I disagree. Cutting people off from Grace isn’t the right approach. Some people will respond to that Grace. Others will not. We can’t cut off those currently in error but who ultimately will respond, in order to punish those who won’t.
Sometimes I worry that this is the approach the Holy Father is taking. I hope and pray it isn’t.
I do not mean cutting people off from grace. I don’t understand how it could be understood that I mean that. I do not mean cutting people off from the Church. What I mean is having a strong and highly visible outward piety and identity. A true piety and well-grounded identity, nothing pharasiacal of course, but these need to be readily visible. We have lost our ability to “witness” to the Faith because the vast majority of us don’t know how to witness to the Faith.
Back in the day Catholic culture was strong. Rosaries, Latin, chant, quiet prayer, a strong community to fall back on if a bad situation afflicted the family, wooden box confessionals, beautiful churches insofar as a parish can afford, etc. This is all what non-Catholics perceive as “Catholic stuff.” This is what the movies and TV teaches them. At one time it was true. It is still true to some extent but not to the extent that it was, and we Catholics don’t live up to it. These practices might not be the “best” way in a principled fantasyland–that “modern world” fantasyland that will never exist with that “modern man” who will never exist–to live the Faith, but given our human condition and the natural world in which we live, they are the best way we can operate. 2,000 years of tradition proves that. That is not to say that practices don’t change (they do), but they do so naturally and on their own: if a devotion is unpopular it will die out, if a liturgical/cultural practice is in all circumstances unhelpful it will die out, if it is heretical or works against the Faith or the unity of the Church it will be condemned. We got punch drunk on that “changechangechange” Kool-Aid and bought into that modern man modern world lie and we abandoned our culture. The problem with that is, as I said, that is what the world knows us for, our visible and outward Catholic culture. It is also what makes us keep our unity throughout the ages and across continents, and it will continue to do so in the future, regardless of how great communications technology gets. Modernworldmodernman and his Skype doesn’t make us keep the Faith, Rosaries do. Modernworldmodernman and his cell phone doesn’t make us keep the Faith, the Eucharist and good liturgy do.
Back to the world knowing us for our outward identity. For example: I live in South Carolina. A blogger, Fr. Allan McDonald of
www.southerorderspage.blogspot.com, lives in Georgia. Good old Protestant South. Fr. McDonald sometimes mentions on his blog the fact that when the Sisters ditched their habits and the priests ditched their cassocks–would you believe it!–the Protestant neighbors were dismayed and rather distraught. (!!!) Seems a bit silly, yes? At first glance. But when examined more deeply, it isn’t silly. When the Protestants know us Romish Popery Papists for Friday fish fries, Rosaries, Latin, becassocked priests, habited Sisters working at the hospital, weird smelly stuff in church, fancy vestments and weird phrases like “Perpetual Virginity of Mary,” well if we just all of a sudden get rid of it all (regardless of if in principle none of it was technically “gotten rid of”), then guess what? Our entire witness to the Faith has just DIED. It has completely died. Not decreased, but died. To the minds of the Protestants down here in the South, we become just a funky memory. Now, why? Because this is what they know us for. They don’t know us for the deeper parts of our Faith. They know us for our quirky outward eccentricities. These quirky outward eccentricities, along with a good dose of charity and a genuine smile, are the first step in…
evangelization!
Imagine a sign out in front of a Catholic church down here in the South that says, “Interested in the Catholic Church? Come check us out anytime.” Random Southern Protestant sees this but then realizes–mistakenly, but never mind that, because reality isn’t important here, perception is king–that we’re just some weirdo cult that is afraid of itself and he can’t even remember what makes us weirdos Catholic in the first place. He’s never seen a confident and holy priest in one of those weird dress thingies, or a Sister strong in the faith wearing her habit, or a pious Catholic family praying the Rosary together. He’s never experienced these things because he’s only twenty years old and, as his grandmother riding in the car tells him, “Oh, those Catholics got rid of all that stuff a long time ago, they’re pretty much just like us now.” Guess what? No outward witness to the faith. No Catholic culture. Potential convert lost.
So in no way do I mean that we should cut people off from grace. In fact, as I see it, we are actively cutting people off from grace by continuing to mind-blowingly play hide-and-go-seek with our patrimony and identity and culture and, ultimately, our Faith.
And I do not mean to say that cassocks and surplices and lace and habits and Latin
are our Faith. But I hope I have shown how and why these things are indispensable to our religion. They are because we are in the human condition and live in the natural world with intellectual and emotional limitations, and so we must play game rather than try to constantly pine for this modernworldmodernman that does not and will not ever exist.
This is what I see as the strongest argument for tradition at the local level, geographically and in our own time. By the way, this post was very fun to write.
I also do not mean my scenario as the be all end all. I simply mean it to be a specific example to illustrate a broad principle.
I think you have a valid point, but I do not think we need to attack that which is not to our taste to build up our Catholic culture. I know in my parish and diocese there is an emphasis on return to much of our uniquely Catholic culture, in music, art and language, while retaining the best of other things. Hopefully, the future will see some of the more forced parts of modern culture fade away while retaining the greatest part that will stand the test of time. This is nothing new. It happens throughout history.
The uniquieness of this age is that history proceeds exponentially. This is a problem. It makes preservation of our culture imperative.
Please see above. It is true that Catholic tradition and outward identity as perceived by non-Catholics does fit my personal liking immensely. However, I have tried to illustrate why it is absolutely crucial in its own right.
Isn’t that the opposite of what the Council was intended to do?
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