Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 33
September 11, 2015
The Complementarity of Men and Women, Across the Religious Spectrum
(us.fotolia.com | photopitu)
The Complementarity of Men and Women, Across the Religious Spectrum | Aurora C. Griffin | CWR
A review of Not Just Good, but Beautiful: The Complementary Relationship between Man and Woman, a compilation of speeches from the 2014 Humanum Conference
Those who are concerned about what Pope Francis might say at the upcoming World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia will take heart when they read Not Just Good, but Beautiful: The Complementary Relationship between Man and Woman. To be released on September 21, this book is a compilation of speeches from the Humanum Conference, which was held in Rome in November 2014 to reflect on the complementarity of the two sexes. Pope Francis himself gave the opening remarks, which included unambiguous comments about the nature of marriage and family, such as “Children have the right to grow up with a father and a mother” (4).
Although speaking on behalf of the Church, the Pope was appealing to all people of good will who bear witness to the importance of marriage – for individuals, families, and societies. Accordingly, the conference included four hundred religious leaders and scholars from many traditions. The book reflects the diversity of the participants, with contributions from Jewish, Muslim, Baptist, Anabaptist, Mormon, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox and Evangelical perspectives. Reflecting the central theme of the conference, these religions with significant differences come together to form a rich and varied chorus of voices. Nevertheless, the Church, because of the unique insights from her theological inheritance, is rightly the leader and conductor of this discussion.
The aspects of the discussion that are well suited to an interfaith approach derive from the common understanding of marriage as a reality in natural law. The complementarity of men and women and their desire to become one flesh is “written on our hearts” (Rom 2:15). In the words of Anglican theologian N.T. Wright: “Humans know in their bones that this is how we were meant to be” (94). It is a matter of men and women recognizing that truth and having the generosity to act on it. Catholic philosopher Sister Prudence Allen points out that most modern gender ideologies begin with our desires and end with us distorting reality to fit them. Instead, she suggests, we need a “vitalized Thomism” (58) based on a descriptive metaphysics that conforms the mind to reality. In this sense, any religion that postulates a divine “Other” to reckon with as the Creator of reality can agree. Thus, Cardinal Müller summarizes that in this conference, “Religions of the world together recognize that the truth of marriage is something written on the human heart by a loving Creator” (viii).
Because of their theological differences, the unified witness of the religions of the world is based largely on philosophical, biological, sociological, and psychological insights. Using these fields, they are able to build a fairly comprehensive view of how men and women work together with their different geniuses.
September 10, 2015
Taking Up the Cross Daily by Praying with Our Senses
Taking Up the Cross Daily by Praying with Our Senses | Dr. Jeffrey Morrow, Ph.D. | Homiletic & Pastoral Review
On the Role of Mortification in the Christian Life
The term “mortification” has become increasingly less common in contemporary discussions of the spiritual life. One might say it is now nearly absent from such discussions. We hear about someone being “mortified” when they are humiliated, or embarrassed. And yet, the Christian practice of mortification is as old as the gospel, and has always been a standard component in Christian spirituality, even if less so of late. The Apostle St. Paul confides to the Christians in Corinth, “Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:26-27).1 Mortification is a dying to self, a form of self-denial. It involves the offering up of suffering, a very traditional Catholic practice.
In his papal encyclical, Spe Salvi, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI included a brief discussion on “offering up” suffering, specifically on “‘offering up’ the minor daily hardships that continually strike at us like irritating ‘jabs,’ thereby giving them a meaning … In this way, even the small inconveniences of daily life could acquire meaning and contribute to the economy of good and of human love.”2 Christian life, including family life, as well as religious life, is filled with many such “irritating jabs.” One online Catholic blog, Parenting Mortification, is devoted to looking at the many sufferings that arise in the ordinary married and family life of Catholic parents, and learning to turn those into opportunities to sanctify them. Our Lord instructed his Apostles: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). But what exactly are mortifications, and how can they be of benefit to the interior life?
Mortifications can be passive or active, but they can also be corporal or interior. Passive mortifications are when we “offer up” the difficulties, challenges, and other forms of suffering that come our way unlooked for, e.g., an illness. Active mortifications are those we seek out in order to deny ourselves, and take up our cross daily. Although the concept of corporal mortification might conjure up bloody images of extreme penances, it simply refers to any form of denial or suffering that affects the body, including the common cold passively embraced, or actively abstaining from meat on a Friday, or on Fridays during Lent. Sometimes, the criticism of active mortifications may be heard, along the lines of, “life has more than enough suffering of its own, why actively seek out more?”
Certainly, an excessive emphasis on mortification can represent a warped view of the Christian life. Mortification does not exhaust Christian spirituality, but it does have its place, and an important place at that.
September 9, 2015
Pre-Synod Conference unites Cardinals and men and women living with homosexual tendencies
Living the Truth in Love conference and resource event to be held Oct 2 in Rome, Italy
For More Information:
Lisa Wheeler
Carmel Communications
1-866-777-2313, ext. 700
lwheeler@carmelcommunications.com
NORWALK, CT, and SAN FRANCISCO, Sep. 9, 2015 – Courage International and Ignatius Press announce their first Rome conference to address the pastoral needs of men and women who experience homosexual tendencies. Living the Truth in Love is a conference and resource event, which will be held October 2, just before the start of the Ordinary Synod on the Family at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (“The Angelicum”) in Rome, Italy.
The theme of the conference will be “The Ways of True Love—Pastoral Approaches to Welcome and Accompany those Living with Homosexual Tendencies.”
The conference will feature Cardinal Robert Sarah, Cardinal George Pell, Monsignor Livio Melina, as well as experts such as Dr. Paul McHugh of Johns Hopkins; Dr. Timothy Lock, a clinical psychologist; and Dr. Jennifer Morse of the Ruth Institute. A panel discussion will be held featuring the real life testimonies of faithful Catholics living the reality of homosexuality in their everyday lives.
Resources will be available to conference attendees, particularly a collection of books recently released by several of the participants, including Cardinal Robert Sarah and Cardinal George Pell. A press event will take place in conjunction with the conference for members of the media.
The event will take place just days before the opening of the Ordinary Synod on the Family that begins at the Vatican on October 4 and extends through October 25. The conference offers a response to the important question before the Synod regarding how the Church should give pastoral care to persons with homosexual tendencies and their families.
The conference approaches homosexuality not as a cultural or political issue of the day (without forgetting that it is so), but rather as a personal reality in the life of individual men and women. The speakers will address the complex reality of homosexual tendencies through the lenses of the empirical and social sciences, the personal experience of homosexuality, the testimony of Sacred Scripture, as well as Sacred Tradition—the bi-millenial wisdom of the Catholic Church.
Conference organizers intend the event and its resources to help those responsible for pastoral ministry to better understand each of these dimensions and to be better equipped to welcome and accompany men and women with homosexual tendencies, and ultimately to help them find the fullness of joy in their journey with and to Christ.
Fr. Paul Check, Executive Director of Courage International, explains that the Living the Truth in Love conference distinguishes itself from other conferences by offering a fuller and more precise understanding of the human person. “Through His Church, Christ invites everyone to the abundant life (Jn 10:10). He offers His mercy (‘neither do I condemn you’), and then He calls us to conversion of heart (‘now go and sin no more’), and He gives us the grace to make this possible. In the Gospel, Jesus not only offers his compassion but He also calls us to conversion because He knows we will only be truly joyful and fulfilled when we live as He created us to be.”
“So many of the current approaches to homosexuality do not include this fuller perspective of the human person,” said Check. “Rather they seem to limit themselves to ‘acceptance’ without recognizing Jesus’ call to conversion. And they defend a ‘right’ to sexual intimacy, but they do acknowledge God’s design for marriage to which Jesus Himself refers in Matthew 19.”
Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., Founder and Editor of Ignatius Press adds: “Genuine compassion and mercy require that we support all those who desire to live authentic Christian discipleship. We are pleased to join with Courage not only in holding this conference, but also in providing a range of pastoral and personal resources that will provide practical guidance long after the conference—and the synod—are over.”
This event is open to the public. Registration is free but lunch is included for an additional fee. Those interested in registering can visit www.TruthandLove.com.
Media representatives can acquire press credentials to attend the conference and press event and arrange interviews with conference speakers and panelists or a Courage or Ignatius Press spokesperson by contacting Lisa Wheeler of Carmel Communications, lwheeler@carmelcommunications.com or 1-866-777-2313, ext. 700.
EWTN host Marcus Grodi offers insights learned in rural life
Simplicity, detachment, nature, and the Creator themes of new book “Life from Our Land”
Marcus Grodi, EWTN TV host of the popular show The Journey Home, never imagined that he would move from the city to twenty-five acres of Ohio farmland. Yet one day, Marcus and his wife found themselves to be the proud owners of a large piece of rural property, inherited from a relative, and decided to make the drastic move.
In his new book, Life from Our Land
, Grodi discusses what he and his family discovered, mostly by surprise, after moving to the country. This move involved a radical shift in priorities for all of them, but mostly it helped them to discover some critical truths about humanity’s relationship to nature and to nature’s Creator that apply regardless of where a person lives. He offers wonderful, often humorous, reflections on his going-back-to-the-land experience as a metaphor for drawing closer to God.
Grodi points out that in today’s consumerist culture, voices from every direction beckon us, even push us, toward better and faster technology, with the promise of more wealth, more pleasure, and, consequently, more happiness.
But have we become so bewitched by the siren song of material progress that we’ve lost the ability not just to achieve, but to discern what true happiness is? What criteria do we use to plan for the future, for retirement? Has our culture’s enticement to always look for an easier, labor saving means to do everything left us a flabby, flaccid culture? At the end of our earthly lives, how will we measure our fruitfulness? These are some of the questions that Marcus Grodi ponders, and answers, in Life from Our Land. This unique book includes many photos of the land and nature that complement the reflections in the book.
Paul Thigpen, author of the Manual for Spiritual Warfare, says, “If we ponder carefully the insights in this book, we can learn how to grow in detachment, simplicity, holiness, and humility.”
“This is not an idealized ‘back-to-the-land’ manual. Rather it is about simplifying our lives and rooting ourselves in the good soil of the world even as we reach upward to heaven—the ultimate Real,” says Michael D. O'Brien, author of Father Elijah.
Joseph Pearce, author of Catholic Literary Giants, advises, “Read this book and you will receive the riches Mammon cannot provide and reap the harvest of hope and wisdom.”
“This book is a hymn of gratitude for the wonder that is creation, which manifests the deep purpose of things,” says Dr. Timothy O’Donnell, President of Christendom College.
John Cuddeback, Ph.D., author of True Friendship: Where Virtue Becomes Happiness, explains, “Charming anecdotes, a good dose of common sense, and a wealth of scriptural references grace a book that will inspire and guide us to a more human and more Christian way of life.”
Fr. Dwight Longenecker, author of The Romance of Religion claims, “Marcus Grodi is turning out to be the Catholic Thoreau of our day. He calls all of us to reexamine our fast-paced, high-tech lives to find a simpler, purer way.”
“Grodi not only offers a critique of our materialist American society, but what is rarer, suggests some practical steps by way of solutions,” says Thomas Storck, author of The Catholic Milieu.
About the Author:
Marcus Grodi, a native of Ohio, studied polymer science at Case Western Reserve University and worked as an engineer before receiving his Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. After many years in ministry, he founded the Coming Home Network International. He hosts The Journey Home television series on EWTN.
Marcus Grodi, the author of Life from Our Land, is available for interviews about this book.
To request a review copy or an interview with Marcus Grodi, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press at (239) 867-4180 or rose@ignatius.com
Product Facts:
Title: LIFE FROM OUR LAND
The Search for a Simpler Life in a Complex World
Author: Marcus Grodi
Release Date: September 2015
Length: 206 pages, Illustrated
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-62164-023-3 • Softcover
Order: 1-800-651-1531 • www.ignatius.com
A first and second look at "Mitis Iudex"
Pope Francis touches his forehead during his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sept. 9. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
A first and second look at "Mitis Iudex" | Dr. Edward Peters | CWR
"I think these five canons and the official explanation that accompanies them raise several serious questions for ecclesiastical marriage law."
Editor's note: The following posts from Dr. Edward Peters were originally published on the In the Light of the Law site, and are posted here with the kind permission of Dr. Peters. The first post was first published yesterday, shortly after the release of the motu proprio Mitis Iudex; the second was published late yesterday.
A first look at Mitis Iudex
The Latin text of Pope Francis’ Mitis Iudex is here. The document comes in four discernible parts: introductory remarks, an eight-point summary, new canonical norms (for Canons 1671-1691), and a “Procedure for cases declaring the nullity of marriage”. Looking, for now, ONLY at the eight Roman numeral headings summarizing the pope’s introductory remarks, my observations are:
I. Una sententia pro nullitate exsecutiva. This portends a significant change in the law, eliminating the current requirement that all affirmative cases (i.e., nullity was declared) be reviewed by a “second instance” tribunal, essentially, a careful re-examination of the first decision. Canon 1682. Optional appeal remains in place. Canon 1628. I have always said that mandatory review is not required for justice under natural law and that it serves, in my opinion, little practical value in canon law. Some respected voices in canon law would disagree with me on that. The delays associated with mandatory review were, in my opinion, exaggerated by tribunal critics, but this step will certainly shorten the overall process.
II. Iudex unicus sub Episcopi responsabilitate. This represents little or no change in the law. Bishops have always appointed tribunal judges. Canons 1420-1421. With routinely-granted episcopal conference permission, bishops could already assign marriage cases to sole, clerical (including deacons) judges. Canon 1425 § 4. It appears that such permission need no longer be sought.
III. Ipse Episcopus iudex. This represents little or no change in the law. Bishops have always been the first judges in their dioceses. Canon 1419 § 1. Exhortational language that bishops play a greater role in hearing actual cases is to be followed in light of, among other things, the demands already made on bishops’ time and their personal training and/or aptitude for technical juridical work.
September 7, 2015
“Mr. Chesterton is a grand man. Mr. Chesterton is a very fat man.” by John Herreid
“Mr. Chesterton is a grand man. Mr. Chesterton is a very fat man.” | John Herreid | IPNovels.com
From an eccentric book I came across online, The Walking-Stick Papers by Robert Cortes Holliday, comes this vivid short portrait of G.K. Chesterton as a young man. Holliday, an American writer, decided to visit England and wrote to a number of authors to arrange meetings. Here is his account of meeting G.K. Chesterton in 1915:
Mr. Chesterton is a grand man. Smokes excellent cigars. But first, as you come up the hill, from the railway station toward the old part of the village and to the little house Overroads, you enter, as like as not, as I did, a gate set in a pleasant hedge, and you knock at a side door, to the mirth later of Mrs. Chesterton.
This agreeable entrance is that for tradesmen. The way you should have gone in is round somewhere on another road. A maid admits you to a small parlour and in a moment Mrs. Chesterton comes in to inquire if you have an appointment with her husband. She always speaks of Mr. Chesterton as “my husband.” It develops that the letter you sent fixing the appointment got balled up in some way. It further develops that a good many things connected with Mr. Chesterton’s life and house get balled up. Mrs. Chesterton’s line seems to be to keep things about a chaotic husband as straight as possible.
Catholic Workers, Labor Unions, and Benedict XVI's "Caritas in Veritate"
Pope Benedict XVI signs a copy of his encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth"), at the Vatican July 6, 2009. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano via Catholic Press Photo)
Catholic Workers, Labor Unions, and Benedict XVI's Caritas in Veritate | Fr. George E. Schultze, SJ | CWR
Some Labor Day observations about the recent contract negotiations between the San Francisco Archdiocese and its unionized Catholic high school teachers
What is the responsibility of Catholic school teachers with regard to the spoken and lived representation of Catholic moral values? Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate is a helpful point of departure for some Labor Day observations about the recent contract negotiations between the San Francisco Archdiocese and its unionized Catholic high school teachers. Let me preface this commentary by underscoring my own desire for Christian unity and the need for charity and truth to achieve it. Institutional structures—e.g., employee handbooks and collective bargaining agreements—require responsible institutional participants. This is the case in churches, businesses, government entities, unions, schools and, in a less formal case, families.
Caritas in Veritate means “charity in truth”; in effect, to believe that “God is Eternal Love” and “Absolute Truth” means that charity and truth are inexorably linked. Pope Benedict XVI teaches that we discover truth within the foundational awareness of charity, and charity can authentically occur only within the presence of truth. The Church must necessarily speak on social questions such as the right to life, the family, marriage, racism, immigration, and work life as part of its mission, and therefore the teaching of Catholic morality at its schools and other institutions will always address the lives of Catholics and all men and women of good will.
How do Catholics fully become the people God calls them to be? How do they help others to achieve that same end? Caritas in Veritate begins by stating, “Each person finds his good by adherence to God’s plan for him, in order to realize it fully: in this plan, he finds his truth, and through adherence to this truth he becomes free (cf. Jn 8:22)”. Catholics are taught that each person has a call and, while others may not believe in God, we recognize by our common humanity that every person has human dignity and a purpose in his or her life.
Truth and charity
In the first few paragraphs of Caritas in Veritate, Benedict XVI points out that unfortunately, in this era, “charity” has often lost its meaning because it is detached from God’s love, and truth has become relative for many men and women. Modernists—the intellectual pace setters for culture—mistakenly believe that love is what people decide it is based on their autonomous feelings, and that the only “truth” is one’s own ego and desires, or, in other words, the absence of objective truth.
September 6, 2015
The Gnostic Christ fails, the True Christ heals
"Christ Healing the Blind Man" (c. 1640) by Gioacchino Assereto [Wikipedia Commons]
A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, September 6, 2015, Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time | Carl E. Olson
Readings:
Is 35:4-7a
Ps 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
Jas 2:1-5
Mk 7:31-37
How do you know the gnostic writings provide us with a less historically accurate depiction of Jesus than the Gospels?”
That question was put to me a few years ago after I had given a talk about The Da Vinci Code at a Catholic parish. The man who asked it was apparently upset I doubted Dan Brown’s claim that the so-called “Gnostic gospels” described a believable, human Jesus, while the four canonical Gospels had created a deity who had little or nothing to do with the real world.
My answer was simple: “I read them.” No need to take my word for it when the evidence is readily found on the printed page. The Gnostic “gospels” aren’t gospels in the sense Christians use the word. They lack historical narrative, concrete details, historical figures, believable people, and details about social and religious life. The Jesus they describe has hardly any interest in the material realm. After all, the primary goal of Gnosticism, which came to maturation in the second century, was to escape the physical world. The Gnostic Jesus talked endlessly (and often nonsensically), but wouldn’t get his hands dirty.
Compare that with today’s Gospel reading, the story of Jesus healing the deaf mute, which is unique to the Gospel of Mark. It is a masterful and pithy account, filled with theological and spiritual riches. Jesus and the disciples were spending time in Gentile territory, circling north and then east before traveling south to the district of Decapolis, which is east of the Jordan River and south of the Sea of Galilee. During his previous visit to the region, Jesus had freed a man from demonic possession by sending the unclean spirits into a herd of swine (Mk. 5:1-20). Word of his return had apparently spread, and he was asked to heal a man who was both deaf and mute.
The primary source for Mark’s Gospel was Peter, and the detailed description of the healing indicates the head apostle was profoundly moved by what he witnessed. There are seven specific actions described by Jesus: he took the man away from the crowd, touched his finger to the man’s ears, spit, touched the man’s tongue, looked to heaven, groaned, and said, “Be opened!”
In many ancient cultures, saliva was believed to possess healing properties. What is perhaps more striking for the modern reader is the intimate physicality of the action, as when a mother uses her saliva to rub dirt from her child’s cheek. The healing was not the work of a dispassionate doctor, but of the Lover of Mankind, the healer of body and soul. The Son, in becoming man, did not reluctantly put on flesh and blood, but was truly Incarnate, embracing humanity fully, completely, wholly. “That power which may not be handled came down and clothed itself in members that may be touched,” wrote Ephrem the Syrian, the great fourth-century theologian, “that the desperate may draw near to him, that in touching his humanity they may discern his divinity.”
Whereas the Gnostic Christ fled the material realm and ultimately failed to meet man where he lives, the real Christ—the Creator of all things seen and unseen—entered into time and history, experiencing the heat, the hunger, the sorrow, the weariness, and the pain.
But this miracle, like all of Jesus’ healings, was about far more than relief from physical ailments and illness. It was a sign that the Kingdom was established, that streams of living water had been loosed in the desert, and that the poor were being offered the riches of faith and everlasting life. Jesus embraced all of humanity—Jew and Gentile, healthy and ill, hearing and deaf, speaking and mute—because each of us needs to be touched and transformed by his hands and his word.
So, one reason (out of many) the Gospels are far more believable than the Gnostic writings is they describe real people in the real world meeting a Man who really heals both body and soul.
(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the September 6, 2009, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
September 5, 2015
First the Kentucky clerk; now the Oregon judge?
(us.fotolia.com | Zerbor)
by Carl E. Olson | "The Dispatch" at Catholic World Report
Further proof the Reign of Gay is the very essence of unreasonable "thinking"; it will not allow for any appeal to conscience, or even attempts to somehow have a position of neutrality.
From the Associated Press, this news from the state in which I've resided since 1991:
Marion County Judge Vance Day is being investigated by a judicial fitness commission in part over his refusal to perform same-sex marriages on religious grounds, a spokesman for the judge said.
When a federal court ruling in May 2014 made same-sex marriage legal in Oregon, Day instructed his staff to refer same-sex couples looking to marry to other judges, spokesman Patrick Korten said Friday.
Last fall, he decided to stop performing weddings altogether, aside from one in March that had long been scheduled, Korten said.
"He made a decision nearly a year ago to stop doing weddings altogether, and the principal factor that he weighed was the pressure that one would face to perform a same-sex wedding, which he had a conflict with his religious beliefs," Korten said.
There are several unknowns here, including the "in part" part; it's not known yet what other allegations against Judge Day are being investigated, although the article states that the "issue of same-sex weddings is 'the weightiest' of several allegations against Day that are being investigated by the Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability..."
What is most interesting to me is that Day (who is former chairman of the Oregon GOP but was appointed in 2011 by then-Gov. John Kitzhaber, who is a Democrat). has sought to remove himself from the fray by refusing to perform any and all marriages. This is in keeping, it appears, with the thinking of those who have argued that Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who has refused to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples, should have simply had others handle the licenses. On the surface, it sounds reasonable enough. But we are not living in reasonable times. And the Reign of Gay is, in fact, the very essence of unreasonable "thinking"; the Reign of Gay will not allow for any appeal to conscience, or even attempts to somehow have a position of neutrality. You are either for or against. Period.
And that means heads are going to roll. NRO's David French writes of the jailing of Davis:
Some people will call this ruling a triumph for the rule of law, a matter of harsh but necessary justice. It is no such thing. As I wrote in a piece earlier this week, the rule of law requires both lawful enactment and lawful enforcement. Justice Kennedy’s opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges is nothing more and nothing less than the establishment of Justice Kennedy’s world view as a new state religion — a religion with teeth. ...
In my initial piece about Davis, I described the unfolding drama as a case of competing revolutions — with Kim Davis defying Justice Kennedy’s revolutionary act with a revolutionary act of her own. We knew from the beginning which revolutionary held more power, and we also know that the worst revolutionaries show no mercy to dissenters. There were many options short of imprisonment for Davis (how many leftist legislators are in jail for lawless “sanctuary city” policies that actually cost lives?), but the court was apparently in no mood for moderation. So off she goes to prison. Judge Bunning’s decision is a means of control It is a means of maintaining order. It is the selective application of law to advance a particular radical ideology. But spare me any talk of justice.
Quite right. This is about raw power.
Public Order, Identity, and the Church
(us.fotolia.com | oily)
Public Order, Identity, and the Church | James Kalb | CWR
Like the rest of liberal modernity, the current understanding of identity won’t last because it’s ultimately irrational and self-defeating
The age of Jenner, Obergefell, and #BlackLivesMatter puts issues of identity at the center of public life. As Catholics and citizens we need to understand what that means.
Personal identity orients us in the world. As such, it has both individual and social functions. It enables us to order our lives by telling us what we are and how we fit into the world. And it greatly eases social functioning by telling people how they connect to institutions and what they owe them.
For a Catholic his identity includes Catholicism—his membership in the Church and orientation toward God and the world. It also includes his sex, state in life as married, ordained, or vowed, and basic family connections such as parentage. We can’t rightly abandon such things, they are fundamental to who we are, and they determine our most basic relationships and duties, thereby supporting the Church and the natural family as fundamental social institutions.
Other aspects of identity are less basic and more dependent on social conditions. More distant family relationships and the cultural networks into which we are born, for example, are less important today than in the past. Instead of relying on them for learning how to live and dealing with the practical problems of life, people rely on markets, bureaucracies, formal education, and mass culture. If Pete Muldoon goes to Harvard, people identify him more as a Harvard man and someone of his generation than as Irish and a Muldoon. They think those things account for more of his social position and how he acts.
Many people have come to view traditional dimensions of identity as irrational and oppressive and want their suppression: to give weight to family is seen as snobbish, and to do so with inherited cultural community is thought racist and therefore downright evil. That view contrasts with a more traditional Catholic view that sees traditional connections as valuable within limits.
The reason for wanting to suppress such things is that promoting some elements of identity means suppressing others.
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