The Working Catholic: Christmas 2024 by Bill Droel

Christmas is the feast of the Incarnation—Jesus Christ, simultaneously fully divine and fully human, dwelling among us. He comes to the world not in splendor, but in a stable in an out-of-the-way town “where ox and ass are feeding.” That stable, displayed in millions of homes this month, symbolizes our modern world, broken yet redeemed.

For over 400 years Roman Catholicism ducked its appointment with modernity, reacting many times with aloof superiority or even with hostility. Since 1517 Catholicism has been uneasy with the loss of community as the individualism associated with the Protestant Reformation ascends. Catholicism was additionally turned off by the violent anti-clericalism of the French Revolution and later revolutions. Further, Catholicism takes a defensive posture with those expressions of Protestant Christianity in this country and elsewhere that are explicitly anti-Catholic. Catholicism’s caution about the modern world is also related to its opposition of communism’s total denial of the spiritual. Finally, Catholicism was and remains cautious toward some “scientific” trends, including a materialistic notion of evolution and eugenics with its accompanying embrace of abortion.

Catholicism’s defensive strategy officially changed at Vatican II (1962-1965). The new method is dialogue with modern ideas. The dialogue means learning about God’s revelation from the world of science, reason, exploration, forms of governance, modern art, and global commerce, from non-Catholic expressions of Christianity and from non-Christian expressions of faith. This dialogue with the world, please realize, does not exclude disagreements.

The new strategy requires a fresh definition of church. The word still applies to buildings, but that is not its deepest meaning. Nor is the church primarily bishops, their clergy, and their helpers. The word church means all the baptized.

How are people today able to gather around the Christmas stable—a symbol for our world? 

In recent days Pope Francis concluded a multi-year synod that was meant to model how Catholic leaders can internally discuss vital topics. It was a synod about a process. Understandably, the press did not find a three-year meeting about a new process interesting. Instead, newspaper and magazine ink was mostly given to a few controversial topics like ordained women deacons in Catholicism and changes in celibacy requirements for clergy, better treatment of gays, lesbians, and those others whom Catholicism has maligned. 

Nonetheless, the synod was an expression of Vatican II and particularly of Pope Francis’ primary theme: In our modern place and time the church (people of God) finds the incarnate Christ along the peripheries. To hear the word of God, people must attentively listen to those   huddled around a stable in Bethlehem, those scrambling among ruins within Syria, those in line at the Wednesday morning food pantry, and those young adults who are unsatisfied with our vacuous culture.

How can Catholics and others from the east and west find the stable and there have fruitful engagements with what is happening in our modern world? This month happens to be the 60 th anniversary of Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. Therein is a paragraph about the new definition of church, about how that church influences the world, about how the world enriches the church and about the true meaning of Christmas:

The entire people of God by their very vocation seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God so that by exercising their proper function and being led by the Spirit of the gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within, in the manner of leaven.

Droel edits a free newsletter on faith and work, INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629)

 We are meditating on the meaning of the resurrection of Notre Dame Cathedral at this time. 

Henry Adams reminds us that Mary, after whom the Cathedral is named, represented the energy “of love and of matter.” Mary is a protector and living intercessor between mankind as individuals and “the perils of law, whether human or divine.” 

A carved-wood depiction of Mary — unusual in that here, the infant Jesus is directly facing her, rather than towards the viewer, and both appear completely adoring of each other. Location unknown. Photo by Grant Whitty on Unsplash.

A martial religion of “predominate masculine energy” ruled in the 11th century, but Mary represented “the assertion of the supremacy of love over force” with the Gothic reality of the 12th and 13th centuries. She represented “boundless sympathy” and “not even the weakest human frailty could fear to approach her.” 

As Adams puts it, she represented the Buddhist sense of compassion, “the first of all virtues.” 

She represented a new civilization which included a whole new creation of education, when the university movement in the cities displaced the monastic hold on education in the countryside. And “university” originally meant a place to go to find one’s place in the universe. (Not just one’s place in a man-made work world, which is what it has come to mean during the modern era.)

The Virgin of the twelfth and thirteenth century had not only the powers of Eve and Demeter and Venus; she was also the mistress of all the arts and sciences, was afraid of none of them, and did nothing, ever, to stunt any of them…She was Queen by divine right and compassion and understanding, not by law and formula. She was “the practice of the true balance of powers, with the individual always tilting the balance.” 

Highlights from the reopening of Notre Dame de Paris on December 7th, 2024. Video by CBS Sunday Morning. You can also watch the replay of the entire opening ceremony HERE.

She was a “personal presence” and a “saving grace” [and] the personal equation at the heart of law and justice.” She gave birth to “fresh creations of order.”* 

The very word “cathedral” derives from the word for throne (as does the Goddess Isis, the original Black Madonna). So another aspect to Notre Dame Cathedrals is that they honor the Goddess who sits ruling a city (or a country) with compassion and justice for the poor, not for the rich. And for the celebration of life. (Again, anthropocentric and patriarchal religion have reduced the “throne” in the cathedral to a place where a bishop sits, but that leaves out the cosmos and the divine feminine that are so central to the deeper meaning of cathedra.) 

Such a building offers a fine reminder for our time of a new cosmology, a cosmogenesis story of how our Earth and our species made the 13.8-billion-year journey to be here.

The South Rose Window in the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. Photo by jmvnoos in Paris on Flickr.

And to be grateful for being here. Which is religion’s task, to spread the thanks. As Thomas Aquinas (who was in Paris at the time the rose windows were being installed in Notre Dame cathedral) put it: “Religion is supreme thankfulness or gratitude.” And that is what the Sabbath is about, he says: giving thanks and first and foremost for creation.

It seems the Divine Feminine might have something needed and necessary to say to our times. Maybe the resurrection of Notre Dame de Paris might assist us in taking in that wisdom. If we choose to listen.

The Working Catholic: "Marriage" by Bill Droel

At a wedding reception not so long ago the groom entered the hall with a weighted ball chained to his ankle. The stunt was meant to be funny. Statistics show, however, that many young adults these days are not kidding; they are negative toward the institution of marriage. In fact, the majority of family arrangements today do not include marriage.

Brad Wilcox of the National Marriage Project at University of Virginia sets out to counter those negative attitudes in Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families and Save Civilization (Broadside Books, 2024). Marriage is good for a couple’s finances, good for their health, for their sexual fulfillment, for a flourishing society and particularly for children. Nothing else, Wilcox convincingly argues, is a better predictor of a child’s overall health and eventual upward mobility than a married two-parent family. “Not income inequality. Not race. Not school quality.”

Wilcox furnishes credible examples of both conservatives and liberals who disparage marriage. But his tone, as contained in the book’s subtitle (defy the elites) implies that a particular ideology is harming an otherwise pro-marriage group of people. Yet, foregoing marriage is common among both conservatives and liberals.

Keep in mind that corresponding or parallel factors are not the same as causal variables. That is, marriage is associated with higher income over time. But that does not mean that higher income necessarily makes for a good marriage or that a stable marriage automatically leads to a high-paying job.

Melissa Kearney, like Wilcox, likewise shows the advantages of marriage in her widely- reviewed The Two-Parent Privilege (University of Chicago Press, 2023). There’s a strong overlay between a college degree and a marriage license. Those lacking a college degree constitute the majority of family arrangements outside of marriage. She then shows the overlay between the education/marriage combo and economic mobility. Those with a college degree soon enough financially outpace those who do not complete college and those with a degree are more likely to be married than those without.

The phrase college degree is deliberate. Today, about 40% of 18-24 year-olds enroll in college. The payoff, however, comes only to those who graduate. Of all those who enter college, only about 40% complete their degree, even after six years in school. Those who drop out can be in worse shape than if they hadn’t enrolled at all because of student debt and missed years of earnings.

A further thought must quickly be added to the college degree comment. A household in which the breadwinner(s) have a post-high school certification in a career area can financially succeed. Burning Glass Institute of suburban Philadelphia, for example, names 73 non-degree careers that can stabilize a family. Education in those areas covers the specifics of the intended job plus needed computer skills and good communication and teamwork.

Back to Kearney: It is wrong to put a moral spin on the marriage decision. The decisions and their outcomes are not related to the goodness of a person, she writes. For example as Kearney writes, “It is not helpful to blame or shame women who are faced with the difficult choice between parenting alone or living with a partner who is an economic or emotional drain.” Life is more complicated than a simple formula like Get Married and You Will Thrive.

Again, the three factors—marriage, college degree and economic mobility--are not related in direct cause and effect. They are strongly associated with one another. And that association is worth serious reflection.

Droel edits INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629), a printed newsletter on faith and work.

Veteran’s Day

On Veteran’s Day I am reminded of my required time in the military.  War threatened at the time, but we were not yet engaged in open battle.  As I look back, I consider my ineptness as comic.

But I also remember my grandmother’s brother, Tim Walsh.  He was an outstanding student and the Franciscans considered him an outstanding prospect.  They sent him to England to study for the priesthood.  He was given the religious name of Jerome.  After he was ordained, he volunteered to serve as a chaplain for Irish troops in World War I.  He went back to the priory in England with PTSD.  I did some research on him and discovered that Irish chaplains went to the front lines. 

He died in the United States as a relatively young man with my grandmother in attendance.

 War, even with honor and glory, is horrible.  It's the innocent who pay the price.

Gustavo Gutierrez – Liberation Theology

 

One of the greatest theologians of contemporary times, Gustavo Gutierrez, O.P., recently passed away on October 22, 2024 in Lima, Peru. His theology was revolutionary in more ways than one. 

His method was from the ground up.  He advocated for ‘comunidades de base,’ that is, communities relating their situation to Scripture.  He saw this as a way of liberation, as the Jews from Pharaoh’s domination.

His guide was the theology of the brother of Jesus of Nazareth, James the Just.  James prefaced ‘preferential option for the poor’ and the need to act for social justice. 

Weekly protest for immigrant rights in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office (ICE) in Milwaukee

A Theology of Liberation, by Gustavo Gutierrez, O.P., 1973. (Six references to the Epistle of James)

The Birth of Christianity, by John Dominic Crossan, 1998.

Zealot:  the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth, by Reza Aslan, 2013.

Epistle of James, The New American Bible.

Opus Dei, MAGA, the Dark Money Cult, & the 2024 Election

Daily Meditation by Matthew Fox - October 12, 2024

 Many people, when they hear about the rise of Christian nationalism in America, think it is all about evangelicals who are Trump supporters.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  

The fascist wing of the Roman Catholic Church amply represented by Opus Dei (and others such as the Legion of Christ), have played a major and expanding role in Washington, D.C. ever since the papacy of JPII that linked up with the far-right CIA of the day to bury liberation theology and base communities operating in South America.  

Those who stood by the poor, such as Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador who was martyred while saying Mass, were badly treated by Rome.  Indeed, one of Archbishop Romero's close friends, Bishop Casigalida with whom I spent a week in the amazon which was essentially his diocese was silenced by the Vatican of that time for daring to call Romero a saint (Romero has since been canonized under Pope Francis).  

I wrote about these goings-on 15 years ago in my book, The Pope's War, which traces such matters under Ratzinger and JP II and includes a significant chapter on Opus Dei.  New Testament scholar Bruce Chilton, who wrote the Foreword to the book, called it "prophetic." 

Now Gareth Core, a British financial journalist, has released the best book ever written on Opus Dei, with special emphasis on the mighty role they have played in recent American politics:  e.g., rendering SCOTUS beyond recognition and a wing for the Republican party.  Yes, part of MAGA, which I propose in my new book on the antichrist, stands for:  "Make America Grotesque Again." 

Gore's book is called Opus:  The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church.  It is 450 pages of solid research and clear storytelling of the takeover of American politics, including of course SCOTUS and the Republican Party by the fascist wing of the Catholic church, which is dead set against Pope Francis.  It includes the conversions of Newt Gingrich, former Senator Sam Brownback, Robert Bork, Larry Kudlow, and Laura Ingraham to that peculiar version of Catholicism.  Trump players like Bill Barr, Pat Cipolione, Steve Bannon, belong to the same religious club.  

Now vice-presidential candidate J. D. Vance should be added to that list of hardline climate deniers and Trump acolytes.  If Trump and Vance are elected next month, the Opus Dei wing of the Catholic Church will be one step away from the presidency.  

Pretty scary indeed, considering the already own the unsupreme court and Trump is currently the oldest presidential candidate and showing serious mental and physical decline not to mention his ethical and spiritual ill health.  Or, in traditional language, his links to the archetype of the antichrist.  

Gore tells the story of how Leonardo Leo led the fight to forbid Obama from nominating a justice for the Supreme Court because it was "too close to the next election."  Of course, Senator Mitch McConnell was all in on that unprecedented move, but Leo provided the legal ammunition.  Later however, with Trump as president, it was not too late to appoint Judge Barrett even though the election was already in progress.  

Leo is a far-right Catholic who barely admits that Pope Francis exists (or his excellent encyclical Laudato Si that defends the rights of Mother Earth and the rights of the poor).  He prefers the company and ideology of billionaires like Harlan Cros, sugar daddy to ever willing Supreme Court judges like Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.  Gore makes clear that Leo is also very chummy with Ginni Thomas.   

A fine summary of the book can be found in the New York Magazine by investigative journalist Nina Burleigh.  It is called "How Opus Dei Conquered D. C."  (September 19, 2024).  Read it and weep.  And act.  And spread the news of the antichrist in waiting. And get out the vote for alternatives.

FROM REDEEMER TO REVOLUTIONARY

 

God of the Absurd  

Jesus of Nazareth was declared God and Redeemer through his crucifixion by the Council of Nicea.  Now that the myth of original sin is historically and theologically found impossible as a credible myth, Jesus and his death can now be looked at as a challenge to the Roman Empire.

Jesus of Nazareth was not the first to be crucified by the Roman Empire for advocating freedom.  He is the best known for advocating a nonviolent jihad for freedom.  

See:  

God & Empire by John Dominic Crossan  2007

Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography by John Dominic Crossan  1994

Original Blessing by Matthew Fox  1983

Recovering the Sacred: Teilhard, Newell & the Celtic Tradition By Matthew Fox October 5, 2024

Celtic Spirituality, Philip Newell, Teilhard de Chardin, The Sacred

I ended my Daily Meditation yesterday with the all-important practical question:  What other ways are there for recovering a sense of the sacred?  Meaning, besides Lakota teacher buck Ghosthorse's practice of going without water to recover the sacredness of water.

And Thomas Berry's teaching that bringing back the experience of awe and wonder that the "numinous" universe gives us.  (And, let me add, what the Webb telescope makes available daily to us.)

I am reminded of Teilhard de Chardin's observation on the death knell of religion in the West.  Because it is not sufficiently moved by a truly human compassion, because it is not exalted by a sufficiently passionate admiration of the universe, our religion is becoming enfeebled.

These words were translated into English in the year 1968, the spring I sat in class with Pere Chenu and he named the creation spirituality tradition for me the first time.  Chenu had great respect for Teilhard.

Teilhard elaborates in another place.  I give the name of cosmic sense to the more or less confused affinity that binds us psychologically to the All which envelops us.  In order that the sense of humanity might emerge, it was necessary for civilization to begin to encircle the Earth.  

The experience of awe and wonder at our home, the universe and the cosmic sense, Thomas Berry equates with our moving from a human-centered and narcissistic relationship to nature to a sense of the sacred.  Teilhard again:  The cosmic sense must have been born as soon as humanity found itself facing the frost, the sea and the stars.  And since then we find evidence of it in all our experience of the great and unbounded:  in art, in poetry, and in religion.  

We find the awareness of the sacred well named by Celtic scholar Philip Newell in our time.  "The Celtic tradition has been saying all along, "he reminds, "that we cannot contain the sacred.  Rather, we are to look for it everywhere, and we are to observe it and be liberators of it in one another and in the earth."

And he reminds us that there is work ahead.  "The labor pains of a new birthing will be mighty.  there is no going back to the small God."  Anthropocentrism and human narcissism is in no way the future--of religion or politics or a viable path for humanity.  

What I call "deep ecumenism" in my book on the Cosmic Christ is born of this renewed sense of the whole.  As Newell puts it:  We now know too much about the interrelatedness of all life to pretend that well-being can be sought for one part alone and not for the whole, for only one religion, one nation, one species.

There is no returning to the limited notion of sacredness as if it were somehow the preserver of one particular people over another, of one race gender, or sexual orientation.  Sacredness is the birthright of all that is.  It is the grace that comes with existence."

The Working Catholic: How to Vote by Bill Droel

Whom should U.S. Catholics vote for in the presidential election? The question, in so many words, was posed to Pope Francis during his recent return flight from Asia. Choose, he replied.  Both major candidates are flawed. Vice-president Kamala Harris does not fully respect life with her position on abortion. Former president Donald Trump does not respect life with his position on immigrants. “Decide according to [your] conscience,” the pope concluded.

Electoral politics is about incremental improvement, not about perfection. There is no perfect candidate for a Catholic voter, or in fact for any voter. Pope Francis is preaching humility, writes David French in The New York Times (9/22/24). His words are “an invitation to introspection, a call to examine your conscience.” French contrasts thoughtful humility with “absolute certainty.” He offers MAGA Christians as an example of having minds “largely free of doubt.” They are sure that “you cannot be a Christian and vote Democratic,” writes French.

Interestingly, only a small percentage of voters describe Donald Trump as religious. His supporters, a recent survey suggests, don’t care if he is religious or not. Even though those supporters might identify as Christian, they have other motivations for supporting Trump.

A Catholic voter or a Catholic office holder should strive for consistent application of principle, explains Steven Millies in A Consistent Ethic of Life (Paulist Press, 2024).However, he continues, consistent does not mean equal. Some issues are more pressing, others have wider consequences. The virtue of consistency requires experience, prudence and some sophistication. There is little value in adding-up checkmarks on a so-called guide for Catholic issues. The moral method is prior to the issues. (More from Millies in a subsequent blog.)

A faithful Catholic who practices thoughtful humility is not a relativist. He or she has strong principles but is savvy enough to consider contingencies. Simply signaling one’s virtue is arrogant. A sincere Catholic realizes that what is good for an individual or a group this month may not serve the common good in six months. The common good, by the way, is different from the greatest good for the greatest number. The common good looks further along the calendar. It considers the good things citizens can achieve only acting in common: neighborhood and school safety, clean water, a thriving economy and the like.

Who to vote for? Strategy is an additional consideration.

Some Catholic leaders of late advise voting for the individual, not for the party. This advice is directed to Catholics who favor multiple issues associated with a party, but who know that one or more of its candidates are mistaken on an important issue. Split your vote, this advice says.

This strategy is a big departure from what U.S. Catholics have long been taught: Vote the ticket. Unless a party controls a legislative body (city council or House of Representatives), there will be gridlock. No meaningful improvement will occur. Second according to the traditional Catholic strategy, benefits to a neighborhood or a family come by way of a united party, not by a solitary office holder. Third, it is the party that can best corral any office holder that goes rouge.

Humility, consistency and a view to the future are among the imperatives Catholics exercise in the voting booth.

Droel edits INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629), a print newsletter on faith and

The Working Catholic by Bill Droel

  

A victim syndrome underlies the divisiveness in our society, explains Frank Bruni in The Age of Grievance (Simon & Schuster, 2024).

Each of us experiences frustrations. We complain that the line in the grocery is too long and it was a mistake to shop or the neighbor’s dogs bark all day and a move to a No Pets apartment would be wise.

Grievance goes beyond such feelings of bad luck. We can normally get past daily frustrations with a swear word or two and a little wine at night. Grievance, however, is the belief that I have “been wronged,” writes Bruni.  It has damaging psychological and social repercussions. Grievance is excess agitation and excess sensitivity. It leads to “wildly disproportionate outbursts” and perhaps conspiracy theories. They are out to get me, an aggrieved person suspects. Grievance is “an all-encompassing lens” through which past hurts regularly reappear, Bruni continues. It is unfortunately a conflation of “the picayune and the profound.”

Grievance is also different from bad luck in that it reduces frustration to fault in others. An aggrieved person sees that someone is above or ahead of them. The advantage, our aggrieved person quickly concludes, was unfairly gained at his or her expense. An example is someone who says, my tax dollars go toward assisting those lazy, illegal migrants.

Although he is our Whiner in Chief, Donald Trump did not start the grievance trend. Bruni mentions Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) of France, who toured the U.S. and then famously wrote his generally positive impressions. However, de Tocqueville pointed out that people on our shores are forever “brooding over advantages they do not possess.” The grievance trend has steadily increased since the late 1960s as our culture and our economy have tilted away from organic communities and heavily toward individualism.

We no longer live in a Garden of Eden. There is bad luck, sin and dysfunctional institutions all around. However, children can learn to navigate life and thus develop a healthy disposition as adults. Erik Erikson (1902-1994) named stages of development. The crucial first one is trust vs. mistrust. That is, a child must come to believe that the world is generally a reliable place; that its scrapes and bumps and slights can soon enough be hopped over. Trust and thus happiness are achieved with dependable parents and a circle of good playmates.

Of course, Donald Trump doesn’t help matters with his harangues about scams and rigged processes and fake news and polluted institutions and losers. But Bruni goes beyond Trump’s pessimism to provide many examples of aggrieved behaviors. Bruni calls out those young adults who have a hyper-craving for safety. They want a buffer against what they consider offensive language, against teachers who present a full range of literature or history, against guest speakers with opposing views and more. A key word for these young adults is hurtful.   

In addition to Trump, other forces are fueling grievance. For example, elements in the self-help movement have morphed into a presumption that “all feelings are presumed meaningful and warrant a group’s attention.” This hypersensitivity assumes a right to be “protected from disappointment,” leading perhaps to temperamental antics by an individual or groups.

The massive wealth gap is another accelerant. It undermines our country’s promise of upward mobility. The gap hits home through an array of cultural signals like elite seating at stadiums, concierge health care arrangements, displays of luxury porn in magazines and on TV, executive-only washrooms and the like.

Bruni also mentions the prevalence of dystopian movies and internet sites in which destruction and end times are depicted. These films support pessimism and justify grievance.

Don’t misunderstand. There is injustice in the world. The healthy response to which is the virtue of social justice. It is unhealthy to respond by fantasizing villains lurking all around, by hallow displays of annoyance or by posturing oneself as a victim. Social justice is organizing like-minded people for improved policies or institutions. It requires competence, an end game and a good enough for now plan B.

Get What Is Social Justice? from National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629; $5)

"A Female President of the United States: A Hope?" by Leonardo Boff

 This weekend I received the following article from my friend in Brazil, theologian Leonardo Boff. I have cut it some to fit our format. Matthew Fox in his Daily Meditation from August 19, 2024

The real possibility that a woman, Kamala Harris, will become president of the imperial power, the United States of America, would represent a novum in the history of that country, and perhaps a step forward in the new relationship between genders. 

The USA, independent since 1776, has had 44 presidents, all men and none women.  Many see the president exclusively in military terms, more as the head of the Armed Forces--the one who holds the red telephone and the button to launch a nuclear war--than as the promoter of the common good. 

That's why they keep fighting wars everywhere.  Virtually all presidents, including Obama, are imbued with "manifest destiny," the belief that the United States is anointed as "that new people of God with a mission to bring (bourgeois) democracy, (individual) human rights, and peace (of the market) for the world".

Under the patriarchy that has lasted for ten thousand years, since the Neolithic era, with the formation of villages and agriculture, women have always been relegated to the private world.  Even knowing that a historical era existed, twenty thousand years ago, of matriarchy forming egalitarian societies that integrated with nature and was deeply spiritual.

Patriarchy, the predominance of the male (machismo) was one of the greatest mistakes in human history.  The type of State we have is attributed to patriarchy, including war and violence as a way of solving problems, the private appropriation of land, and the generation of inequalities and all types of discrimination.  

In capitalism, in its various forms, it gained its most expressive configuration, with the rate of social inequity it brings with it.  

Throughout this process, the main victims were women, along with those deprived of strength and power.  Since then, the destiny of women, in historical-social terms, has been defined based on the man who occupied every public space. 

But slowly, starting in the United States, in the 19th century, women became aware of their autonomous identity.  The feminist movement grew, became active in practically all countries and occupied public spaces.  Entering universities and then into the job market, women brought their unique (non-exclusive) values as women:  more given to collaboration as opposed to competition from men, more care, more flexibility, more ability to deal with complexity, more human sensitivity and heart, finally, more open to dialogue against sexist and patriarchal authoritarianism.  

In a word, they brought more humanity to a rational, rigid, competitive, efficient world, marked by the will to power as domination:  the world of men.  They, by their nature, represent rather the will to live and to relate.  

Even so, the fight for gender equality is far from being fully won.  It was only in 1920 that women gained the right to vote in the United States.  In Brazil only in 1932.  Today 52% of the electorate is female.  

Empowering women's identity and relational autonomy will generate a new paradigm:  that of reciprocity, of cooperation between men and women....

Politically, the best way to express this civilizational advance would be participatory, socio-ecological democracy, in which man and woman cooperatively and in solidarity would build a dream world that responds to the deepest desires of the human psyche.  

The Working Catholic: Two Labor Days by Bill Droel

  

The original Labor Day parade was held in 1882, in New York City. It was sponsored by the Knights of Labor. Its organizers were two Catholics. Though not related, they share the same last name. Matthew McGuire (1855-1917) was a machinist from New Jersey; Peter McGuire (1852-1906), working in Chicago at the time, was a carpenter. In 1894 Labor Day became a national holiday and was set on the first Monday of September.

St. Joseph, also a carpenter, is associated with Labor Day in round-about fashion. The saga begins here in Chicago where on May 1, 1886 a federation of labor unions began a campaign for an eight-hour workday. A subsequent rally in our now trendy Haymarket area turned violent when someone threw a stick of dynamite. Police then fired wildly into the crowd. Four workers and seven police died. Seven workers were rounded-up and sentenced, four of whom were hanged in November 1886.

In July 1889 communist leaders in several European countries designated May 1^st as Labor Day to honor the Chicago Haymarket workers. (Illinois Labor History Society; www.illinoislaborhistory.org)

 In 1956, to offset the communist influence on Europe’s Labor Day Pope Pius XII (1876-1958) established May 1^st as the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Some U.S. bishops immediately asked to observe the new St. Joseph feast on the first Monday of September in our country only. Permission was granted. Nonetheless instead of the September date, the May 1^st date for St. Joseph took hold in the U.S.

 Ed Marciniak (1917-2004), a Chicago labor activist, saw in the two dates a significant difference in worldviews. People in the U.S. “have never developed a strong class consciousness,” as did those in communist-influenced Europe, he wrote. Working families in Europe drifted away from Catholicism because Church officials there and in Latin America got too much “in league with the wealthy against the poor.” By contrast, U.S. Catholicism “has never had…a hostile working class.” (Since 1968 many Catholics in our country have left the church behind. They walked away out of indifference or lately in disgust, but not out of economic or political hostility.) 

An economic system predicated on “class struggle…will be inadequate and distorted,” Marciniak concludes. So maybe having two dates in our country (May 1^st and first Monday in September) contains a hidden blessing. 

(Learn more about Marciniak in Ed Marcinaik’s City and Church, National Center for the Laity, PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629; $20). 

 

 

The Working Catholic: Mystery by Bill Droel

 

It is commonly ranked as the top professional football play of all time. Only 22-seconds remained in the December 1972 AFC Division final. The Steelers were losing. That’s when Terry Bradshaw pitched the immaculate reception to Franco Harris (1950-2022) for the thrilling victory. The play is legendary; it can be viewed on several websites.

The Eucharist is not a legend. It is not a reenactment. It is not available on instant replay. It is a total reality that contains the Pascal Mystery of Jesus Christ. However, to enter into the Eucharist and absorb the real presence of Jesus/God it is necessary to experience the world as enchanting. And that is a problem. All of us these days are prone to misplaced enchantment. We take many things for granted, assuming that what we don’t know can easily be learned through a Google search. We shift our curiosity to superficialities—to rumors about celebrities, to gossip about schoolmates, to endless detail about daily comings-and-goings. We go to a football game, yet spend our time there attending to our mobile device.

We modern people have replaced awe and reverence with a blasé take on reality. Yes, a rare eclipse stimulates our imaginations. For the most part, however, we neglect the daily discipline of contemplation that would allow us to apprehend the surprising movements of grace lurking within or beneath normal routines. Nearly everything nowadays is taken at face value; and even then not taken too seriously. Ours is an age of irony.

There are moments when we do encounter something that defies the trivial. There are some levels of experience that are not readily explained on the internet. What is the meaning of death? What accounts for singular and incomprehensible recoveries? The internet does not know. Our first reaction is to diminish such things. There are clichés we can use to move on.

Another reaction to uncertainty is a MAGA-style conspiracy theory. It is intolerable that scientists can’t immediately know the cause of and simple cure for Covid-19. So it must be a hoax and the remarkable vaccine is really perpetuating a sinister plot. Our disposition toward the gracious and mysterious is scant.

The Eucharist is a complete story. It is more than a story, of course, but its enchanted drama is prior. Without that prior enchantment, an effort to philosophically explain the Eucharist can unintentionally have an opposite effect. Nor is openness to enchantment aided by too much technical stress on prior requirements for Eucharistic worthiness. No one is worthy. The Eucharist is a gift.

The Eucharist is a dynamic event that cannot be dissected. It has to be captivating. Marriage is a mystery. It must be entered into without total certainty and yet without paralyzing doubt. Marriage reveals what it contains over months and years; in its highs and lows. In the same way, the Eucharist is a mystery. The word mystery is not a cop-out, used by those who lack sensible explanations. The word mystery means that which can only be known in relationship.

Droel edits a print newsletter, INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629).

The Working Catholic: NO CONSECRATION by Bill Droel

The bells are back.

Years ago and for years before that, the attention of worshipers at Mass drifted for understandable reasons: their ignorance of Latin and their partially obstructed view of the drama. Congregants often used their time at Mass for private prayer. Thus at key moments in the Mass, particularly at the consecration, altar servers would ring an assemblage of bells. The bells went quietly into a closet nearly 60 years ago. In recent months, however, several churches have dusted off the old Mass bells. Their purpose is similar to what it was in the old days. Only today the distraction is individual use of mobile devices during what should be communal worship.

The Assyrian Church of the East has a Mass/Divine Liturgy ritual (Anaphora of Addai and Mari) without a consecration, also called “words of institution.” This ancient ritual, now used mostly in India, is in full communion with Roman Catholicism. How can this be? How can Jesus Christ be really present in what appears as bread and wine unless the formula of Jesus’ Last Supper is prayed over the bread and wine?

The current Mass ritual for Roman Catholics (the 1969/1970 Novus Ordo) is meant to pull all worshipers into “full and active participation” in this premier prayer. It is a single prayer, from the entrance procession to the dismissal procession. Christ is really present in a magnificent way throughout—beginning to end. Christ is present in the presider (the alter Christus). Christ is really present in the proclamation of God’s revealed Word, through the voice of the lectors. Christ is really present in the communion bread and the communion wine. Christ is really present in the congregation as they pray the Mass and as they head for the exit sign, acting as members of the Mystical Body of Christ.

Isn’t it possible that the truth of Christ really present in the entire Mass is conveyed as well in the Anaphora of Addai and Mari Rite (without an explicit consecration) as in the Latin Rite (with or without bells)? Still, is the Anaphora of Addai and Mari valid?

Most Catholics in the United States celebrate Mass in what is called the Latin Rite and most presume theirs (be it celebrated in Spanish, English or Polish) is the only Mass ritual. Yet in addition to the Latin Rite, Roman Catholicism has several other equally valid rites. For example, in October 2009 Pope Benedict XVI approved the Anglican Rite. Its Mass, celebrated here-and-there in Great Britain, the United States and India, varies only slightly from the Latin Rite. The ancient Byzantine Rite is widely used in the East, but also at a small number of designated parishes in the U.S. It has many differences from the Latin Rite. There is likewise the Maronite Rite used in Lebanon. There’s the Ge’ez Rite used in Ethiopia and also in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. All of these rites are equally valid within Roman Catholicism. So too are several more that are traced to the early days of Christianity.

Keep in mind too that the Mass or Divine Liturgy in all of the Eastern Orthodox churches is valid and licit; that Christ is truly and really present in their worship. 

The Assyrian Church of the East (the Addai and Mari Rite), which belongs to the East Syriac Rite, is not Eastern Orthodox; it is a separate branch of Christianity. Its Mass, as mentioned, is quite different from a Latin Rite Mass. However, it is valid and licit; Christ is truly and really present in their worship. Since 2001 there has even been an official agreement allowing “mutual admission” of one another’s worshipers between Assyrian Church of the East and Roman Catholicism.

To make matters more complicated and more interesting, Roman Catholicism judges the Mass of several break-away denominations to be valid, though not licit. That is, Christ is really present in their Liturgy/Mass, even though their rites may differ from the common Latin Rite. By illicit, Roman Catholicism means disapproval of their independent governance status. The Polish National Catholic Church, headquartered in Scranton, is one example.

Suffice it to say that God is bigger than any one parish, bigger than any one formula for the Mass/Liturgy and certainly bigger than any two-minute segment of a liturgy.

Droel edits a print newsletter on faith and work, INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago,

The Working Catholic: Eucharist by Bill Droel

 

Our U.S. Catholic bishops host a Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis from July 17-21, 2024. It is the culmination of a three-year process meant to teach the real presence of Jesus/God in the Eucharist.  The bishops are reacting to surveys that seemingly show that Catholics do not know or do not believe the dogma of the Eucharist. (There is ambiguity. For example, to answer a survey question by saying “the Eucharist is a symbol” does not preclude the belief that it is God’s real presence. It can be both. Additionally, our bishops have multiple motives. For example, one faction is using the Eucharistic Congress to highlight a contradiction between President Joseph Biden’s devotion to the Eucharist and his support for abortion access.)

Pope Pius X (1835-1914) was a conservative. He opposed several modern trends. However, he is credited with opening the door to modern liturgical reforms, centering them in the dogma of the Eucharist. In the first two decades of the 20 th century, monasteries in Germany, France and Belgium experimented with reforms that were soon enough authorized at Vatican II (1962-1965). These changes are meant to bring worshipers into closer relationship with the Eucharistic, through the Mass. They include prayers at Mass said aloud by the entire congregation—the Gloria, the Creed, the Sanctus, the Lamb of God and several responses. The Mass itself is prayed in the vernacular, rather than in Latin—in Spanish, English, Polish and more. Taking a cue from Pius X, regular reception of the Eucharist in both the consecrated wine and bread is the norm, no longer something rare or selective. Qualms about one’s worthiness are taken care of in the opening penitential rite of the Mass.

It is interesting to note that from the early 1900s until Vatican II, the liturgical movement was connected with the virtue of social justice. For example, Fr. Lambert Beauduin, OSB (1873-1960), a major figure in the liturgical movement, was a labor chaplain with a strong social conscience and compassion for the poor. Fr. Virgil Michel, OSB (1890-1938) of Minnesota did more than anyone else in the U.S. to promote the liturgical movement and the dogma of the Eucharist. “The liturgy is the ordinary school for [and] the indispensable basis of social reconstruction,” Michel said. The Eucharist inside a church is a failure if it doesn’t live in jobsites and neighborhoods during the week, he preached.

The concept linking Eucharist and social regeneration is called the Mystical Body of Christ. The Mystical Body is Christ acting all week long through people who are allergic to injustice. The phrase was well-known in the years prior to Vatican II. Then it quietly disappeared. 

Could the loss of the Mystical Body concept be listed among the causes of weak appreciation for the Eucharistic dogma? Might a renewed emphasis on social renewal be an effective way to reverence Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist? To be continued…

Droel edits a newsletter on faith and work for National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL

60629)

Humanity and the quest for peace.

 

Isaiah 11

Could there be an evolving of humanity’s awareness of the sacredness of the material and the spiritual?  It would move us towards creation and away from destruction.  (The evolving Divine Milieu – Teilhard de Chardin)  

With wars raging, peace seems impossible.  An ethic of non-violence is unimaginable, but let’s look to St. Paul.  He followed Genesis, ‘all is good’ and Romans 8, All creation is groaning for redemption.    

Love exists in our experience of family and friends.  We are waiting for love that is beyond friendship or family.  We wait for love that is unconditional for all creation.

For in hope we were saved.  Now hope that sees for itself is not hope.  For who hopes for what one sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.  (Romans 8:24-25)

Are we evolving towards universal unconditional love for all creation?   (The evolving  Divine Milieu – Tailhard de Chardin)

 

PBS  -  Teilhard de Chardin, scientific visionary

MPT Presents | Teilhard: Visionary Scientist | PBS

Moral Guidelines

 

Rembrandt

Have we lost our way?  

President Joe Biden seems impervious to the criticism that sending arms to Israel resulting in massive killings is wrong.  Candidate and former President Donald Trump is without shame with the revelation of his sexual crimes. His business dealings even violate capitalist norms. Both men have millions of followers.  
Thomas Friedman says we’ve lost our moorings as a society. (“How We’ve Lost Our Moorings as a Society” May 28, 2024, New York Times)

But what about the ancient Decalogue, the ten commandments? The spring festival of Shavous celebrates God giving the Law to the Hebrews.  Is this just ritual?

The Law states: “You shall not kill; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or your neighbor’s goods.”  Have we dismissed the Decalogue?  Are we pursuing the idolatry of the Golden Calf?  (Ex. 32:19)  

As a nation, our Golden Calf is power and money.

The Two-Fold Detour of Christianity in the Fourth Century by Matthew Fox

 Christianity took a two-fold detour in the fourth century.  First, when the emperor Constantine became Christian and spread Christianity through the empire in order to make some peace between warring factions of Christians.

While peacemaking is a good thing, Christianity paid a severe price when it moved from being essentially a thorn in the empire's side to being a crusade in Christ's name.

New Testament scholar Dominic Crossan wonders aloud if the Nicene Creed called by Constantine was a 'nightmare.'

The 'desert fathers' movement (beginning third century) and subsequent monastic movements (beginning fourth century) both resisted the dominant imperial values of the imperial culture before and after Constantine.

The price paid by a so-called "Cristian empire" was severe on indigenous peoples, their cultures and religions especially from the time of Columbus on.  "Christian empires" of the Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch, or Belgian colonizers seldom qualified as something Christ-like.

The second shadow that emerged in the name of Christianity in the fourth century was that of Augustine and his cherished Neo-Platonism.

Augustine planted dualisms of body vs. soul, sexuality vs. spirituality, nature vs. grace, male vs. female alongside his notion of original sin that fashioned a dualistic Christianity that spread in Western Europe and beyond. 

There were movements that resisted this dualism--Aquinas was key--but as historian Pere Chenu laments, it never really took hold in the church. 

Christianity became less and less moored to Jesus and his teachings and to the original meaning of the Christ event--including the Cosmic Christ and a creation-centered mysticism.

Unmoored from the gospels, it became moored to the needs of empire-building including invoking the idea of 'redemption' (understood as redemption from original sin) as the rallying cry to conquer peoples of the earth.  And preaching that one was doomed to hell if this 'redemption' was not accomplished exclusively through Christ.  And feeding the Doctrine of Discovery (mercifully but belatedly buried recently by Pope Francis after five+ centuries).  

The Nicene Creed, crafted by bishops under the eye of Emperor Constantine, does show important traces of the Cosmic Christ cosmology, but it astonishingly leaves out the teaching of Jesus.  No mention whatsoever of 'love thy neighbor'; 'what you do to the least you do to me"; "Be you compassionate as your Father in heaven is compassionate"; the Beatitudes; or justice.  One has to look elsewhere for that--maybe back to the gospels themselves?

Why Unions at Good Companies? The Working Catholic by Bill Droel

“Why did the new, worker friendly workplaces prove unable to keep their employees happy enough not to have to pay union dues?” So asks a Chicago Tribune editorial (4/10/24). The editors have in mind Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, the camping equipment retailer REI plus several museums and theatres here in Chicago and elsewhere. After all, Trader Joe’s has a 7% annual pay increase, a 401K, a health insurance option, employee discount on groceries and more, the Tribune informs us. 

Many executives and managers plus the Tribune editors have a mistaken premise. Employees who desire a union are not entirely motivated by discontent, particularly regarding their wage. The desire for participation is an increasingly important factor in union activity among nurses, tech engineers, hotel staff, autoworkers and more. These employees organize in part to keep their good company good. 

Then too perhaps the Tribune and others are mistaken that these companies really are progressive. The companies in question undermine their image once the word union enters their domain. The noble employers quickly reveal another side. They retaliate. They threaten to close a store or an entire plant. They harass outspoken employees. They make side-deals with passive employees. They begin legal action against employees who promote their cause with t-shirts and tote bags that display the company name or logo. Such employers conclusively reveal their true character when they retain a union-busting firm. They continue their hostility by avoiding conversations and negotiations with employees.

Paternalism is not respectful. Grand mission statements are hollow without genuine involvement of all the workers. 

Catholic labor relations doctrine can help. It states that a decision for or against a union belongs to the employees without paternal or maternal interference from their employer.  Every honest company, no matter the circumstances, should share information with its workers through regular conversations, attractive pamphlets and newsletters plus supplying understandable summaries of the data given to investors. But a union vote is to be without harassment.

Catholic doctrine does not say that any one or another company must have a union. Nor does Catholic doctrine endorse this union for this company. Again, the choice belongs to the employees. 

Catholic doctrine does say that a healthy society has the collective participation of workers in some form. Democratic unions are a normal way to secure participation. Catholic doctrine instructs employers and employees to behave ethically. Retaining a union-busting firm violates Catholic doctrine and is objectively sinful. Instead, employers are advised to seek reputable assistance in their labor relations. Those employers who bargain tough are well within bounds.

For more on this topic, obtain St. John Paul II’s Gospel of Work (National Center for the Laity, PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629; $8)