Drawing a fine line: the draw of Catholicism.
Why are young people heading to Catholicism? The facts show that Catholicism has grown a big following, almost from nowhere, out of the several decades of runaway consumerist, credit fuelled, lifestyle image, cheap holidays, 24/7 internet shopping and the general turning upside down of anything considered normal or natural, and until the 1980s there were still a few normal and natural places and spaces even in the Protestant western world. Since then things have taken even a new turn of illogicality and is about to take the whole life zone down with it.
The repeated appearances of ‘the Catholic church’ as opposed to the Church of England, or the very many different names of Protestant denominations (and which a quick look up of that word meaning is to state which currency a transactions takes place, though to de-nominate could also presumably mean someone who was nominated is now de-nominated, but who knows…and one thing is for sure, the very many thousands of Protestant denominations do keep themselves very clearly separate)is taking on a kind of identity in the media, at events, and when something has become like a shorthand, it is a good thinking exercise to ask what it is a shorthand for.
Now Jordan Peterson has entered the zone of ‘Catholicism’ though it sounds like that is raising more questions than planned, the shorthand of ‘Catholicism’ must be an entity in itself. That does not mean to say anything profoundly philosophical in terms which are far beyond this writer’s ken and not just from dyslexia, but the more philosophical the terms, the further the focus goes from the basic logic for life on earth, which is that everything is governed by the Sun, the Light emanating from that vast and remarkable source, and the ball of rock pulled into a circle by gravity, orbiting Sun along with various other bodies, and which we are so lucky to have a life zone on Earth, and for how much longer we do not know. This is why it is a curious thing when after something like 2,000 years since the emergence of the Christians, not as the New Testament would have it but from an overstretched Roman Empire, a few fairly psychologically unstable people, and a lot of things cobbled together from existing Greek and Roman practices, and given an extra something to appear novel, and of course after the 2,000 years since to the point where in western Protestant civilization the new religion of science and data now hold the call on what is right and wrong, ‘scientific method or unscientific’ is the terminology, why is specifically Catholicism taking centre stage in this way?
It is not even as though it is the religion of Catholicism appearing like this. Certainly the recent passing of Pope Francis was a global event, and as this Logical blog asked, why such a difference between the public Catholic events and the public Church of England events collapsing in on itself. There are a very many people in the world today who genuinely believe the belief put by the Christian church, whichever Catholic or Protestant or whichever denomination it is in Scotland, England, Wales, or anywhere around the globe, and that is the curious thing about this recent return to Catholicism, because it now does not appear to be really about the religion, as in the belief, the practices, the rituals, because of time as measured to basically heaven or hell. If it was really asked in a tick box exercise which of the fundamental teaching and beliefs did someone interested in Catholicism really truly believe, it might be hardly any, or even none. So, what is Catholicism, if not Catholicism?
For a start there are the buildings, the beautiful cathedrals built on geometric principles and which geometry alone formulates a human’s psyche and sense of place, because micro is to macro and the whole of earth is really within such a geometry even though it has been so lost from view for so long. Many of the major cathedrals, Chatres, Glasgow, so many, have significant springs and water energy lines which dowsers can visibly trace, and often a meeting of significant points is found right under a font or an altar. The materials were the best, the stained glass, gold, oak wood, stone floors and steps worn just a little by thousands of feet over hundreds and hundreds of years. Candlelight and choirs and an organ, and the still sense of activity in different chapels, the lines of candles to be lit with 50p in the box and place a candle amongst others already lit by people we do not know, and for people who are never spoken but in our heart we know who they are, and even if a busy city is going on outside, the timeless few minutes or an hour, it is magical and mystical. A world waiting for the plume of smoke to rise over the Vatican, first black this year, heightened the tension, and then the white, and to have still one in the Catholic system in this world of plurality and cut and paste and viral multiplication, the clarity of the Catholic organisation in equal measure enables the visitor to enter without being bothered.
Catholicism also, even with the fairly terrible abuses that have gone on by the nuns and monks, and the relentless reminder of guilt that many who actually grow up in the Catholic faith are burdened with, for the visitor is not at all demanding on the state of our soul. The average Protestant church greets at the door with the question of the state of your soul, even if not asked implicitly, it is hanging in the air, there is not much else. But Catholic churches with all the trimmings of magic and mysticism, the many beautiful objects, the white marble basin of water, the general silence of the place, paradoxically it is appearing as the geometric place where all the simplicity and beauty and ritual can be given, with no need to account for one’s belief or progression towards heaven. For the Protestant west this is a very strange occurrence in society, though for the Catholic continentals there has always been the threading through of popping in to Mass, the acknowledgement even if not devotion to the local saint, and the stronger family and community networks that exist around that, as the Protestants imploded into rational science and individualism.
Jordan Peterson is talking about Catholicism, and it appears the true Catholics and the true philosophers are hard at it to explain whatever their position is, and to make sure he is limited into a really non Catholic box, because Catholicism is, well, religion, and philosophy is, well, philosophy. But what he is talking about in having been so important to young people, especially the boys cut adrift as feminism started to really destabilize society and normal behaviour of dating and socialising and societal rough and tumble fell silent now to the point now of the kind of religious witch hunt turned against men and against ‘populists’ who speak of tradition, and against those who see the necessity of basic structure in society, what he is talking about is quite fascinating to those interested in the long history of belief, of which this writer is one. The cathedrals are there, still as geometric and beautiful as ever, though mostly empty, and the many people young and old who have no place in society, because the form of society has been collapsed like the collapse of a big marquee, so really this is a marriage made in heaven, of the stability and gravitas and beauty of the Catholic structures should now be filling with all those put off the wheel by the deconstructualists, from New Labour onwards.
It is really for a few decades that something has been changing, as shown by the numbers of people who walk The Camino to Santiago. Many many of those would say they are not Catholic believers, yet the act of a significant walk to a sacred place, and Santiago was an important pagan site long before the Christians appeared, and the rigours along the way, it changes everything, because of the limitations. Because of the limitations. Limitations bring focus, and focus is the logical position for us humans, because really there are no other options, and when the water runs out or supply chains are disrupted, then the focus of limitation appears like hitting the buffer. Midnight Mass also, in the last what? 10 years maybe?, it has become a significant event and many Catholic churches and high Protestants have seen an astonishing rise in people coming, but just for that event. Some churches have even put on a Midnight Mass if there wasn’t one before, because supply and demand are basic principles. And for us pagans who watch from the purely geometric position of Summer and Winter Solstice, the placing of Christmas so near the Winter Solstice and switching the Sun to the Son, and true Light to Jesus being the Light of the World, well, we can generously say how much we understand the desire for non religious folk to go into a church for midnight, the deepest darkest turn of one day to another, and watch the new candlelight being lit out of the darkness. It is a profound thing, though purely factual from the position of Earth and Sun and now so utterly lost in our society.
Those wise young people looking for clarity and a sense of order, and who are finding it paradoxically in the buildings from where natural rhythms of society were taken away, it is a beautiful societal circle that old fashioned relationships could be made again, of whatever nature from friendships to partnerships where children will be along, and confidence grown again and a living civic model restore again with no doubt most Catholic priests not too fussed about what someone does or does not believe doctrinally, but just the sight of so many bums on seats, pews, and an appreciation of the formal ceremonial rituals and some coins in the donation box, well, what a surprise, civic society is to be found in Catholicism, in the geometric sense.