THE NOT SO OPEN CHURCH:
Novak, Michael
TIE NOT SO OPEN CHURCH MICHAEL NOVAK One of the contributions of Daniel of social and institutional involve- ...
...Among raging hunger for "commitment," ture is lambent...
...without limits...
...I did not imagine that but as adherence in conscience to tions, only the historical accident of "anything goes...
...Much that is admirable is done by so deeply and exactly expressed that The human spirit, ironically, gains the newer type of "young people...
...such freedom as is accessible to it by But we have every reason to believe The soil of our souls is unbearably the route of interdiction...
...In the name of transcend- and discipline-under the intellectual ish "a Catholic culture...
...and Rieff has now published yet an- The recent debate in these pages For in America "openness" can other meaty volume, Fellow Teachers (March 8) between Michael True be an enemy of the spirit...
...pleases...
...and attractive...
...certain intellectual doctrines...
...For a the "excommunication of undesirable mitments...
...he did not Cogley is important: Better to leave "open" to the demands of inquiry, regard being a Catholic as a form the Church than to be so "openbut "closed," too, by the exigencies of ethnic, regional, or tribal identity minded" that there are no interdicof inquiry...
...Michael True's search for Rieff, particularly in The Triumph of and discipline of plodding inquiry, "larger constituencies" will one day the Therapeutic...
...To be a Catholic is to where we were in the 1930s, when quently seems to mean "without lim- belong to a people, and to belong to Sheed & Ward and The Review of its," "without negatives," "without a people places one under authority Politics tried so desperately to nourdemands...
...And he mockingly pression of the life of the spirit...
...There is no genuine learning, ized the authority of long, complex, years has been his recommendation for example, without the humble sub- and rich traditions, will end in slothat we meet the challenges of Philip mission of intelligence to the demands ganeering...
...True argues for "a Cath- even virtue is often damaging...
...traditional definitions of what is cause...
...But by "open," the contemporary Cogley has part of the truth...
...they affect the hearts of all who hear...
...by the ac- that a too-easy attempt to be uni- thin...
...American heart to be "humanistic," of his criticism...
...That is a far deeper in colleges, in the professions, among of responsibilities, duties, and limits...
...lined by concrete fact (in insight) after his conversion raised a similar For this reason, the witness of and by evidence (in judgment)- point to opposite effect...
...sadly, such a hunger turns out without negatives...
...philosophical intensity, a man in olic peace movement that is more We see in many good persons a whom the authority of genuine cul- 'catholic' than the Church...
...Libera- and spiritual power of several his- that there are many more Catholics tion" seldom means the acceptance torical traditions...
...good' Catholic practice have simply almost always to be a fraudulent exCallahan used to chide me, partly disappeared...
...By "open," I did Many young Catholics, True notes, "good," and "transcendent" is neither not mean permissive, or flaccid, or have "no qualms about calling them- as Christian nor as humane as it non-committal-as in the phrase selves Catholic, as one might call appears...
...I had in mind the himself American, or a Minneapoli- baric, out of touch with the terror image of inquiring intellect, discip- tan, or an Atlantan . . ." John Cogley of human life...
...so Thus, today, we are almost back to temper, particularly in America, fre- does True...
...It is often destructive, bar"open marriage...
...and Gordon C. Zahn invokes these suit of spontaneity, limitlessness, and Rieff is a man of spiritual and reflections...
...But there is pleases when one pleases...
...There is no genuine younger Catholics, he writes, "the commitment to some good and noble culture, he notes, without interdiction...
...by the disciplines versal, to be a Catholic beyond con- haps, even our children...
...The in the light of Rieffs work, for speak- dares "Bishop Zahn" to insist upon spirit is deeper than causes or coming of "the open church...
...What can grow in it...
...birth into a Catholic family...
...The innocent itch in the long time I didn't get the full force elements...
...ods, insights-and, yes, interdictions duties...
...Commonweal: 55...
...It is true ence, barbarism is cultivated...
...In The Tyranny of in community with others who do not pay a price, even if its achievements Survival, (Macmillan, $6.95), Calla- allow one to do simply as one in other respects are both necessary han includes a long essay on Rieff...
...It is not, and cultural influence...
...it is some- I think, as "doctrinal" as Cogley has not yet a deep Catholic cultural life, times a synonym for infantilism, a described it, much as I admire his a distinctive set of disciplines, methflight from social bonds and concrete decision...
...The pur(Harper & Row, $6.95...
...reality than being an Atlantan, or writers, and in positions of political it tends to mean doing what one even being an American...
...TIE NOT SO OPEN CHURCH MICHAEL NOVAK One of the contributions of Daniel of social and institutional involve- crete limits, without having internalCallahan to Catholic life in recent ment...
...Not, perceptance of limits...
Vol. 100 • March 1974 • No. 3
