Letter from the Editor

I think the diamond to be found in this issue is Fr. de Chivré's short article "Scouting and the Spirit of Danger" (pp. 31-32) on which I want to comment. The operative paragraph is this:

Danger is the commerce between God and the ones made in His image. It is a perpetual engagement of honor to stand and deliver every time we are called upon to prove the love of a dangerous Law–the Law to maintain and preserve the Catholic Faith.

After all, what is the legacy of our patron, Pope St. Pius X? What is it of our founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre? What do you think Bishop Fellay is talking about all through his "State of the Union Address" except exactly that Law? What about the life of Fr. Harry Marchosky (pp. 27-32), deceased friend of the Society? Before any of these men came upon the scene, dollars to donuts each was a boy knowing danger. Fr. de Chivré is spot-on in his talk to boys and the rest of us.

It would have been appropriate that somewhere in Fr. de Chivré's presentation he mention Fortitude. Of the seven gifts the Holy Ghost offers, it is perhaps today the one most necessary, presuming we have first a share of that Wisdom which has given us the mind of Christ. St. Thomas Aquinas defines Fortitude as "a permanent power which the Holy Ghost communicates to our will to assist us in overcoming the difficulties which might deter us in the practice of what is right."

Fortitude is a condition of every virtue, helping us to act virtuously with strength. It is also itself a virtue which makes us face down dangers and trials. Two things, however, deny Fortitude: pursuit of pleasure unhinged from rightness of reason, and shrinking from what right reason presents as the path of action because of anticipated (often imaginary) difficulties of mind or body.

Fear of difficult things weakens the will and causes it to back off from following right reason. Sometimes we are called to withstand fear over time in order that we might overcome it entirely; this is called daring. Therefore, Fortitude is about curbing fear and moderating daring. Fortitude overcomes fear yet restrains us from becoming foolhardy. The principal act of Fortitude is endurance, that is, to stand immovable amidst dangers.

Fr. de Chivré is critical of "methods" replacing exposure to danger as the necessary teacher of boys. Father says that boys especially are responsible "for taking on dangers in honor of Christ, proclaiming him, studying him, receiving Him on their lips, and offering Him the space of life contained in any and every danger..."

I'm happy to know a few young fellows who are willing to face fear, take a dare, and think outside the box. I know more who are not. I blame that on a formation in technology, avoidance of the elements, 24/7 convenience, immediate gratification, and bad schooling where a father is absent from his son's education. Though he may now be a nails-clean altar boy, he will grow up weak in purpose and Fortitude and ill-disposed to the heroism of duty. If Fr. de Chivré is correct, a too safe, too sanitary, and micro-managed environment will malform him and render him incapable of sacrifice, the blood of Fortitude.

Such a boy is the product of parents hung up on his physical integrity but who don't care a rip about his eternal soul. Save the young man from second-hand smoke but put prophylactics in the candy vending machine at his college. Tell him he can't play in the snow but let him text message the planet. Insist on three insurance riders, three waivers, and three EMTs for a boy to jump a three-foot creek in a thunderstorm. No wonder extreme sports, rebellion, and hip-hop gang culture are cool; it's the backlash from boys against our failure to harness danger for the common (Catholic) good. It's a secular version of Fortitude. Boys need difficulty and to get scared once in a while.

Here's a 13-year-old boy who raises and butchers rabbits so his family can eat. He gets it.

One night not long ago
You, my friend, and I rested
After a day without woe
On a day we were tested.

A day full of prayer,
A day full of work,
A day filled with duties
Done without shirk.

And we said to each other,
Though now were young,
Older, we would seek the place
Where men are undone;

Where men become Christs,
Strong and upright,
Where they learn to hold candles
To light the dark night.

They rebuild and rekindle
The Faith to its height
In the men without guidance
In the men without Light.

We had traced what we'd live
Through thin and through thick,
We had traced that Faith
Which upholds us like a stick.

Though we are sundered,
Though we are apart,
We will always remember
What we said from the heart.

And we'd know that we were
What God wanted us to be,
Waiting till that age
When we were legally free.

Never bow your head,
Never bow to the Schism,
Stand upright, upright with me
When you make your decision.

Never let your hope be unmade,
Never go near the Den
Where Faith is betrayed
And pledges all broken,
Where God is unsaid
And trust is unspoken.

The King whom we serve,
The King whom we know,
The King to whose throne only
We always should go.

To the Sacrifice Re-enacted,
To the Sacrifice Real,
And the bells in your hearing
Shall ceaselessly peal.

One day we may meet,
But that doesn't matter
Just as long as we find
The same in the After.

Being the outcast token,
You shall prove later
The brave and courageous
Are never outspoken.

To the Saint we should cleave.
Stop not, my man, to grieve,
But onwards, onwards to God,
Whom we will never leave.

And then, a close borrowed from Tolkien:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost,
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring,
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The Crownless again shall be King.

Instaurare Omnia in Christo,
+ Fr. Kenneth Novak