Seeking in Solitude

A Study of Select Forms of Eremitic Life and Practice

McNary-Zak

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781630873707
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Seeking in Solitude examines select forms of contemporary Roman Catholic eremitic life and practice in the United States. Given the sustained presence of, and increased interest in, the eremitic life and practice, this book responds to the question of the place of the hermit in American Catholicism in a way that neither mystifies nor mythologizes it, but rather attempts to understand it.

1

Introduction

We see, therefore, that the Church has always been anxious to form the hermits into communities. Nevertheless, many preferred their independence and their solitude. They were numerous in Italy, Spain, France and Flanders in the seventeenth century. Benedict XIII and Urban VIII took measures to present the abuses likely to arise from too great independence. Since then the eremitic life has been gradually abandoned, and the attempts made to revive it in the last century have had no success.1

These words, appearing in the early twentieth century edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia, form the conclusion to the entry titled “Hermit.”2 The entry traces the history and development of the eremitic life and practice in the Christian tradition from origins in the Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire to transmission in the Western provinces in the fourth century, to subsequent reform in the Middle Ages and decline in later centuries. The entry emphasizes throughout the need for the external, administrative regulation of eremitic life and practice, frequently undertaken by gathering hermits under a cenobitic form of practice. The entry concludes on a most somber note, suggesting that at the time of publication the eremitic life has little, if any, relevance in the Roman Catholic Church.

Reading the entry today, one is struck immediately by the changed perspective and environment for eremitic life and practice. If the entry were to be revised and updated for a contemporary audience, it would have to take into account a notably different set of contexts for the eremitic vocation from those assumed and presented over a century ago. Specifically, in the context of the Roman Catholic Church, the entry would have to address the place of the eremitic life and practice since, at least, the middle of the twentieth century given the sizeable impact of the teachings of Vatican Council II (1962–1965) on the consecrated life in this period. The entry would also have to address the attention given to the consecrated life in a series of post-conciliar documents and the ecclesiastical significance of Canon 603 in the Revised Code of Canon Law (1983) which afforded canonical status to the eremitic vocation for the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. A revised encyclopedia entry would certainly conclude on a more optimistic note, suggesting a slow and steady presence of the hermit and place for the eremitic life and practice throughout the world and particularly in the American Catholic Church. Far from being abandoned, eremitic life and practice remain embedded and espoused in the Church. As a result, speculation about the future development of eremitic life and practice would likely project a much more positive tone and perspective.

A Context of Reform and Renewal

The pre-conciliar decades of the mid-twentieth century were a transitional period for American Catholics. No longer defined primarily through their immigrant status, but not yet bearing an authoritative voice in the political, economic, and social spheres of American life, American Catholics were in the midst of intense internal debates over their collective place in, and relationship to, American society. Across the United States, American Catholics were engaged, in the pews of churches and in the public sphere, in significant secular and religious debates of the day. As historian David J. O’Brien observes, differences among American Catholics in this period were “no longer basically ethnic, nor were they yet doctrinal or ecclesiastical. Rather they had to do with the substance and the style of the Catholic presence in the United States.”3 As was the case in prior decades, American Catholic efforts for self-definition in the mid-twentieth century were necessarily set within prevailing norms of the dominant, non-Catholic, culture.4 And so, as their fellow non-Catholic Americans worked to shape their own contributions to all spheres and strata of public life, so too, liberal and conservative American Catholics did the same. Specifically, American Catholics weighed their own levels of involvement in social matters, and their responses to modernism and to secularism, with the concomitant aims of continued assimilation with, and evangelization of, their fellow Americans.5

The efforts of American Catholics in these areas of public social life were necessarily impacted by emerging developments within the faith tradition itself. The dominant ecclesiology prior to Vatican Council II emphasized the institutional, juridical and hierarchical aspects of the Church. These aspects evident, for example, in the emphasis on the authority of the papal office, were replicated on the local, diocesan level through the emphasis on the authority of the episcopal office. This ecclesiology not only reflects the emphasis on papal sovereignty and infallibility issued from Vatican Council I (1869–70), but often does so at the expense of other elements and dimensions of the Church. Significant changes in theological reflection occurred in the period between these councils that would have a marked impact on the development of ecclesiology. Specifically, a more progressive strain of theology in the 1940s and 1950s sought to shift the emphasis of Vatican Council I by reconceiving a place for the laity and for the Church as the entire people of God. Furthermore, internal lay reform movements were an empowering element of religious life and practice for many Catholics. These reform movements were often directed toward devotion and prayer. Their distinct emphasis on the family, on forms of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and on the lives of the saints, provided American Catholics with opportunities for spiritual growth and development that were widely promoted in this period.6 The seeds of liturgical reform were evident in these, and in other, initiatives that sought to increase lay participation and involvement.7 Behind and within all of these efforts aimed at renewal, there was the growing and less visible postwar impulse, felt by some American Catholics, toward the contemplative life. As Benedictine author Joel Rippinger observes, for many American Catholics, World War II and its aftermath called for a contemplative response.8

These pre-conciliar initiatives would contribute considerably to the decisions and documents later promulgated in Vatican Council II. For many monastic communities, in particular, the era of renewal in the Roman Catholic Church begun in the reform movements of the previous decades and fueled by Pope John XXIII at the opening of the Vatican Council II in the fall of 1962, provided an opportunity for evaluation and assessment of daily life.9 The Council was a directive for change and it provided a context for the members of the Church to do so. As historian, Jay P. Dolan writes: “What this meant was that for the first time Catholic church leaders came to grips with the issues of modernity in a constructive manner.”10 The impact should not be underestimated. Dolan further describes the significance of this charge in these terms.

Living in the midst of fundamental social and cultural changes and prodded by Vatican II to bring itself up to date, American Catholicism was about to pass through the most turbulent period of its short history. It was a time of both disillusionment and hope, of conflict and harmony, of crisis and growth. Though the significance of the changes still remained uncertain, one thing was clear. A new Catholicism was coming to life in the United States.11

The decrees and teachings of the Council marked a turning point for many monastic communities in the United States.

As historian Christopher Bellito observes, under Pope Pius XII (1939–58) and prior to Vatican Council II religious orders were called to examine anew “their founders’ unique charisms and initial apostolates.”12 This effort was embedded in the documents of Vatican Council II. In their study of select ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Threefold Good: The Camaldolese Congregation
• 3. Remembering in Silence: The American Carthusians
• 4. Contemplation in Solitude: The Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance
• 5. A Listening Presence: The Hermits of Bethlehem in the Heart of Jesus
• 6. Framing a Worldview in Solitude
• 7. Conclusion
• Bibliography