Posted on 09/07/2014 10:10:45 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
Although Abdul Hamid has largely been forgotten, he is the young man sitting in the pew next to you at Mass.
Abdul was the renowned American boy John Walker Lindh who turned Taliban fighter in Afghanistan shortly after September 11, 2001. The argument can be made that he is an icon for many American Catholic youth of our current day. John Walker Lindh was “raised Catholic” in his suburban California home. By the age of 16, he left his spiritual heritage in search of “his own spiritual path.” That eventually led him to Islam and to his senseless death in Afghanistan.
Likewise, one of the most difficult encounters I have had as a priest involved a young man who, after twelve years of Catholic education, converted to Islam. I was defeated before I even met the young man; his parents waited way too long before arranging our meeting. On one hand, he was like any other young man with whom I have worked: idealistic, eager to learn, searching, and trying desperately to make sense of the world in which he lived. On the other, he grasped anxiously to an ideology that he found nearly impossible to defend. Impossible to defend, yet at the same time it must have offered him something for which to hope and sacrifice. Recently, news reports have been filed from the Middle East that a small, though significant, number of western young men are traveling to these war torn regions for their share of the – contrived – Islamic glory.
Even if we are unwilling to ask the question, it remains and must be addressed…Why are so many of our Catholic youth, especially young men, so easily led away from their Catholic faith? And more pointed, why would they leave the Church -even the marginalized- for an alternative that promises oppression, injustice, darkness and death (not to mention a spiritual life devoid of the Father’s mercy)?
When I talk with college age students, the most common statements I hear are these: “Twelve years of Catholic school, and nobody ever told me that!” “I was raised Catholic, but…now I am Buddhist…now I have no need to attend church…” “I am no longer a Catholic, but I am (even after admitting to regular pornography use, pre-marital sex, drug abuse, apathy toward life) a ‘good person’ and believe I am going to heaven.” “We cannot judge; the Church is intolerant, exclusive, hypocritical and irrelevant.” And, finally, the most despised, “I was raised Catholic, but…” (This is what happens when young people learn their catechesis from Hollywood.)
Parents blame catechists, catechists blame parents, Directors of Religious Education blame bishops, bishops blame priests, everyone blames the youth…there seems to be little in the way of answers and much in the way of blame.
Brothers, you and I are the solution to the problem. Young men will experience deep religious conversion and turn to defend all that is good when Catholic men return to the ancient practice of teaching their sons (and other young men) their faith. That is the only way that the situation will change. The teaching of the faith to the young men historically and nearly universally fell to the father of the family. Within the church in the United States, most young people are taught their faith by women. We are glad for their dedication and commitment, however, boys learn their faith from their fathers. I am quite confident that young Islamists are not being taught their faith by women. As incomprehensible as Islam can be, at least their young men know their faith. Remarkably, the very same can be said of St. Joseph and Jesus. In their time, men taught their sons the faith. It is very safe to assume that St. Joseph would have taught Jesus the tenets of his own faith and introduced him to the ancient and sacred Scriptures.
A recent European study revealed some startling findings regarding the critical role of fathers in their children’s practice of the faith. The study found that fathers chiefly determine the church habits of grown children. If a father does not go to church, no matter how faithful his wife’s attendance, only one child in 50 (2 percent) will remain faithful to the Church. Yet, if a father does go regularly, and the mother does not, 44 percent of their children will become churchgoers (Thomas W. Karras, “The Truth About Men and the Church,” Orthodox News Service).
It was a man, my pastor, who convinced me of my faith. He was a rock. Nothing: no challenge, could cause him anxiety about the truth…and I pressed him with every possibility! He was a man of conviction. Fathers and other Catholic men must do the work to discover their own faith on a personal level and make an interior assent to the Truth which they discover. Then, they must boldly, though charitably, defend and teach that faith to their sons. We must be cautious when talking to grown sons (and daughters) about the faith. Many have been completely (in the words of a college junior) brainwashed by the culture. Talk may not be productive. The most effective manner to evangelize sons (and daughters) is to know your own faith and let them see how happy you are, confident in the promises and hope of Jesus Christ.
The future, our future, rests with Catholic men. Catholic men must rediscover the ancient reality and truth of their faith and see the grace offered therein as an unearthly force of great and tremendous life-altering power. These are not empty words. Jean Cardinal Danielou once wrote, “What men fear fundamentally is that this irruption of God into their lives may be the occasion of losing themselves, and may involve them in terrible (i.e. formidable) adventures.”
As I direct retreats or days of reflection for Catholic men, I cannot believe the apathy or even hostility young Catholics hold toward their Church. Today, there is even a triumphalistic attitude when one declares his independence from, and superiority to, the Catholic Church. This attitude is accompanied by a distrust of the Church and what she teaches as well as a position that the Church is irrelevant to them. The abuse crisis is always cited. Yes, individuals within the Church have failed terribly in the past. But to surrender the heritage of the Church, her Scriptures, her charity, and the mystery of the Eucharist because of human failure?
Everyone has an opinion, but it remains and cannot be denied: we are losing our young men and jeopardizing the future of the Church and the order of society. We are simply not equipping young men if we are not teaching them the rich and life-sustaining truths of Jesus Christ and his Church. I truly doubt many young Catholic men will end up in the deserts of Afghanistan, Syria or Iraq, but I also doubt they will be able to raise a Christian family, defend ethical principles in the work place, regularly confess their sins, answer the challenges of non-Catholic proselytizers, enter into the permanent selfless bond of marriage or hear the call of God to the priesthood or religious life, or deal well with death. Not to forget the rearing and instruction of the next generation of Catholics.
I saw this movie.
Terre Haute is on the Indiana/Illiois border, right off I70.
South Bend (where Notre Dame is located) is way up by Michigan.
Sorry, my fault.
“I saw this movie.”
Maybe even twice!
No biggie ;) I grew up less than an hour from Terre Haute.
John Walker Lindh turned to Islam shortly after his father divorced his mother and moved in with a male lover. The son fled to the most anti-homosexual faith he could find, because Christianity didn’t condemn his father’s actions sufficiently.
Maybe even twice in the last year. I have four small sons.
No people/tribe can survive when its cultural elites say “we’re the worst/we’re horrible/we’re bad”. People are attracted to ideologies that say “we’re number one, we’re the best”.
You can get along alright with a belief system that puts you in the middle.
But our elites are demonizing the majority of the population, putting white men on the bottom of a new caste system. That some of them then flee to a religious system that puts them at the top of the pecking order is not surprising. Giving them a diety’s permission to live down to their lowest impulses is only a plus.
As a Catholic father, it would have helped if so many of the bishops hadn’t been homos.
And I’m crazy enough to be looking forward to the next one!
(Now, back to our original ironic/mockery styled programming]:
But you have not lived until you’ve seen the Star Wars Holiday Special from 1978.
I'm not ... but I will see it anyway, over and over ... or at least bits of it as I wander in and out of the room. I'll irritate the byos with ironic comments.
I don't recall a 1978 Holiday Special. I'm not even sure where we lived at Christmas 1978. Zot, I'm getting old ...
Have you seen the “Clone Wars” animated tv series? The plotting is quite good, but the dialogue is ponderous.
I’ve seen of it. I like it but you’re right: the dialogue is very Lucas-like. I won’t get to see the new Star Wars series on Disney XD: http://disneyxd.disney.com/star-wars-rebels
Maybe it will be on Netflix streaming someday.
Besides who would kill spiders for me? Yikes!! Isn't that a man's job? I remember it in the 10 commandments or something. Don't you?
“Besides who would kill spiders for me? Yikes!! Isn’t that a man’s job”
—
I like the way you think.
.
Lindh isn’t dead.
.
Do you remember the Woody Allen movie when there was a spider in the bathtub, "as big as a BUICK!" Lol. They are sure ooogy, hairy little creatures.
I was bitten by one in Saudi Arabia. It was the poisonous CAMEL SPIDER. It had somehow gotten INSIDE our house and in the hallway closet. Being the "camel spider" it could JUMP long distances...and it jumped about five feet OUT of the closet, off the floor and bit me in the finger.
There was a big purple blotch of poison moving up my finger, then hand. By that time I was ON MY WAY to the clinic. I got several injections of a heavy duty benedryl-type medication and called my husband from 280 miles away.
I told him I was dying of a poison camel spider bite...and I thought I was. He drove down IMMEDIATELY, at night, through a nasty sandstorm to see me.
Now that is love.
HE got there just in time to see me fall SOUNDLY asleep for the next 12 hours. I woke up A-OK.
NASTY buggers, those camel spiders. To get down a sand dune they are able to stiffen their eight legs and ROLL down like a wheel. Crazy things.
I prefer “thou shalt maintain thy wife’s car”.
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