A Dying Breed of Brave Men

Every man is a product of his culture and his times.  It is he also who has the power both to define and modify that culture.  We men of this book are the products of our culture and our times.  Whether we contributed to any change or improvement must be left to history and the judgment of the reader.  At a minimum, our testimonials are a final attempt to change the Roman Catholic Church and the world, leaving them better than we found them.

Seven out of nine of us telling our stories are in our seventies.  One is in his sixties and one is forty.  For the most part, then, we are old men.  We are mostly products of the last century and in a very particular way the products of the sixties and early seventies, when our careers were at their zeniths.  Our struggles for personal freedom, which is what this book is about, can only be understood by a brief look at the framework of those times and how they impacted us.

The 20^th Century began with a world population of one and a half billion.  It finished it with six billion, a fourfold increase.  Some would call it the greatest century ever for progress and enlightenment, while others would call it the century of greatest savagery.   Mankind traveled from the horse and buggy to space ships in a mere century but in the process he killed more of his fellow man than were killed in any other century.  Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. summarizes the century succinctly, “The 20^th century is glorious and damned – a century of triumph and tragedy, of grandeur and misery.”

“Progress” had been so swift it left man breathless and, in effect, unable to keep pace with all the new paradigms and not knowing which of the old ones to cast off.  He was taking steps longer than his stride so he stumbled repeatedly.  Nevertheless, in the final tally of the century’s gains and losses, I would hazard that man learned more about and achieved more human freedom than ever before.

The Sixties and early Seventies were to this author the headiest and dearest of times.  It was a time after the long period of stabilization following World War II and the relative lethargy of the fifties.  It became a time ripe for change in America and around the world.  We began to look inwardly at ourselves.  The search for a national conscience commenced.  We began to examine our traditional core values, our hopes, our hypocrisies, and our futures.

The sixties were eloquently summarized in the Chronicle of the Twentieth Century, “(It was) the most turbulent decade in our history--it was a decade of dissent.  The civil rights and anti-war movements drew millions of people into the streets where public protests raged.  Bloody riots erupted and cities and flags burned.  But new rights were won--. It was a decade of dynamic change for the nation’s youth--Long hair, mod dress, drugs, sexual freedom and anti-establishment ideas hard to find ten years earlier; now they were everywhere, as affluent kids embraced a counterculture fueled by rock music and a sincere yearning for brotherhood and peace--. It was a decade of tragic death, not only for the soldiers in Southeast Asia but also for John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy (who captured the sentiments of the decade when he said) ‘what we need in the United States is love and wisdom and confession toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer in our country, whether they be white or black’--. Despite it’s problems, the nation endures.  It was an unforgettable, exciting era!”

It is important to note here that the men in this book were represented at Selma, at the lunch counter sit-ins, at the “I have a dream” demonstrations in Washington D.C., at the countless other events that marked a nation’s march toward social justice and human freedom.  Hopefully, we of this book are remembered not as pure doctrinaire ritualists but rather as Christian social activists.

Besides all of the secular social activism a parallel activism was occurring in religion.  The Ecumenical Movement, an attempt by Christians and Jews everywhere to bring all faiths closer together, had gained strength.  Sectarian isolation and bitterness were being exposed.  Cooperation and tolerance were gaining momentum.  At my last parish, for example, I preached at many protestant churches and their pastors preached at mine.  We were trying to lower the rhetoric and raise the reality of brotherhood.

For Catholics, however, the great movement of the times created by Pope John XXIII was referred to simply as the aggiornamento or the ‘modernization’.  It was of great historical significance.  The pope laid down the goals and parameters of the aggiornamento which would be discussed and ratified by the second Vatican Ecumenical Council.  An ecumenical council is a full assemblage of the bishops of the world called by the pope for the purpose of defining and refining church doctrine and church discipline. They rarely happen and are named after the location in which they are convened. No specific linkage exists between general councils, e.g. between Vatican I and Vatican II.  In the pope’s preamble to Vatican II he stated that all issues would be open for consideration including optional celibacy for priests.

After the first session of the council, John XXIII died.  Many of his goals were inexorably aborted, subverted or disfigured.  The Council happened but little changed. Retrenchment preserved the status quo.  This is the event of the sixties that raised our hopes, opened our minds, and dashed our dreams.  In the succeeding pages you will read many references to these times and that event.

As these events were unfolding, most of the contributors of this book were in their thirties or early forties.  We had achieved professional maturity, and were leaders in the Church and our communities. A strong sense of revolution was coursing through our veins and we were dead tired of all the doublespeak in government, politics, and s