Abbey-Roads2

Loss of faith 

Sadly, it’s a new syndrome developing, which affects some bloggers, but more so Internet/blog surfers.  It can happen to traditionalists, progressives, liberals, whatever type of Catholic you want to call yourself.  Loss of faith is just a finger away.  (That would be the middle finger.)

My opinion is that it takes hold of people who become too cerebral about the faith, or focus entirely upon the dogmatic, doctrinal aspects of the faith.  It affects those who are especially focused upon liturgical rubrics, legalities, decorum, or theologies, etc.  It is difficult to delineate or to generalize about who may be affected however.  Conservatives or liberals could capitulate through intellectual pride - who knows?  (The really evil apostates stay “catholic” and present their views as Catholic, twisting truth to suit their philosophies.) 

Nevertheless, it really happens to people.  I worked with a woman who was a radical traditionalist, quoting Popes from Pius X to Pius V, along with Conciliar decisions of the Council of Trent, verbatim.  In her eyes, very few people today, including the Pope, were even Catholic.  After a couple months of blogging (she discovered it from me!) and exposure to the Internet, she returned to her former religion, Wicca.  What the hell happened?  I saw it coming though, Internet or not, because her faith had been placed in externals, along with the celebrity and acceptance she initially found in being a convert from paganism - which wore off of course.  (Well, there is more to the story than that, suffice it to say, she had a superficial faith.)

When the medium is the message.

I really believe people get in over their heads when it comes to liturgy and dogma, spirituality and religious life, not to mention all the “issues” bloggers get themselves embroiled in.  Blogging exacerbates the situation sometimes.  (Think about it, how many bloggers are “new” Catholics, or so-called “reverts” - I hate that term - without a great deal of experience in the faith, the Church, despite the fact they may have some education on the subject, or maybe even a ‘mystical’ experience of sorts under their belts.)  I call it getting “over-Churched”, or “over-theologized”, over “spiritualized”, which contrasts fairly well in a culture that is “over-psychologized”, “intellectualized” and “liberalized”.  It happens to people who know too much about a little sometimes - while having little or no experience in being “little”.  (In a post on Abbey1, I call these Pusey blogs.)

You can take the devotion out of religion, which is what many people end up doing, but then religion becomes just another ideology that can be refuted along with all the other “isms” that float around out there.  Especially when “religious” people betray their lack of devotion, which is essentially, a lack of charity - that really drives aspirants away!  (I’m referring to the invective and argumentation that occurs in the comment section of many blogs.  Bitches sometimes kill their own puppies.)

Verbosity.

You see, anyone may pontificate upon the truths of the faith and morals, or condemn those who don’t measure up to their standards - liberal or conservative - but without charity, everyone is just a sounding cymbal, a noisy gong, a Snoopy cartoon dialog no one can understand - or even cares to understand.

A noted priest  (veddy conservative mind you - you would be shocked!) from St. Paul, once told me that some of the writings of John Paul II were a bunch of hot air - don’t be scandalized - he was referring to their verbosity, not the essential content.  (He especially felt some of the documents from the USCCB were even more so.)  If one can say that about Church documents, my Lord, how much more apt is it to describe our blogging?

We must begin to realize that our words, written in a weblog, or in the comment section of another, can drive a person to apostasy, or cause an innocent person seeking the truth to dismiss and turn away from the Catholic Church all together.  Sticks and stones hurt, words can kill the spirit.

Scandalizing the little ones - it is so not a good thing.  Mea culpa!

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Two martyrs. 

One was a Bishop, the other was a married layman who worked in government.  Both were beheaded for their fidelity to the Pope and standing up for marriage.  Sounds like something that would happen in a communist country, or amongst a pagan tribe in Africa…decades ago maybe.  But it happened in a civilized,  Catholic country.  Indeed centuries ago, but the issues are ever so contemporary.

The men were St. John Fisher (the only Bishop in all of England who denounced the King’s actions), and St. Thomas Moore, beheaded for resisting King Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon to marry Ann Boleyn, which meant they stood in defense of the teachings of the Church and supported the Holy Father.  (Couldn’t they have just pretended to approve?  Or better yet, they could have said their personal beliefs had nothing to do with their politics.)

Something from Chesterton:

“Blessed Thomas Moore is more important at this moment than at any moment since his death, even perhaps the great moment of his dying; but he is not quite so important as he will be in about a hundred years time.  He may come to be counted the greatest Englishman, or at least the greatest historical character in English history.  For he was above all things historic; he represented at once a type, a turning point and an ultimate destiny.  If there had not happened to be that particular man at that particular moment, the whole of history would have been different.”
–G. K. Chesterson, “A Turning Point in History”