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America Revisited
Signs of hope and joy
After crossing the Atlantic in the mid 1970s to train for the priesthood in England, Fr Christopher Basden finds that twenty years on, English Catholicism now has much to learn from the thriving orthodoxy of many initiatives in the USA.
It was the summer of 1975 and a difficult decision had to be made. I was 22, a recent graduate of Georgetown University and I left American shores to train for the priesthood in an English Seminary. The reasons for this were complex. I had in fact previously made happy contact with the local vocations director when my parents were then residing in Britain. Now however, I had painfully to return alone to England because of a yet unarticulated unease at symptoms in the US Church. These currents of fashion seemed so contradictory to everything that I had loved in the Church of my boyhood. A generation later I had to concede ruefully that all these currents had also crossed the Atlantic and that the Church in both countries had suffered from a precipitous decline. This included about 50% of Mass attendance, an increasing dearth of priestly and religious vocations and, up to very recently, a virtual cessation of the converts who had always made the Church strong.
Almost twenty years later, I found myself back in the USA working for a year in different places in order to be closer to my parents. Resigning myself to the inevitable looniness and desolation of the US Church I was unprepared for the signs of hope in most of the areas I visited. Dissent, secularism, feminism and liberalism have eroded the once arguably most powerful and fruitful Church in the entire world.
Like so many Catholics of my age and older, the inspiration of my childhood and eventual vocational awareness, was due to the unforgettable presence in our lives of women Religious. This once great visible sign has now in the western world (alone) shrunk to small groups of aging women, externally unrecognizable and uncertain about their identity and future. In 1992 a momentous decision of the Holy See allowed an unprecedented separate Conference of Religious Superiors of American Sisters to emerge. These Sisters (of different congregations en bloc) now number over 10,000. Formerly grouped under Perfectae Caritatis, they had long been dissatisfied with the appalling trends of decline presided over by the feminist National Coalition of American Nuns, now styled the Leadership Caucus of Women Religious. This group presided over one of the saddest chapters of Religious Life in the Church's history startlingly chronicled by Donna Steichen in her Ungodly Rage.
The new Council of Major Religious Superiors is headed by the indomitable and humorous Mother Vincent Marie Finnegan of Los Angeles. She has stated unequivocally that they are distinguished by three factors: a loyalty to the Magisterium of the Church, a commitment to community life expressed in corporate apostolates and the bold witness to the world of the Religious habit as mandated by the Holy Father and Vatican II. The result: anew dawn of vocations of Sisters in the USA. The new council is comprised of 10% novices, the old council had less than 0.01% in formation. The new council includes the Dominican Sisters of Nashville, the Franciscans of the Martyr St George, the US Daughters of St Paul, the Little Sisters of the Poor and Mother Vincent's own (unenclosed) Carmelites. Visiting these Sisters was a shock; when had I last seen so many recognizable young sisters so vibrant, confident and in love with the Church?
On the men's side I visited the Premonstratensiams of Orange County, California; impressively full of youth, for years governed by the wise Hungarian exile Abbot Parker. The Legionaries of Christ had 80 novices last year in their Seminary at Cheshire Connecticut. This new Religious congregation of priests now comprises 2,500 seminarians and 400 priests world-wide but with a heavy American contingent The very new Brothers of St John founded only 19 years ago in France now number 300 on every continent (save Australia).
How impressive to see so many young American Vocations embarking on this fascinating combination of monastic life coupled with apostolic zeal. A great number, were to be seen with their youth welcoming the Holy Father to Denver. The Fraternity of St Peter near Scranton, has a new Seminary founded only four years ago. for the Old Rite with an intake which has grown each year. Better known is the indefatigable and hilarious Fr Benedict Groeschel who, after leaving the Capuchins, has headed the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal which again have had a bevy of young vocations. These very different examples of Religious and Priestly life have three factors in common: a stress on doctrinal orthodoxy, an authentic strong spiritual formation, and a love and loyalty for the magisterium.
One of the most extraordinary characters in this cast of New World Renewal has to be Mother Angelica. Aged 73 and badly crippled by Polio this Poor Clare of Perpetual Adoration has, with Mother Teresa, been among, the most prophetic voices in the contemporary Church. In the early 1980s she began her Eternal Word Television Network in Birmingham, Alabama. Today having access to 40 million homes, she has championed the cause of loyal Catholics. Twenty-four hours a day on television and radio she beams in four different language programs encompassing every aspect of the Church from Catechisms to Cardinals. Quietly revolutionizing the face of the American Church, this little old nun has galvanized laity and priests to stand up against the abuses of liturgy and doctrine, and has been a great ally for the priests' association CREDO, attempting to alert Episcopal attention to the ideologies current in official translations, in contrast to the US hierarchies million dollar attempt at an ecumenical TV station (which folded this summer) Mother Angelica is utterly dependent on divine providence for every penny.
Earlier in my life I had gladly and proudly enrolled at the oldest Pontifical Catholic University in the country. Sadly the denominational allegiance of the once impressive array of US Catholic universities had been dramatically weakened in the bogus name of academic freedom. Most of these institutions differ little from their secular, pluralistic counterparts, in stark contrast to the directives from Rome outlined in Ex Corde Ecclesiae. In the last couple of years an impressive group, the Cardinal Newman Society, has emerged to work for this document to be implemented. Already beacons of hope in Catholic tertiary education are four colleges: Magdalene College NH, St Thomas Aquinas College, California, Christendom College in Virginia and most impressively and movingly the Franciscan University of Steubenville.
Visiting the Campus with my parents on an ordinary weekday we attended the noon Mass. It was full of young students many of whom had gathered earlier or lingered behind to pray the Rosary or to adore. We were told that 60% of the students are daily communicants with the figure rising during Lent to 80%. There are 2000 students at Steubenville from 50 states and 50 nations. Furthermore 20% of the students discern a religions or priestly vocation. At the end of the Mass we all joined in a rousing prayer to St Michael: my mother's response "Well now I can die!". This echoes the sentiments of untold millions of bullied and bewildered Catholics of her generation whose suffering and fidelity without consolation will engender the new life I describe. We were moved as we prayed in the beautiful copy of Assisi's Portiuncula Chapel. The difference being that in Steubenville this chapel, never closes: students adore the exposed Blessed Sacrament 24 hours a day. Adjacent is the tomb of several unborn children and this clarity on Life issues is marked by Steubenville's fearless public and political presence in the battle for Life in which whole echelons of the Western Church have been marked by their silence.
Behind the phenomenon of this University is its president: Fr Michael Scanlon, TOR, Twenty-one years ago he took on the College spiritually and financially bankrupt. Using charismatic renewal to jump start it back to life, he brought it to the point where it is now a recognized Catholic centre of "dynamic orthodoxy". Prominent among the professors at Steubenville is one of America's most revered converts: Scott Hahn. His extraordinary conversion story co-authored with his wife Kimberley has been chronicled in Rome Sweet Home, a touching yet remarkable theological account of their difficult pilgrimage towards Catholicism. Ironically it began at the very point which unites dissenters, the doctrine of Humanae Vitae. The Hahns themselves have spawned a growing number of converts including the former Protestant pastor, Marcus Grodi. In the broader realm there are a number of vibrant converts unafraid to stand as a voice for the Church. Fr Richard John Neuhaus a former Lutheran Pastor, edits the New Oxford Review. Another is Thomas Howard of the Holy Apostles Seminary Connecticut who tells this story in Lead kindly light, Journey to Rome. Others include Paul and Evelyn Vitz both of New York University, Peter Kreeft of Boston College, the author Sheldon Vananken, Jerry Rubin from the Reform Jewish tradition and Ferdinand Mahfood who runs Food for the Poor in Florida.
Another symptom of burgeoning renewal is the reappearance of Apologetics. Many contemporary students of theology and seminarians will never have heard of it. To meet Fr Peter Stravinskas, the fiery but hilarious editor of Catholic Answers was memorable. Another deeply impressive speaker I heard later was Karl Keating from the West Coast, author of Catholicism and Fundamentalism one of the few modem systematic answers to the fundamentalism which has caused a veritable hemorrhage among American and Mexican Catholics. Keating also edits This Rock (the Magazine of Catholic Apologetics) and Evangelization. For younger folk caught up in the mires of materialism and the sex drenched society of North America, one Paul Lauer edits You, The Alternative Youth Magazine, a glossy for teens with spiritual and moral input focusing on stars who practice the Faith. Another fine youth initiative is NET (National Evangelization Teams). Finally one area which "separates the men from the boys" is the Pro-Life movement in which many young people develop a strong faith. There is even a new religious congregation now in formation styled The Sisters of Life made up of a group of professional young women brought together by this common cause.
Accompanying this is also an alignment of Catholic academics grouped together in the Guild of Catholic Scholars Shining among those is Dr. Janet Smith, author of Why Humanae Vitae was Right. She speaks movingly of her own evolution in this area. Unable to secure tenure at the University of Notre Dame she now teaches at the Common Cistercian's University of Dallas. Last year she successfully debated one of the few 1968 dissenters to have persevered in both his dissent and his priestly status: Fr Charles Curran. He was for 25 years permitted to teach seminarians at Catholic University in Washington until the Vatican Finally intervened.
Right under the nose of another arch-dissenter, Fr Richard McBrien, at Notre Dame is a philosophy department full of loyal Catholics epitomized by Professor Ralph McIneney editor of Crisis, A Journal of Lay Catholic Opinion. Finally, one of the most energetic movements I saw was Jerry Coniker's Apostolate for Family Consecration, in Ohio, With Mother Teresa and Cardinal Arinze this new corps of lay celibate men and women produce videos to promote the family rosary and the teaching of the catechism. I used some of those videos for Lent and they were hoping for an outlet in these islands through the good offices of Bishop McGee of Cloyne.
Perhaps the greatest publishing impetus emanates from Ignatius Press headed by the remarkable young Fr Joe Fessio SJ of San Francisco who has campaigned the cause of sound theology and good catechesis in his books and program and in his news magazine The Catholic World Report. Perhaps this is only the tip of the iceberg. So many other things come to mind from Home Schooling to the Homiletic & Pastoral Review and from Mgr. Wrenn to the courageous 50,000 Women, for Faith and Family.
Although the great majority of these pioneers of orthodoxy, evangelization and spiritual renewal are lay there are some notable priests and religious. Lastly, there are even a few Bishops who are noted for their independence from the prevailing liberal bent of the Conference, having instead a bold allegiance to the Holy Father. Among these are John J Myers of Peoria, Illinois, Fabian Bruskevitz of Lincoln, Nebraska and John Keating of Arlington, Virginia. These three dioceses are noted for an extraordinary number of priestly vocations. Only recently the latter had received a warning not to take anyone from outside the confines of the diocese so popular has it become. Interestingly enough too, it was only in these dioceses that the advent of altar girls (a national preoccupation for a generation) was curtailed.
Obviously I now return with a new found hope. One can look for historical parallels; for example the Catholic Reformation in the 16th century or the amazing renaissance of the French Church in the 19th century after its virtual suffocation at the Revolution. Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to remind us of the vital difference: our enemy today is no longer without but also within. Returning to England of course the question must be "Why nothing here?" Certainly it seems England and Ireland are the last to experience the "Counter Reformation" although one happy and fruitful exception is the FAITH movement with its unique intellectual contribution and resulting publications magazine, young apostles and vocations! Soon, please God our little Church in these islands will be "overtaken by the kingdom of God". I feel sure that the vital ingredients are: an ardent love of Our Blessed Lord in the Eucharist, a filial and tender love of the Mother of God, and a real devotion to the Holy Father. With these, God can raise up sons for Abraham from the very stones.