God and Politics by F.J. Sheed (NY: Sheed & Ward, n.d., 1960 Cdl. Spellman imprimatur, pb. Excerpted from Sheed’s Communism and Man. On Goodreads.
Freedom and Providence by Mark Pontifex, O.S.B. (NY: Hawthorn, 1960, hc, 1960 imprimatur, #22 in The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism. On the Internet Archive.
Faith and Freedom by Barbara Ward (Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1958, pb). At Thriftbooks. Ward is not an author I’d been familiar with before encountering this book.
What Can Be Done? Not Much.
Our age simultaneously upholds god-like powers of individual choice and a litany of oppression. Traditional Catholics are presented with varying ways of resistance to the current crisis, while at the same time fed a diet of reporting on abuse after abuse coming from the Vatican and diocesan chanceries. The following pieces explore that tension. In the end, I am more of the mind of the third segment, because I truly don’t think we have much power. Moreover, I think that is the authentic scriptural and deeper Catholic position. The first piece appeared at One Peter Five on 3/11/23: https://onepeterfive.com/catholics-offense/. The second was published at Crisis on 10/27/23: https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/a-buyers-market-in-catholic-real-estate. The third was previously unpublished.
Timothy Flanders voices a sentiment shared by many Catholics—bishops do your job! But he doesn’t go far enough. Catholic history—especially of the last half century—provides ample evidence of priests and laity ignoring or wantonly disobeying episcopal edicts and actions. If, to use a cinematic reference, the bishop is not to be left to fight and die alone, then his subordinates must man up and work together to engage and defeat the enemy. Think Henry V or Master and Commander.
My own preference would be for a twenty-first century itinerant order operating like Catholic Green Berets: scouting, engaging locals, providing medical care, nation-building, teaching, and fighting (though not like actual soldiers) when necessary. On the other hand, why not renew the crusader spirit? Is the combination of military prowess and religious vows inherently incompatible? Something only for the Middle Ages?
And what about recapturing what should be our schools, charities, and hospitals? Why is there such a disconnect between tradition and the social apostolate of our Faith? History again will give us answers. For instance, one need only read the 1967 Land O’Lakes document on “The Idea of the Catholic University” to see a straight progression from identifiably Catholic higher education to the mess we’re in now on formerly great campuses like DePaul, Notre Dame, and Marquette to name only three. Certainly the “charitable anathema” would be helpful in clearing out some of the opposition in erstwhile “Catholic” institutions, but who will fill the vacuum of faith and practice among doctors, nurses, staff, and teachers? Are we at the oxymoronic point summed up by the infamous phrase from the Vietnam War about needing to destroy a village in order to save it?
With all that in mind, I suggest we do have an approach from history that we could use now, and it involves social renewal founded on solid and engaging preaching. That example comes from a late-medieval city. The approach may or may not be “scaleable” to today’s distances and population densities, but might be adapted for use at the diocesan level. The place: Florence. The time: late fifteenth century. The preacher: Fra Girolamo Savonarola.1
The very name may instantly turn some away. But consider what actually happened in Florence during the Dominican friar’s ascendancy. Savonarola’s solid preaching acted as a catalyst in worldly Florence, and led to reform and penance. In 2023 we hear much about a “revival” underway at Asbury University in Kentucky; in 1490s Florence, there was a tangible revival. The notorious “Bonfire of the Vanities” involved conscience-stricken Florentines casting their luxury items into flames. How is that for a Lenten practice?! Savonarola and others from his convent decried the widespread toleration of sodomy and other forms of unnatural sex. Corrupt and worldly clerics and religious were challenged to return to more Christ-like austerity. Savonarola even—to his ultimate detriment—criticized Pope Alexander VI (Borgia), father of many children and lover of luxury. Persistent blasphemers had their tongue pierced, a one-time punishment now embraced as fashion in this century. But Savonarola frequently intervened to seek mercy for enemies of the common good. That trait went hand-in-hand with promoting wider participation in civic and political life as opposed to rule by one family—the Medicis—or a tiny cabal of the wealthy. Finally, this reforming impulse led to greater public display and practice of the Faith, involving the city’s children as well.
Stepping back from this thought experiment, it is obvious that many of the actions of the Savonarolan era are impossible to implement. But should that stop us from taking the fight to our opponents, wherever they may be found? Why are Catholics always and only playing defense. No war is won that way. Why settle for daydreaming about a past “golden age” when there are battles we could have now…and maybe even win? A recent article featured on Rorate Coeli asked “is it really time for hiding” and asserted that “priests should openly refuse to stop offering the Latin Mass.”
As this article was being written the announcement came that a Catholic “synod” in Germany has approved blessings for same-sex unions. If now is not the time to rise up and reclaim the Faith, when will it be time?
[1] Martines, Lauro. Fire In the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).
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In the classic 1965 cartoon A Charlie Brown Christmas, amateur psychiatrist and unreliable football holder Lucy Van Pelt reveals what she really desires for a present: “real estate.” How fitting that the very year she first uttered that sentiment—the year in which Vatican II wrapped up its business—the Catholic Church began a downward trajectory in its leading indicators of priests, religious, seminarians, parishes, school enrollments, etc. In recent decades that trajectory has resulted in the closure and sale of a host of Catholic real estate: churches, convents, monasteries, schools and rectories.
Even a cursory reading of Church history shows that the trend had typically been an expansion of the Church’s presence through acquisition of property. There have been checks on that growth but usually only because of schism and war. The destruction and confiscation of property during the Protestant revolution is a prime example. The fate of the English monasteries is an object lesson in that regard, and Henry VIII could be seen as the progenitor of the modern understanding of eminent domain.
But not all transfer of property out of church hands is the result of external hostile forces, and this is where the story grows maddening. Avid readers of twentieth-century Catholic books might know or remember My Beloved: The Story of a Carmelite Nun by Mother Catherine Thomas. First published in 1955, it is by turns charming, funny, informative, and spiritually edifying. However, as I read it I could not help thinking that this lovely sketch of a woman’s spiritual journey was incomplete because it did not show what happened a decade later with the ravaging effects of Vatican II. A small amount of research showed that the Carmel of St. Joseph in Oklahoma City where Mother Catherine dwelt lasted until 1985 when that property was sold and the community moved to a different location in Oklahoma. Then the convent’s building was sold to a Georgian Orthodox monastic community which opened in 2021. We can try to put a positive spin on the situation by saying “at least it wasn’t sold to Satanists or polytheists.” That’s true, but the Orthodox are still in schism, and the decline of Carmelites may have some connection to the present crisis of vocations to the priesthood and problems within the ranks of active priests. The Carmelite vocation is in part to pray especially for priests. Not only is the Catholic Church giving up physical real estate, it is ceding control of spiritual territory to others.
Unfortunately, there are a growing number of cases of Catholic churches sold into private hands for secular (aka profane) use. Since churches frequently occupy sites that have become desirable in pricier zip codes, some of the buyers have converted the buildings into homes. The Wall Street Journal on October 18, 2023, published a story titled “To Turn a Church Into a Home, It Takes Some Elbow Grease and a Little Bit of Faith.” The writer profiles several families and their experiences with renovating and decorating the one-time churches. The positive spin here would be that at least families are living in these buildings and they are not being used as mosques or lewd performance spaces.
But how much comfort is that line of thinking to those who worshiped in those churches? It is a breaking of the covenant between past present and future generations. Previous generations sacrificed to buy property to build and decorate spiritual homes. If nothing else that implies the Church’s endorsement of breaking promises. Consider the case of the church in Tacoma, WA, where I was received into the Faith: Holy Rosary. Setting aside the soaring interior conducive to an “I’m definitely in a church” frame of mind, the towering steeple bore witness to our faith to the thousands of daily I-5 commuters in the greater Seattle area. Now the parish is closed and the building will likely be torn down, no doubt netting the rapidly shrinking Archdiocese of Seattle a tidy sum.
My hometown in New York’s North Country supplies another, albeit more modest, example but one still indicative of a receding Catholicism. Just like dioceses all over the world, but especially in North America and Europe, the Diocese of Ogdensburg, NY, has been in numerical decline for decades. The priestly ranks are growing older in aggregate and seminarians are not enough in number to replenish them. Religious orders have collapsed along with the Catholic schools. Catholics have stopped coming to Mass and having children.
Ten years ago the four local parishes underwent a re-organization. Three of the parishes were within the village of approximately 5,500 souls and one was several miles out. In the past five years the consolidated parish saw another change with two of the buildings in the village being closed, decommissioned, and put on the market. One—a large 1960s box on Main Street, has not yet sold; the other, a folksy neighborhood church once staffed by the Pallottines, was sold to a Protestant group. One former school is now owned by the public school system, and a house and lot formerly home to Ursulines is now a drug rehab center. The other school was closed due to low enrollment and now houses the parish office, St. Vincent De Paul store, and a soup kitchen. Caring for those in need is a Christian imperative, but cannot be privileged over preaching the Gospel in the divine mission to save souls.
Is the Church doomed to try to maintain a dwindling flock and a crumbling building stock? While overall trends are not encouraging, there are achievements to applaud. As I write this there is a story going viral about a French nun tackling an environmental activist at the construction site of a new building. That building is meant to be a residence and chapel for a French religious order. Another achievement is the May 2023 consecration of the huge Immaculata Church in Kansas built by the Priestly Society if Saint Pius X and funded by the faithful. God’s Kingdom is meant to expand and grow and proclaim. Ironically, that is what Vatican II allegedly proposed, but its results have proven to be the opposite of its stated intentions.
Truly the news is grim in most places. There is much work to do and it will take several generations to undo the corrosive legacy of Vatican II and its aftermath. One small part of the renewed battle to take back real estate is to learn history. We are a history-starved civilization these days. To see and understand the struggles of the past—especially in the place we call home and where we have ties of family and shared experiences—is perhaps to feel a renewed sense of responsibility. A local parish near where I live is celebrating a century in its current building. To help garner contributions for repairs, the parish has put together a historical booklet about how the church building came to be. It was a long process and involved the sacrifices of many.
When it comes to real estate, the memory of what was can lapse into sentimentality, or it can spark a revitalization. It’s time to start buying and begin building again.
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Our Besetting Sins: Outrage and Adulation
Our obsession with personality masks the fact of our powerlessness.
Americans are not noted for embracing weakness. And survey data shows, alas, American Catholics are much like their fellow citizens in our tastes, beliefs, and practices.
This fact means that in 2024, a year of elections, global treaty-making, and (possibly) a papal conclave, ordinary American Catholics will have the power to do…well…actually, almost nothing. Despite our obsession with personality, celebrity, activism, and outrage, we, as individuals, can’t change the course of events outside a very small sphere in our daily lives. That truth flies in the face of the media machine continually stoking our fear and anger.
“President signs new executive order!” “Pope issues motu proprio!” “UN promotes treaty!” “Noted bishop reveals secrets in unprecedented interview!”
To all these semi-hypothetical examples, a truthful Catholic would necessarily respond: “So what?” Instead, what too often happens is that these outrages are repeated ad nauseam on social media and shared with others. After all, what fun is outrage if it is private? The private is now obsolete. The media—and that manifestly includes the Catholic media—amplifies these outrages by spinning them and coating them with a political patina. The whole thing exacerbates our political and cultural divisions, and round and round we go.
We still have no power over the issues. Except to ignore them. But that is not encouraged. The structures of power—represented by individuals we accept as trustworthy—inform us that we must care, sign the petition, join such-and-such a league, etc. etc. Certainly there are things we can reasonably do: vote, speak to individuals actually involved in the issue, pray and fast. Those are all personal actions on a personal scale. They are actions we can take, even if they have small chance of effecting change.
Such a realization can lead to despair or indifference. It might cause one to view everything through a political lens at the expense of a vibrant spiritual life. It might encourage the concerned Catholic to engage in the besetting sin of the Left: activism. (Here let it be noted that the pro-life/anti-abortion movement of the past fifty years is one welcome exception to this critique of activism. That is likely because the movement is anchored in prayer, especially the Rosary.) Note to well-intentioned would-be Catholic activists: read Chautard’s The Soul of the Apostolate, not Dorothy Day.
Why do practicing American Catholics keep stumbling over the fact of our powerlessness? Because our obsession with personality masks that fact. We live vicariously in the world made by People magazine and its imitators.
If that were the extent of the problem, we could bewail the fact of the fallen world intruding on our refuge of faith. However, we are part of the problem. Here is one uncomfortable truth: popes have become celebrities, and the biggest offender of our time was Pope John Paul II. JPII was an international celebrity of rock star stature. The celebrity attached to the office had been growing during the twentieth century. Consider the photos of Pius XII standing before a crowd with his arms outstretched, or John XXIII, smiling in a humble and approachable pose, or Paul VI in his meeting with the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch or Archbishop of Canterbury. The Polish pontiff inspired wild devotion in his travels. His immediate successor was mostly shy about such displays, but Pope Francis has donned the gown of celebrity like an old pro. Think of his decision to eschew the traditional papal clothing as he first greeted the world. It is as if Juan Peron refused to wear either a uniform or a suit and appeared on the balcony in a t-shirt and suspenders. Regardless of the wisdom of such a sartorial choice, it is parsed in public as an aspect of competing personalities and political agendas of differing approaches to celebrity.
The answer is not more outrage. Nor is it giving in to fantasies of a rogue CIA assassin “taking out” the perceived enemies of the good guys. It’s not hoping for “our” guy to be elected president or pope, because that is merely acquiescing to the sin of adulation. No. The answer is downplaying the entire culture of celebrity and notoriety. Maybe even to the point of ignoring it.
Here’s what that might look like.
Have you heard what the Pope just said? No. But I did pray for him today at the end of my Rosary.
Can you believe they kicked the ex-president off the ballot? I can believe anything about current politics. I plan to vote for someone else regardless.
Did you know the World Economic Forum wants us to eat bugs?! I heard something about that. I’m going to plant some blueberry bushes this year.
Ping. Did you really bring your phone to all-night adoration? I don’t even have a smart-phone.
The question shouldn’t be did you see what Father So-and-so just posted, but rather, how is your prayer life? Have you been to confession recently? How are your kids doing? Is your home peaceful? Does your parish have the resources to celebrate the Mass well and help those who are in need? Are you familiar with the Litany of Humility? That’s a great place to start.
To borrow a phrase from the 1980s War on Drugs: Just say no. Just say no to celebrity culture and the perpetual outrage machinery of our era. I do not intend in any way to poke fun at God’s particular judgment when I state that I’m glad it won’t be a trivia quiz about today’s Catholic celebrities. As each of us stand before Our Lord, we will have enough to worry about regarding the choices we ourselves made. Let the dead bury the dead, and let the era’s personalities see to their own choices.
Etc.: Happy Feast of St. Anne! And happy anniversary to my long-suffering wife.