Tuesday, August 31, 2004
A City on a Hill
Well, maybe not a city. And it can be hard to haul water buckets up an incline.
Jeff Culbreath's blog http://elcaminoreal.blog-city.com/ featured a piece on intentional Catholic community. I think the desert fathers started it. You know the story: the world's going to hell in a handbasket and the Church seems to be escorting the way. Let's bail and form our own club of True Believers.
I can sympathize. In the 80's, I thought the Rule of Benedict would be a great foundation for a lay community (read: commune) of Catholics. Through the years, I've met many people who would, if we collectively had a few hundred thou, would have gladly gone in with me, bought some land, built some cottages and a commons, and lived happily ever in a Catholic Shangri-La.
I think the traditionalist desire to leave the progressives behind with the rest of the world is misguided. I would say the same if some of my liberal friends called me tomorrow and said, "Let's blow this institutional hierarchical sexist liturgical tight-butt show." The simple truth is that the effort of leaving behind one's shadow will ultimately continue to splinter a group into smaller and smaller pieces. While I can understand a common desire to leave behind materialism, television, malls, traffic jams, and the suburban minivan culture of sport, I think the effort to create an ideological purism within Catholicism is doomed.
Still, the thought of a Catholic enclave to raise children (with a nod to the much-villified Hillary) collectively is quite attractive. It would be a desirable lifestyle for adults as well. My wife reports she would hate it. Sorry; call me in about five or ten years. Maybe she'll change her mind when the traditionalists decide they need us progressives after all.
