in Pennsylvania's First Congressional District
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania's_1st_congressional_district http://archphila.org/pastplan/MAPS/Arch.pdf
and the Central Garden State

Sunday, May 25, 2014

How We Arrived at this Moment in History



The Irish Influence on American Catholicism

In the fifth century A.D., Saint Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland.  Eleven hundred years later, King Henry VIII divorced himself and his empire – which then included Ireland – from the Catholic Church.  Subsequently, efforts to extinguish the influence of Roman Catholicism succeeded, to the extent that by the early 1800s, “only 30 to 40 percent of the population attended Mass and many who identified themselves as Catholic had virtually no knowledge of the faith’s dogma and practices.[i]

By the close of the nineteenth century, Irish religious character was dramatically different: “Into the vacuum created by the trauma of the Great Famine stepped a more public and assertive Roman Catholic Church…. Mass attendance increased, devotion to the rosary flowered, seminaries and convents were built to prepare evergrowing numbers of men and women seeking to give their lives in service to God[ii] Armies of Irish priests, religious brothers, and nuns were soon headed to the United States, to establish countless parishes, schools, hospitals, and social services.  To this day, we find the American Catholic hierarchy, clergy, and religious to be more from Irish and Irish-American backgrounds, than from any other ethnicity.  Irish Catholicism has had a profound impact on American Catholics of all ethnicities.

For all its positives, early twentieth century Irish Catholicism has also been described as “Jansenistic,” meaning that it was frequently characterized by excessive rigorism and inattention to God’s mercy.  While such characteristics are inconsistent with authentic Catholicism, they may have a way of “slipping in.”  Among past generations of Irish-American lay Catholics – as well as others under the Irish influence – there was certainly a right and just respect for those offering celibate lifestyles in service to God, be they clergy, religious brothers, or nuns.  Yet, this respect became warped, in those who simultaneously undervalued the Sacrament of Marriage.  While the clergy and religious can rightfully be regarded as heroes of the faith, marriage was sometimes seen as little more than a means for quenching libidinous fires in those who could not “cut” a celibate lifestyle.  At times, such devaluing seemed to see marriage as barely better than debauchery! 

Where distorted views of marriage somehow flourished, might the stage have been inadvertently set for distortions of authentic teaching on the grandeur of marriage, family, and human sexuality?

An Underappreciated German Influence: Dietrich von Hildebrand

“The 20th century Doctor of the Church"
In 1929, German philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand first published "Marriage," which constituted the "earliest orthodox presentation of the personalistic approach to matrimony which would find its way into Vatican II's Guadium et Spes, Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae and...the writings of Pope John Paul II....Pope Pius XII called von Hildebrand `the 20th century Doctor of the Church.'" [iii] 

"Marriage" (1929)
As per von Hildebrand, "there is no greater mystery in the natural order of things than the fact that this closest of all unions procreates a human being with an immortal soul (although the soul, in each case, is a direct creation of God), and that this act brings a new being into existence destined to love God and to adore Him, a new being made after His image."[iv]  "How terrible to think of man wanting to destroy this unity which God has established so mysteriously, deeming those united in the highest earthly union of love worthy to take part in His creative power."[v]  "He alone can understand the horror of the sin of promiscuity who has grasped the grandeur and sublimity of bodily union as the full realization of conjugal love, and who realizes that besides the primary end of procreation, the primary meaning of bodily union lies in the fulfillment of conjugal love."[vi]  "Jesus has invested marriage with a dignity which represents something quite new....He raised it to the rank of a Sacrament. He made of this sacred bond a specific source of grace. He transformed marriage - already sacred in itself - into something sanctifying."[vii]

“Man and Woman: Love and the Meaning of Intimacy” (1966)
As per von Hildebrand, "Although we hear that sex is overemphasized today, this is not correct. Rather, we live in a time in which sexuality is no longer understood in its true nature. People today are generally as blind to its true meaning as are persons who completely lack sensuality....Today's blatant sexuality conceals a pathetic sensual emptiness."[viii]  "It was said that Christians are to be recognized by the fact that they love one another. I would add: Christians should also be recognized by the fact that they who have received the festival clothes in Baptism shun any superficial, mediocre approach to the great goods of creation, that they understand more profoundly than others `how admirable are they works, O God.'"[ix]  "As long as conception and birth are seen exclusively as mere physiological processes, we cannot understand the impact and seriousness of the making of a new human being."[x]  "Every active intervention on the part of the spouses, which eliminates the possibility of conception through the conjugal act, is incompatible with the holy mystery of the superabundant relation in the incredible gift offered by God.... To make use of natural family planning is not to imply the slightest irreverence or rebellion against God's institution and the wonderful link between the love union and procreation."[xi]

Pope Benedict XVI on Von Hildebrand:
"Dietrich von Hildebrand was exceptional in many ways. His extensive writings on Christian philosophy, spiritual theology, and in defense of the Church's teaching, place him among the great thinkers of the twentieth century. His steadfast and determined opposition to totalitarianism, whether in the form of National Socialism or Marxist Leninism, a conviction that would cost him greatly during his life, illustrates the profound clarity of his moral vision and his willingness to suffer for what he knew was true."[xii]     

An outspoken opponent of Hitler, von Hildebrand was targeted for assassination and hunted all over Europe.  Arriving in New York City in 1940, he taught at Jesuit-run Fordham University until 1960.


[i] Edward T. O’Donnell, The Devotional Revolution, Irish Echo, April 27-May 3, 2005 

[ii] Judy Ball,  The Famine That Brought the Irish to America , St. Anthony Messenger, November 1997 http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Nov1997/feature2.asp 
 
[iii] Cf., EWTN web site

[iv] Dietrich von Hildebrand, Marriage, Sophia Institute, 1997, p. 26

[v] Ibid, p. 28

[vi] Ibid, pp. 30, 31

[vii] Ibid, p. 53

[viii] Dietrich von Hildebrand, Man and Woman: Love and the Meaning of Intimacy, Sophia Institute, p. 3

[ix] Ibid, p. 45

[x] Ibid, p. 61

[xi] Ibid, pp. 68, 69

[xii] In Alice von Hildebrand, The Soul of a Lion, 2000 foreward

No comments:

Post a Comment

home page links

The 10 Commandments

The Beatitudes (from "Jesus of Nazareth")