholic Understanding of Good and Evil

As October rolls in and we start the journey out of Summer and into the Fall, we begin to see, locally anyway, the signs of the approach of Hallowe’en. It is a distinctive and sometimes incongruous holiday for the Catholic. However, it may be a source of an interesting reflection.

Here in New England, we have an association with three major horror writers:

Edgar Allan Poe born in Boston.

Stephen King the literary face of Maine.

Finally, Rhode Island’s Howard Philip (H.P.) Lovecraft. Two of his stories make for a good reflection for us this season.

Lovecraft’s stories take place all over Southern New England. In fact, the Dunwich Horror features family names that are towns along the route I-91 corridor north of Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Coincidentally, his story takes place around the same time as another New England based though non-horror story — Our Town by Thornton Wilder, which reflects on life and death more than good and evil. It takes place in Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire which is the actual town of Peterborough and only an hour from the I-91 corridor.

What makes Lovecraft interesting for our reflection is that he was an atheist, but he also understood that if good can exist in our world, then evil can as well. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Dunwich Horror both deal with the presence of evil and the dangers of not respecting its reality by foolishly crossing the boundary into it.

His writing reflects a pagan point of view of evil as a reality beyond us and outside our understanding. We need to accept this and leave it alone, he indicates. It is this reason why I wonder if he might be a good choice to teach the dangers of evil in our own world such as drug abuse. 

Our Christian faith teaches us the truth about good and evil, something that Lovecraft’s writing does not grasp. He understood their existence, but not their nature. We need to understand both, even if we are not conversant in the secular horror media or even the Christian horror from Frank Peretti that also will proliferate until November 1.

Some who will celebrate Hallowe’en will understand that evil exists but comprehend little else of its nature.

The source of all that is good is our creator. We know that St Augustine taught that evil is the privation of the good. This means that when we walk away from God, we can only walk to where God is not. If God is the source of all that is good, then we walk away to where it does not exist. That means where evil thrives for again it is the privation of the good.

Jesus was a master in explaining good and evil in the terms of light and darkness. If God is the source of light and we walk away from God, we can only walk into darkness.

I love the NASA picture of Saturn because, according to NASA, despite being a planet so big — its year is twenty seven times longer than our own — the physics of light still apply. The far side of Saturn is as much in darkness as the far side of a baseball placed in front of a flashlight outside at night.

Similarly, we understand if God is the source of all that is good, then we end up in the world of what is not good if we walk away from Him into the shadows. This is the reality of sin.

Many of our communities both in and out of the church may understand the existence of evil, but not the source or reality of it. Some might not believe in it at all. However, as much of an atheist he was, H.P. Lovecraft understood the existence of it but he saw it as natural force that one encountered crossing boundaries that should be respected and never transversed.

In fact, if there is one question one learns to ask after reading Lovecraft it is: “Should we walk down this path?” — when confronted with a direction that may reveal a need for discernment. That is because his message was that we have the freedom to do anything we want, but in our freedom we best choose to avoid those things that just should not be done.

Using that principle, we teach that we express our freedom best when we only do that which leads us to the goodness of God.

Jesus teaches the why of that principle: Since, evil comes from rejecting the will of God who is the source of all that is good. Obedience to God, therefore, is so essential for when we obey Him we obey the source of all that is good. We can only walk into a world of more and more good if we adhere to his leadership.

Psalm 23 reflects this well when it says:

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me (Psalm 23 NABRE)

Where are we? In the valley of the shadow of death. If we walk away from God, where do we go? Deeper into the valley of the shadow of death, where there obviously is no life and it must get more and more hostile to existence. How do we find life? By remaining on the path following Christ through the valley of death, no matter how difficult the route may be.

During Hallowe’en, the subject of Hell becomes endemic to the world around us, including our readings. In the classic movie, Event Horizon, (Rated R) we see an illustration of this principle of evil (beware a spoiler may be coming). If we choose to leave the world of order and make a shortcut through a place where there is nothing but chaos, even in the interest of expediency and progress, we may actually enter into Hell. There is no order, there is no good, there is no light to be found if we walk away from the source of all those things which is God. As the movie obliquely illustrates — if we choose to reject the existence of evil and look at reality just from a material perspective, we may walk right into Hell accidentally.

Jesus came to save us from the elements in our universe that are beyond our understanding. Without Jesus, we become subject to all in the universe that belongs to the realm of what rejects God. He came to lead us away from that disaster and into the holiness of the source of all that is good who is God in the Holy Trinity.

We testify to the existence of this truth and to the saving work of our Lord. He calls us to embrace Him so that we may lead those to whom we minister from the forces of chaos, darkness and the privation of good. We testify to Christ leading us through the valley of death to the fullness of life in God’s kingdom.

We cannot, however, find it on our own. We must listen to He who came to lead us. If we choose to find the place on our own, we will walk accidentally into that world of chaos because we are walking in the darkness of ignorance.

If we do not believe in evil at all, we are walking both blindly and in darkness and every move we make is at best a guess.

Hallowe’en may be a good time to reflect and teach on the reality of good and evil and all that Christ has done for us in bringing us to freedom. Our heritage is filled with people who understand the existence of darkness, but our Catholic faith understands its nature.

Presently, we are living in a country where people are rejecting Christ and His Church in the interesting of the fullness of human progress. Evil grows in this environment because people do not know how to respect its reality or the route to safety. This may indicate why there is so much division in our country. This is why the writings of some horror writers are important. They warn of the reality of evil.

Many may find themselves in a dark place by their own choice. Our ministry is to do all we can to lead them away from that disturbing end and into the joy of the Holy Trinity, the source of all that is good.

 

Photo: Nick Coleman

Dr. Peter Kreeft, John's Gospel and Writing

Boston College philosophy professor Dr. Peter Kreeft is a prolific writer. He uses his Socratic writing skills to teach about how to come to know God and how to live as a Christian.

His latest book Probes: Deep Sea Diving into Saint John’s Gospel. (Ignatius) is written as a series of 1450 reflection questions to dive deeper into the message of the Gospel. The format is, actually, passages from John’s Gospel and then discussion questions that challenge one on all elements of faith and life in the world today. The intended audience is not any group exclusively, such as Catholics, but anyone interested in probing John’s Gospel including non-believers.

I spoke with Dr. Kreeft recently about Probes, his writing style, the Church and the unique format of his presentation of the Gospel of John.

Talking about your book Probes, I was fascinated by it, especially because it is not written like any other study on any other part of the Bible. Normally, one asks what led you to write this book, this is that question and more importantly what led you to write this book in the format you choose.

People often ask me questions like that and I can’t answer them. I don’t know where the inspiration came from. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I admire Socrates and the Socratic method and I write a lot of dialogue books where Socrates interviews the great philosophers. I have this habit of dividing my mind up into two halves each half asks the other questions and answers them. So, the method of question and answer I think is a good and natural method, especially from the Bible because it comes from the Rabbinic method which is similar to the Socratic method. Jesus participated in that at age of twelve in the temple. What was he doing there? He was asking and answering questions so I think it is quite appropriate.

I do not know if this had anything to do with it. It reminded me of some of the tests I had in college because it was all questions.

Yeah and the Bible tests us. Usually you look at it as a set of answers to puzzles, but equally a set of questions and we have to give the answer. The Epistle to the Hebrews says that the word of God is a sharp two edge sword piercing asunder the soul and the spirit (cf Hebrews 4:12). It actually questions you, when you read the bible right, that is when you read it as prayer. Reading and praying can be simultaneous. You don’t look at a dead picture hanging on the wall, you look at somebody looking at you from the other side of the window.

That is a great way to put it. I like that experience even in the fact of if you are looking at piece of art you are not just looking at just a dead picture you are looking at the whole communication of the person.

Unless the art is an icon and the icon in the orthodox theology mediates the actual presence and soul of the saint. So, there you are interacting indirectly with a person who is acting back on you. You are not just looking at it, you look along it.

One of the fascinating statements that you make on page 106 is: “Why do many feel threatened by great saints rather than great sinners?” I never thought of this, but now that is exactly what we see.

We obviously see it in Christ; people so threatened by him that they had to kill Him.

The Church is going through a hard time and we know some of the reasons for it but I also think there is a part that people feel threatened by the Church.

Of course, because the Church calls us to a higher ideal than we find comfortable. We like to sit on our laurels and take it easy and the Church keeps kicking us in the pants and says: “Get moving. God calls you to be a saint, you are along way from that yet.”

Something you wrote on page 135 describes miracles as an eyewitness account and what that means. It is done in the context of the previous question — interpretation is not the same as belief. So here you address the concerns of this discussion of many interpretations but then you say interpretation is not the same as belief.

Where are you going with that?

Well I am trying to counter a very common mistake that we make in reading, not just the Bible

 but in many other books too. The mistake is to interpret the book in accordance with our own beliefs 

and that is a confusion because the book comes from another person’s mind. You want to understand that mind before you decide whether to agree with it or not, to believe what it believes or to disbelieve what it believes. In order to decide whether to believe or not, you first of all have to understand it. Therefore, you have to interpret it according to the author’s mind not according to your mind.

For example if I was reading Mein Kampf and I wanted to interpret the noun Jews not racially but economically and interpret Hitler as opposing capitalist economics and proposing anti-Capitalist economics well that would be a very charitable interpretation but that is not what Hitler meant.

Similarly when a Gospel writer says I was there I saw it happen and I heard these words being spoken you can’t interpret that symbolically as if he is only telling a story, a parable

When a Gospel writer says: “I was there. I saw it happen and I heard these words being spoken.” He tells us that, you can’t interpret that symbolically as if he is only telling a story, a parable.

As I was reading that, one of the thoughts I had is that this teaching plays a part in everything that has to do with people arguing over certain elements of doctrine.

Yes. Since the Church is the body of the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, when we deal with Church doctrine, we are not dealing with a personal abstract idea. We are talking about the mind of a person and, therefore, we have to interpret those words in the context of the knowledge of that person and all the rest of that person’s revelation to us — the person, of course, being God himself

Which is exactly your point with interpretation is not the same as belief.

Right first you read it, then you interpret it and then you decide whether to believe it. You cannot reverse that order.

I am here in Allston, Massachusetts and I have a Brazilian Community and the Brazilian Bishops are very much into the Bible. A few years ago, they had a financial drive to get the Bible into the hands of every Brazilian in the country. They also reserve September as the Bible study month and they offer one book to study. It just so happens that this month they are studying the Gospel of John. I found their work and their display of the Bible fascinating.

It seems the US Bishops are not as so focused. Obviously, they are a whole different group they are not the same.

I wonder if you feel that has any issue with respect to the culture or any source of that in the culture. Why would you think the Brazilian bishops are focused on the Bible this month where I don’t see that in the Americans.

I am not a sociologist and I cannot answer that as Brazil vs America but as an amateur theologian, I think that neglect of the Bible is inexcusable because here we have the very word of God — divine revelation. It is a touchstone for everything else. So instead of interpreting the Bible by anything else like our culture’s presupposition or our needs or your sincerely held but only personal beliefs, I think you have to interoll all other things by the Bible. Like Christ himself it claims to be the very word of God and if it isn’t, it is the world’s biggest fake and if it is, it is the absolute standard.

You write this book not just to Catholics but to anyone who wants to read it but you make it clear it does not matter if you are Catholic or not or if you even believe or not.

Right, Protestants and Catholics have at least the Bible in common. We disagree about the Church and the Church’s tradition but at least we have the Bible.

Thomas Aquinas says when you are arguing with someone else the first thing is to find out is what premises you share. So, for instance, he says that when you argue with Jews argue from the Old Testament and when you argue with Muslims argue from those passages in the Koran corroborated by the Bible and when you argue with pagans argue by natural reason.

You know I found the way you write this book, even though it is questions for discussion, you deal with just about every issue we deal with, not just in the Church but in the faith. For example, you address the issue of prosperity doctrine, you even address that Jesus calls God Father when in fact you mention that God has no gender. Maybe I should ask what led you to the different passages. As a writer myself, I am one of those seat of the pants writers. I write as I see it come together. Did you plan that out ahead of time?

Absolutely not. I don’t write that way. I don’t first of all identify a need and then write a book to fulfill that need. In this case, I find a great book, perhaps the greatest of all the books in the Bible and it just happens to cover these hot button issues and pretty much everything else that we need to know. That is why I address them. In other words, I don’t use the book as vehicle to go where I want to go. I am a passenger and I let the vehicle take me where it will.

So, you are almost as they call them a seat of the pants writer?

Yeah, I like to think it something like what the Jews call midrash — personal interpretation, intuitive interpretation of the book, trying to let the book speak through you.

What do you see is the greatest issue facing the Church today?

Same as it always was good vs evil, Christ vs Anti-Christ, light vs darkness. How to be a saint and how to combat the devil who does not want you to be a saint.

And what about the nation the United States?

Well in the Bible you don’t have a fundamentally double standard. The nation prospers when it is good and holy and individuals prosper when they are good or holy. So, the relation between the nation and God and relations between the individual and God, are obviously structurally differently but it is not ontologically different. It is the same God. So in so far as the nation would within its public and not private bounds and pluralistic and not singly religious identity in so far as that nation does God’s will, it will be blessed and as far as it doesn’t, it won’t. 

I think that is the main reason for the great decline in America today. If you read the Bible carefully, you find those basic principles reiterated over and over again. Obey my will and you will be blessed, disobey my will and you will be the opposite of blessed, cursed.

This usually comes up around Christmas, I always bring up that whenever you see first John the Baptist and then Jesus appear on the scene, imagine a big clock count down from forty to zero. I explain that forty years later the Romans are going to come in and destroy the temple and I think Masada happens a few years later. Do you see any similarities between that time and our current time?

That is a good question. No, because I don’t claim to have a crystal ball. We read the bible with Epimethean vision instead of Promethean vision that is we look back on things we know already happened rather than looking forward with the eyes of the prophet. No, I am not a prophet. All I know is that our future is open. There is free will. We can choose between good and evil and we can repent and convert and be blessed or we can continue to slide down the way of decadence into the garbage can.

Is this the first book in the series?

It is not a series I do not know if I am going to write another like it or not it is a one of kind as John’s Gospel is one of kind.

Dr Kreeft's Book Probes is available through Ignatius Press.

https://www.ignatius.com/Probes-P3367.aspx.

 

Adding the Missing Piece to the (Arch)bishops' Words

Photo: A Prece [The Prayer] by Antônio Parreiras [Public domain]

The current statements by bishops regarding Fr. James Martin S.J. have been important, however, there is a piece missing.

Recently, Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia issued a statement where he affirmed Fr. Martin in some areas of his pastoral work with those who suffer what he calls same sex attractions. He also addressed concerns that some of his teaching may confuse the faithful.

If you are not aware of the controversy, Fr. James Martin S.J. wrote a book two years ago entitled:  Building a Bridge to encourage that the “LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity” with the Church.

Some fear that Fr. Martin is normalizing homosexuality in the Church, although he says that he does not advocate against Church teaching.

Martin addresses issues surrounding terms like objectively disordered and intrinsically evil which members of the homosexual community personalize and assume describes them. According to Martin and others, this leads to a feeling of alienation from the Church.

The Archbishop states the terms actually apply to a whole series of temptations and inclinations to those who are and are not homosexually oriented and does not mean the person is disordered or intrinsically evil, etc.

Bishop Paprocki of Springfield, IL and Bishop Stika Knoxville, Tennessee affirmed Archbishop Chaput’s statements.

The bishops seem to address the direction of the Catholic teaching but neither the goal nor manner of getting there. The goal is, of course, eternal life in Christ. St. Irenaeus described this as being fully alive. The direction, so indicates Bishop Paprocki, is through virtue, sanctification and purity. None of the bishops seem to indicate that the route to that goal is never strictly through our own efforts but in seeking Christ through prayer and the sacraments which is the endeavor for all Catholics. I am sure these terms are implied in their statements, but those who do not understand Catholicism enough do not have the formation to appreciate the implication. Martin, in his book, does not make eternal life or prayer a focus either.

It appears that the bishops do not understand that the message of the sinfulness of homosexual acts gets mixed with the sola scriptura teaching of evangelical communities. People condemning those struggling with a homosexual inclination cite such verses as Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1:20 and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah which are quoted to them always. It is rumored that one gay actor used to rip the page with Leviticus 18:22 out of any hotel bible. The verses are used in proof-texting which is the act of taking a bible verse out of context and using it to back up your argument. 

Leviticus 18:22 labels homosexual activity an abomination and demands that the men are stoned to death. Contrary to Catholic teaching, many take this passage to teach that gay bashing is approved by God. The Church mandates that all people must be treated with dignity and respect. Gay bashing is condemned by the Church. 

Romans 1:20 is an admonition against idolatry. Paul shows that when a people practice it, they begin to live by their passions which leads to moral breakdown in a society and then civil breakdown.

Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18) were destroyed not for their sinfulness, but for the lack of righteous people (Genesis 18:16-32). It would appear that this is two sides of the same coin, but there is a difference. 

Both Romans 1:20 and Sodom and Gomorrah reflect the urgency of Catholics living their faith prophetically. This means living the Catholic faith to the fullest to the glory of God. 

Catholics also draw on tradition such as the writings of the saints and the teaching of the Church over the centuries and more.

For example, many in the homosexual community believe that they are condemned to Hell as the worst of all sinners, but St. John Vianney taught that the worst of all sinners are indeed not even those who live actively in a worldly lifestyle, but rather lukewarm Catholics. They are so bad that Christ spits them out of his mouth.

A sinner laments his condition when his conscience awakens. He even longs to leave his sinful life, and he will leave it someday. But a soul which lives in lukewarmness never thinks of quitting that state because he even thinks that he stands well with God. What shall we conclude from all this? This, dear brethren, that the lukewarm soul is in the sight of God more offensive, so that He will spit it out, that is, will leave it to perdition.[1]

Often times God uses those who are outside the people of God to speak to his people.

From a homily:

Over the years, you learn of people who really commit themselves to a cause and they may do drastic things for that cause. Everything from laying down in front of a bulldozer to fasting for Thanksgiving to putting crosses on nuclear missile silos. Many of these people are not only not Catholic, they reject Catholic teaching and even live lifestyles that we as Catholics do not at all support. 

Now you might be saying: “Father we're not going to lay down in front of a bulldozer to prove that we love God.”

 

That's not what I'm asking you to do what I'm actually asking you to understand is there are those who basically do not like what we teach and maybe live lifestyles completely outside of our faith yet are willing to put their lives on the line for what they believed.

 

How many people do not go to Mass because they are too busy, too tired, they have baseball practice, they have football practice, hockey, basketball, they want to read the Sunday newspaper they don't want to go to church, the crisis turned them away from Christ, they want to sleep in? How many excuses can I give? When all is said and done the Lord would say to them “This guy doesn't even believe in the Eucharist, yet he gave everything he had for what he believes in and you ignore the reality of the Eucharist on Sunday which you claim to believe in.”

 

Saying we must change Catholic teaching implies that we are more intelligent than two thousand years of the Holy Spirit working through Catholic history and tradition which is a statement that lacks humility, an essential part of Catholic life. However, neither do we have any right to condemn people to believe that they have no chance of salvation. If we do that then we encourage them into the sin of despair—a grave sin against the Holy Spirit. None of the saints would encourage this evil, least of all St. John Vianney.

It is no secret that some people with same sex attraction feel so estranged from God that they attempt suicide with the understanding if they were going to Hell anyway, what is 50 years when they are looking at eternity. How did people come to believe this message which would horrify the saints? God made it clear, that communicating mercy is the priority. “It is mercy I desire more than sacrifice.” Mercy is bestowed on one who seeks union with Christ. It implies not to just to avoid sin, but to orient one's live to Christ. 

Are we willing to be held accountable for not teaching the truth of the call of Christ to all? It is Church teaching that the orientation is not sinful. What we address is, as with all forms of temptation, choosing against Christ is always sinful, regardless of the activity. St. Peter Damien one the Church’s greatest critics of the sins against chastity brought forth that homosexual intercourse is what is sinful, he never addressed homosexual orientation. [2]

The person who seeks Christ finds Him first as a sinner and then Our Lord draws him away from his obvious sins and closer to Him. The person touched by grace chooses willingly to change their ways so that they can come to know Christ more. Despite all this, it is the sinner who finds Christ, even the worst of all sinners. It is never the self-righteous or obstinate.

The context of Catholic morality is always in light of salvation and through knowing Christ. We know that no one who is not a person of prayer can indeed follow Catholic morality well. Yet, this simple fact, well known to everyone who seeks to live the Catholic life, is not in the bishops’ statements.

The piece that the bishops did not put into their statements and Martin in his book is that one must be rooted in good practices of prayer to Christ in order to do His will. The Venerable Fulton Sheen encouraged priests to do a holy hour daily and said in a retreat to priests in 1970 that a whoever does this will never be lost. Cardinal Seàn O’Malley requests his priests to pray two hours a day including Mass. The call to pray extends to all Catholics even if the commitment of an hour is not as required although, I will add it is highly recommended.

Thankfully Bishop Paprocki added that one of the goals is sanctification which in more popular terms is holiness, but holiness is impossible without seeking prayer in Christ.

Pope St. John Paul II was a prolific writer, but everything he wrote could be summed up in two words: “Follow Christ.”

We cannot expound on Catholic teaching if we are not also teaching to seek Christ, to follow Christ and to be a person of prayer to Him. St. Paul wrote to pray always. St. Alphonsus Liguori in How to Converse with God, (TAN Books) taught to use prayer to speak to God as one would a good friend.

It makes no sense to teach Catholic morality if we are not also teaching prayer and that is for all not just the homosexual community.

In fact, St. John Vianney says that just going through the motions of Catholicism does not draw us closer to Christ—the point of his words against lukewarm Catholics. He taught instead that the holy persons rejoice in Christ and seek to grow in his love and knowledge of him as they grow in divine wisdom. They choose to avoid anything that leads them from Christ. Fortunately, Catholics have the gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation which allows us to repent and to be reconciled to Christ through the sacraments trusting fully in His mercy.

It is possible that one of the great faults that has led to the current crisis in the Church is the lack of teaching on prayer. Cardinal Sarah in his book The Day Is Now Far Spent (Ignatius) indicates this as well.

Judas is for all eternity the traitor's name, and his shadow hands over us today. Yes, like him, we have betrayed! We have abandoned prayer. (Alas, Judas Iscariot; The Day Is Now Far Spent; San Francisco, Ignatius, 2019 Kindle Version)

As the bishops seek to find one solution or another to the current problems in our church they rarely mention prayer and did not mention prayer in their current statements.

However, no one can live the Catholic faith at all without it. No saint lived without it.

Prayer is not as the homosexual community fears “Pray away the gay.” It is far more comprehensive. In fact, some of the saints may be appalled at the idea, surprisingly. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in the book Uniformity with God’s Will explains that St. Paul was tempted to impurity as we see in 2Corinthians 12:7.

Lest St. Paul become vain on account of the spiritual gifts he had received, the Lord permitted him to be tempted to impurity: “And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me.” (2 Cor. 12:7)[3]

Now granted, no one reading this is St. Paul, but if people chose Christ through their temptations not out of fear of Hell, but of love for God, and they understood this struggle actually lead them closer to Christ as they did St. Paul, would the saints not teach them to use their inclinations for their spiritual strength, not their condemnation? Provided they sought Christ in spite of them? After all the point of 2 Corinthians 12 is that if God removed this "thorn of Satan" St Paul would be lost due to his pride. 

Catholics pray so that we may experience Christ in his fullness. The point is to be holy which is the destiny of every baptized Catholic. When we seek holiness, we become what Christ mandated: salt of the earth light to the world.

Holiness leads one to let go of all obstacles to encountering Christ fully, which is more than any one sin.

The holy persons rejoice in Christ and seek to grow in his love and knowledge of him as they grow in divine wisdom. They choose to avoid anything that leads them from Christ and to be reconciled in Christ through the sacraments when they do sin. They trust fully in His mercy.

One day the companions of St. Gertrude asked her if she was afraid of dying without the Last Sacraments. “I would certainly wish with all my heart to receive them in my last moments,” she answered, “but I much prefer the will of God, for I am sure the best disposition for a good death is submission to His Will. So, I desire only the death He wishes me to come to Him, and I am confident that in whatever way I die, His mercy will not fail me.”[4]

Many saints explained that living just to avoid Hell was the lowest form of devotion and was not pleasing to God. They lived in love with God and referred to Christ in endearing terms not fearful ones. They knew Christ. They came from all kinds of backgrounds with various forms of temptation and faults. I am sure some even struggled with homosexual inclinations. However, they had one thing in common, the desire to give all to Christ. This is after all the meaning of the Catholic faith. We live to know, love and serve Christ in this world and we do it with joy as we wait for the next. Everything else falls to the wayside when it comes to loving Christ. This is the what the saints lived and it all began in prayer. This is the call that each one of us has. This was not communicated in the statements of the bishops but then again this article is twenty-five hundred words and the Archbishop's pithy statement is one fifth of its length. 

The current statements by the bishops in light of the ministry of Fr. James Martin, S.J. and the concern of many for the faith in and out of the homosexual community may reflect what both the bishops and the Fr Martin miss—the need for good formation on what it actually means to be a Catholic and the duty we have to proclaim it accurately and to live it prophetically. We can only do that in the context of prayer.

 

[1] Vianney, St Jean-Marie Sermons of the Curé of Ars; Keeping It Catholic publishing, Kindle Edition location 5464

[2] Damien, St. Peter, The Book of Gomorrah, Hoffman, Matthew Cullinan Translator, New Braunfels, Texas, Ite Ad Thomam Books 2015

[3] Liguori, St. Alphonsus, Uniformity with God’s Will, 2013, Charlotte, TAN Books, Kindle Edition, position 343

[4] Saint-Jure, Fr. Jean Baptiste and De La Colombière, S.J., St. Claude, Garvin, Prof. Paul Trans., Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, Charlotte, TAN Books, P. 60 Kindle edition

Sorry, I Have to Be Somewhere Else in 2040

My former cardiologist and I did not get along. The final step for me was he told me I could no longer eat bread, rice, pasta, potatoes. I told him the only thing I was cutting out of my life was him.

We did not hit it off from the beginning, he said he wanted me to live until I am ninety. I explained to him that as a Catholic priest, I am in the eternal life business. Therefore, I have no interest in living so long here. It is a story that I use to this day, occasionally, at funerals to explain the power of believing in eternal life.

I believe in eternal life and wait for the day that I may go to Heaven, which is part of my ultimate goal. The other part is to do all I can to help others to get there as well. Many may laugh at that thought, but looking at the opening paragraphs, you can see it can effect some real world decisions from time to time.

The scenario actually came to mind reading about Dr. David Wood and the Transhumanist Party who plan to use technology to create eternal life on Earth for humans by 2040; coincidentally, when I would be — hopefully not — in my final decade prior to reaching ninety. 

The bio-technological process would begin with the richest because they could most afford the procedure. Eventually, the scientist explains — as with all technology — it would become cheaper and everyone could afford it. 

Well, I hope Dr. Wood enjoys his current endeavor to his heart’s content. He adds that religious people may not be interested and I as a religious person agree. I will not climb aboard his ‘life forever on Earth’ train.

First, let me explain. Eternal life, in the Catholic sense, is not about living here on Earth ad infinitum (literally), it is about living in peace and justice and in the eternal joy of the presence of the Holy Spirit. That is from St. Paul in the Book of Romans.

St. Irenaeus taught that the glory of God is a person fully alive. So, actually, what we look forward to is the fullest of human existence for eternity. This is something that those who want to create eternal life on Earth cannot guarantee. This is why I am not interested in the slightest. I just am not.

I look back at those days in my teens and early twenties when my mother described me as “Mad at the world.” My slogan at the time was FTW, which means F___the World. I hated school for I was bullied viciously all throughout seventh through the ninth grades, by some students and even some teachers. I literally hated then entering and attending high school. I self-medicated — mostly alcohol. This experience, during my formative years, also formed my outlook on the world for the rest of my life. I never saw existence as paradise or its potential. So, I would have no interest in being part of it ad infinitum. 

Quitting drinking in my early twenties, while in the Navy, I returned to my Catholic roots. It was there that I found this quote in the New Testament from St John: “Have no love for the world or anything in the world,” (I John 2:15).

I was so excited from what I read: “You mean,” I thought to myself, “have no love for the world that taught me how much I do not belong? That world that promised paradise to some, I was not one of them? Hey, you don’t have to tell me twice.”

If there is anything that leads me to embrace Catholicism, and there are lots of them, that is the piece de resistance. Now, Dr. Wood is working hard to grant eternal life to all those who choose to embrace the same world.

No thanks.

Over the decades, I had to learn to let go of my pain and pray to forgive my worst enemies. Nevertheless, I am not sold on the idea of living for eternity here. 

I wait for the day that I experience what Christ offered us from the Cross and I live my life as best I can in pursuit of that hope. Nothing on this Earth can match it. 

I do not want to see my ninetieth birthday on Earth or any age beyond that point. I have other places to be.

Photo credit: USDA

True Freedom in Humility

True freedom begins in humility. That might sound strange because it would seem that the truly free may boldly go and do wherever and whatever they they may want. That is not true freedom; that is unbridled action.

A great example of where freedom begins is in the writings of one who understood this truth well — Howard Phillip (H.P.) Lovecraft.

The theme of his famous story The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward is that we are free to do anything we may want, but some things should not be done. The true freedom is found in understanding the difference.

This is why freedom begins in humility because the humble person will understand that need to seek wisdom for true liberty to be expressed in its fullness. The ‘free persons’ without wisdom will be imprisoned by their ‘freedom.’ The humble will seek wisdom to experience freedom in the most powerful way and to its greatest limit, if there is such a thing.

Choosing to celebrate my freedom by saying anything I want to say and allowing people to celebrate my boldness is nothing more than me acting as a wolf among sheep and encouraging the sheep to see me as one of them. It is the beginning of my own dictatorship where I will allow people to express their freedom any way they want, provided that they express it, boldly. I can then define for them the meaning of freedom and they will celebrate me, thinking that they are truly free because of me. However, they are subjects of my dictatorship of how I define freedom. I could convince them to express their freedom by jumping off a mountain and they would obey, convinced that they found true freedom by doing it. Many dictatorial cult leaders do exactly that.

True freedom revolves around the ability to say and do anything I want guided by the wisdom to know what is truly an act freedom for me and others.

Many years ago, a local museum planned to show a controversial photographic exhibit. Many did all they could to have the government cancel it. I supported the display. When attempts to silence the exhibit failed, someone invited me to go see it with him. I chose not to go and this shocked him. “You, of all people, are not going?”

I explained that the issue was not whether or not it should be shown, but whether I have to have a government tell me what I should and should not see. I have the freedom to make my own choices and I do not have to prove anything to anyone in a truly free society nor do I have to have a government impose its morality upon my life. I never saw the exhibit. That choice is consistently mine.

Christianity has always been criticized for limiting freedom, but it only limits freedom when one follows Christ by obeying convention. The truly free followed Christ, sought to do His will and discovered true freedom there, by seeking divine wisdom.

A great teaching of many of the saints is that even those who fall into sin, but seek the wisdom of Christ, will find the fullness of freedom in Christ because by their own choice they will turn from sin. Those who turn from sin out of fear are not acting in true freedom. Those who turn from sin out of love of Christ are making their own free choice.

The saints are truly free for they act not out of obedience to convention but obedience to Christ which at times goes against convention. Even when they sinned, they chose to take that as an opportunity to grow in holiness by repenting of the sin, sometimes many times over. But they were always on the path to freedom. They did what they chose to do out of love of Christ, maybe through his Church, but not strictly because that was what they were supposed to do.

Giovanni Bernardone, known today as St Francis, committed one of the most free acts in protest to his father who brought him to court. A former crusader, Francis had a complete change of heart. He decided to do what he could for the poor by giving away his father’s clothing merchandise to most destitute. His father sued demanding that he return everything. Francis in protest removed his clothes in the courtroom as a sign of complying to his father’s demand. He then walked out. It was a completely free act, whether or not it was the right thing to do is another question. However, the act was completely free.

Today many would see this as a criminal act and he would be condemned by local and national media who control freedom by following the cult leader model above. They define for people, quite poorly, the meaning of freedom.

We have a calling to live by the wisdom of Christ which leads to true freedom. It teaches us the difference between living in true freedom or living as a foolish sheep. This does not mean that we live by convention even in our parishes. We live by freedom. That freedom comes only from knowing Christ and doing his will for he wants us to know true freedom that no human institute fully understands.

It is in our worship that we meet people on various levels of the quest for freedom. The one who discovers true freedom realizes that no matter what is going on around us, if we seek to do the will of Christ and we seek his guidance and grace, we will find true freedom. It is a lifetime journey to reach the depth of this understanding and, on the way, we will discover newer paths deeper into the quest for freedom which we find in Christ.

Never forget that path we take led by Christ is one in which we must follow Him for he is leading us through the valley of death (cf Psalm 23.) If I use my alleged freedom to go my own way, I walk off the path and find myself alone or even with others in the valley of death. If I use my freedom to trust Christ and continue to follow him, I will make it through the valley of death alive and truly free. The choice is ours.

Photo: Bunker Hill Monument. Bunker Hill Day, Boston, Charlestown, Massachusetts between 1890 and 1901. Publisher: Detroit Publishing Co. Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. https://www.loc.gov Public Domain.

A Catholic Take on Conversion Therapy

Please note: This is a Catholic perspective and is written for Catholics. Therefore, the terminology is Catholic as well. Some may not agree with the terminology, but it is designed to help Catholics understand the current issues of Conversion Therapy as they may apply to members of their families. 

In Catholicism, any sexual activity outside of a sacramental marriage open to life is a sinful activity. Therefore, the issue is not hetero/homosexual, it is sinner seeking Christ. Sin is a scary word in secular circles, but Christ taught it is only the sinner who can find him, the self righteous cannot. 

Many focus on the understanding that sinners go to Hell. However, only sinners go to Heaven. Therefore, it is the sinner who finds Christ; Hell is filled with the self-righteous and the obstinate. 

Therefore, Heaven is filled with the sinners who humbly seek Christ. Hell is filled with the self-righteous who were too good to need him and the obstinate who closed their hearts to him. 

Further, in Catholicism what is defined as sin is considered a sin, but the question is levels of culpability. For example taking this to the current level: St. James says that those who know more are more responsible. Therefore, a priest or bishop engaging in sexual activity of any type, even so called ‘consensual’ activity suffers the results of a far greater culpability. Someone trying to come to know Christ who fails daily in their desire for chastity as they begin their journey to the deepest levels of Divine wisdom is closer to Heaven than many understand.

Finally, what is important about this understanding is that unless we comprehend Church teaching and teach it correctly, we do one of two things and both are sins. We encourage people into sin through presumption on God's mercy or we discourage people from the path to holiness through despair of salvation which leads to what St. Peter Damien calls impiety. Both sins, which we find in many manners of addressing the issue of homosexuality, are grave sins that we must avoid as much as any sin we teach others to avoid as well. 

Sometimes, our culture leads us to be so focused on an issue, we do not see the greater concern behind it. Such is what is happening surrounding the movement behind Garrad Conley’s Boy Erased memoir over the past several years.

Garrad Conley is a gay activist who writes from his experience with conversion therapy, which is therapy designed to change homosexually oriented people to heterosexual orientation. It is also called ex-gay ministry and ex-gay therapy. Conley’s mission, he states, is to end this practice completely. As Catholics, we need to ask if it fits in with our theology.

The focus, obviously, is on these techniques particularly as they were part of a now defunct ministry called Love in Action (LIA). The counselor portrayed in the movie, John Smid, not only now rejects conversion therapy, he is currently in a homosexual marriage. His role at Love in Action was preceded by two failed heterosexual marriages.

Reviews and interviews with Garrad Conley focus on his trauma before, during and after his experiences at Love In Action. He ended up there after being forcefully outed to his parents as a homosexual in the fall of his freshman college year by a male acquaintance who raped him. He further victimized Conley by spreading false reports about him engaging in homosexual activities on campus.

More the book than the movie is a reflection on the tragedy of misunderstood and misrepresented teaching about sin, holiness and redemption.

Conley grew up in a Baptist home. His father is an entrepreneur turned deeply devout and committed Baptist preacher. Despite Garrad’s still current struggle with him because of his opinion of his homosexuality, one can only feel a kind of respect for the man. Garrad portrays him as a loving dad who tried to do what he felt was right for his son and his family within the context of the limited resources he had in a sola scriptura theology.

The story leads one to reflect on the power of Catholic teaching that although not approving of homosexual activity, sees sin and redemption differently than the evangelicals.

The basic premise of conversion therapy as Conley portrays seems to be Christ will only accept you if you are free of this sin. He will help you be free, but until that time, He does not accept you.

Our Catholic faith in its truest form teaches something radically different. God loves you intensely. He sent His Son to bring you salvation. Come to Him as you are and let Him lead you to the ultimate path for all Catholics — holiness of life. One of my favorite sayings to teach is: The devil is most afraid of the worst of all sinners down on his knees in prayer.

In Catholicism, it is not the homosexual who becomes a heterosexual whom Jesus accepts. It is the sinner who comes to the Lord as a sinner who encounters Christ. That conversion is not to heterosexuality, in this case, but to holiness. Garrad reflects a deep desire to find Jesus. Whereas, Smid seems to represent that conditional Jesus who says: “I accept you when you meet my criteria of acceptance.”

This is the painful part of Conley’s story. It seems that Garrad was forced to live in a world that saw Christ’s love as conditional, which is contrary to both Catholic teaching and the Epistles. Sts. Paul and John remind us that nothing can separate us from God’s love (cf Romans 8), for God is love (1John 4:8). Paul also teaches that where sin abounds, grace abounds more.(cf Romans 5:20) Indeed, when we are estranged from God, it is not He who casts us away, it is we who cast ourselves away from Him.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that God’s mercy is present for all but those who remain obstinate in sin. (cf CCC 1037) These choose their own will over God’s mercy and love. They are like a man who holds an umbrella up to block the powerful rays of God’s grace. This was not the pre-trauma Garrad. Indeed, he says at the end of his memoir that the whole Love In Action program took away his ability to know God’s love that he believed in before the trauma began.

This is the backstory of Garrad’s struggle.

We have a wonderful gift called the sacraments and every Catholic knows the first step back to God is through the sacrament of reconciliation, one of the two sacraments of healing. It is where we can come before the Lord through the ministry of the Church and seek forgiveness for and healing from our sins. This is a gift that Baptists do not have and did not exist in Love In Action.

This is the power of our faith and our teaching. Once we take that first step, we enter the world of forgiveness. St Alphonsus of Liguori taught that the minute you are sorry for a sin, you are forgiven. Any thinking that continues to condemn you afterwards is not of God.

Reflect attentively, O Devout Soul on the teaching commonly given by the spiritual masters: namely, that you should at once turn to God after you have been unfaithful to Him, even though it be the hundredth time in the day, and you should be at peace again after your faults and after recommending yourself to God.

(Liguori, Alponsus Saint, How to Converse with God, Chapter 11, Kindle Version; Tan Books, Charlotte, NC; 2015)

He also taught to speak to God as you would a good friend and share with Him everything about you and your life. These are recourses that Garrad and others did not have as they struggled with their feelings and their temptations. They could have used the advice of the great doctor of the Church.

Please do not let his title undermine your prayer. St Alphonsus Liguori had an intense and not always successful struggle against sin at times as did all saints. However, I think if Garrad Conley had this type of saint to reach out to in his struggles with his own sexuality, he would see himself and God in a different way. Baptists, reject our theology of saints.

St. Alphonsus Liguori died prior to the ratification of the US Constitution, so some of his writing today would shock the sensibility of today’s PC environment.

Garrad’s memoir leads us to reflect upon the Catholic call to chastity. In a sacramental marriage, that means being faithful and loving to your spouse within a Christ centered union open to life. However, for those who are not married, it means to cultivate a deep communion with Christ through the sacraments and prayer and do it within strong Christ centered friendships. The Church acknowledges the struggle of both homosexuals and heterosexuals to live in chastity, but she knows, the importance of friendship and community as an element to Catholic living. The Church teaches that they are essential to living a chaste life.

The virtue of chastity blossoms in friendship. It shows the disciple how to follow and imitate him who has chosen us as his friends, who has given himself totally to us and allows us to participate in his divine estate. Chastity is a promise of immortality. Chastity is expressed notably in friendship with one’s neighbor. Whether it develops between persons of the same or opposite sex, friendship represents a great good for all. It leads to spiritual communion. CCC 2347

Therefore, a strong same sex friendship that is Christ centered will bring one to the deepest level of human spirituality that the same friendship sexualized will not. This is not the superficial WWJD relationship, but one modeled better by the young David and Jonathan which, contrary to the teachings of gay theologians, was not a sexual relationship. So, to be in a deep personal, though not sexual, union is not something to be avoided but to be embraced in Catholicism, even if it is same sex. What makes it holy is not the friendship, per se, but the Christ centered element of it, where all have as their highest priority loving Christ.

Our faith gives us all the tools to bring our human struggles before the Lord and open ourselves to His grace in our lives. Love In Action, not having these tools, apparently robbed Garrad Conley, who uses much Catholic imagery in his book, of the ability to experience this. It is obvious in his quest for Christ post LIA, he found himself in the Catholic Church among other venues.

Sadly, some in our Church cheapen the great gifts we have in Catholicism by embracing secular understandings and terminology of human sexuality and robbing from the full understanding in the path to Christ. The faith, however, remains. Those who seek to know and find it — even if they live a lifestyle outside of what they believe Christ wants — can call out to him and know that He will respond leading the way to the Father. He will help them with his grace to let go of that which is an obstacle to holiness and union with Christ. 

The Church does not focus on sexuality, but dispassion. The road to holiness is through a way of living where we replace our attachment to worldly things and philosophies with an attachment to Christ. Therefore, the solution is not to become more complicit to worldly ideas in our actions, but to be more docile to the working of grace and holiness in our lives.

St. Maximus the Confessor said it well in the Eighth Century:

It is through our fulfilling of the commandments that the Lord makes us dispassionate and it is through his divine teachings that he gives us the light of spiritual knowledge.

(#77 1st Century; Four Centuries on Love; Lulu books; reprint from the Great Library Collection from R.P. Pryne)

To assume one can easily change his or her sexual orientation through such a program as conversion therapy is problematic. The venerable Matt Talbot, who struggled with alcohol addiction, once said: “Never think harshly of a person because of the drink. It is easier to get out of hell then it is to give up the drink. For me, it was only possible with the help of God and our Blessed Mother”. Obviously, many will protest of the comparison, but that is not the point. If he says to not condemn those who struggle with one inclination, can we assume for those seeking to live a holy life while struggling with homosexual inclinations it is any different?

St. Alphonsus Liguori taught:

Mary obtains salvation for all who have recourse to her. Oh! If all sinners had recourse to Mary, who would ever be lost? … He who is protected by her will be saved; he who is not will be lost.

May we never forget the gift the Lord has given to all sinners in the Catholic Church and never be shy to proclaim them. Otherwise, the only recourse for sinners will do more harm than good. Keeping in mind that Jesus came to bring sinners, not the obstinate or self-righteous, to Heaven through the quest for holiness. 

 

Photo: Soul Carried to Heaven, William-Adolphe Bouguereau [Public domain]

The Importance of the Detachment

It is becoming clear that maybe one of the habits of ancient Christendom fell by the wayside and that is a source of our problems in the Church.

I am referring to detachment. It is the actual use of the world’s goods without being obsessed or attached to them and only using those goods of the world that are necessary. In our rich, American economy, detachment seems old-fashioned.

When we practice detachment, then we disengage from that which can easily consume us so that we may be more engaged with the things of Christ. For example, it is the act of pursuing financial gain for the purpose of need and to the level of need and not as a sign of success or to be comfortable.

In our country today, financial gain and its trappings are the signs of success. Christ gives us a mandate to evangelize the world and we cannot do that if we are just like everyone else.

Dorothy Day taught that to evangelize the poor you had to be like them, to evangelize the rich, you had to be unlike them. We as leaders of the Church must detach from anything that leads us to be attached to the riches of our culture if that leads us to be an ersatz disciple of Christ.

This does not mean to live as luddites but it does mean that we need to live differently than others.

For example, one of the latest trends in our country today is cord cutting. It is recognizing that if you have cable in your house, you are paying for a host of channels you are not watching. That is a waste. People will boast of having 168 channels but do not watch a vast majority. You are paying for a luxury for you are consuming what you do not need.

There are many services that provide programming that is free or with the internet for a minimal price, this allows you to pay for what you watch and not what you do not watch or do not need to watch.

One of the great issues in our country is consuming pornography. The use of pornography in all its forms is a form of attachment. It is consuming that which is of the world that deters one from seeking Christ. Many will tell you that every person engages in pornography. That is not true, but you are a Catholic you have no reason to view porn. Indeed, in light of the current issues in the Church there is an admonition: Not every person who looks at pornography is a rapist, but every rapist looks at pornography. I assure you at the bottom of all the problems of sex in our Church is pornography.

However, that is one of the many forms of attachment that has no place in a Catholic community.

The question for our times that defines this lack of appreciation for this ancient virtue is: “What do we do with priests engaged in consensual sex?”

Are you kidding me? You must mean a priest who does not seek holiness and who does not understand the need to embrace and seek Christ over all other desires. He does not practice detachment.

Examine your lives as Catholics and begin to understand and practice the ancient virtue of detachment which is to seek that which we need and to eliminate from our lives that which we do not need all in the interest of serving Christ more and more every day.

photo: Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Be Wary of Enabling The Mechanics of Genocide

The Catholic Church has a long history of social justice, but we are not exclusively a social justice or Non-Governmental Organization. Our mission as a Church is the salvation of souls and the role Jesus gave us is to testify to the truth which is Jesus Christ.

In my previous editorial, I wrote about the dangers of progressivism, that the philosophy leads to genocide. The obvious question is how can a philosophy that seeks only the good create such evil.

I pointed out that the utopian dreams are not possible for the human to create. So, seeking a vision that humans believe is possible, they try to create a perfect world which is impossible.

When we as Church egg them on or support them actively or passively, then we enable the resulting great harm.

The element of the whole mechanics that causes the greatest amount of damage is the philosophy that the ends justify the means. This is the engine of communist progressive revolution and it is the solid core of Saul Alinsky’s philosophy. He is not only the man behind the progressivist agenda in the current political movements in the United States, he is also behind some of the adulterating of the Church and her doctrine here as well.

The result taken to the extreme that happens in genocidal regimes is to create a perfect world you must allow that anything goes as long as it is on the path to utopia. False imprisonment, torture, murder, robbery, cheating on elections, anything goes because it is believed that these actions will create utopia.

This is the answer to one of the most jarring questions I asked since I first discovered the work of political activists in an attempted coup of the Catholic Church. They use as their playbook Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, which of course praises Lucifer as the first radical.

The obvious question is: How can you venerate the embodiment of all that is evil in your efforts to build a just society? The answer, I learned is: The ends justify the means. Again: False imprisonment, torture, murder, robbery, cheating on elections, anything goes because it is believed that these actions will create utopia.

Khmer Rouge torturer Kaing Guek Eav (aka Duch) head of the S-21 prison, where many political prisoners were tortured for false confessions and then executed, stated openly in court his support for this mentality.

 “Did you believe that the end mattered, not the means? Was that the way you saw it at the time?” presiding judge Lavergne asked in the crimes against humanity trial of the former torturer.

 “Exactly,” said Duch.[1]

  This concept of utopia is a false messianism that is highly destructive because it is built upon the false premise that humans are like gods and can create perfect worlds as gods do through any means necessary.

However, if the leaders of the church are on the same path by applauding this road to utopia, even unaware of the mechanics that can get us there, then they unwittingly enable this ends justify the means mentality.

I said in California, this has shown its ugly head in the move to force priests to reveal their confessions. This, I believe, is the first step in imprisoning as many innocent priests as possible to silence the Catholic Church. However, another, albeit more sinister, element has also raised its ugly head in Britain. A comedienne called not for pouring milkshakes on opponents, which in itself is part of the ends justify the means mentality, but worse: battery acid. This is in a country where pouring acid on people is already a form of violence.

Jesus warned during the Sermon on the Mount that we must be the salt of the Earth and the light to the world, but if we were not, then we were worthless. Well, let us look at another analogy of a modern mentality. If the philosophies of progressivism are like flames raging out of control, and we are not who Christ made us to be then we are like spent fire extinguishers: totally useless to stop all destruction.

The bishops who are in the midst of their Spring meeting seem to be oblivious to this reality and have been for quite some time. When the priests and the laity start waking up to what the bishops are aloof to see, then they will all comprehend what is really at stake: as always the salvation of souls and the future of society.

If you read our scripture and tradition carefully, you will see that we await the coming of a Savior who will bring us to eternal life. Many atheists think it is crazy, but they do not see the other element of this issue. Our savior will come because our world will have walked down the path of the false messianism of the modern philosophies that will create the same and worse nightmare scenarios we saw throughout the twentieth century. He will save those who seek him from those who reject him. Those who seek him will recognize their inability to create utopia on their own, while those who reject him will be busy destroying everyone in their way for their false visions of Utopia.

They shall begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us. [sic] Luke 23:30 DR

 

[1] Cf Cruvellier, Thierry, The Master of Confessions, The Making of a Khmer Rouge Torturer New York, ECCO Press 2014 p. 11 Kindle Version

Photo: Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a museum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. Tuol Sleng in Khmer; [tuəl slaeŋ] means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees" or "Strychnine Hill". Out of an estimated 17,000 people imprisoned at Tuol Sleng, there were only twelve known survivors. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum

The First Commandment Protects Us From Ourselves

If there is one Bible story that is a parable for our time, it is the Tower of Babel. Only 9 verses in Genesis,  it is story of men united in language and culture, seeking to glorify themselves by building a pillar to Heaven. This would make them like gods, succumbing to the first temptation. So, the Lord confused their speech and scattered them throughout the world to prevent their success on this and other similar projects. For He knew the unforeseen consequences would be disastrous.

If you look carefully at progressivism, it has the same goal as the Tower of Babel and that is to create a world void of God that gives tribute to human accomplishment.

An obvious question then must be: is it a form of idolatry and, therefore, a violation of the first commandment?

Now before you condemn me as a 21^st century luddite, let me assure you that calling us to return to the days before electricity is not my point. After all, I am writing this in the heart of the Boston Public Library using its wireless technology on my Chromebook and within earshot of the radio program Boston Public broadcast live from the open air WGBH radio studio at the entrance to the Library.

In fact, it is not technology that is proscribed in the first commandment, it is acting on the desire to glorify false gods, including man, to the exclusion of God. As in the Tower of Babel story, technology is used for self-idolization which is more endemic today than in millennia past. Whereas, the source of all happiness, the saints teach us, is humbly to embrace and accept the will of God.

The first four commandments are there to protect us from walking down a path that will lead us to succumb to the weaknesses inherent in our race. They prevent humanity from becoming victim to original sin in the form of human hubris which would destroy us all.

Compare two events: The first telegraph message prior to the rise of progressivism which was “What hath God wrought?” and the declaration that the Titanic was an unsinkable ship as progressivism took hold. Man, in the latter case, believed he conquered nature through technology.

Seventy-four years later in 1986, both the Challenger and the Chernobyl accidents happened. They are the testaments of the same hubris that brought forth the Tower of Babel. We became so powerful even nature could not stop us, so we thought. The Soviets turned the atom into a worker and The Americans turned space into a classroom.

No one in 1986, except the engineers who tried to warn NASA on that fateful January morning, understood that the simple combination of cold weather in Florida and rubber O-Rings would seal the fate of the Challenger astronauts and American technological prowess.

Later that year, no one suspected that the equally technologically powerful Soviet Union would suffer a massive disaster that would doom an entire industry worldwide to this day—while leaving a whole area of the Ukraine inhabitable for thousands of years.

Adam Higginbotham in his excellent book Midnight in Chernobyl (2019 Simon and Schuster) illustrates this accident caused by design issues created a problem so serious it actually demonstrated that the 1979 Hollywood nightmare film China Syndrome was not completely implausible.

Progressivism also creates even greater disasters. Human self-glorification to the exclusion of God has within it the seeds of every form of modern genocide. The tools are always: the state in all its departments—including education, using technology and media to further promote a selective human paradise which is the goal of progressivism. Political parties and leaders rationalize killing those who stand in the way of a predicted socialist utopia. 

Zygmunt Bauman in Modernity and the Holocaust (2001 Cornell University press), explains that Hitler’s mission against the Jews was not rooted in his hatred alone, but his belief that a world without Jews would become the “hoped for world of tranquil happiness.”

In other words, progressive humanity needed to remove those who stood in its way and in Hitler’s mind this included the socially dependent, the undesirables and, specifically—Jews, just because they were Jews.

Therefore, in a tragic irony, the people who brought us the warning against all forms of idolatry, may have become victims of others committing that same sin, many of whom were fallen away Catholics who became occultists, another violation of the First Commandment. If we focus on Hitler’s hatred of Jews, we may, therefore, miss the point. His hatred created his belief that Jews stood in the way of the glory of man so he demanded their execution.

Tyler Curtis, writing for the Foundation of Economic Education warns that the deadly progressive trend toward a future utopia is personified in George Bernard Shaw.

Socialists have not only been willing to ignore the bigots and authoritarians in their midst but have gone so far as to embrace them. Few have been more adored than that eccentric playwright and unapologetic Stalinist George Bernard Shaw.

Shaw took a completely utilitarian view of life, even going on to say that murder should only be punishable if the person murdered was a value to society.

“That would involve a revised view of the sacredness of human life.  We should find ourselves committed to killing a great many people whom we now leave living, and to leave living a great many people whom we at present kill.  We should have to get rid of all ideas about capital punishment.  It is right if a man cannot be trusted to go about in society without injuring other people that he should be killed.  But a man may commit murder and be a perfectly safe and desirable citizen afterwards.  It might be that it was desirable to have removed the man he murdered.” He preached in 1910.

William Jennings Bryant, meanwhile, warning against the science only ethic he saw coming in his progressive era, wrote:

Science is a magnificent material force, but it is not a teacher of morals. It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine. It can also build gigantic intellectual ships, but it constructs no moral rudders for the control of storm-tossed human vessels. It not only fails to supply the spiritual element needed, but some of its unproven hypotheses rob the slip of its compass and thus endanger its cargo.

Are we watching the product of the sin of idolatry in the form of progressivism taking place and if so, are we watching the beginning of another state supported genocide? This form of horror, prevalent in the Twentieth Century, has human self-deification as its source. Today it begins with the dehumanization of the unborn and legalizing their genocide in several states today. 

Is this the reason why the states and the media are so focused on painting the anti-abortion Catholics in such a negative light?  Are the Catholics now the ones who stand in the way of Western civilization’s progressivist utopia. After all, Fr. Walter Czizek who spent fifteen years in the Soviet GULAGS wrote in his book, "He Leadeth Me" that the governments then used the actions of corrupt priests as a doorway to implicate innocent priests too, likewise seen in the way of the future utopia.

Saul Alinsky taught in Rules for Radicals to use the sins of the Church to bring her down. But those sins and the bishops and priests, religious and laity who commit them are proving themselves to be just as rooted in idolatry and progressive ideology as the followers of Alinsky. These Pope Pius X warned us about in Pascendi Dominici Gregis paragraphs 2-3

We allude, Venerable Brethren, to many who belong to the Catholic laity, nay, and this is far more lamentable, to the ranks of the priesthood itself, who, feigning a love for the Church, lacking the firm protection of philosophy and theology, nay more, thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church, and lost to all sense of modesty, vaunt themselves as reformers of the Church; and, forming more boldly into line of attack, assail all that is most sacred in the work of Christ, not sparing even the person of the Divine Redeemer, whom, with sacrilegious daring, they reduce to a simple, mere man . . .

And having struck at this root of immortality, they proceed to disseminate poison through the whole tree, so that there is no part of Catholic truth from which they hold their hand, none that they do not strive to corrupt. Further, none is more skilful, none more astute than they, in the employment of a thousand noxious arts; for they double the parts of rationalist and Catholic, and this so craftily that they easily lead the unwary into error; and since audacity is their chief characteristic, there is no conclusion of any kind from which they shrink or which they do not thrust forward with pertinacity and assurance. To this must be added the fact, which indeed is well calculated to deceive souls, that they lead a life of the greatest activity, of assiduous and ardent application to every branch of learning, and that they possess, as a rule, a reputation for the strictest morality. Finally, and this almost destroys all hope of cure, their very doctrines have given such a bent to their minds, that they disdain all authority and brook no restraint; and relying upon a false conscience, they attempt to ascribe to a love of truth that which is in reality the result of pride and obstinacy.

Pope Pius X

The attempt to imprison priests in California who choose not to violate the seal of confession, I believe, is the next step in the attempt to destroy the Catholic Church in the United States. It is now becoming clear that the faithful priests are an obstacle against the utopian vision which will use the utilitarian mechanics of infanticide and genocide to build the assumed perfect society for the current elites. In fact, Bauman explains that is exactly the result of the modern state. Since it is focused on utopia, it will use genocide to create it. 

The two most notorious and extreme cases of modern genocide did not betray the spirit of modernity. They did not deviously depart from the main track of the civilizing process. They were the most consistent uninhibited expressions of that spirit. They attempted to reach the most ambitious aims of the civilizing process most other processes stop short of, not necessarily for the lack of goodwill. They showed what the rationalizing, designing, controlling dreams and efforts of modern civilization are able to accomplish if not mitigated, curbed or counteracted. (p.92)

We can only respond by eliminating progressive ideology from our parishes, schools and pulpits and return to the call of faithfulness to the sacred tradition of the Church and the Gospels on which it is based. Many of the bishops who may disagree with our action, may not be fully aware of what is at stake and just see their mission to keep the church afloat and parishes open. Jesus reminded us that we are light to the world and it seems some bishops have yet to understand how dark the world becomes when we do not seek to be the light Christ calls us to be.  

Time will tell, but clearly the ingredients are there for another dark period in human history, this time in the United States. Also, as before, cooperation with a biased or corrupt mass media, without which the twentieth century genocides would never have happened, and the hubris in which all these attitudes are rooted—and have been since Genesis chapter 11—is leading us to disaster quickly. Like all attempts before, this will fail and destroy the progressives seeking to create it and many innocent victims along with them.

Photo: Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel Public Domain

 

Bibliography:

Anderton, Charles H. and Jurgen Brauer, Economic Aspects of Genocides, Other Mass Atrocities, and Their Preventions, 2016, London, Oxford University Press

Bauman, Zygmunt Modernity and the Holocaust, 2000; New York. Cornell University Press

Destexhe, Alain. 1994-1995. ‘The Third Genocide’. Foreign Policy (97): 3-17.

Hamburg, David A. M.D. Preventing Genocide, 2010; Bouilder, CO. Paradigm Press

Higginbotham, Adam, Midnight In Chernobyl 2019; New York, Simon and Schuster.

Maritz, Dominque, What Are the Main Causes of Genocide? 2012; E-International Relations Students (website)

Pius X, Pope, Pascendi Dominici Gregis  1907, Rome. Liberia Editrice Vaticana

Catholics Need to Tweet Correctly and Sparingly

I stopped posting on Twitter some time ago.

I read the tweets of other Catholic priests and bishops and it only confirms my decision that none of us should be tweeting.

Here is the problem with tweeting. Twitter is a general social media application/site. However, many messages that we communicate are not general messages and they do not belong on this or any similar social media site.

A tweet from Bishop Thomas Tobin brought this dynamic clearly into light. He wrote that Catholics should not go to any Pride events. This is what he said specifically:

A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ “Pride Month” events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children.

Needless to say, the pushback was intense. Some approved of his words and many others rejected them and attacked not only him and his past in Pennsylvania, but also priests and bishops generally. Many added that they long ago rejected the Catholic Church and encountering those who spoke similarly to Tobin was one reason, others disagreed with Bishop Tobin’s teaching in light of the Catholic faith or Christianity in general.

Bishop Tobin’s jurisdiction is his own diocese which is the entire state of Rhode Island. So, technically, his words apply within the state of Rhode Island although, certainly no Catholic should disregard them just because they do not live in that or any New England state.

However, he and others can ask: Is Twitter the venue to address such issues in the Catholic faith?

For example, did atheists in Thailand need to see Bishop Tobin’s words? If not, then why use Twitter? It is a general app and yes, the message is relevant for a certain group, but not for all including, in this case, atheists in Thailand, who have access to the message.

If you look carefully at Christian teachings and scripture, you will see that they are directed to those that welcome them. Even Jesus himself said in Revelation, that He is knocking but the person needs to open the door.

Jesus warned in the Sermon on the Mount not to preach to those who did not want to hear the message.

He also says that we should not distribute our message where it is rejected. St. Paul warned against giving to the uninitiated what they cannot understand. Even the Holy Spirit directed the apostles where they should not go.

Therefore, when you are using Twitter, you are using a wide distribution where a more directed approach is warranted.

Bishop Tobin uses the law approach. Catholics should not attend a pride event because it is contrary to Catholic faith and morals. OK, but Catholics also have a mission to spread the Gospel.

Jesus called us to be witnesses to a greater truth, which includes the reality of eternal life. Christianity is more than a set of moral rules; it is an anthropology. In fact, the conflict between Christianity and secularism is on the anthropological and ontological levels; they are literally contradictory definitions of the human person. Jesus did not simply teach rules; he taught his listeners a new understanding of being — that is the point of the resurrection.

Conversion to Catholicism is a change in understanding of whom we are as human beings. Further, it is rooted in the quest for divine wisdom which feeds our morality. It is not rooted in morality alone.

I always use the approach to lead people to pray to encounter Christ and have Him lead the person to holiness. In fact, I used that approach in my homily this weekend.

Seeking holiness is the point of living our faith, as we grow in holiness we grow in our ability to be what Christ called us to be—salt of the Earth and light to the world and witnesses to Him as truth. This is important, especially in this context. Many will cite homosexuality as the sin in Sodom and Gomorrah that leads to their destruction, but if you read the scriptures, you will learn that the actual reason God destroyed those two cities was lack of righteous people. (Genesis 18:16-33) We have a calling to be holy not for our own sakes, but for others as well.

Mary at Fatima gave a similar message to the children of the importance of praying and sacrificing for sinners that they too may be saved: "pray much and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to make sacrifices for them."

If one is seeking holiness then one is not going to enter into places that will lead him or her away from it. After all, Jesus also taught that where our treasure is, so our heart is. (cf Matt 6:21)

There are Catholics who can read the bishop’s tweet and understand it to a deeper level, but there are many others, Catholics and not, who would not understand it at all as indicated by the backlash.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which takes fourteen paragraphs to define and teach on chastity, acknowledges that living in chastity is a lifetime apprenticeship—this include those who are heterosexual and those who are homosexual. It adds that Catholics need a good prayer life and Christ centered friendships both with the opposite and same sex as part of living chastity successfully. Chastity cannot be lived successfully simply through external restraint. (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church #237-250, 257-259)

This teaching goes beyond anything that can be expressed on Twitter effectively.

Jesus commands us to go out into the world and preach His Gospel. His Gospel is his living word and not just a code of conduct. Preaching the Gospel requires first to be transformed in Christ. It means to be infused with the Holy Trinity and to become a new person in Christ, that goes far beyond just following rules or avoiding someplace that is contrary to faith and morals.

When we truly seek Christ and his friendship, he shows us what he wants us to surrender that we may draw closer to Him. We learn that the deepest form of seeking Christ lies in dispassion in the name of seeking holiness. This means to turn from all that deters us from knowing Christ more deeply. That ancient understanding goes beyond anything that is simply in the rules of Catholicism.

Twitter is the wrong venue to communicate the teachings of the Catholic faith well. If it is used at all, the writer needs to understand the venue and write accordingly.

A better tweet would have been a link to an editorial in the diocesan newspaper with full catechesis on what the Church teaches about chastity.

Bishop Tobin released a statement of regret for his tweet saying he did not mean to offend. He never did offer any catechesis by a link through twitter or otherwise . He ended his statement wishing everyone a safe, positive and productive experience for all. 

Ultimately, it almost appears the two messages cancel themselves out.

I think that whole exercise was counterproductive to all sides and only confirms that Twitter is no place for Catholic teaching that can not be fully expressed in a simple tweet, which is virtually all of it. 

 

 Photo credit: 

Burst