Years ago I heard someone on talk radio, I don’t remember who, defending his position as a “bad Catholic.” He was speaking against the likes of Nancy Pelosi, I think. He said, the problem with these people is that they try to pretend they’re good Catholics, instead of acknowledging that they can’t square their beliefs and actions with their attachment to the Church. This guy acknowledged: I am a bad Catholic, I don’t represent the Church’s teaching.
King David Doing Penance, Albrecht Durer
I thought of these comments today at Ash Wednesday Mass. (I’m going to turn them inside out.) My school has a small chapel with a respectable but small daily Mass crowd. Today, we packed the gym.
I’ve heard of surveys that say American Catholics respond “Ash Wednesday” to the question “what is your favorite sacrament?” They turn out to get ashes on their heads. And, of course, many of them leave before communion – and even more receive of them communion unworthily.
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Now, I think “good Catholics” tend to get annoyed about such people. I just want to suggest the opposite.
First, doctrine. There are not clear dividing lines between good and bad, in and out of the Church. Among those in a state of grace, there is of course the problem of Phariseeism: the moment we think we are good Catholics, we are not.
But on the other side of the mortal sin line – which is certainly a bright line – there are many distinctions. There are those who have faith but not love; Thomas calls this “dead faith,” and he emphasizes that it is real, and supernatural a gift from Christ that leads to Christ. On the one hand, dead faith is a state of mortal sin – on the other hand, having faith is hugely more advantageous than not having it, and traditional theology calls this faith a kind of membership in the Church.
Thomists also talk about “dead hope”: based on authentic Catholic faith, one can hope in God’s mercy, but not love him. This is mortal sin – and it’s also a profound kind of membership in the Church.
St. Vincent Ferrer preaching to sinners
Many “Ash Wednesday Catholics” have dead faith or dead hope. Why do you suppose they are receiving ashes? Similarly, the “normal” state of one going to Confession – that is, someone in a state of mortal sin – is a person with dead faith and probably dead hope. They wouldn’t be going to Confession without that hope – and yet they are in mortal sin. That faith and hope should not be despised.
Then there are those with Baptism but no faith. The Church teaches that even these people are members of the Church. (See CCC 1213 and 1267. Or CIC 204.)
And there is no small difference between those unbaptized people who worship one God and those who don’t. Among atheists and idolators, it is not clear who is in a better state.
It’s just not so simple as to say there are good guys and bad guys. The problem with such characterizations is that we tend to throw out the good the Lord is doing in people.
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Pastorally, it’s common today to say you can’t have ashes unless you come to Mass. I’d do the opposite. If people want to hear that they are dust and to dust they will return, or that they should repent and believe in the Gospel, welcome them in! And don’t force communion on them! We should be trying to encourage people to come and not receive communion, not keeping people out or forcing communion on those who are not in a state of grace.
We should have more penance services, more liturgies of the Word, more room in the Church for Bad Cahtolics, even if they can’t receive communion. We should have reverence for the hope, or faith, or cultural attachment to the Church, or even desire for repentance or transcendence, that brings people that close. We should have reverence too, of course, for the people themselves.
We need not say they are good Catholics in order to welcome the bad Catholics. Indeed, it was the Pharisees, attacking Jesus Christ, who rejected that distinction.
Getting ashes is not a sign of being a perfect Catholic. There are no qualifications necessary, and all the ashes tell us is that the person has been told he is dust and a sinner. Shout from the rooftops, welcoming anyone who wants to receive ashes!
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There’s a deeper point here. Many orthodox Catholics today enthuse over a smaller Church, a Church
The Good Samaritan
without Bad Catholics, a Church of the perfect. I think the bigger thing driving the so-called “Benedict Option” is not a desire to go back to the land, but a desire to separate ourselves from bad Catholics.
If Jesus goes to the sinners – as he does constantly in the Gospel, to the chagrin of the Pharisees – they’d rather be separate from Jesus than close to the sinners.
But Jesus calls blessed those who mourn, not those who hate. We should mourn over the sins of the bad Catholics. But we mourn by being close, not by being far away.
Pray for sinners, and revere the work the Lord is already doing in them. And whatever you do, don’t think of yourself as one of the good.
Do you know any Bad Catholics who received ashes today? Why do you think they did it?
