THE LAST "CRISIS" IS A WINNER
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
Regarding yesterday: Does it seem odd only to me that a day on which Americans stay home and take it easy is titled with the verb "labor"?
The last issue of "Crisis" arrived in the mail recently. The print magazine (which is being replaced by an online version) is ending not with a whimper but a bang. I think the September issue is one of the strongest in its 25-year history. Let me cite four articles.
1. Russell Shaw takes a look at Modernism, and the Church's reaction to it, on the centenary of "Lamentabili" and "Pascendi Dominici Gregis," two documents issued by Pius X in the summer of 1907. What strikes me about Shaw's article is its balance or, maybe I should say, its lack of hyperventilation.
I have been reading other writers' takes on these documents, and most of them seem to be breathing much too hard. Shaw gives a good overview of the Modernists--writers such as Alfred Loisy and George Tyrrell--while pointing out that, while the Pope was just in his measure of Modernism and Modernists, there were problems with the follow-up.
The most unhappy example of this was the Sodality of St. Pius V, a "network of spies and informers" set up by Msgr. Umberto Benigni. His secretive group "went into action in dioceses searching out supposed Modernists and Modernist sympathizers--bishops, pastors, professors, editors--and reporting them to the authorities. Reputations were blackened, careers damaged, innocent people hurt." Pope Benedict XV put the kibosh on the Sodality, but the sour taste lingered.
While Pius X was successful in identifying the problem of Modernism, he and his pontifical successors were not successful in eliminating it. The Modernist movement went underground for a while, but it resurfaced in the guise of the dissidents we have come to know all too well over the last few decades.
2. The second strong article in "Crisis" is by Mark Shea and is his "thoughts on the apologetics subculture." He rightly points out that "evangelization comes first, and apologetics is, at best, its handmaid." Evangelization is what, with God's grace, makes people Catholic. Apologetics is what answers their questions. Some people are attracted to the task of evangelization, others to apologetics. The fields tend to appeal to somewhat different personality types.
Shea says, "Not a few times I have seen hot-headed, testosterone-driven, young single guys (that is, the sort of person who is typically drawn to apologetics) ... come on strong with a pugilistic attitude that radiates, 'You probably think there's something wrong with my faith, don't you? Don't you? Come on, try me, buddy. Just try me!'" The zeal is there but not commonly the prudence.
"A thousand years ago," says Shea, "all that masculine energy would have been spent on something healthy, like a Crusade. But today, there are very few pressure valves through which the Valiant Knight hormones can be released, so they go into apologetics." All too true, I'm afraid. This is what you often find on the "non-professional" level of apologetics--you know, the guys who set up web sites chock full of 20,000-word essays that no one reads.
Shea contrasts these guys with "known" apologists: "Most of them do what they do, first and foremost, because they love the faith, not because they are spoiling for a fight. The goal is to generate light, not to defeat somebody in combat."
Perhaps the most valuable part of the article is Shea's admonition not to put apologists on a pedestal. Not a single apologist I know belongs to the magisterium of the Church. Not a one. And every apologist I know--myself included--has made mistakes. Sometimes a mistake is as instantaneous as the tongue not cooperating with the mind when one is at the radio microphone. Sometimes it is a big blooper seen clearly in print and put there, presumably, after the writer has had plenty of time to think about what he wants to write.
This is not to say that good apologists make many mistakes--if they are good apologists, it is precisely because they make few mistakes. But every apologist errs on occasion. Usually the errors are plain but minor ("Saint Miscellaneous was born on June 31"), but sometimes an apologist will say or write exactly the wrong thing on a matter of substance.
3. Joanna Bogle writes in "Crisis" about "anti-Catholic nastiness across the pond." We usually think of the British as more civil than Americans, but that may be changing when the topic is the Catholic Church.
Bogle often appears on radio in the U.K., and lately she has noticed a change of tone. People who call in now are saying such things as "Get that awful woman off the air. I can't stand the sound of her voice."
Or they say, "I just can't believe what I'm hearing." Or, when referring to Benedict XVI, they say, "He makes me sick" or "What he's saying is just evil" or "Wasn't he a Nazi?" The level of discourse has dropped several notches.
The situation in the U.K. differs from that in the U.S. Still, Bogle "would like to see a more robust attitude within the Church [in Britain] itself. ... and here America can serve as an example." It is time, she says, for that traditional British reticence to be set aside and for Catholics to stand up for themselves and for the Church.
4. The last piece I'll mention is a film retrospective. William Baer looks at "The Bridge on the River Kwai" on its fiftieth anniversary. This was the Oscar-winning movie about British prisoners of war who assist their Japanese captors by building a bridge. The movie starred Alec Guinness (a convert to the faith), who portrayed the colonel who wanted to show the Japanese how his men, if left under his command, could do the job right.
Baer notes that "the overall effectiveness of this exceptional film was, of course, very much dependent on the outstanding performance by Guinness as the proud and self-blinded Colonel Nicholson." Guinness had joined the Church only shortly before, and no doubt his new faith assisted him in portraying this complex character.
I am reminded of this movie every time I get a call on my cell phone. The ring tone is the "Colonel Bogey March," the movie's theme song.
5. As I mentioned, "Crisis" magazine is no more and has been replaced by a web site. You can see the magazine's successor at:
www.insidecatholic.com
Mark Shea will be one of the speakers on next year's Alaska Apologetics Cruise. Make a note on your calendar: The dates are June 8-15.
Joanna Bogle will lead tours of Catholic sites in London during the pre-cruise event associated with our Baltic Christian History Cruise. She also--along with her husband, James--will be a speaker on the cruise. The optional London pre-cruise event will be August 18-20, and the cruise will be August 21-September 2.
In a few weeks I will have more information for you about next year's events (four in all: three cruises and a "rendezvous").
p.s., If you have a comment about anything appearing in this E-Letter, please do not hit your Reply button. Instead, go to Catholic Answers' discussion forums at
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