In January 2019 I was in Poland on Retreat at the 1000+ years old Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec. It was the sixth visit to Poland in as many years. I was being drawn into the Catholic Church through the witness of Polish Catholics and the history of Polish literature, especially her poets. I read a few books on that retreat, two of which was by Timothy Snyder. Professor Snyder teaches at Yale and is a leading authority on the history, politics & religion of this region of Eastern Europe. I was particularly stirred by current trends which were cyclical in nature and which appeared to be coming around the bend.
Awake, not Woke
I was so stirred by his analysis along with Simone Weil’s essay on the Iliad and what I now call “metaphysics of war,” – as well as Yoram Hazony’s book on nationalism, Stringfellow’s analysis of white supremacy – that I began to dot some dots. It would take me a few more months (and years) to connect the dots. I recruited others into my journey. I had my chief of staff, who was a big Trump enthusiast, to order copies of Snyder’s booklet for the vestry. He didn’t do so, which was the first of many subsequent acts to subvert my leadership. He was afraid I was becoming “woke.” Actually I was becoming awake. I was coming out of the blinkered “immanent frame” shared by secularist and fundamentalist alike.
I was finding a new home in the domestic church taught by JPII and modeled by his best disciples, like Italian priest, Don Renzo Bonnetti, which provided me a “transcendent frame.” I was seeing things differently because I was becoming different.
Disturbing Dots
As a lifelong Republican I was appalled that my party was in goose step allegiance with President Trump, someone who clearly admired and enabled Russian President Putin. Snyder’s – and others – helped me understand why this was happening. I found myself increasingly concerned about our geo-political instability and trajectory. I suppose I was learning to read the signs of the time through Polish Catholic eyes. And I was disturbed by what I was seeing and learning.
In the meantime, the leadership of the Anglican splinter group I was a part of, was busy building bridges of ecumenical solidarity with Patriarch Kirill all the while vilify the Archbishop of Canterbury for effectively ex-communicating them from the Anglican Communion. A craven need for recognition creates sterile unions. Sure enough, they sired a mule and brought it back to the USA. The splinter group could only see themselves as victims, certainly not nationalistic white supremacists. At home, they were telling clergy not to speak out against President Trump. I was further disturbed.
I started to widen my interior conversation to those in my parish and community. We invited two Jewish scholars to dialogue/debate the virtues & vices of nationalism. Then we invited two black Pentecostal scholars to speak on the effect of white supremacy to the basic building block of society- especially the family. Both events were well attended and very necessary conversations to host in our current social moment, especially in the D.C. context. And both conversations were deeply interrelated. I was proud our parish took the lead. Nevertheless, the Jewish scholars were better received than the black Pentecostals. There was much more work to be done before my conversion became public.
Connecting the Dots
After a year long novitiate, I became an oblate of Bendictine Abbey in Kansas in mid-November. I resigned in person to the Archbishop of Canterbury 4 days later not aware that back home there was Anglican bishop-covered staff coupe in the offing. The splinter bishop’s long standing behavior was so egregious that he has been rebuked by both Anglican and Catholic international leaders, despite his non-status in an historic Christian church.
My solidarity with Polish Catholics has only deepened since my own conversion. “The kingdom of God is taken by force; and the violent bear it away” as the good old KJV says it. My experience of betrayal amidst my attempt to warn folks of the dangers of supremacist-nationalism (either the MAGA or MRGA variety, which are symbiotic) has only deepened my resolve to teach the great lessons I’ve learned from Polish Catholics, especially their experience of Solidarity as a public manifestation of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and the domestic church as the first and primary laboratory of CST.
The Story of the Domestic Church
The purpose of this blog is to tell the story of the domestic church, it’s origins in Christianity, it’s recovery in Poland and Italy in the 20th C, and it’s best practices as we enter the great unknowns of the 21st century. These are lessons on how to live in the “transcendent frame.” Holding Heaven and Earth Together: The Mission of the Domestic Church
