Fr. Longenecker on the Women's March

10 Reasons why it will come to nothing.*

I was really impressed by the massive crowds gathered to protest in major cities in the United States and around the world.  When I read Fr. L's take on why it will come to nothing, I thought he was being naive and a bit reactionary.  I still think that.  (Fr. L's post here.)

The one point Fr. L makes which I agree on is that this protest is indeed about abortion - the 'sacrament' which is the source and summit of women's rights and equality.  No doubt about it.  Fr. Longenecker, in the eyes of the protesters, demonstrates how he is actually part of the problem (their POV) they are determine to end:  The end of structural patriarchy.

And that is exactly why it is naive to say the Women's March will come to nothing.

The Atlantic has an interesting article on the Women's March titled When Protest Fails, suggesting the Women's March will go the way of the Moscow demonstrations on December 10, 2011 when around 50,000 people came out to protest fraudulent parliamentary elections.  The author makes excellent points and very convincing arguments comparing the two events, but she seems to discount the global dimension of the protest and how sacred women's reproduction rights are to the Women's Equality Movement.  Likewise, on some level, the 2011 Moscow protest might have been a sort of precursor to what is happening now?  I don't know, of course.  I'm no expert, just an observer.

Major and relentless demonstrations can indeed topple governments.  I think it is important not to be so dismissive of what is happening.  I'm very much reminded of St. John Paul's precaution so many years ago:

"We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced. I do not think that the wide circle of the American Society, or the whole wide circle of the Christian Community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church, between the gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist. The confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence. It is, therefore, in God's Plan, and it must be a trial which the Church must take up, and face courageously." - Cardinal Karol Wojtyla

Predictions and news reports and commentary which upset, which attempt to guess or predict the outcome of civil unrest, distract and worry us.  For me, the Women's March demonstrates the very deep division in society and culture, as well as the diabolic delusion which has pervaded popular culture, making idols of so-called pop stars and Hollywood celebrities - who have become spokeswomen for the Culture of Death.  The dividing line is becoming more distinct as we go forward.   Yet we need faith, we need to believe what St. John Paul said: "The confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence."  We need to trust that... therein lies our hope.

This is why I find Don Dolindo Ruotolo's prayer of surrender so helpful and so consoling ... it seems to me it is more than just a novena.

Day 2
Surrender to me does not mean to fret, to be upset, or to lose hope, nor does it mean offering to me a worried prayer asking me to follow you and change your worry into prayer. It is against this surrender, deeply against it, to worry, to be nervous and to desire to think about the consequences of anything. It is like the confusion that children feel when they ask their mother to see to their needs, and then try to take care of those needs for themselves so that their childlike efforts get in their mother’s way. 

Surrender means to placidly close the eyes of the soul, to turn away from thoughts of tribulation and to put yourself in my care, so that only I act. Saying “You take care of it.” 

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times) - source

I may be wrong of course.

*Ultimately we know the plans of men come to nothing.  It just seems to me this battle has entered into a new phase and cannot be so easily dismissed.  

Happy Birthday Pier Vittorio Tondelli

Pier Vittorio Tondelli was born sixty years ago on September 14, 1955.  

I think he is an important example for Catholics who struggle with same sex attraction and chastity. Tondelli repented and was reconciled to the Church not long before his death.

“Tondelli was fascinated with the works of Jewish mysticism, the Imitation of Christ, and the mystics like St. Teresa of Avila. “I love to look through them, to find and read stories, and the idea of holiness,” he wrote.

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In 1989, the Italian writer said, “Everyone that has been raised in the bosom of a religion has his own religiosity. I have always tried to seek out not so much a discussion about the Catholic faith, but rather to express my own religiosity—without a doubt in the bosom of Christianity—which seeks out or questions its own positions, especially in confrontation with other authors.”
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Speaking about chastity after his conversion, Tondelli called it “a mystic virtue for those who have chosen it and perhaps the most superhuman use of sexuality.”” - Catholic News Agency

Pier Vittorio Tondelli died December 16, 1991.

He's not a saint, nor is he a candidate for sainthood.  So I pray for the repose of his soul.

I like him as a model for gay Catholics.  He comes from an Italian Catholic background of course - and I suspect he always considered himself a Catholic.  Known as a controversial Italian homosexual writer, who died in 1991 due to complications of AIDS, Tondelli had been reconciled with the Church some time before he finally succumbed to the disease. He died a Catholic. I mention Tondelli today, as a sort of patron saint for those who struggle with the issues of homosexuality and Catholic teaching.

I also find it helpful to know that Pier Vittorio enjoyed reading the mystics before his conversion. Many saints read the lives and writings of the saints before their own conversions, - two that come to mind immediately, Ignatius of Loyola and Edith Stein - what they read led them to the truth.  He may have developed an idiosyncratic spirituality for himself, in and through his fascination with the saints, mysticism, and holiness.  He retained a Christian base or foundation in his spirituality, evidently avoiding New Age influences and so on.   

"In 1989, the Italian writer said, 'Everyone that has been raised in the bosom of a religion has his own religiosity. I have always tried to seek out not so much a discussion about the Catholic faith, but rather to express my own religiosity—without a doubt in the bosom of Christianity—which seeks out or questions its own positions, especially in confrontation with other authors.'”

Pier Vittorio Tondelli came to understand chastity as a “a mystic virtue for those who have chosen it and perhaps the most superhuman use of sexuality.”

It seems to me that celibacy is more a condition of single life for the layman. All are called to chastity - according to one's state in life. In contemporary understanding, chaste single life equals celibacy. Of course, religious life does too - yet ordinarily, religious do not make a vow to be celibate, but to be chaste. To love God with their entire being, otherwise vowed celibacy doesn't mean a great deal.  

Though a lay person is chaste and celibate, he may also have attachments, particular friendships, interests, and so on.  Though he is vigilant about sinful affections and unlawful attachments, he is not a religious or monastic whose vocation demands a deeper detachment from persons and secular interests.  Actual sins against chastity are sins for both the religious and the single layman, no doubt about that - yet the layman is not bound to an exclusive vow of chastity in the same manner a religious is.  A layman has a more extended, involved social role than a vowed religious, so to speak.  For instance, a single layman may have a concern about appearance, fashion, looking his best, and so on, whereas a monk is free of such concerns - or probably should be.

Nevertheless, just like love, chastity is misunderstood and 'not loved' in our culture. It's not a curse. Tondelli suggests it is chosen - on some level that is true, since we have free will - we can eat of the tree of forbidden fruit, or not. Yet more deeply, it is a grace, a gift, a valuable pearl, that one needs to sell everything to obtain. Like love, it requires sacrifice.

Some of the Catholic thinkers in the Spiritual Friendship movement may find in Tondelli a kindred spirit.  Other gay Catholics who strive to live a chaste, faithful life may as well.  The spiritual life is a journey - perseverance bears fruits of the spirit.  Sanctity is won slowly, by long labor.

“If a Christian wants to move forward on the road of Christian life he must fall, just as Jesus fell. It is the way of humility, yes, it also means he must take humiliation upon himself just as Jesus did”. - Pope Francis

Exaltation of the Cross

Pope Francis the Great, the Pope of Christian Unity, and all that stuff.

Francis prays before the tomb of St. Pius V. 2013

The Pope takes a trip.

Pope Francis visits the Orthodox Patriarch - they both talk about the great need in this time of Christian martyrdom to reunite - Francis expresses this as his most heartfelt wish. He's always making overtures to our separated brethren - yet no one obsequiously grants him the title of the Pope of Christian unity.

The Pope reforms the curia and daily speaks about the reform of Christians.

He's the great reformer. There are stories that various clerics working in the Vatican returned home - almost immediately following the Pope's installation - their jobs cut. Jobs and spending cuts have been the order of the day since he took office. Cardinal Burke's Gammarelli bill alone almost collapsed the Vatican Bank - which, by the way - isn't really broke after all...

Why did everyone think the bank was broke in the first place? Because the Princes of the Church who headed dicasteries to nowhere, tucked unused funds away in secret accounts - that's why. I never even mentioned Bertone. I'm being facetious of course, but Cardinal Pell isn't keeping secrets, which, in my opinion, helps immensely in understanding this papacy and what is going on - especially the blow back from their Imperial Majesties on the ultra traditionalist side of the schismatic isle.

What Pell has revealed - thank God for transparency.

Cardinal George Pell, who took over as the Vatican’s chief financial official in February, said Thursday that his staff had turned up hundreds of millions of euros that the Vatican did not know it had. The funds were “tucked away” in various accounts, he said, and had not been tallied on the Vatican’s main balance sheets. 

The cardinal presented the found money as a happy surprise. “We have discovered that the situation is much healthier than it seemed,” he wrote in an article for the magazine Catholic Herald, which is scheduled to be published Friday. “It is important to point out that the Vatican is not broke.” 

Between the lines, though, there was less to be happy about. Cardinal Pell did not say that there had been any malpractice, but he hinted that it might explain why his own branch of the Curia, as the Vatican’s central administration is known, had been in the dark about the money. “Problems were kept ‘in house,’ ” Cardinal Pell said of the various arms of the Curia. “Very few were tempted to tell the outside world what was happening, except when they needed extra help.” - NYT

So.  The Vatican is not broke...

Good to know. My first impression was how corruption always starts at the top - hence, even as Pell said, these problems exist in individual dioceses as well - money for pet projects. Stop and think about that. The mansions some archbishops built for themselves, the payouts for lawsuits, the funding of organizations which oppose Catholic teaching on various moral issues, and so on. Not to mention all the scandals that have ravaged the Church for the last two decades - and the payouts.

My second impression was hold onto your wallets.

My third impression is - this Pope is indeed reforming the Church - beginning with the curia - beginning at the top.  It's obviously very painful for some - and apparently it is long overdue.  It makes sense now that one of Pope Francis' first acts of devotion was to pray at the tomb of St. Pius V.

That said - the various controversies over what the Pope says and does, especially his more enigmatic off-the-cuff sayings and daily homilies, have served to detach many of us - myself included - from hanging onto every word the Pope says.  What he says is often relayed in sound bites or editorialized by friend and foe, which only adds to the confusion.  The social media phenomena has become a great lesson in detachment and mortification of curiosity.   

In an extremely short time, Pope Francis has reformed the papacy itself - removing the monarchical trappings and ostentatious ceremony.  He is buon pastore.  That's what counts.

The strawberries on the cake.

What?