of Pope Benedict XVI and their Relevance to American Culture." I don't think I've ever been in a room with as many people in habits, including, interestingly, a lot of novice nuns.Most of the speakers were some combination of ancient, inaudible and vague. Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, told us Alexis de Tocqueville had concluded, in a brief chapter of Catholicism in Democracy in America, that America would either end up without Christianity or as a Catholic country - not a section I can remember reading or ever seeing discussed (which doesn't mean it isn't in there!). You know which one he's hoping for!
But the last speaker, David Schindler, Dean of the John Paul II Institute and Editor-in-Chief of Communio, made up for it, with a bluntly serious talk. In five unembellished sections he gave the kind of summary and analysis of Benedict's teachings which my friend B and I had gone hoping to hear. There was a lot there, but the main point was that Benedict isn't offering the kind of modern religion Americans believe in - based in belief rather than reason, a private add-on to secular institutions and practices. No, he's for transforming from within our understanding of everything from reason to love to freedom to rights.
But it won't be easy: cultural transformation won't happen without suffering. Indeed, every Catholic should expect the crucifixion which Socrates predicted as the fate (and sign) of the truly just man: mistaken for unjust, he "will have to be scourged, racked, fettered, blinded, and finally, after the most extreme suffering,
he will be crucified" (Republic 316e) - another passage I didn't remember.Fighting words, and especially resonant for me who had just led (or tried to lead) the students in my Religious Right class through 1 Corinthians 1, with its claim that preaching Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. Benedict's saying more than that, but also that. His Kulturkampf is the real deal.
It's going to be an interesting visit!
