"POPULAR CULTURE, MEDIA & NEWS"--A SUMMARY OF THE PANEL

Orlando, Florida  #CatholicConvo

Panel: 

Bishop Mark S. Rivituso--auxiliary bishop, St. Louis, MO
Bishop Edward Weisenburger--bishop of Salina, KS
Kathryn Jean Lopez--National Review
Catherine Szeltner--EWTN Pro-life Weekly
Mr. Fran X. Maier--Archdiocese of Philadelphia, former editor of National Catholic Register
Sr. Helena Burns, fsp--Daughters of St. Paul

My thoughts:

WHY I'M PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS TOPIC: 

I not only FELL IN LOVE with the ARTS/MEDIA at a young age, I was also able to see (at a young age) the tremendous power and influence that MEDIA/POP CULTURE had on my life for good and for ill. So it was only natural that I enter the Daughters of St. Paul, because I thought: What better way to BRING GOD DIRECTLY into people's minds and hearts than through a radio program, a TV show, a book, a magazine, a song, a film?

Later, when I discovered the field of MEDIA LITERACY EDUCATION, I realized that critical thinking skills, discernment and the Catholic Faith could be applied NOT JUST TO evangelization with media, but to all our daily media experiences: entertainment, information, inspiration, communication, education.

LAYING OUT LANDSCAPE:

--Define "classic culture" vis-a-vis "pop culture"--or simply define "pop culture" for audience. Are both organic to some degree? Are both manufactured to some degree?

--Many (esp. young) have no other intellectual/spiritual in-put or reference other than pop culture. It's their whole world. Therefore: need to inculturate Gospel in pop culture (as well as provide alternative pop culture/media).

--Important to see both light & shadows in pop culture. (Will help BOTH the fearful & the overly-optimistic. UNHELPFUL: Not all happy talk & not all doom & gloom. 

--But the lows are quite low: PORN / family life  & conversation / YouTube horrors / Andrew Sullivan: "I Used To Be Human." / uncivil and vicious professional and citizen journalism news media.

--We need to intelligently & prayerfully engage the pop culture & its adherents.

--Seems to be 2 extremes in Church: media-haters/indifferent who stay away from it, and the obsessed/addicted who use media incessantly with almost no limits or strategies for themselves or their children

--pop culture has become more and more a conduit for ideology and a homogenous/monolithic worldview (e.g., even Bill Nye the Science Guy is teaching "gender theory" as hard-core science. See new Netflix series: "Bill Nye Saves the World.")\

--philosophical climate which influences pop culture: postmodernism/relativism/subjectivism/deconstructionism/feeling vs. thinking/scientism (scientific truth is the only kind of truth): concept of "charity" is individual rights based on feelings (feelings are absolute)

--news is anything but objective, but rather polarized, agenda-ized, partisan. "Fake news," purposefully inaccurate reporting is the norm (furthering one's "side" passes for "news")

--SHADOWS: content=mainstreaming of porn, violence and torture as entertainment and other anti-human, anti-sex, anti-marriage, anti-family, anti-life "narratives" are par for the course; usage=family life suffering due to incessant use of devices (media content & devices as family life disruptors--who's really raising/forming youth?)

--LIGHTS: content=there are still many messages of truth, beauty & goodness that come through the pop culture because we are made in God's image and it's in us as human beings to aspire to authenticity and to recognize it when we see/hear it; usage=if quality not quantity, discernment & self-discipline is employed, individuals and families can use media optimally.(This, of course, requires a prior Christian, incarnational, sacramental, embodied worldview.)

EXAMINING THE ("EXISTENTIAL") PERIPHERIES:

--pop culture is often a highly-individualized-24/7-secret-hidden-online-device-world where youth and adults are formed. New media doesn't play by old media rules. It's the wild, wild, West (e.g., Netflix series on teen suicide "13 Reasons Why" ditched suicide-reporting protocol and showed a full-on, DIY, how-to graphic suicide...even against the advice of youth experts).

--young people seek answers, identities in cyberspace from "tribes," both positive and negative: groups that share similar interests in arts, sports, science, etc., or anorexia groups, self-harm sites, sexual identity sites, porn sites. Often these virtual loci, friendships and alliances predominate over IRL (in real life) parents, counselors, faith communities--often in virtue of sheer time spent with them.

"Today it's almost as though we have a third party raising our youth: YouTube. When young people want to know something or have a problem, they turn to YouTube where they can get 'guidance' from other young people (or adults) who have produced professional or non-professional videos--often just people talking into webcams for hours on end. It can be a kind of 'interference' with youth development which used to be guided by the parents, older siblings, relatives, counselors, trusted adults, teachers, the faith community, etc., around them." --Fr. Phil Bochanski, Courage Int'l

WHAT'S STILL MISSING:

--critical thinking skills, logic, philosophy (which used to be taught in high school) are usually completely absent from young people's education. Thinking comes naturally, reasoning must be taught. If it is not taught, young people are susceptible to ideas that "sound good," without being able to critically discern them because they have not been given the tools

--Media Literacy (the Church's official stance toward media since 1992 with the Church document "Aetatis Novae") and includes News Literacy needs also to be taught at all levels. There are fine organizations specializing in both ML & NL.

--"MEDIA"=content, tech, culture, institutions, audiences. HOW WE CHOOSE TO USE FORMS THE CULTURE, FORMS US. IT'S UP TO US. WE ARE IN CHARGE.

"There are those who let themselves be dragged by the current. Others use media in edification &
 joy."--Alberione

--to QUESTION MEDIA (one of the most basic tenets of ML) automatically & immediately empowers media users (esp. youth)

--John Paul II's comprehensive "Love and Responsibility" and "Theology of the Body" needs to be taught systematically everywhere in the Church. It is the best, most "adequate anthropology" for our times to impart an understanding of the dignity of the human person, human love, human sexuality, relationships, beauty, the body, etc. It's breadth and vision is attractive and appealing, takes into account and dialogues with the reality of the ever-morphing Sexual Revolution. TOB also gives us a lens with which to view pop culture/media.

--Theology of the Body also dovetails with how we choose to use media devices. Bodies are not optional. We cannot choose to live pretty much 24/7 in a virtual world. We have to make the hard choices of when and where to unplug. The time for media devices is not 24/7. "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." --Ecclesiastes 3. As a teen said (when asked to develop a media strategy to use media optimally): "Maybe we can use media better by starting to use it less."

--Is some of our media use today actually not "human"?

--parents and families need so much more help in the above three areas than they are currently receiving in the Church. Parents aren't able to form their children in these areas if they don't have the everyday knowledge/skills themselves.

CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES:

--young people misled and confused by pop culture/media/news messages

--young people losing ability to read/write/comprehend written & spoken word (meager vocabularies)

--young people losing ability to express themselves through written/spoken word (University where, in person, face to face, counselors must let students text their answers during sessions because they express themselves best through non-verbal, tech-mediated communication)

--emoji/sticker/GIF culture replacing even few and simple words (texting). It seems communication has been reduced to that most popular emoji: a face that's laughing and crying at the same time because we're just so emotional and so confused. :) 

--in our post-literate times, the return to a visual/audio culture (as in Middle Ages) has opportunities/advantages and gives a new life to images/art/film/music and requires us to be visually literate and use these means more than ever for the Gospel

--with the new media (digital devices, internet, desktop publishing, social media, podcasting, YouTube, etc.), every individual has a potential worldwide platform

--the media itself can be an instrument to restore/establish/enhance the divine order in Creation and society 

"Do to all the charity of the Truth." --Alberione

"Accept nothing as truth if it does not have charity. Accept nothing as charity if it does not include truth." --Edith Stein

WHAT'S WORKING:

--Catholic media* and alternative media and alternative news that is up to the production values, aesthetics, professionalism and other quality-factors of secular media (e.g., LifeTeen has excellent media productions/graphics/social media outreach that is fun and appealing). (EG #14--evangelization is spreading a "banquet')

--Various models/programs taken from "pop culture," Evangelical models, good business practices, etc., can successfully be integrated in ministry with much fruit if they are not ends in themselves, hollowed out of substance. Fr. Rolheiser's book: "Secularity & the Gospel" talks about the Church needed to imitate the "energy of the streets," but I think the street has its own energy & all what's needed in the Church is passion for what and Who we love, not simply to see what the world/culture is doing and try to create imitations.

--There are many fine alternative (Catholic and otherwise) media and news outlets: Ascension Press (Bible & TOB teaching series, YouTubes: "Ascension Press presents"), Spirit Juice Studios (high quality film production for the Church), Relevant Radio (24hr Catholic talk shows, teaching, news & news literacy, also a killer app), Lighthouse Media CDs. Other Catholic media/news outlets can learn from those doing it right/well.

--Science today is rapidly confirming everything God, the Bible, the Church ever taught is good/bad for our spiritual (including relationships, happiness) and physical health. Vicki Thorn (foundress of Project Rachel) is doing "The Biology of the Theology of the Body"--exposing the harmony of scientific truths and Church teaching. Scientific and other stats could be used much more and to great benefit in our Catholic media content. (#EG 50 & 51--studies, data and stats also need "evangelical discernment")

--prayer specifically for media creators/media/media users

_____
*There also seems to be a kind of "officialdom" Catholic MSM and an unofficial, independent kind of "alternative Catholic" media.

THOUGHTS OF OTHER PANELISTS & THE AUDIENCE:

--The schools (elementary and high) are all going digital, teaching through online programs, software, curricula, etc. How is the Church teaching this way?

--The human teacher can never be replaced.

--The role of the teacher--now that students have so much information at their fingertips through the internet and digital media--is to help students find and construct meaning in it all.

--We all know the news media can be "echo chambers": feeding us only the news we want to hear and from a perspective we already agree with. Are we doing this in the Church also? We should be accessing a breadth of Catholic news and perspectives.

--Everything we're talking about today will be obsolete in 10 years. VR and A.I. ARE coming. We need to teach our kids to code. 

--Anything that is bad (in the pop culture) for humanity as a whole should be resisted by the Church. We don't have to just go along. In fact, we have an obligation to resist.

--In our Catholic school system, we don't have STEM, we have STREAM: Science, Tech, Religion, Engineering, Arts, Math--in order to blend some humanities in. (Bishop Richard Malone, Diocese of Buffalo)
A nun (who is head of Catholic schools in Buffalo) says: "Without the 'R,' it's all just STEAM." :)

--I make all my staff read "Communio et Progressio." The document really holds up through the years and outlines what we need to be doing as Catholics in media.

--I get so caught up in worrying about having the exact right tech and latest tech, and sometimes forget that it's all in service of the message. I forget to spend as much time on the message!

--The joy of the Gospel is the Incarnation! God became man! People want to know their VALUE.

--The joy of the Gospel is the truth of the Gospel, but we Catholics are often so, so afraid to say what we know to be true.

--In-depth discourse, words and print formed our political system. If we lose facility with words and create only oversimplified messages, what will happen? So much of what passes for news in the 24hr news cycle is not important, not really newsworthy. It's white noise to anesthetize us from the hard work of thinking and relating. Laugh tracks on sitcoms condition us to react, to accept certain things as funny, as normal.

--To be human means we're gonna die. The most limited resource we have is time. Our lives our made of time. We need to be in command of our time in so many different ways.

--Periodic unplugging is both the easiest and the hardest thing to do. But it's necessary in order to regain control of our lives.

--A good word was put in for the excellent Christianity & culture audio magazine: www.marshillaudio.org  :)


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I WAS ASKED 3 QUESTIONS FOR AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE CONVOCATION. HERE ARE MY RESPONSES:

1) WHAT INSPIRED YOU THE MOST FROM BEING A DELEGATE TO THE CONVOCATION?

I was most inspired by the hope and the optimistic attitude of all the participants at the Convocation. Everyone came with a kind of eagerness and joy and a spirit of celebration (there were lots of devotional events: a Eucharistic procession, rosary, Confessions, etc.).  We were all wanting to learn from each other and meet new and old friends, explore each other's ministries (there were lots of booths). Since the Convocation was "invitation only"--it simply meant that everyone there was already long-involved in ministry--and such diverse ministries! By sharing our life experience, struggles and "best practices" very frankly and openly, we were able to hear different perspectives and even do some "problem-solving" together.

2) WHAT WERE YOU ABLE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVOCATION AS A DAUGHTER OF ST. PAUL?

My panel was "Media, Pop Culture and News," which is truly our field as Daughters of St. Paul, so I put forth various tenets of Media Literacy, a Pauline approach to media, and some newer reflections. But I also contributed to various conundrums regarding media (e.g., "What is the role of online/digital learning in catechesis?")  I noticed conflicting attitudes in both panelists and audience members with regard to the question: "What is a truly human/Christian use of the newest media and media technology?" Some were more hesitant to engage "new" media, and felt its engagement should be minimal with a stress on "old media," others believed we should barrel ahead and imitate exactly what the culture is doing, with hardly any human/Christian considerations. New media technology are not just "tools" but a culture in themselves (depending on how we choose to use them). Some new media technologies are so vastly different from what has come before, and so transformative of the human body/human interactions, that they are different qualitatively--and are not just "the next stage of media tools."

I was able to use some Pauline and Alberionian principles to guide the discussion: "Some let themselves be dragged by the current. Others use media in edification and joy." "Our media should be worthy in form of the truths which they contain." "Do to all the charity of the truth." "Everything is our and we are Christ's and Christ is God's" (make media work for us and not against us) --St. Paul.

3) WHAT DID YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THE CONVOCATION AS AN ACTION PLAN?

I have resolved to work more actively on resolving some of my own conundrums regarding Media Literacy, and the future of media. For example, some younger media professionals in the audience said simply that in ten years everything we're talking about on the panel will be obsolete because everything is going to A.I. (artificial intelligence) and VR (virtual reality--yes, the headsets) and that the Church should be investing resources in these. Other panelists felt certain things should be resisted by the Church if they are not optimally "human" use of technology.

Another aspect I realized I need to focus on more in our media evangelization ministry--something we were highly encouraged to do in preparation for the Convocation--is to make use of studies and stats in our data-driven culture. Studies/stats are very convincing to people and can help pinpoint and clarify needs in the Church as well as offer successful solutions (all with what Pope Francis calls "evangelical discernment").

There were many Theology of the Body style references and resources everywhere (implicit and explicit)--and after attending the panel "The Marginalization of Motherhood," I am even more convinced of the urgency of proclaiming the value of the human person, human dignity, and "the whole truth about man,"  as Pope John Paul II outlined so well and in such depth in his Theology of the Body.

_______________________________________________________________________

Here are some articles that I find vitally important to the conversation:

(You may think I am being anti-media-tech here by sharing these particular articles. I am not. I am PRO-using-media-well, and I just don't see that being done in the main.)

"I Used To Be A Human Being" Andrew Sullivan (notice what he says he thinks the Church does/doesn't need to do): http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/09/andrew-sullivan-technology-almost-killed-me.html 

"Our Age Is Barbaric Because of Our Inability To Communicate" Remi Brague "Civilization has to do with linguistic communication." "Without communication, violence follows." "Civilization has to be conserved...it cannot be taken for granted.." "A deep knowledge of Western culture and tradition is part of...preserving the culture and passing it down to future generations." "The modern view of discarding the past is turning us into barbarians." "What has to be ultimately salvaged is the talking animal that currently doubts its legitimacy." https://www.lumenchristi.org/news/32

"How To Use Social Media Like a Saint" Josh Canning https://canadiancatholic.net/how-use-social-media-saint

"Father Wants To Ban Sale of Smartphones For Children" http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/93861681/father-wants-to-ban-sales-of-smartphones-for-children

"Let's Ban Snapchat for Good from Schools (and Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)" "Our capitulation to technology has led to the degradation of many human capacities. School boards should not be complicit in inflicting this damage on their students." Sachin Maharaj
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/05/19/why-schools-should-ban-snapchat-permanently.html

"Unplugged but Connected: Catholic Schools in the Digital Age" "Unfettered access to information is more important outside of class than in it." "The classroom should be a place of conversation." "The identity of a classroom hinges on the relationship between student and teacher...so who should a Catholic teacher be?" "The with many Catholic schools' embrace of the technocratic pitch 'more technology, better education' is that it ignores the central role that encounter must play in a Catholic environment. Quite simply, the interaction between student and screen displaces the interaction between student and teacher, thereby pushing human relationships to the side." 
"A Catholic teacher is one who leads not simply by disseminating information but by being the vessel through which their students come to desire what is true." "What is the goal of Catholic education in the midst of...screens and devices....? It is to keep the human person at the center of our enterprise."
https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/unplugged-connected

"Addicted to Your Phone? You Could Be Hurting Your Kids" https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20170516/282033327124219 

"Kids Feel Unimportant To Cellphone Addicted Parents" http://www.parenting.com/news-break/kids-feel-unimportant-to-cell-phone-addicted-parents

"Boys Online" Study: "I really wish I didn't have to grow up in a time period like now."
http://nationalpost.com/features/boys-online

"Your Phone Is Not Your Boss" "Our brains need a rest, so stay away from your phone for first and last hours of the day." https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20170307/282016147120582

"For Strong Families, Put Away Cell Phone, Shut Off TV" Pope Francis https://zenit.org/articles/pope-at-audience-for-strong-families-put-away-cell-phone-shut-off-tv/

"Detach and Reconnect" Ideas from an Educator
https://www.steds.org/page/news-detail?pk=914864&fromId=179450

"Teens Who Say No To Social Media"
https://www.wsj.com/articles/teens-who-say-no-to-social-media-1472136877 

"The Inward Emptiness of Social Media" Study: Millenials who use social media most frequently were the most likely to be depressed.
https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20160406/281625304452898

"This Is Your Brain on Snail Mail" Ever wonder why you still get tons of paper junk mail? Study: "The brain prefers tactile experiences because that's just how we're wired." 
https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20151103/281689728685019

"Technology and the Language of Bodily Presence" http://www.getprinciples.com/technology-and-the-language-of-bodily-presence/

"50% of Teens Say They Feel Addicted to Their Devices...and 28% Say Their Parents Are, Too"
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/teens-feel-addicted-to-their-advices-but-say-their-parents-are-the-same-way_us_57291f31e4b016f378940715

"Bored, Porned and Alone: Our Children's Counterfeit World"
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/bored-porned-and-alone-our-childrens-counterfeit-world

"Setting Household Screen Limits: Consistent APA 'Two-Hour-A-Day' Guideline Covers Internet, Texting, TV, Movies and Video Games"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-kids-screen-time-guidelines-came-about--and-how-to-enforce-them/2014/03/31/4a394c10-af9f-11e3-9627-c65021d6d572_story.html?utm_term=.0cb9ea4ca0b3

"Help Kids/Teens Learn to Control Their Own Screen Time"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/ct-x-0107-screen-time-keilman-column-20150107-story.html  One Mom has kids do 2 hours of actual reality activity before screen time is allowed. They're often having so much fun that they forget about screen time.

"Huge Difference Between What Brain Allows Children (and Adults!) To Picture When Reading Words vs. Processing Visual Images Already Imagined & Fully Fleshed Out"
http://www.popmatters.com/article/156251-hunger-games-pits-book-gore-vs.-movie-gore/
The brain is good at protecting us when we're reading, allowing us only to imagine what we can handle.Viewing takes that safeguard/option away.

"Beware the Risk of Smartphones and Tablets in Schools"
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/04/02/beware_the_risks_of_smartphones_and_tablets_in_schools.html

"Cellphones Can Damage Romantic Relationships"
https://www.baylor.edu/mediacommunications/news.php?action=story&story=161554

"How Your Smartphone Is Ruining Your Relationship" (Lapierre)
http://time.com/4311202/smartphone-relationship-cell-phone/

"Like. Flirt. Ghost: A Journey Into the Social Media Lives of Teens"
https://www.wired.com/2016/08/how-teens-use-social-media

"Porn Isn't the Worst Thing On Musical.ly" 
https://medium.com/@anastasiabasilcunningham/porn-is-not-the-worst-thing-on-musical-ly-5df07ab842af
A very important, informative, funny and scary article by a Mom about the fact that even in the most innocent and supposedly kid-friendly internet sites and apps, there's often a whole dark underworld.

What the Mom is highlighting in this article (something rarely examined...most parents/educators are only concerned with porn and predators) is the way very young kids begin to perceive and present themselves in a highly unnatural way online without the cognitive/emotional abilities to handle it (and little or no parental communication/supervision because parents often have no idea what their kids are doing online). 

She also offers solutions.

"Alexa, I'm Bored. Children Can Interact with a Robot Instead of Their Parents"

https://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2018/04/25/alexa-im-bored-amazon-targets-children-with-digital-assistant-update.html

"Google to Focus on 'Responsible Tech' for Adults & Kids--Acknowledging Its Addictive Nature"
https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20180508/282196536586347

"Capturing the Real-Life Toll of Online Hatred"
https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20180508/282196536586347

"Are Phones Altering Parental Instincts"?https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20180628/282492889435083
http://torontostarnie.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

"The Dangers of Distracted Parenting: Parents Screen Time Is Hurting Kids"
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/the-dangers-of-distracted-parenting/561752/

"Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? Post-Millennials are on the brink of a mental health crisis"
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/

"The Transhuman Bill of Wrongs"
https://spectator.org/the-transhumanist-bill-of-wrongs/

"A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley: 'I'm Convinced the Devils Lives in Our Phones'"
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/style/phones-children-silicon-valley.html

MUST-HAVE BOOKS:

"Society has delegated to educators a most important task, the task of conserving the experience of the human race."

--William Chandler Bagley, Director of the School of Education UIUC, 1908

"We live in a Google and Wikipedia society, and if kids need to know something, they can look it up.
We need to teach kids how to think, analyze, conceptualize, problem-solve,
argue the science and defend their ideas."
--Carol Baker, president of the Illinois Science Teachers Association, 2013

RADICAL FEMINISM TO FEMININE GENIUS (THEOLOGY OF THE BODY)

My testimony and a talk on Theology of the Body and women.

GENDER & LGBTQ (THEOLOGY OF THE BODY) PODCAST

Part 1 begins with a little introduction to Theology of the Body....

NETFLIX: "THE KEEPERS" (WHO KILLED SR. CATHY?)

Netflix's truth-is-stranger-than-fiction docuseries, "The Keepers" (unofficial subtitle: "Who Killed Sister Cathy?") is beyond disturbing. Just when you thought you'd heard some of the worst, most sordid stories of the clergy sex abuse scandal, another multi-pronged, intricate, twisted tale of predatory characters and those who shielded them emerges in all its sickening ignominy.

MIND-BOGGLING

But this time, there's a beautiful-in-every-way young nun involved, deeply involved. So involved, in fact, that she's (coincidentally?) murdered in cold blood and her body dumped in the woods--as a warning to never break the silence, never tell tales out of school (literally)? The impunity with which pedophiles, perverts, sexual deviants, sadists and life-destroyers operated in the Catholic Church virtually unchecked until 2002 is as appalling as it is mind-boggling.

EVIL PROTECTED

"The Keepers" chronicles the reign of terror of a particularly evil Fr. Joseph Maskell (who had studied psychology himself) and a priest associate, Fr. Neil Magnus, along with several non-clerical co-abusers in Baltimore, Maryland--the primatial see of the Catholic Church in the United States. His brother was a police officer and Fr. Maskell made sure to become well known to the local police force. He couldn't really be called "charismatic" as many priest-abusers were, but was known for his intelligence and energetic civic involvement, as well as his love of guns. When he took a position as a priest-counselor at a prestigious all-girls Catholic high school, he performed the most heinous sexual crimes right in his out-of-the-way office on the grounds. When evil knows its protected? It gets very, very bold.

CONDITIONING

To understand how so many young women (and others) could have kept silent for so long--not even talking to their parents, each other, the nuns that taught them (some nuns at least seemed to know something was wrong but chose to either live in denial or look the other way and not rock the boat), you need to understand that this is normal for trauma victims. You also need to understand the kind of pedestal that priests were put on for the better part of the 20th century in America. They were sacred authorities, super-human, not like the rest of us, automatically virtuous and displaying holiness of life in everything they said and did, never wrong, beyond reproach, unquestioned, esteemed. No one dared confront or challenge them. It was unthinkable. It would be like confronting or challenging God's very representative. Their power was absolute. Much of Maskell's abuse was heinously "spiritualized" as a kind of penance. Break down a young person's already fragile self-esteem and join that to a religious guilt dimension? You've got 'em.

Many abusive clergy (or how I like to think about it: "pedophiles/psychopaths who got themselves ordained") used textbook grooming, conditioning, threats and criminal genius, toxically coupled with the entrenched power and influence of the mighty Catholic Church, with its reaches deep into people's strongest religious beliefs, families, ethnic cultures, faith practices, memories, neighborhoods, schooling, upbringing and formation.

There was also a kind of homogenous social conformism in society at this time, as well (remember that concurrent to the Swinging 60's was Camelot): a kind of unhealthy, passive obeisance to any kind of authority or authority figures.

MY "NO PEDESTALS" DAD

I thank God every day that my dear, devout Irish Catholic father was also a woke, free-thinking, shrewd, egalitarian, intelligent, worldly, self-made New England businessman who brooked no guff from anyone, even those on pedestals. We were never, ever taught--and he didn't model--any special treatment for priests. My father would say of anyone who tried putting on airs: "they put their pants on one leg at a time, just like everyone else." In his younger years he had a beloved long-time golf partner, Monsignor Sheridan, of whom he spoke often and fondly. We were casually acquainted with the priests at various parishes (we were parish-hoppers)--but that's about it. My father had had run-ins with various clergymen through the years--over their demands for money and other slights (which could have given him plenty of excuses to leave the Church), but my father believed the Catholic Church was the Church of Jesus Christ and no ungracious human shepherd was going to send him packing. I always sensed a certain unspoken prudence and reserve in my father when it came to the church (little "c").

JEAN, CATHY, JOYCE

One of the worst-abused students from the 1960's, Jean Hargadon Wehner, came forth in the 1990's--after horrifying repressed memories began to surface and give her no peace. In all innocence, good will, honesty, courage and uprightness, she reported it to the Church. The Archdiocese of Baltimore made her believe that she was the first to come forth with a report of abuse (she wasn't). A team of crack lawyers were assembled and arrayed against her to successfully stonewall. And very sadly, the otherwise astute head psychiatrist at John Hopkins, Dr. Paul McHugh, was an expert witness in her case against the validity of repressed memories--even ridiculing with levity the very concept. We know much more now--even from the 90's--about how repressed memories actually legitimately work.

So where does the murdered Sr. Cathy Cesnik, SSND, come in? When she was murdered in 1969, and her body found two months later, no one had any clue why anyone would target this beloved, spunky and innovative, twenty-six-year-old teacher from Archbishop Keough High School (where Maskell committed his atrocities with his cronies). It was chalked up to randomness, especially when, four days later, a twenty-year-old woman, Joyce Helen Malecki, was murdered close by in similar fashion--a second unsolved crime. (Was the killer trying to make Sr. Cathy's death look like the work of a serial killer? Did the killer do it for kicks--because they got the taste for homicide? The second one's always easier? To see if they could get away with two?)

It was only when the sexual abuse at Sr. Cathy's school came to light in the 90's that a motive for her murder surfaced--was she going to expose Fr. Maskell? Abused students had begun to confide in her and she promised that she would make the abuse stop. DNA evidence does not put Maskell at the scene(s) of the crime, but several witnesses in the documentary posit other likely suspects who may have been doing his bidding (blackmail? payoffs?) 

The police work at the time? Shoddy at best. Sr. Cathy's murder wasn't even considered foul play for quite some time--even when her car was found crazily parked with evidence of a chaotic event inside and outside of the vehicle. Other potentially damning evidence disappeared. Survivors claim they were also abused by police in uniform, under the auspices of Fr. Maskell.

GEMMA & ABBIE

Now, if you think this series is based on the evidence of a few survivors and one zealous documentarian, you are sadly mistaken. Time is the great discloser. The birds start singing. The puzzle pieces start to fit together. Now-white-haired journalists from 1969 who were shut down when they got too close to the truth--remember all the frustrating details as if it were yesterday. Kids who witnessed grownups talking (or worse) are adults now with corroborating stories to tell (even though they hadn't heard each other's stories). 

But the two real heroines of this documentary are two former students of Sr. Cathy who were not abused and had no idea what was going on right under the roof of their alma mater. (One was inspired to become a teacher herself by the example of Sr. Cathy.) These two determined ladies, Gemma and Abbie, in their retirement, decided to do their own sleuthing (the filmmaker came calling later in the game). They began pouring over microfiche, contacting anyone who knew anything about the school, the priest, Sr. Cathy, Joyce, even the police on the cases. These two dogged detectives got very, very far on their own.

FOCUSING ON SURVIVORS

"The Keepers" (like "Spotlight") appropriately and justly focuses on the survivors, not the incredibly intriguing "Who Killed Sr. Cathy" component: macabre, and all-important as it is. You will love Sr. Cathy, who is, perhaps, a true saint and martyr. And she wasn't posthumously canonized by wistful, dreamy remembrances. Her students and her family knew she was great, even before she was cut down in the prime of life--as a sacrificial lamb, it seems. I hope I have even a fraction of this woman's guts.

You will also love Jean--a very average woman, with no particular resources or inner reserves of strength to have endured the awful, awful hand that life dealt her. But she was blessed with a large, close family (siblings) and a phenomenal husband and children that gave her all the love she needed to face down the institutional evil that made her suffer and bear the brunt of its flagrant abuses and subsequent intransigent injustice.

NEVER AGAIN

It's difficult to comment on a series this long--I have so much more to say--but I think I've hit the salient points. Should you watch it? Many of my friends have said they just couldn't stomach it after just the first two episodes. They could handle neither the lurid, detailed descriptions by survivors of the grotesque abuses (if you want just a sample: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a9882211/father-joseph-maskell-netflix-the-keepers-abusive-priest ) nor the murder of Sr. Cathy. 

I watched the entire series in order to understand, in order to honor the suffering of the survivors and HEAR THEIR STORY. It's no good to finally, finally, finally GET TO TELL YOUR STORY IF NO ONE LISTENS.

PLEASE READ!

Here's my movie review of "Spotlight" (also a fine work) where I give some historical background to the clergy sex abuse scandal, as well as some pointers on how we can attempt to assure for the future: NEVER AGAIN. 
http://hellburns.blogspot.ca/2015/11/spotlight-is-recounting-of-spotlight.html#.WSzQFWjyuM8

OUR BELEAGUERED PRIESTS

On behalf of all the good guys, the majority of priests, the clergy sex abuse scandal is not part and parcel of the structure of the priesthood or celibacy (read my "Spotlight" review)! Tragically, our priests, young and old, now have a stigma attached to their "profession." This need not be. In the USA, you're innocent till proven guilty, and there's no reason to look askance at any priest. Just take a page from my Dad's playbook: "we're all human." Or my own playbook: "put nothing past no one." I remember in 2002, bunches of priests, horrified by the revelations (not all priests were privvy to the horrors going on within their own dioceses) began doing some forms of public and private penance. Let's pray for our priests. We love them and we need them.

THE CHURCH DID THIS TO ITSELF

A friend of mine said of the clergy sex abuse scandal: "It's Satan trying to take the Church down." To which I replied: "And the Church trying to take the Church down." When a male victim of Maskell was asked by the Archdiocese of Baltimore what he wanted when he came forward (he was sarcastically offered a boat), he replied: "For the Church to do the right thing."

FOLLOW UP:
http://nypost.com/2017/06/17/netflix-is-now-helping-cops-solve-cold-cases/

WHERE'S SR. HELENA? WHERE IS SR. HELENA? WHERE'S SISTER HELENA? WHERE IS SISTER HELENA?

Where's Sr. Helena?

People have been asking for years how they can track where I'm traveling to/speaking at.

So, here you go!

Just scroll down to the events:

http://daughtersofstpaul.ca/mission-events

(To return to this blogpost for updates, just Google: "Where's Sister Helena?")

MOVIES: "GIFTED"

The small film, "Gifted" (small in scope, feel, settings, and in its pint-sized protagonist) is delightful, well-crafted and asks the question of what it really means to be a successful human being, what it really means to be "gifted."

Mary, a seven-year-old math prodigy like her mother (who committed suicide) has been raised by her uncle, Frank (Chris Evans), from infancy. We have an inkling that Frank might also be highly intelligent in his own right (he uses a lot of big words)--and we find out later that he used to be a philosophy professor, but now fixes boats and lives in a very modest housing complex with Mary and their one-eyed cat, Fred. However, the arrangement is unofficial and hasn't been ratified in the court system. Frank is homeschooling her because she's too smart for school, and can be rude and impatient with her peers. Roberta (Octavia Spencer) is the earth mother landlady whom Mary loves and who helps her to be just a little girl, have fun, and be warm and huggy. But Frank decides it's time for Mary to go to a regular school, so Mary reluctantly trundles off to the big yellow school bus. Roberta warns Frank that the shaky legal status of he and his niece could now easily be exposed and he could lose Mary. Frank doesn't seem too concerned. Everyone at school assumes he's Mary's dad, and he lets them.

MARY, MARY QUITE SARDONIC

Needless to say, Mary acts up and acts out on her very first day. She is bored silly and becomes sarcastic with her teacher, Bonnie (the squeaky-voiced Jenny Slate who gives a nuanced performance), and her fellow students. Bonnie practically stumbles across the fact that Mary is a genius. When Mary claims the little math problems she's given in class are "easy," her teacher throws an equation at her that no first-grader could pull off. (We know where this is deliciously going.) Mary does. Bonnie tries something harder. Mary does it in her head. The next, even harder problem that Mary does in her head, Bonnie needs a calculator for.

The tale starts off with heavy-handed exposition and super-stylized mis-en-scenes, but then relaxes into a more standard, almost made-for-TV dramatic milieu. But it's a comfortable style, and well-suited to this as-yet-unknown little girl whom we know will not have the luxury of remaining anonymous much longer.

THE COOL UNCLE

Although Mary doesn't know how to be a kid, her uncle knows how to handle her and her giftedness, and they have a great relationship. After a few incidents at school, she and Frank have a chat. He tells her that she knows she's not supposed to "show off," and that she should have "compassion" on what she calls "idiot kids."

Chris Evans is almost "too big" for this movie--not just his Captain America star power, but his acting style and his movements: pause, linger, smolder, barely move, let the camera lean in and do all the work, barely emote, barely react, activate radio voice.... Maybe it's the director. Frank is meant to be the mysterious, nonconformist, "damaged hot guy"--but he's just a little too suave and casual somehow. Too much mugging and scenery chewing. Sorry. And I really like Chris Evans as an actor. He's just not displaying the earnestness of "Puncture."

And what of his petite co-star? Au contraire! This little actress may not be a real math savant, but she's certainly a thespian savant. Not one false note. A real natural. Her many contorted faces are the faces a real kid makes--and those tears! But then again, what is it with child and teen actors these days? Even mature, seasoned actors admit: "they're better than us."

"STEM" PROPAGANDA?

Enter, Grandmother. Grandmother (Frank's mother who prefers to be called "Evelyn" by her progeny) is the cold-as-ice British matriarch, a somewhat frustrated mathematician who may have lived vicariously through her daughter and may have even pushed her daughter over the edge. She wants Mary to be in a gifted school to reach her full "potential." Frank insists that it was his sister's wish that he raise Mary as a normal kid.

There's are some sad little jabs where Mary realizes that figuring out who can/should/wants to raise her is a bit of a problem for everyone. She also realizes that Evelyn kind of regrets having children because "after children...no more math." "Gifted" also seems to be a bit of "girls in STEM" propaganda. I mean, I'm all for equality and progress, but what if the majority of young women aren't terribly interested in making STEM their career or their life? Is that OK?

Evelyn fights valiantly in court to gain custody of her granddaughter (employing the aid of Mary's deadbeat Dad). She is vilified by Frank's lawyer, but smartly defends herself and her view of what is best for gifted individuals (and humankind), claiming that her deceased daughter "knew the responsibility she had been given" to make things better for all humanity.

The beautiful takeaway from "Gifted" is that being "gifted" is so much more than our talents, skills or abilities. Or as Mary says about Frank: "He wanted me before I was smart."

OTHER STUFF:

--As a philosophy aficionado, I recoiled in horror at Evans' mangling of "Cogito ergo sum."

--Frank talking with Bonnie about his "getting laid," as well as jumping in bed with Bonnie on the first date, cheapens Frank/Evans, Bonnie/Slate, "Gifted," all.

--There's a lovely little God dialogue--a bit of a cop-out and "throwing God a bone," but it has a nice "reason AND faith" ending:

Mary: Is there a God?
Frank: No one knows.
Mary: Jesus?
Frank: Good guy. Do what he says.
Mary: But is he God? (Roberta's a "believer.")
Frank: Be smart, but don't be afraid to believe in things, too.

I actually met a mom in New Orleans who had a little genius son and daughter (she and her husband aren't sure where their kids got their brains, either that or they were just being humble). The son was the elder of the two and was invited to attend a particular college while still in elementary school. He sat down with his parents and the administrators and told them he wasn't interested in going to their secular college because he wouldn't be able to talk about God there, and God was the most important thing in his life. He was presently going to a Catholic school where he could talk about God, and he liked that better.  :)