By Luiz Sérgio Solimeo
We are immersed in a cultural war which is destroying the most sacred foundations of our civilization and increasingly plunging the world into chaos and violence.
In this context, it is important that Catholics, following the path of their ancestors, abandon self-indulgence and engage in the fight, mindful of the promises made at Baptism and of having become soldiers of Christ by Confirmation. They need to launch forth “into the breach."
A Vibrant Call to Battle
This is the call that the Bishop of Phoenix, Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted, makes to the men of his diocese – and by extension of the whole country – in his vibrant document of September 29, 2015: An Apostolic Exhortation to Catholic Men, My Spiritual Sons in the Diocese of Phoenix.
As the illustrious bishop said with words reminiscent of the great calls for the Crusades of old, it is a call to battle:
I begin this letter with a clarion call and clear charge to you, my sons and brothers in Christ: Men, do not hesitate to engage in the battle that is raging around you,
the battle that is wounding our children and families, the battle that
is distorting the dignity of both women and men. This battle is often
hidden, but the battle is real. It is primarily spiritual, but it is
progressively killing the remaining Christian ethos in our society and
culture, and even in our own homes.
The Fight as a Defense against the Attacks of the Devil
This cultural war against the Church, Bishop Olmsted ponders, is inspired by the father of lies. He asserts, “One of the key reasons that the Church is faltering under the attacks of Satan is that many Catholic men have not been willing to ‘step into the breach’ – to fill this gap that lies open and vulnerable to further attack.”
For Catholic men, ceasing to fight is devastating because they ultimately “fall away from the Church, they fall deeper and deeper into sin, breaking their bonds with God and leaving them vulnerable to the fires of Hell.”
The Fight as the Duty of Every Baptized Person
With that, “Catholic men are failing to keep the promises they made at their children’s baptisms – promises to bring them to Christ and to raise them in the faith of the Church.”
“Many
fruits of our Christian heritage still exist, but the roots below the
soil are under siege,” underlines the Bishop of Phoenix, and this is why
the fight has a reason for being and also becomes urgent. The remnants
of our Catholic heritage must be not only preserved but restored to
their fullness.But the struggle for truth and morals, for the honor of being Catholic, is not only a sacrifice we make; with the assistance of divine grace, this struggle gives us the joy of a warrior fighting for a just cause.
According to Olmsted, “In Christ’s mercy and truth, we become strong in His strength, courageous with His courage, and can actually experience the joie de guerre [joy of the battle] of being soldiers for Christ.”
This “joy of the battle” that visits the soldiers of Christ is one of the purest and most intense joys that can be experienced on earth.
The Church, a School of Spiritual Battle
“The Church is, and has always been,” Bishop Olmsted notes, “a school that prepares us for spiritual battle, where Christians are called to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:2), to “put on the armor of God,” and “to be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).”
This “joy of the battle” is a powerful incentive for Catholics to engage in the struggle and recover the true concept of manliness so distorted in our society, which also influences Catholics. Today there is a crisis of manhood.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, a Model of ManlinessThe true model of manliness is not the one the world offers, but Our Lord Jesus Christ.
As the Bishop states in his document:
Jesus of Nazareth – who at once is fully
God and fully man, and the perfection of masculinity. Every moment of
his life on earth is a revelation of the mystery of what it means to be
man – that is, to be fully human and also, the model of masculinity.
Nowhere else can we find the fullness of masculinity as we do in the Son
of God. Only in Jesus Christ can we find the highest display of
masculine virtue and strength that we need in our personal lives and in
society itself.
“Gender Theories” and the Destruction of Society
The gradual disappearance of virility greatly contributed to the so-called "gender theories" that destroy the complementary differences between men and women. The emasculation of man is accompanied by a masculinization of women. Unisex clothes, androgynous haircuts, replacement of family life by a career outside the home, these all favor this loss of true femininity.
The Bishop of Phoenix explains:
[T]he rapid advance of a “gender
ideology” has infected societies around the world. This ideology seeks
to set aside the sexual difference created by God, to remove male and female
as the normative way of understanding the human person, and in its
place, to add various other “categories” of sexuality. This ideology is
destructive for individuals and society, and it is a lie. It is harmful
to the human person, and therefore, a false concept that we must oppose
as Christians.
It is quite clear that no one can change sex according to his fancy.
The DNA present in every cell of the human body bears the mark of the
person’s sex, male or female. This does not depend on anyone’s will but
on the designs of God, and to try and force nature contrary to these
ends is a sin, a rebellion against the Creator. People can change their
appearance by hormones and surgeries, but not their nature: they will
always be a man or woman as conceived in the womb.The Crisis of Paternity
Confusion and loss of masculine or feminine identity profoundly hurt the family and therefore society with the loss of the notions of fatherhood and motherhood, once so lively in Christian civilization.
The bishop comments:
Today’s
attack on fatherhood, and by extension, motherhood, is multi-pronged
and breathtakingly damaging. 41% of children are born into unmarried
homes in our day, an increase of 700% from 1950, when the out-of-wedlock
birthrate was a mere 6%. These children are not fatherless because of
some sweeping physical conflict, like World War II, which caused many
wounds of fatherlessness, but rather because, far worse, fathers’ own
willed absence is happening on a massive scale. … Catholic men also
contribute far too regularly to this same scandal that devastates the
heart of a child and makes too many women in our culture live as if they
were widows!Touching on the father’s irreplaceable role in the family, Bishop Olmsted exhorts Catholic men: Men, your presence and mission in the family is irreplaceable! … We need faith like that of our fathers who defended the children of previous generations and who gave up their own lives rather than abandon their faith in Christ. My sons and brothers, men of the Diocese of Phoenix, we need you to step into the breach!
The Role of Healthy Friendship
Not only must Catholic men recover the sense of physical and spiritual parenthood, but also a sense of manly friendship among men, a fellowship which helps men to face the difficulties of life and is above all an aid to progress in the spiritual life. This friendship has nothing romantic or self-serving but is part and parcel of our social nature, leading men and women to the practice of friendship. Saint Thomas Aquinas says that a friend is another self; and Our Lord commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Unfortunately, in the individualistic and hedonistic society we live in, the natural sense of friendship is being lost and that which sociologists call “loneliness in the crowd” is continually expanding.
Sexual Revolution, Unhappiness and Solitude
The proximate cause for the loss of manliness, the masculinization of women, the loss of the sense of fatherhood and motherhood and that of friendship is the Sexual Revolution, which took on a violent and devastating impulse in the mid-60s.
The bishop comments:
How did it come about that a culture so
steadfast in supporting marriage and spousal commitment two generations
ago became a culture that has reduced sexuality to mere pleasure and
self-serving ends? The answer is the Sexual Revolution. For many, the
Sexual Revolution promised “free love” and liberty from the shackles of
old ideas about masculinity and femininity. What resulted was the
separation of sexuality from the commitments of marriage and a
widespread option for sterility (chemical and surgical sterilizations),
amounting to a denial of what is most essentially masculine and feminine
in the person. Worse, the Sexual Revolution ushered in the scourge of
abortion, pornography, and sexual abuse so rampant in recent decades.
Instead of real and authentic love, this false “liberty” offers cheap
pleasures that mask a deeper loneliness and pain.
Defending Chastity: the Great Manly Weapon
Into the Breach
prescribes the classical remedies presented by Catholic tradition and
by authors of spiritual theology: constant custody of the eyes, control
of one’s imagination, prayer, vigilance, frequenting the sacraments,
especially confession and Communion, daily examination of conscience,
devotion to the saints and so on.But above all—and this is the major contribution of this admirable Apostolic Exhortation by Bishop Thomas Olmsted— Catholic men must conceive the spiritual life as a struggle and practice virtue as a means to prepare themselves for the struggle in defense of Christian principles and values, especially the great virtue so heavily attacked today: chastity.
A manly, strong, combative chastity that is neither bashful nor apologizes for existing, but is seen as a powerful and necessary weapon in the fight against the destruction of the family, the Church, and civilization itself.
Gratitude to a Valiant Bishop
We therefore close these quick considerations on his extremely timely Apostolic Exhortation Into the Breach with heartfelt thanks to the valiant Bishop of Phoenix.
For more information please click here to visit: Into the Breach
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