The Catholic Underground

Finally returned some seriously overdue books to Calvin's library, humbly paid my fines, and checked out a few new books. It's good to be back in the stacks again.

One title, which has really quite intrigued me, is called The Smoke of Satan (Michael Cuneo, Oxford University Press, 1997) - obviously the title alone is provocative enough to catch the attention of a Traditionalist such as myself.

Cuneo explores (over the course of six chapters) the fact that, underneath the surface of American Catholicism, a surface made up by the majority of (so-called, say I) Catholics who are more American than Catholic (read: liberal to the core), "there exists a sort of Catholic underground made up of people who are in rebellion against the new comforts and freedoms of American Catholicism." He goes on:

Far from being a place of legitimate faith, in the view of such people, the church in the United States today is an outright disaster zone. Its theologians are traitorous, its bishops derelict in defending traditional truth, and its schools breeding grounds of heresy. Pampered and complacent, its laity are mostly ignorant (or altogether dismissive) of fundamental doctrine and morals. Its once-great ritual life is enfeebled and disgraced, and many of its priests seem enamored less by the sacraments than by the prospects of gay sex and left-leaning political action. (p. 4)

I suppose that's as concise and accurate a description of the problems in the Church today as any, not to mention a seminal charter for the existence of the Traditionalist resistance.

This underground, Cuneo goes on to say, is more or less divisible into three sub-groups, "each with its own specialized world view, its own spirituality, and its own particular take on what must be done to save authentic Catholicism in the United States from outright extinction." (p. 4)

These groups are identified as follows:

Catholic Conservatism

... mostly made up of disaffected laypeople who are committed to revitalizing the church through a campaign of moral militancy. Fiercely loyal to Rome, and just as fiercely opposed to the moral flabbiness of the broader culture, Catholic conservatives want to create a newly masculinized Catholicism: a Catholicism that's tough and defiant, stripped down and ready for battle. And the prime testing ground for this toughened-up Catholicism is on the frontlines of America's current abortion wars. Fighting abortion, in the conservative view, is far more than simply a political undertaking. It's the final frontier of faith, the last opportunity for Catholics in the United States to recapture the zeal and spiritual prowess of their religious ancestors. (pp. 4-5)

Catholic Separatists

... are considerably more pessimistic. For the past thirty years, according to separatists, the institutional church in America and elsewhere has undergone a process of almost complete spiritual meltdown, and its prospects for recovery seem exceedingly bleak. In Rome no less than in America, they claim, the institutional church has become mainly a sham of faith; and trying to reform it from within is no longer a viable strategy. Indeed, the only strategy worth pursuing today is one of strict isolationism. If authentic Catholicism is to be kept alive, Catholics still loyal to the traditions of the past are compelled to withdraw altogether from the institutional church and create alternative communities of their own. It's only within such alternative communities (or theological utopias-in-exile), separatists claim, that a newly sanctified Catholicism - completely unadulterated by the perversities of the historical present - can be nurtured into being. (p. 5)

Catholic Marianists

... turn instead to the more exotic realm of miraculous apparitions and mystical prophecy. In these desperate times, they contend, the Virgin Mary has re-entered history with new messages of hope (and warning) for the suffering faithful. These messages, transmitted directly by the Virgin herself to specially appointed seers, spell out the precise steps that must be taken for Catholics to attain salvation, and also the punishments awaiting anyone foolish enough not to take heed. For Catholic Marianists, the messages and their accompanying apparitions are more than just a spiritual consolation; they also a powerful vindication. In an age that treats virtually every expression of religious passion as a laughingstock, here's live-wire evidence that miracles still happen and that forces greater than nature and the human will still rule history. And for anyone who persists in scoffing, the Vengeful Virgin will be back on the scene soon enough to set matters straight. (p. 5)

That's fairly insightful, I'd say. I'm not exactly sure where the defining boundaries are for each of these groups, as Cuneo defines them, and I won't know until I get further into the book. Traditionalism seems like it might encompass a little of Separatism and Marianism, but I'm not sure if Marianism as defined by Cuneo is more a group of private seers than, say, those generally devoted to the cult of Fatima, Lourdes, LaSalette, etc.

Time will tell.