John Zmirak on the Benedict Option

I wanted to point this out earlier; it was written back on April 18, 2015 and reflects on the passing of Cardinal George. Zmirak praises the Cardinal's work and witness in the public square, and he acknowledges a temptation which arises in the face of the "prospect of real persecution" which Cardinal George famously predicted.

The prospect of real persecution contains within it a subtle, more sinuous snare for the Christian soul — the blissful escape of Gnosticism. That’s the comforting option of pretending that we few, we happy few, have been blessed with a higher vision that teaches us to disdain this earthly life, the needs of society and the claims of the common good.

All that we’re called to do is to decorate our own souls, and keep our children “clean” of the vast corruption that surrounds us. We are not obliged to fight in the squalid arena of politics, or to wade down into the “culture.” Instead, we can please Our Lord by fashioning tiny, private gardens, where reverent liturgies and wholesome lifestyles will somehow survive amidst the ruins. When the pagans around us finally collapse in their filth and futility, it’s to us (or to our sturdy, fearless great-grandchildren) that they will look, and our scions will rise from the rubble to build another Chartres from the broken pieces of abortion clinics and international airports.

Yeah, that sounds great to me. We’ll get our payback then, and we’ll sing Easter hymns on our enemies’ unmarked graves.

It would be possible to take such Gnostic comfort by willfully misreading Cardinal George’s final prophecy, that the heir of the martyred bishop “will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.” But Cardinal George was not such a cruel or callous man as to wish that future on us, or see it as something hopeful, a promise of vengeful glory after a temporary setback.

Zmirak compares the so-called Benedict Option not to the heroes in Lord of the Rings, but to the mad king, Denethor, who famously gave in to pride and despair, planning a murder/suicide with his son by burning and crying "The West has failed!"

We face a profound obligation today to fight the Culture of Death with all the tenacity that God gives us. We must indeed fight as Churchill promised “on the seas and oceans, on the beaches … on the landing grounds … in the fields and in the streets.” We cannot take comfort in the prospect of escape, of a “Benedict option” whereby we will hide from evil in tiny enclaves of fellow believers. Because evil will find us there, as wolves can sniff out lambs. In a closed, self-protective environment, evil is all too likely to take over, among folk whose guard is down.

No subculture is safe. Indeed, the bleak facts of the sex abuse crisis should teach us that preachers are not immune. So should stories like those of the Legionaries of Christ, and the Society of St. John, each of which set itself up as a militant, separatist alternative to the culture — and proved to be the vehicle for some to prey upon the unwary. The further we retreat from the cold, clear light of day, the more vigilant we must be about our motives and our leaders. In fact, I think that a better name for the separatist imperative is not the “Benedict” but the “Denethor Option.”

I think that "misreading Cardinal George’s final prophecy" is exactly what Father Longenecker does in his acceptance of the Denethor Option, although it is perhaps not a willful misreading.

And, learning from experience, it really does seem like creating subcultures increases the chance of child sexual abuse. Here's another example from the Amish which, from what I've heard, is not an outlier in that "gated community". It strikes me as a bit ironic that people who obsess the most about the chances of their kids getting abused would start talking about "options" which would create communities with less accountability instead of more. Of course you are never going to see a SNAP created to go after the Amish because the Amish don't have deep pockets.

Big kudos to Zmirak for writing this. Normal serious Catholics still aren't buying the so-called "Benedict Option". It's not Benedictine and it's not an option.