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ARTICLE
NAVIGATION: You are presently looking at Part XI  Imagination is the ticket to stay on board this Polar Express …a day back in seminary and peoples' know-how to survive A gathering of Octagenarian Seminarians on 3rd April…
My seminary was built in 1898, a splendid medieval structure of brick and polished woods; there has never been an altar rail in the chapel as the elongated sanctuary extends to the massive entry doors; candidates for the priesthood chant Vespers sitting in monastery seats that interface over the richly carpeted marble center aisle, giving original awareness that the whole edifice is for a clergy brotherhood gathered in prayer. On April 3rd 2008, fifty four years after our ordination seven members of the Menlo Men of '54 gathered at St. Patrick's Seminary, Menlo Park, Ca. to memorialize our 17 deceased class members; a re-membering can be bitter sweet. I shall write about "our day back at St. Pat's" under separate page. Here I just want to mention that as we seven inspected the magnificent papal library, gathered for our simple memorial, and ate lunch in the common cafeteria not one of us entered the main chapel in which we had gathered daily for six years in the 1950's; I shall imaginatively ponder what message is contained in our bypassing this sacred place wherein we were trained and indoctrinated in custody of the Eucharist. My octogenarian seven classmates hold a variety of ideas of what priesthood should be. How many today can think beyond the boundaries of our pre-Vatican Two seminary training?. Images and archetypes are deeply embedded. A Vatican Two priesthood is in the future; we need to be imaginative. I have a mixture of joy and regret that I have grown old while amassing information concerning Jesus, religion, and life. I could never have anticipated when ordained in 1954 that I would undergo such seismic shifts/quantum leaps in appreciating the mysteries of God and creation; in seminary control of the imagination was the order of every day, yet Vatican Two opened the flood gates in 1962. Back in 1967 over a period of ten hours while in East Berlin I negotiated visa clearance for our youth group, an unforgettable moment of amateurish diplomacy; alone behind the Iron Curtain with 32 American passports I was happy in crisis to have the know-how of a keen control of my imagination learned in my seminary days. As the years unfolded a freed up imagination became an essential factor in appreciating the way of Jesus and the documents of Vatican Two; my 1950's seminary chapel training was proving to be quite inadequate to accomplish the mission of a Jesus priest in the modern world. I would learn to trust my imagination; I read the Gospels with an imagination … what's possible and what's ahead? Jesus with faith in his Father held an imaginative view of his future. To appreciate creation one needs an imagination… To appreciate creation one needs an imagination. Perhaps this is one of the major problems facing institutional religion today as modern science is far ahead in revealing to humankind many created marvels; somewhere, perhaps after WW2, a scientist imagined placing a man on the moon. As to priesthood I have imaginatively progressed off the clerical path proscribed by the Council of Trent, innocently at first discovering historical evidence of a first millennium married clergy and the fascinating theological struggle around human sexuality; my imagination matched the way of Jesus yet clashed with edicts of the First Lateran Council, 1123 ce, clerical marriage falling victim to the insane hierarchical crusade to rid the church institution of women. Urban 2 preaches the First Crusade in 1095, wanting "lean, hard clergy able to wield the sword". The second crusade is in 1146, a church civil war existing at this time around ritual purity, bishop against married bishop and rural clergy against the vowed monk. St. Peter Damian rails against the legitimate wives of the married clergy, emotionally calling them sows, whores, and she bitches whose sinful flesh defiles the sacred hands that touch the Eucharistic Body of Christ.
By 1123 ce the clerical establishment has exiled itself outside society, a desperate situation reinforced by the 1542 founding of the modern-day seminary which totally separates the candidate for priesthood from the people of the world. The cleric, supposedly removed from this sinful vale of tears is awkwardly invited back into the marvels of God's creation by Vatican Two. Confusion comes when the Creator who designed human nature is used as the one who condemns human nature. The teachings that Jesus died to appease his Father for the sins of humankind and Augustine's original sin of Adam are being carefully studied and held up for possible disbelief; Karl Rahner said that doubt is an essential function of belief. The seminary no longer meets the needs of modernity. I saw it so clearly last Thursday. No viable spiritual plan nor psychological guide map for the modern clerical priesthood… Presently there is no viable spiritual plan nor psychological guide map for the Roman Catholic clergyman to be at home in the modern world; each priest, young or old, is on his own, many unable to adapt. The 16th century iron mask is still required for ordination; the code of clerical conduct is outdated and based in medieval fear and misunderstanding of human nature. A human without a plan for survival will soon perish. The cracks in the dike appeared when Rome sanctioned Anglican clergy to convert to Romanism and still remain married; during the Middle Ages Rome had always been good at allowing rescripts (special permission to by-pass the law), permitting the sons of priests (bastards according to church law) to become clergy. The old first millennium system of a married clergyman training his son to be a priest continued on secretly and chaotically for five hundred years in spite of the Carolinian papal prohibition abolishing priestly marriage in 1139 ce. In the post-Trentan era the inauguration of the world-wide seminary system was helpful in balancing the religious chaos of the Middle Ages; under the pressure of world-wide people education this 1500's seminary system began to collapse shortly after Vatican Two in 1965. Ireland, once the provider of world wide clergy, in 2008 having only one of its nine major seminaries still open. Presently immigrant Polish priests are staffing Irish parishes. When the native-son clergy vanishes the local institution collapses. In the present day chaotic transition Rome has lost control and survival of the 4th century Constantinian system is in peril. (Haring's Priesthood Imperiled 1996; I have an encouraging personal hand written note from Bernard Haring as I sent him my comments on this book.) The old plan struggles for life in 2008; the bishops own the land, pews are emptying along with a dwindling clergy, and hopefully the People of God are on the rise. The 800 year old Carolinian celibacy dike collapsed with the massive worldwide exodus of roman clergy, and the flood waters of lay participation are renewing the lands. (Fashion Me a People by Eugene Kennedy 1967; Shattered Vows Exodus from the Priesthood by David Rice 1997) … Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again … how will Jesus be disguised? Surely this is not the salvation offered by Jesus? Memory of a childhood movie, featuring Arabs and the French Foreign Legion, haunts my mind as I write about dying clericalism; the horse-mounted Arabs are circling the desert fort while the corporal's guard of remaining legionaries prop up in the turrets dead bodies with silent rifles pointing outward … it is only a matter of time. Military history shows that battles are lost or won on the use of reserve forces; clear adjustment thinking is needed once the battle is underway. Vatican Two's People of God, a potent reserve force, are fast marshalling up and fast learning how to bring the way of Jesus into the whole world. … it is only a matter of time … it is conversion (turning around going the other way) one person at a time … and willingness to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Institutional male ministry is in its death throws. I grieve to see them die so bitterly and isolated; surely this is not the salvation offered by Jesus? I have a deep concern for the transition men; they are my brothers. The instinct to survive… Let's look at how people saved themselves in past ages — a brief hodge poge of history out of which the human race shows it survival skills … survival is a fundamental infantile human instinct. No red-blooded creature ever looses the instinct until the last breath of life. Change is always difficult. By the 5th century the Roman Empire is in decline and western urban life is at a low ebb; so too is institutional religion with the split between Rome (the pig pen of Europe) and Constantinople (the gem of the Byzantine world); Constantinian religion tied its cart to a dying roman monastic nag. Chaos reigns for centuries. Rural living was dangerous as the nobles in their castles warred with the power king who taxed all. People were ranked in order of those who worked and those who fought, no middle class; as a distraction from the meaningless of their lives some fought wars; "free up Jerusalem" and the Crusades with pillage and vengeance were on the front burners, the home front severely neglected. The Black Death limited life; the Jew is blamed. Civil wars, fear of life, and inquisitions swept the countrysides.
Behind the scenes the genius of human design has quietly been at work; the commune is invented and the township is arriving, evolutionarily becoming the individual's salvation; communes such as Milan and Pisa (by the 14th century communes had spread to Germany, France etc.), are divided into POPOLO GROSSO (merchants, owners) and POPOLO MINUTO (little people who work with their hands). By 1967 I was a split personality (schizoid) as human and priest, as well as living two separate lives as church man and human lover. The word person comes from the Greek PERSONA meaning mask; an ancient Greek actor held before his face a painted mask equipped with a megaphone. I saw the historical Jesus wearing the mask of an integral human being; his God was whole, not personality split. The devil (evil one) wore the mask of the shatterer. Psychology would infiltrate my personal life and I would seek to be holy (whole). Tom McMahon, San Jose, Ca., 05/04/08  NEXT WEEK:My calico cat and her want to be touched; Calli is not schizoid. ARTICLE
NAVIGATION: You are presently looking at Part XI
©2009 Tom McMahon |
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Tom McMahon, ordained in 1954 and now married, lives a very fulfilled life in San Jose and continues to contribute voraciously to several Catholic discussion lists in the States. He has been an enthusiastic supporter and encourager of the Catholica initiative from the very beginning.
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