The Fox As Savior

Photo by Sunyu on Unsplash

Last Friday, May 25, the Irish people voted 2 to 1 to repeal the Eighth Amendment to their constitution, an amendment ratified in 1983, and meant to protect the lives of unborn infants. In so doing, the Irish people have opened the door of the henhouse to the fox of "choice," a predator who will not stop until the Irish have killed themselves off, much like the Japanese and most of Europe are already doing. Having the fox's slyness without the dove's innocence, the  "pro-choice" crowd have begun with the unborn, since no one is nauseated by what can't be witnessed. Soon, though, this fox will have the Irish supporting the killing of everyone deemed "enslaved" by life, so long as these mercy killings are kept out of sight. It doesn't take an experienced tracker to see the bloody tracks this fox has left throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, yet, millions are entranced by his innocent gaze and soothing rhetoric.

Figuring out how millions of Catholics saw this fox of choice as an innocent defender of their liberties rather than the insatiable devourer of their very lives is the key to unraveling the mystery of the fox's victory. That key is the Catholic Church's inability to properly educate her people to recognize the fox as the predator and the Church as the defender. The Church has done much over the past sixty years to change people's perception of it, including the priest sex abuse scandal, ordaining and consecrating to Holy Orders men, who were incompetent in such roles, improperly educating the priests sent out to minister to a world in chaos, throwing away the true for the ridiculous and worthless, and being unable or unwilling to accurately define the problems facing the Church, among others. This unwillingness to accurately identify the problems facing it seem to have been key in the defeat of the Eighth Amendment in Ireland.

In none of the following am I trying to disparage all of those who have been working hard on behalf of the Church and have noted and highlighted these and other symptoms. They have done excellent work. Learning the patient's signs and symptoms is required to accurately diagnose the illness. Without their work, this analysis, among others, would be impossible. My concern is that the hierarchy of the Church and the superstars of the Catholic media, for whatever reasons, are content discussing and treating symptoms only.

Acknowledging the problem is the first step in recovery. As a firefighter/EMT, one of the first steps I learned about patient care or scene management was properly and accurately assessing the situation. It is impossible to take proper care of a patient or to effectively ameliorate an emergency situation without knowing the problem. Misidentifying the problem or acting without trying to find out makes the situation worse and can end up killing people. This fact was drilled into us as recruits in the academy, and we were dealing with physical lives. The Church, on the other hand, while dealing with people's immortal souls, seems to have no desire to learn what the true problems are. The Church seems content with throwing programs at symptoms and doing nothing more.

The symptoms, however, are only that. Decreasing Mass attendance, decreasing tithing, ever fewer volunteers, more "cafeteria Catholics" serving themselves in larger cafeterias, growing numbers of suicides, growing numbers of certain violent crimes, a morality so inclusive as to be meaningless, larger and more bitter divisions among groups are only symptoms. Symptoms can be treated, but if the illness is never discovered, the patient will die. The Church, the patient under discussion here, is dying, because no one wants to discuss the illnesses underlying all of the symptoms.

Just like a patient whose initial illness is left untreated is then beset with other illnesses and becomes steadily and rapidly worse, the Catholic Church has a number of illnesses infecting it. One illness is the Church's inability to educate Catholics in the Catholic faith in a manner which allows them to effectively and confidently rebut the errors of this age. The two greatest errors facing Catholics today are post-Modern neo-Marxism and Moral Therapeutic Deism. On the whole, the way in which catechesis is conducted in the Church today in no way prepares Catholics to rebut these errors and retain a lively faith. It was the Irish people's acceptance of these two errors, which allowed them to accept the fox as the protector of their liberties on May 25. It was the Catholic Church in Ireland, which failed to effectively educate their people as to who was the fox and who was the dove, because Catholic catechesis is largely shallow and provides little of use in this age.

From my experiences and the experiences of those I know and with whom I have communicated, catechesis is very shallow and forgettable. For so many, catechesis is the price they have to pay for something else: marriage, to make a Catholic spouse happy, graduation, self-actualization.... Being so shallow, what these people have learned provides nothing for them, when they hit life's rough times. Both Christian Smith and Sherry Weddell have documented this, for example. The "Yes" side in Ireland used Catholics' ignorance against them by framing the "No" side's arguments as "only religious with no bearing on the private lives of citizens living in a democracy." Edward Peters alluded today, via Twitter, that the "No" side failed to use reason, logic, and natural ethics to counter this assertion. Did they even know they could? No one identifies a fox as a fox using the deposit of the faith, yet Catholics seem ill-prepared to use anything other than the Catechism of the Catholic Church in their arguments, if they bother to argue at all.

The doctrines contained in the deposit of faith are meant to teach us who Jesus Christ is in order that we may fall into a loving relationship with him. Just as our conversations with those we love lead us to fall more into love with them, the deposit of faith serves the same purpose in our relationships with Christ. We study the doctrines, we take them to prayer, we ponder them and discuss them, and they fire in us a greater and growing love of Our Savior. Rather than bricks in a wall, doctrine should be delicacies for the heart. Catechists, having already feasted on these delicacies and are deeply in love with Christ themselves, prepare these delicacies for those they serve and lead them to more intimate relationships with Our Blessed Lord. Coming from catechesis of this kind, Catholics, when faced with choices like the Irish faced last Friday, will have no problem seeing the fox for who he is and rejecting him outright and unhesitatingly. If properly catechized, Catholics should always see errors as errors, which destroy, and Christ as Love, Who preserves.

The fox's massacre of the Irish on May 25, points out the gravely insufficient state of catechesis in the Catholic Church. This is an illness, though, which affects the entire Church. Too many Catholics accept the fox as their savior and reject Christ as the predator. How can you present doctrine as a delicacy rather than a brick?