June 28, 2021
As Catholics, we have failed our culture…
How have we failed her?
What can we do better?
How do we overcome the cultural divide?
easily, for the divide no longer exists. The problem has become so chronic, that there are Catholics inundated in these art forms which are saturated with hate
Out of the pain of the neglect of the church, new art forms have arisen: break dancing, hip hop, coming of age novels, rap, grinding, modern art, contemporary art, erotic novels, and more.
But these forms of art are not all bad. They incorporate aspects of the human experience that are good, and worthy of being celebrated… yet, they have developed in the culture at large without celebrating it, for they have lost the whole picture of what it means to be human.
This wholistic approach to mankind has been entrusted to the safeguarding of the church, yet the church has failed to step up and teach it.
The Catholic church, for the last seventy years (at least), has neglected the cultural education of its members. In fear, it has shrunk further and further away from the development of art in the wider culture, and allowed that development to take place without guidance.
If members of the church have gotten involved at all, it was in order to stifle new artistic development, which has only resulted in greater distortion of the truths these art forms seek to express.
When members of the church - and when I say members, I am referring to anyone who, in their involvement in the development of the imaginations and creativity of others, do so in the name of the church (thus, priests, bishops, and religious, but also lay members of the church who officially or unofficially carry her standard as their banner into the world) - step into the creative sphere and claim, “This new art form is wholly of satan,” they do more harm than good. They have proclaimed this because they recognize and see the distortion taking place… but they have failed to recognize the truths contained in these expressions.
It is not demonic to rebel against poor family structure… it is human. It is not demonic to seek love and acknowledge it does not exist in a chronically broken home environment… it is awareness.
This is the root of most of these art forms. A rebellion against something bad. However, without guidance, these individuals (and I will call them youth, though please understand that I am referring to a youthful lack of formation, and not a specific age range)… these youth, then, have unwittingly and confusedly conflated the evil they found in their own past into an evil of the good as well. Marriage, love, sex, religion, God, happiness, education… the basic tenets of what is true, good, and beautiful have been twisted in their minds into something that generates pure evil. And since this evil refuses to acknowledge or love them, they have found only solid evidence of their case.
And just to clarify: Do these art forms have demonic influence? Yes. Are those who practice them indulging despair, rage, loneliness, denial, etc? Yes. But this is not where they stop, or even, where they originate.
free expression
community
‘art is a healing process’
communication is key (they are not allowed to throw tantrums at home, so they throw them in public. And still, no one listens)
Here is where we, as Catholics, should hear their cries for help and answer them in their own language. This is the tower of babel, and just as the original babel was a monument of art erected to the heavens, thus do we find babel in our own culture and art.
The thing that ought to bring us together, knit us across cultural divides - beauty itself - has become the very barrier that keeps us apart.