Catholic News 2

IMAGE: CNS photo/Jim Bovin, Catholic Spirit

By Maria Wiering

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- Hundreds of Catholics crowded into the Cathedral of St. Paul to venerate the relics of two English saints who are known as icons of religious liberty because of the circumstances of their martyrdom.

Relics of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, whose lives spanned the 15th and 16th centuries, were viewed at the cathedral June 26 as part of a national tour coinciding with the Fortnight for Freedom.

A prayer service was part of the event and included eucharistic adoration, a Gospel reading and presentations on the martyrs from John Boyle, professor of theology and Catholic studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, and Jan Graffius, curator at Stonyhurst College in England, which holds the relics.

The faithful waited up to an hour to process up the cathedral's center aisle to the Communion rail, where the relics were displayed in two simple glass boxes. People briefly kneeled and prayed before the relics; many touched the reliquaries or pressed rosaries, medals or other holy objects against them.

Boyle's presentation did not focus on the saints' stance on religious freedom as much as "how they did it" -- how their daily practices fostered a life of deep faith and the formation, confidence and courage they needed to face martyrdom.

"They did not set out to be martyrs, but when the time came, they were ready," he said.

Generally better known today than his contemporary St. John Fisher, St. Thomas More daily spent early morning hours in a library and chapel in prayer and study -- time he prioritized despite his responsibilities as a husband, father, lawyer and the first layman to serve as chancellor of England. He also regularly attended Mass and confessed his sins.

St. John Fisher also was known for a deep love of the Catholic Church, despite the failings of its clergy that played a role in the Protestant Reformation, which was underway during his life.

Both men began serving King Henry VIII early in their vocations. St. John Fisher taught the young Henry as a boy; St. Thomas More was adviser and friend to the king and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Contemporaries described both men as good, virtuous and holy.

"Goodness, virtue and holiness: This is the secret to the lives and martyrdom of these two saints," Boyle said. "They worked hard at knowing and loving their sweet savior, Jesus Christ."

Prayer, study and discipline helped them discern what was right, and how to act rightly, he said.

After the king divorced Catherine to marry Anne Boleyn in 1533 without an annulment from the pope, he severed ties with the Catholic Church and established the Church of England. He demanded England's bishops sign a document acknowledging him as head of the church. Only one -- Bishop John Fisher -- did not.

Later, King Henry required all men who held office in England to recognize his marriage to Boleyn by signing the Act of Succession, which confirmed that his children with Boleyn were legitimate heirs to the throne. Again Bishop Fisher abstained, as did Thomas More, who had since resigned his position as chancellor.

Both men studied the king's divorce with great care, Boyle said, and deliberated over their responses.

"They understood with remarkable clarity what was at stake at that time, which was an attack on the church," he said.

St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher were imprisoned for treason in the Tower of London for months. They were beheaded 14 days apart in 1535; Bishop Fisher was 65, Thomas More was 57.

The relics on tour are a personal ring with a cameo of the philosopher Aristotle that St. John Fisher wore throughout his life, and a tooth and jawbone of St. Thomas More that his daughter, Margaret, saved from his severed head, which she received after it had been exposed on London Bridge.

The relics were passed down in the More family before being received into the care of Stonyhurst College's relic collection, England's largest. The Jesuit school in Lancashire formed in 1593 and, from its founding, aimed to preserve Catholic manuscripts, relics and other holy objects at risk of loss or destruction during the English Reformation.

Catherine Hartman, 79, and Helen Quast, 86, who are both parishioners of St. Bonaventure Church in Bloomington, said they learned of St. Thomas More as Catholic school students and welcomed the opportunity to venerate his relics.

"It's nice to come to any kind of veneration," Quast told The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

"It was wonderful," Hartman added. "It just gives you a feeling of awe."

Sarah Kunkel, 38, a self-described history buff, brought her son, Thomas, 9, to venerate the relics. St. Thomas More was one of the saints for whom her son is named, she said.

"I wanted him to see this," said Kunkel, a parishioner of St. John the Baptist Church in New Brighton. "It's such a strong character, a strong intellectual standing up to King Henry VIII at that time. I've always been inspired by that."

George Younes, 38, a parishioner of St. Maron Church in Minneapolis, brought three of his four young children to venerate the relics. He said religious liberty issues -- such as the Little Sisters of the Poor's lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandating contraceptive coverage as part of the Affordable Care Act and political attacks on marriage and family -- have piqued his recent interest in St. Thomas More.

The martyrs' examples challenged him "to look at all controversial issues in the light of Christ's church and be prepared to accept the consequences to our own lives by following the decrees of his church," he said, "whether that means we are ostracized, we are criticized or even if we lose our own life; it is better than losing our soul."

In St. Cloud June 27, Jean and Joe Schmitz were among hundreds who gathered at St. Mary's Cathedral to venerate the two saints' relics.

"These English martyrs are reminders for us to really be thankful for our religious freedom. It's not to be taken lightly," Jean Schmitz told The Visitor, the diocesan newspaper. "These two saints also stand for those Christians right now who are being martyred around the world."

She said she is a longtime fan of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher.

Prior to the veneration, over 100 people attended a showing of the 1966 classic film about St. Thomas More, "A Man for All Seasons." Hundreds more attended the Holy Hour with eucharistic adoration led by St. Cloud Bishop Donald J. Kettler, evening prayer with Scripture and song and a brief presentation on the relics by Graffius, the curator.

"These relics remind us that faith is a gift," Graffius said. "It is a gift that comes with a price tag, and we will all at some point in our life be asked to pay for our faith. It may be through persecution. It may be through ridicule. It may be through emotional or financial penalty. You may be asked, as Thomas and John were, to pay the final and ultimate sacrifice of defending your faith."

In his remarks, Bishop Kettler said that, as Catholics and Americans, faith and liberty are gifts and "to be Catholic and American should mean not having to choose one over the other."

"Our Catholic faith calls us to work together for the common good of all, all who live in this land. We are stewards of the gifts of faith and liberty. These gifts are not just for ourselves but for all people and in fact, for all nations," he said.

He added that religious liberty is not only about the freedom to go to Mass on Sunday.

"It is about whether we can make freely a contribution to the common good of all, to immigrants and refugees, to protect those yet to be born and for those approaching the end of life, to help to provide for all family unity, education, health care, food and housing," he said.

Following the six stops in Minnesota, the relics were in Denver and Phoenix, to be followed by Los Angeles and Washington. The relic tour already stopped in Miami, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

The "Strength of the Saints" tour is sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as part of the Fortnight for Freedom, two weeks of prayer, education and advocacy for the cause of religious freedom in the United States June 21-July 4. The Knights of Columbus is a co-sponsor.

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Wiering is editor of The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Contributing to this story was Kristi Anderson, a multimedia reporter at The Visitor, newspaper of the Diocese of St. Cloud.

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Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Retired Pope Benedict XVI has given another interview to the journalist and author Peter Seewald, and a German publisher announced it would be released worldwide Sept. 9.

Titled "Letzte Gesprache," (which translates as "last conversations"), the book includes an in-depth conversation with the retired pope about the background of his resignation in 2013, said the German publisher, Droemer Knaur.

Information about an English translation and publisher was not immediately available.

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which has the rights to an Italian newsstand edition of the book, reported July 1 that Pope Benedict admits to Seewald that he knew of "the presence of a 'gay lobby' in the Vatican composed of four or five people and he says he was able to remove their power."

Pope Benedict also says he kept a diary during his pontificate, but he plans to destroy it, even though he knows that historians could find it valuable, Corriere reported.

On its website, Droemer said Pope Benedict speaks about the priorities of his pontificate, the VatiLeaks scandal, which saw the conviction and jailing of his butler, and about Pope Francis and the "controversial issues" of his papacy.

Pope Benedict discusses the challenges facing the Catholic Church today, but also looks back to memories of his family and formative events in his life, Droemer said.

The retired pope speaks of his "surprise" when Pope Francis was elected and his "joy" in seeing how the new pope prays in public and is able to communicate with a crowd, Corriere reported. He also discusses the ways in which he and Pope Francis are alike and are different.

Before he was elected pope, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger collaborated with Seewald on two book-length interviews: "Salt of the Earth," published in German in 1996, and "God and the World," published in German in 2000. As pope, he and Seewald released "Light of the World" in 2010.

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Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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Denver, Colo., Jul 1, 2016 / 03:37 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Maria had been struggling with some depressive and anxious thoughts for a while, although at the time, she didn’t recognize them as such. Probably because she was 14 years old.  

When she shared her struggles with someone in her Catholic community, the woman told Maria that she was worried that “the devil was working his ways” in her, and used that to pressure her into going on a week-long retreat out of state.

“Sure, retreats are great,” Maria told CNA. “But pretty sure I just needed a therapist at that point in my life. And pretty sure I had already given valid reasons for why I wasn't interested in buying a plane ticket for a retreat.”

When Catholics experience spiritual problems, the solutions seem obvious -  talk to a priest, go to confession, pray, seek guidance from a spiritual director. But the line between the spiritual and the psychological can be very blurry, so much so that some Catholics and psychologists wonder if people are too often told to “pray away” their problems that may also require psychological treatment.

When body and soul are seen as unrelated

Dr. Gregory Bottaro is a Catholic clinical psychologist with the CatholicPsych Institute. He said that he has found the over-spiritualization of psychological issues to be a persistent problem, particularly among devout Catholics.

“Over-spiritualization in our time is usually a direct consequence of Cartesian Dualism,” Bottaro told CNA in an e-mail interview.

“Decartes is the philosopher who said: ‘I think therefore I am.’ He separated his thinking self from his bodily self, and planted the seed that eventually grew into our current thinking that the body and spirit are separate things. Acting as if the body doesn’t matter when considering our human experience is just as distorted as acting like the spirit doesn’t matter,” he said.

Because of this prevalent misconception about the separation of our body and soul, people both in and out of the Catholic Church often feel a stigma in seeking mental help that isn’t there when they need to seek physical help, he said.

“We shouldn’t think any less of getting help for mental health than we do for physical health. There are fields of expertise for a reason, and just as we can’t fix every one of our own physical wounds, we can’t always fix every one of our own mental wounds. It is virtuous to recognize our need for help,” Dr. Bottaro said.

Virtuous, but not always easy.

Just pray

Michelle Lippoli is a young Catholic 20-something who was used to being social and involved in various ministries within the Church. But a move to a new city left her usually-bubbly self feeling lonely and isolated.

“I felt like a failure spiritually because shouldn't my relationship with God be enough? But, I would come home from work and cry and just lay in my bed. It was hard for me to motivate myself to do anything,” Lippoli told CNA.

When a friend, also involved in ministry, called to catch up, Lippoli saw it as a chance to reach out and share some of the feelings that had been concerning her.

“I don't remember exactly what I said, but she told me what I was feeling was sinful. I shut down and said I was exaggerating and made up some story about how everything was fine,” she said.

Lippoli waited several more months before seeking help through Catholic Charities, where she was connected to a therapist. She found out that she had attachment disorder, which, left untreated for longer, could have turned into major, long term depression.

Derek is also a young 20-something Catholic who was also told to pray away his problems. He was suffering from depressive episodes, where he wouldn’t eat and would sleep for 15 hours a day. His friends’ advice was to pray. It wasn’t until he attempted suicide that he got serious about seeking psychotherapy.

Sarah, also a young Catholic and a former FOCUS missionary, had a similar experience. For months, she confessed suicidal thoughts to her pastor and spiritual director, who gave her advice based on the discernment of spirits from St. Ignatius of Loyola. But eventually the thoughts became so intense and prevalent that Sarah called every mandatory reporter she knew, and was admitted to the hospital on suicide watch.

“I think part of it is - if someone is trained in something, that’s how they want to fix it,” Sarah told CNA.

“If you’re trained in spirituality then you want to use spirituality to fix it. And you absolutely should include spirituality. However, you can’t just pray it away. These are real problems and real medical things. There are events in people’s lives that have happened, and they need to work through that both spiritually and psychologically, and a priest or youth minister can’t do both. They need to get you to someone who’s able to help,” she said.

The negative stigma attached to seeking mental help is magnified in the Church because of the “pray it away” mentality, Sarah added. Once prayer doesn’t work, people can feel like spiritual failures, and many people in the Church will distance themselves from someone who is mentally ill.

“I can’t be a fully functional young woman who’s working through something and needs help with it,” she said. “It’s either - I’m ok or I’m not.”  

A Catholic psychologist’s perspective  

Dr. Jim Langley, a Catholic licensed clinical psychologist with St. Raphael’s counseling in Denver, said he tends to see opposite ends of the spectrum in his patients in about equal numbers - those who over-spiritualize their problems, and those who under-spiritualize them.

“Part of the problem is that in our culture, we have such a medically-oriented, science-oriented culture that we’ve sort of gotten away from spirituality, which causes a lot of problems,” he said.

As human beings, our minds and our souls are what set us apart from other created things, Langley added, making those aspects of our being most vulnerable to evil attacks.

“I know a priest who would explain it like this: Evil is like a germ, and it wants to get in just like bacteria does in our body. And where does bacteria get in? It gets in through our wounds. So if we have a cut on our hand, that’s where bacteria wants to get in and infect us. On the spiritual side, it’s the same thing. Where we have the most sensitive wounds tend to be in our sense of self and our psychology, and so that’s where evil wants to get in at us.”  

People who tend to ignore the spiritual aspect of their psychological problems cut themselves off from the most holistic approach of healing, Langley added.  

“The main reason is because it really is God who heals, and almost any psychological issue you’re dealing with is going to have some sort of a spiritual component connected to it, because it has to do with our dignity as a human person.”

And while it can be challenging to make people see the spiritual component of their problems, it can also be a challenge to help other people recognize that their spiritual issues might also have a psychological component, he said.

Some devout Catholics see it as preferable to say they are suffering from something like the dark night of the soul, rather than to admit that they have depression and may need medication and counseling, he said.

“In some ways in our Catholic community, it’s cooler to have a spiritual problem than it is to have a psychological problem,” he said. “The problem with over-spiritualizing is that you cut yourself from so many tools that psychology and even your faith could have to help you to be happy.”

Many of the things psychologists do to help their patients includes teaching them “recipes” for happiness, Langley said - re-training their thought patterns, providing practical tools to use when anxiety or depression kick in.

But a person who doesn’t recognize an issue as also having a psychological component may be resistant to these methods entirely, including spiritual methods, he said.

Catholics who are concerned about seeking psychological help should seek a Catholic psychologist or psychiatrist who can talk about both the spiritual and psychological aspects of healing, Langley said.

“People who don’t practice from a Catholic or spiritual perspective can do a pretty good job, but it’s like they’re doing therapy with their hand tied behind their back, because they’re missing out on a whole array of things you can do to help a person.”

Therapists who aren’t practicing from a Catholic perspective could also do some unintended harm in their practice, Langley noted. For example, men who are addicted to pornography may be told by a secular therapist that pornography is a healthy release, or couples struggling in their marriage may sometimes be encouraged by secular practitioners to divorce.

It’s really a false dichotomy, Langley added, to categorize problems as strictly spiritual or psychological, because oftentimes they are both, and require both psychological and spiritual treatment.

“The main reason is because it really is God who heals, and almost any psychological issue you’re dealing with is going to have some sort of a spiritual component connected to it, because it has to do with our dignity as a human person,” he said.

“So much of good therapy is helping a person get back in touch with their sense of dignity that God created them with...and as they get more in touch with it, they are actually just more open to God’s love and they’re more open to making changes in their life that might be helpful.”

What needs to change?

The Catholic experience of mental illness varies. Some found their experience of a mental illness diagnosis in the Church very isolating, while others said it was a great source of healing and support.

Langley said that for the most part, he has a great relationship with the clergy in his area.

“Most of our referrals come from priests,” he said. “I hardly ever see a priest that is overly convinced that something is spiritual. I think priests really do a pretty good job of saying when something is more psychological.”

Some of Langley’s favorite clients are those who are seeking spiritual direction at the same time as therapy, he said, because between therapy and spiritual direction, the person seeking help is usually able to find the right balance of psychological and spiritual strategies that work.

Others said they felt the relationship between psychologists and Catholic clergy or other leaders could be stronger.

A licensed marriage and family therapist in California, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said that priests and mental health professionals should be working together to support those struggling with mental illness, to make them feel more welcome, and to let them know what resources are available.

“The faith community hasn't done a great job reaching out for support for those within the community with mental illness, and the mental health community hasn't done a good enough job making itself available to the faith community,” he said.

Several Catholics who have had mental illness also said they wished that it were something that was discussed more openly in the Church.

“I have thirsted for greater support in the Church,” said Erin, who has depression and anxiety.

“That is my biggest struggle as a Catholic with mental illness: not necessarily focusing too much on the spiritual aspects, but people not knowing how to address any other aspect.”

She had some suggestions for Catholics who find out their friend has a mental illness.

“As Christ would do, and as Job's friends failed to do, please, please just walk with me. And if I bring up something spiritual, feel free to talk about it. If you think I'm shutting you out, ask. If I randomly start crying, hold my hand,” she said.

“Finding support in my one friend (who also has a mental illness) has done worlds of good for me. Imagine what could happen if Christians became more vulnerable about their mental illness. What a support system that would be!”

Lippoli said in sharing her story about seeking therapy, she has been surprised at how many Catholics have gone through similar experiences.

“I try to be very open about it now because a stigma should not exist.”

Catholic psychologists in your area can be found by searching at http://www.catholictherapists.com/ or at https://wellcatholic.com/. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 1-800-273-8255.

Some names in this article have been changed for the protection of privacy.

 

Photo credit: Shutterstock.

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