Tuesday, April 24, 2007

An Unfortunate Kerfuffle (or "Why Can't We Converts and Cradle Catholics All Just Get Along?")

"What's all the kerfuffle?"

I've hesitated to comment on this post by Fr. Longenecker, and the subsequent controversy that erupted, because, quite honestly, I'm not altogether sure where I come down on it. Although I am a convert from evangelical Christianity, and retain as part of my make-up much of what is positive (and, perhaps, negative) about evangelicalism, I am somewhat ambivalent about the movement called "Evangelical Catholicism", just as I am ambivalent about any sort of qualifier on Catholicism. To the extent I am interested in any form of Catholicism that has an adjective in front of it, it would be Traditional Catholicism, but even then, I consider the term redundant.

I became Catholic because I wanted to be Catholic. Period. I became Catholic because I wanted to be faithful to the Magisterium. Period. Do I still carry some of my evangelical underpinnings with me and do they in some way color how I practice my Faith? Probably, but only to the extent they are appropriate and consistent with the authentic Catholic faith as practiced for 2000 years. Do I try to have a "personal relationship" with Christ and to encourage others to do so as well? Yes, but I don't think that is any different than what the Holy Father has talked about in encouraging the faithful toward knowing and trusting Christ in a personal way, or what Fr. Longenecker and Fr. Jay Scott Newman (two very orthodox and tradition-minded priests if ever there were any) mean when they talk about "Evangelical Catholicism". It's just that, for my part, I think that term may carry too much "baggage", and, again, I don't think it necessarily helpful to place adjectives in front of "Catholicism".

Nevertheless, for anyone to call into question the orthodoxy or the "authenticity" of the conversion of either Fr. Longenecker or Fr. Newman, as commenter "Susan" has done in the above-linked thread on Fr. Longenecker's blog, is quite beyond the pale, not to mention insulting and condescending in a "I'm more Catholic than these 2 convert but highly orthodox priests" sort of way.

The commentary over at Fr. Longenecker's blog has sparked some discussion about who is more disdainful and/or condescending toward the other: converts to Catholicism or "cradle" Catholics. Again, I found cradle-Catholic Susan's comments, especially those directed to evangelical-to-Catholic convert Fr. Newman, to be far more insulting than anything I've ever read coming from a convert about cradle Catholics. Nevertheless, I have found myself cringing at some of the things said or written by fellow converts that imply that we are more in tune with the Faith than those who were raised in it.

Let me say this: among my immediate Catholic acquaintances, I may be more learned in "book knowledge" about the Faith than many, but certainly not all, of them; but what I do NOT have is the lived experience of being Catholic. George Weigel, in his book Letters to a Young Catholic (which, by the way, devotes a chapter to Fr. Newman and his parish - St. Mary's Church in Greenville, S.C.), talks about a "habit of being" Catholic. In other words, a "spiritual sensibility that allows us to experience the world" as Catholics. That's not something learned from a book, but rather experienced - and experienced more profoundly I would suggest - by a lifetime of living one's Catholicism. Weigel says "it's about seeing and hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling as much as it's about texts and arguments and ideas." I would suggest that it is here that those who have experienced nothing other than Catholicism, who have known only the experiences of being "other" in a profoundly Protestant country, who have been inculturated with a Catholic sensibility (i.e. who are "cultural" Catholics), have much to teach those of us who are converts.

It was for this reason that Sarah and I picked up our family and moved to Norwalk, Ohio. We know our limitations as Catholic converts. How are we to raise authentically Catholic children when we don't have the lived experience of being Catholic ourselves? When we don't have the family support structure to help us raise our children in the Faith? When we lived in an inherently Protestant environment without the sort of Catholic "infrastructure", such as affordable Catholic schools, etc., that can be found in regions of the country where Catholicism is more prevalent?

It is the cradle Catholics that we have met in our new environment here in Norwalk - some of whom are godparents - that will help us accomplish our goal of raising Catholic children. It is the Catholic school in this town - established and maintained for generations by the hard work and monetary sacrifice of cradle Catholic immigrants and their descendants - that will help us give our children an authentically Catholic education. It is the cradle Catholics who have done the heavy lifting in this Nation, to make Catholicism the force to be reckoned with that it is, who have made our transition as converts from Protestant to Catholic a smooth one.

In short, I thank God for the cradle Catholics in my life. The godparents, the priests, the RCIA sponsors, the friends, the bloggers, the kind lady next to us in the pew who smiles and says, "It's alright, I've been there, too," whenever our children get out of line at Mass. It is these folks who are helping us converts in the Anderson family learn the fine art of "being" Catholic.


UPDATE
Please note that I have unfortunately mischaracterized the post to which I linked regarding the discussion about "converts vs. cradles". The author of that post informs me that it did NOT grow out of the controversy over at Fr. Longenecker's blog, but rather was in response to other issues. I apologize for my mischaracterization.

It should be noted, however, that a similar "converts vs. cradles" controversy did grow out of the post by Fr. Longenecker, and has played out on Fr. Longenecker's blog and some other blogs that have taken up the issue that the original post addressed.

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7 Comments:

At 4/24/2007 8:29 AM, Blogger Denise said...

Interesting. I wrote just before Easter about how as a cradle Catholic, I am in awe of those who consciously choose to be Catholic. But then again, if we listen to recent words of Pope Benedict, we are reminded that each of us are called to continual conversion. Our past experiences, be they religious, ethnic, or other, shape our vision of the what the Church should be. We are called to conversion and a refocusing of that vision to what the Church calls each of us to be. There is only one Mystical Body of Christ. There are many parts.

 
At 4/24/2007 8:46 AM, Blogger Pro Ecclesia said...

Catholic Mom,

You are so right. I think each of the members of the Body of Christ have much to learn from each other. Surely those who have consciously chosen to learn about the Church and the Catholic Faith and have taken the major step of converting have something to teach those born into the Faith about "continual conversion", while those who have lived the Faith from infancy have something to teach us converts about "being" Catholic and having an overall Catholic sensibility.

But in the end, we are shaped by what the Church calls us to be, not by our own unique perspectives.

 
At 4/24/2007 9:19 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What struck me about the exchange is how unwilling people are to actually listen to what the other is saying. Susan just insisted that Evangelical=Protestant, and there was absolutely no willingness to concede that the phrase pre-dates the birth of Protestantism.

I'm a Cradle Catholic, and as one I'd be the first to question any other Cradle Catholic who mocks the "poor catechesis" of converts. Well, how good has been the training of cradle Catholics in the past 40 years? I went to a parochial Catholic garmmar school from K-8, and then a Jesuit high school. I can tell you there is plenty of stuff that I was not taught that I'm only now learning, and yet I was instructed by the Jesuits that questioning Church teaching is a-ok (in fact it's the height of loyalty), that Mary indeed did have other children, and other such kernels of wisdom.

Luckily I found my way to CUA for grad school, and started working in the bookstore at the National Shrine. It was there that I really started reading up on the faith (we had lots of free time, enabling me to read many of the books on the shelves), and interacting with others who actually knew what they were talking about. But I am still struck by my relative ignorance of certain key aspects of our faith.

But I am awestruck by all converts. Every week I see the catechumens and candidates brought up for dismissal, and I wonder at the bravery in accepting Catholicism. It's a shame that some of my fellow cradle Catholics have such disdain for the very people who strenghten our communion.

 
At 4/24/2007 10:35 AM, Blogger Jeff Miller said...

I myself am in awe of those lifelong Catholics who have always retained their faith.

If I have one regret (leaving aside a thousand failings as a person, husband, grandfather, great-grandfather and friend -- and my lazy, slapdash, selfish attitude as an actor) it would be that I didn't take the decision to become a Catholic in my early twenties. That would have sorted out a lot of my life and sweetened it. (p. 560)
-- Alec Guinness

Like Alec Guinness I certainly wish I had been a cradle Catholic able to take fully of the graces the Church offers. Though many cradle Catholics also have a reconversion to the faith that is similar to what happens to other converts. I daydream of what it would have been like to grow up in an authentically Catholic home. My wife though is a Cradle Catholic and like St. Monica I am sure she prayed me into the Church.

As for which side is more disdainful, I tend to agree with you. The most dismissive attacks I have read have been towards converts (Like Father Joe O'Leary calling me and others neo-Catholics). Most of the dismissiveness towards Cradle Catholics has been towards those in the "thinking Catholic" camp. You don't hear converts attacking Patrick Madrid, Karl Keating, and others.

So maybe it isn't really a cradle/convert divide, but falls more along the progressive/faithful divide.

 
At 4/24/2007 10:47 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jay, recently I've been noticing more and more of the "Down with converts!" crowd, but some years ago the people who were annoying me were not converts, but fellow cradle Catholics who said things like "We cradle Catholics know nothing about our faith! Thank goodness Scott Hahn etc. are here to teach us the real way!"

I don't think it was the converts themselves who made any such claims, that I've ever heard.

 
At 4/24/2007 11:23 AM, Blogger Pro Ecclesia said...

So maybe it isn't really a cradle/convert divide, but falls more along the progressive/faithful divide.

Jeff, I think you're generally correct, but I've noticed the "inauthentic" convert meme coming from some who could be described as orthodox/faithful/etc.

 
At 4/24/2007 12:15 PM, Blogger Denise said...

You know this post has been in my head all day! I finally had to sit and write a much longer version of my thoughts here. What I find fascinating is the kerfuffle expanded to a question of cradle vs convert Catholicism. Remind you of the Apostles discussing who is the greatest? There are some very legitimate questions to be answered about the Evangelical Catholic Institute. But the discussion sharply veered to is an Evangelical Catholic a real Catholic. The commenter, Susan, comes across as rather sharp and accusatory, but her concern is reasonable: Is the Evangelical Catholic Institute and similarly Evangelical Christian converts to Catholicism, promoting a relationship with Jesus Christ that is separate from the Church? If so, this is contrary to Catholic teaching. Christ cannot be separated from His Church. Perhaps that is why this broke down to a cradle/convert divide. Cradle Catholics have never known a relationship with Christ outside the Church. Christian converts thought they knew Christ just fine before they entered the Catholic Church and may not appreciate how wrong this sounds to the cradle Catholic.

 

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