When I was a child (could not have been more than 6 years old because my brother had not yet made his appearance in the world) I sat at the dinner table with the adults and listened.
The table, that night, held special visitors. They were my Father's side of the family and very different from what I knew. They were visiting from Texas. None of them were Catholic. All of them had a way of talking, a rhythm, if you will, that was distinct from the Northern California voices I was normally surrounded by and they discussed the topics of the day with a viewpoint foreign to me.
I remember how proud my Aunt Glenda was that she had been inducted into an organization for women. Daughters of the Confederacy, she called it. It was, she said, reserved only for those people related to the brave men who had fought in the Confederate forces in the War Against Northern Aggression.
"And some day, darlin' ", she told me, "You can join."
I do not ever pretend to be something I am not. What I have always been is precocious and at the ripe old age of 5 I had already been taught something about US History. Not a lot, but enough to blurt out, "I thought they lost that war."
This caused my Dad to burst into laughter and my Mother to try desperately to change the subject ... but the damage had been done. I was obviously a Northerner, a turncoat, damaged in the eyes of my Southern family because I had no deep respect for the Stars and Bars and the sacrifice the men had made.
I share this story with you because I do believe history is a matter of viewpoint a lot of the time. I also think there are moments of time in our history as a nation and as a people that we are foolish to ignore or try in some twisted fashion to defend. Enslavement of people based on their race, their religion or their sex is evil. Racism, the belief that somehow one race is inherently superior to another is evil. Pretending that glorifying the Confederacy is somehow defending our history is stupid.
I have heard the arguments. There were Black men who fought for the Confederacy, who owned slaves, who were devoted to their White Masters and Families. Okay. Any other attempt at this type of argument would be met with a 'that is the exception that proves the rule' response; it is only when we examine slavery and the Civil War that somehow this becomes a reason to okay the southern states' response to the abolition of slavery or a reason to honor Robert E. Lee. And if I hear ONE more person tell me that good ol'General Lee really did not like slavery but he loved his native Virginia and that is why he left his post with the US Army and joined in the rebellion I will whip out my ladies' church fan and smack them on the head.
The fact that he did not have the backbone to stand up for what is right because he 'loved the state of Virginia' should be an indictment of his character and not something to be admired. After all, other people did, many of them southerners themselves. He could have stood up to evil. He chose not to because he loved a place more than God.
Recently the eyes of the woke have turned with a vengeance on St. Junipero Serra, accusing him of being in league with the devil and personally responsible for the killing, raping and enslavement of the indigenous peoples of California. Again, I have to disagree.
None of the articles sent to me by woke folks have supported those claims; rather, the very articles they have sent me have usually made the distinction necessary to understand this hole man - he was the rebel of his time, standing firmly against the government emissaries of his native Spain and trying his best to live his Catholic Faith no matter what they did to him.
I look at his life and see a pattern you will find with almost all the saints. These men and women are usually the ones lovingly but firmly poking their fingers into the eyes of the authorities. They will shield a native woman with their own body from the Spanish soldier trying to rape her because, as a priest, that is what they are called to do. They will look a Governor of an American State straight in the eye and tell him that he is a hypocrite for suspending the death penalty and promoting abortion on demand. They will tell an errant Bishop who looks the other way while a colleague sexually molests a seminarian that what they have done is a grievous sin and their mortal soul is in danger. They will gently tell holier-than-thou podcaster that Faith is more than agreement on essentials, it is an assent of the will.
Becoming a person who looks at injustice in both the past and the present will mean becoming someone who has to be willing to do the research and then discern. What I am always amazed at by history is that it is always possible to find evidence of people who looked at the status quo and declared it for what it is - evil. They did not compromise their Catholic Faith, They did not muddy the waters in order to okay their choices. This was not easy for them and I am going to tell you the truth, if you make the decision to try your best to be like them it is not going to be easy for you.
I made a decision many years ago to try my best to become a saint. I have, so far, failed miserably (I blame too things - professional football and really good food - and maybe Scottie dogs) to let go of my earthly attachments but I promise you I never stop trying. I get so tired. I get very discouraged. I never stop trying and I never will. I want to be a saint.
I reject the idea that statues honoring traitors to our Nation's ideal should be anywhere but a dumpster. I also reject the idea that this means all statues of all the white men who made differences in the advancement of that ideal - no matter how stained their own lives were - should be relegated to the dung heap. Discernment, people...we need to bring back critical thinking and the eyes of Faith.
I have no problem proclaiming that Black lives matter because I believe they do, just as I believe all human life matters. But more importantly I believe we do suffer from the sin of racism in this country, systemic racism, racism we do not even recognize until it is pointed out to us - usually when we say something that seems oh so reasonable to us but is based on an assumption or belief we never even knew we had until someone says, "What did you just say?".
For me this all boils down to trying my best to live my Faith, to be authentically Catholic in a world that despises anyone who tries to do just that - be a saint. I know I will never please everyone and I also know that ultimately the only one to please is my Creator. That does not stop me from wishing it were easier to do out in the world but it does help me not to jump on many bandwagons.
I think, maybe, it is time to recognize that I am never going to be 'woke'.
What I am, I guess, is Catholic...and I hope always to remain Catholic.
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