For
those of you joining the program already in progress, I have left the Roman
Catholic Church. I could go through the long and varied list of everything that
led me to this place, and it has been an interesting journey, but the most
important thing to say is that it was simply not the place I belong. I gave it my best shot; I tried and tried,
but, at the end of the day, it was never home, no matter how much I wanted it
to be or contorted myself to fit. I can think like a Catholic theologically,
but I can’t think like an American Catholic culturally. Will that satisfy my more Thomistic
friends? No, it won’t.
I
am interested in the life of prayer, the mystery of the incarnation, and the
joy that characterizes the Christian life.
I do not find my vision of the church reflected in the right or the left
of the Roman Catholic Church in America.
I often have theological and liturgical sympathy with one group and
political sympathy with the other, but I find myself at home with neither. I suppose there’s a good bit of anarchist
Campbellite in me that I can’t shake and perhaps that has led me to having an
outlaw conscience. If that is the case,
the sin be upon my head.
For
all of that, I am thankful I took my sojourn across the Tiber and for the time
I spent as a monk. I met some good
people along the way and learned some important things about the spiritual life
and about myself. I admire any number of people who
criticize the Roman Catholic Church from within from a variety of viewpoints, but that is their task
to do in love, not mine as an outsider, except perhaps where these things touch
on the larger church and world. I wish
all my Roman Catholic friends well. You
remain in my prayers.
A
year after leaving the Abbey, I find myself living in Arkansas for the first
time since graduating from college, pursuing a doctorate in history, and throwing in my lot with what is becoming known, thanks
to the work of John Plummer, as the Independent Sacramental Movement (ISM), in
which I have taken orders. The ISM or
Independent Catholic Movement, as it is also known, is a messy place, full of
both promise and human frailty where people attempt to live out Christian faith
and the sacraments in small communities.
The denominational overhead is low, the emphasis on individual
discipleship is high. These pages will
show where this leads, with frailty likely outpacing promise on most days.
This
blog takes its name from St. Raphael the Archangel to whose patronage I have
entrusted myself on the road ahead. St.
Raphael is the healer, companion of travelers, and something of a super
guardian angel. I feel like I’m in good
hands.
