Favorite Bible Passages

Posted on October 31, 2025 by richp45198

Last Sunday I was assigned to do the reading at Mass. It was from 2 Timothy and was a favorite passage of mine; however, the translation watered it down and so, when I read it, I did so with the phrasing I like. The passage has great meaning to me and I didn’t appreciate some translator watering it down.

That experience in turn got me to reflect on favorite Bible passages. I am about to finish reading the Bible again and continue to have all kinds of mixed reactions. Some parts make my heart soar. Other parts sadden me. Others get me thinking. And, yes, some parts are still crushingly boring. And, yes, the Bible isn’t the only book of wisdom that I read. For me, each time I read it I relate to the humanness of David and to the anger of Job. My heart soars with some of Isaiah’s poetry. I get a lump in my throat when I read of Jesus and Dismas.

Here is the passage I read last Sunday “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” (2Timothy 4:7) As a runner who has run a few marathons, I understand that faith at times requires endurance and that, as I ran the streets of New York City or Falmouth or DC, I fought with myself, being tempted to give up. This passage too calls to mind the faith of people like my mother and mother-in-law, women who maintained a deep faith in the face of deep tragedies.

“Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) This passage is the cornerstone of my efforts to meditate. As 12_steppers say, prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening. To listen, I have to quiet my mind, something I find quite challenging. Repeating this passage in rhythm with my breathing helps.

“They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not go weary. They will walk and not grow feint”. (Isaiah 40:31) Another running image! Inspired by the film Chariots of Fire this passage helps me negotiate the tricky calling to “let go and let God.” A stained glass plaque with this passage given to me by my son Ben is on my wall where I see it every day.

“I believe, Lord. Help me in my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24) A man seeking Jesus’ help with a dying son makes this honest admission and Jesus helps him. As a man who struggles with doubts, this gives me hope.

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I thought as a child. I reasoned as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things.” (Mark 9:24) On two different occasions, I was advised that perhaps my faith needed to grow up. The nerve of that priest and that therapist! They were, of course, right. For my faith to grow up, I have had to face doubts. I have had to face the anger I sometimes hold toward God. I have had to base my religious journey on something other than guilt and fear.

“Teach us to number our days that we may have wisdom of heart” (Psalms 90:12) This passage reminds me not to take life for granted and to live with a heart of gratitude. The great temptation is to take our lives for granted and to assume we’ll be around a long time. This Psalm call us to challenge that assumption, not out of fear but out of appreciation.

“Today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43) These words of Jesus to Dismas as they both were dying on crosses continues to be a source of great hope to me. This story of Dismas, also known as the Good Thief, appears only in the Gospel of Luke. Dismas was at rock bottom yet reached out to Jesus with hope. Jesus did not turn him away. As a person in recovery, Dismas is my patron saint.

Other better known passages such as Psalm 23 and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (I sure wish the politicians would at least read this!) have also helped me and challenged me. I am sure there are more passages waiting for me when I will need them.

I’ll close with this great scene from Chariots of Fire.

Reflections: Do you have any favorite Bible passages?

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Disputed Passages

Posted on October 21, 2025 by richp45198

Recently my son Ben posted this quote by Walt Whitman on his Linkdin page and invited readers to reflect on what they have learned on their “disputed passage”

“Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned the great lessons of those who rejected you, and braced themselves against you? or who treated you with contempt, or disputed the passage with you?” — Walt Whitman

This is a topic many of us expend energy avoiding and indeed I don’t like thinking about people who have hurt and angered me, much less the messes I created myself. I also don’t like thinking about events in my life I regret. Zen Buddhists as well as Stoics would challenge us to recognize the potential lesson present in any negative event.

When someone hurts or offends you, you have a choice. You can try to minimize it (“Who cares what N. thinks about me?”) I tried this on many occasions such as when I heard another psychologist had been referring to me as “eccentric” or when a church official labelled me “an enemy of the Church.”.

We can also allow the hurt to fester into a resentment. Sometimes we are not even aware of how much resentment we carry. Once a friend sensed my issues with resentment and recommended this exercise:

“Imagine you are sitting on a dock watching a ship approaching. As the ship nears you realize you know people on the ship. As the ship docks and people disembark, you realize they are all people toward whom you hold a resentment.”

When he suggested this I thought “OK. I’ll do that. Probably there will be 3 or 4 people.” I decided to write down names of those getting off the boat. I quit writing after filling two columns on a legal pad. And there were still people getting off the boat!

We can do other things like retaliate, perhaps with harsh words or actions. Perhaps even with violence. We can also wallow in self-pity. As one man once told me “I am the opposite of King Midas. Everything I touch turns into shit!”

What Whitman’s words suggest, however, is that we also have the option of turning the hurt into a learning. We can approach these “disputed passages” as opportunities for growth. I may not have had control over the hurtful events but I do have control over my response.

This does not mean that we allow ourselves to be someone’s emotional punching bag so that we might learn something. For some hurts, the learning may be that I need stronger boundaries or even that I learn to walk away.

Sometimes, though, a disputed passage invites me to look at myself with a critical eye. As the 12 Step program says, when we point a finger at someone, the other fingers point at us. Thus we may need to ask ourselves “What role did I play in this event?” A word of caution, however. When it comes to matters of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, too often the victim will blame themselves. The challenge of those disputed passages is for the victim to accept that he/she did nothing to bring on the attack.

In most of the disputed passages on my own list, I brought them on myself. The disputed passage (e.g., almost flunking out of graduate school), challenged me to take responsibility for my own behavior instead of blaming others.

Finally, some disputed passages just happen. They are not brought on by anyone. They just happen. Illness is an example. Some people, when faced with a diagnosis, become bitter, resentful, even angry with God. Others become depressed and withdrawn. But even then we are faced with the option of choosing how we will respond. I have been fortunate to have sat with persons facing life-threatening illnesses who taught me much about facing the ultimate disputed passage.

There is a Zen story about a man who injured his leg with an axe. As he tried to treat the wound, he became angry, blaming the maker of the axe, the quality of the wood he was chopping, berating himself for being stupid and so on. A Zen master came by and saw the wounded man and assisted him in binding the wound. The man began to vent his anger and blame. The Zen master told him that life had shot him with an arrow when he injured his leg. “But now you are shooting yourself with another arrow” by which he meant the bitterness and anger the man was feeling. The man may have had no control over being shot by the first arrow but had control over hot shooting the second one.

Whitman would agree with the Zen tale. Life being what it is, we are shot with arrows, disputed passages. But we take each arrow, each disputed passage, as an opportunity to grow.

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Fr. Mychal Judge: A 9/11 Remembrance

Posted on September 11, 2025 by richp45198

In recognition of the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, I repost this tribute to Fr. Mychal Judge, a man who deserves to be recognized as a saint. At this point in my journey, I have a need to surround myself with people of solid faith. Some I such as my wife I know personally. Others i have encountered in writings or film. I remember hearing Fr. Judge’s name mentioned in a newscast on the night of 9/11 as having died that day. May his memory be a blessing to us all!

On Martyrs: Fr. Mychal Judge

Posted on July 16, 2012 by richp45198

Fr. Mychal Judge is best known to most of us for his courageous actions as a New York City Fire Department Chaplain. On 9/11, he sacrificed his life as he administered the Last Rites.

There is a famous picture of Father Mychal being carried away from the site of his death. But I selected the above picture because, as significant as was his death, his life was more than that last act of heroism. Much more.

Fr. Mychal was a Wounded Healer. He drew upon his own struggles to reach out to many long before 9/11.

First of all, he was a recovering alcoholic some 23 years clean and sober at the time of his death. He remained active in Alcoholics Anonymous and, through his own recovery, helped others find their way to sobriety.

Fr. Mychal was also gay, a Franciscan priest in a religious organization not known for its welcoming attitude toward gays. While he did not advertise his sexual identity, he worked tirelessly on behalf of gay rights. When gays were turned away by the Catholic Church, he continued to minister to members of Dignity, a support program for Catholic gays and lesbians. Even moreso, he tended to the spiritual needs of many New Yorkers suffering and dying from AIDS. He reached out to them in the days when people still believed AIDS was contagious.

For me Fr. Mychal has come to represent several themes. First of all, he is a brother in recovery, one more person whose example has helped me find my own way. Second, he stands as an example of what is best about the Catholic Church. He has helped me see that there are really two Catholic Churches out here. One is authoritarian and repressive. But there is a second Church that welcomes all gays and lesbians, immigrants, persons of all race and color, veterans. That Church often comes under attack such that these times for that Church are especially hard in these days when gays and lesbians are still not welcome and persons are censured for speaking out. This second Church is invisible but I belong to it and am proud of that membership.

Fr. Mychal was rightly loved and revered by the New York City Fire Department. His heroism, however, was present long before in he died amidst the ashes.

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Chaplain (CPT) Emil J. Kapaun: A Saint for Our Time

Posted on August 22, 2025 by richp45198

I had never heard of Fr. Emil Kapaun until I saw the documentary “Fighting Spirit: A Combat Chaplain’s Journey”. The film focuses on the healing journey of former Chaplain Justin Roberts trying to recover from combat PTSD. He learned of the return of the remains of Chaplain Kapaun to his home in Kansas and journeyed there to be a part of the funeral. The film includes stories of military chaplains past and present.

Some of these stories I knew. I had written a previous blog on the Four Immortal Chaplains (https://psycheandspirit.net/2022/04/01/heroes-the-four-immortal-chaplains/) When I was young I read I Was Chaplain on the Franklin, by and about Fr. Joseph Callahan. The film includes stories from and about chaplains current and past. But the film focuses on Father Kapaun and the return of his remains to Kansas.

Emil Kapaun was a Catholic priest from Kansas who served as an Army chaplain during WWII. As the Korean situation began to heat up, he reenlisted and was assigned to a unit headed to Japan then Korea. I was delighted to learn that he joined this unit at Ft. Bliss in El Paso TX. I too served at Ft. Bliss some years later but it is a connection with him that means a lot to me.

Fr. Kapaun served amidst fierce combat and consistently put himself in the line of fire to rescue a wounded soldier or to administer the Last Rites. The picture above shows him reading Mass from the hood of an Army jeep. He was fired at many times and this picture below shows him proudly displaying his pipe which was shot and broken.

As his unit was being ordered to retreat, Fr. Kapaun stayed behind to minister to the wounded and thus became a prisoner of war.

Fellow prisoners who survived these times of horror, torture, and stravation all attributed the enduring faith of Fr. Kapaun as main factor in their survival. Several owed their lives to him including SFC Herbert Miller. Fr. Kapaun’s rescue of SFC Miller earned him the posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor. His actions were described by President Obama: ” Chaplain Kapaun, with complete disregard for his personal safety, bravely pushed aside an enemy soldier preparing to execute Sergeant First Class Herbert A. Miller”

If one reads a book such as No Bullet Got Me Yet: The Relentless Faith of Father Kapaun it is replete with stories of his tireless ministry. One of my favorite stories about him told of how he would sneak out at night to try to steal some extra grain to feed the starving soldiers. Just before going on his mission of theft, he would pray to St. Dismas for help. Dismas is better known as the Good Thief. Dismas is my favorite saint.

When Fr. Kapaun died in the POW camp, his remains were to be dumped into a mass grave. They were not. A group of soldiers buried him in a small single grave. That led the way, some years later, to his remains being identified and returned to Kansas.

Last year Pope Francis named Father Kapaun Venerable which is the second of four steps to naming him a saint.

In my own twisted spiritual journey, I now see that I need to be surrounded by people of deep faith. I have been blessed with such people, some through personal relationships others through reading their work. Thus, to the group of angels of faith in my life, I am grateful to add Father Emil Kapaun.

Here is a preview of Fighting Spirit. It is worth your time

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August 3 Six Years Later

Posted on August 3, 2025 by richp45198

I wanted to repost this in honor of loved ones lost on 8/3/19 as well as in tribute to those families that suffered those losses.

Sadly, what I wrote 6 years ago has come to pass. No progress has been made with gun control and in fact it is easier than ever to purchase a weapon. Beyond that. we live in a time of morally questionable leaders who claim to be Christian.

But we have been here before. Politicians capitalizing on fear is not new. Television personalities being attacked by political leaders is not new. Presidents of questionable moral integrity is not new. I have to believe that there are still honorable leaders out there and that their voices will carry the day as happened during the very similar time known as McCarthyism. Heroes of that time included Senators such as Stuart Symington, lawyers such as Joseph Welch, and television personalities such as Edward R. Murrow. History has honored them for their courage.

So, yes, I continue to hope that such heroes are with us now and will continue to stand up and be counted. I hope, too, that the violence of a Walmart shooting will lead us all to examine our violence within and to embrace a true message of non-violence.

Since 2019 I came to know some people who were directly affected on that terrible day. Their own courage will inspire me the rest of my days.

So take a moment today and say a prayer for the victims of the Walmart mass shooting of 8/3/19 as well as their families. May their memories be a blessing.

El Paso

Posted on August 12, 2019 by richp45198

It has been a week since a young man entered a local Walmart and opened fire. El Paso is grieving. El Paso is angry. El Paso is struggling to answer the “Why?” question, not just psychologically but spiritually.

Racism, like war, has been with us always. From my perspective racism goes beyond skin color and reflects the attitude of hostility and persecution of anyone whom I consider “different”, whether that difference is due to skin color, sexual identity, disability, or the many other ways we are unique.

Yes, there has been much racist rhetoric of late. And yes it is unconscionable for a 19 year-old young man to be able to buy a semi-automatic weapon. But the problems go beyond politics and gun control. I remain convinced that, for there to be an end to any form of violence, I must first heal the violence and racism within my own heart and mind. I must be willing to confront within myself the ways in which I judge others not only as different than but as less than. Do I look down on the street corner beggar, the “unenlightened” person of another political party, the prostitute working his or her street corner, the red-haired child on the playground? If we are honest, we all can find some form of such racism within, motivating us to judge someone as “less than”. None of us are immune from such thinking although too many of us like to think we are above it. It is never easy to face that “enemy within”.

El Paso is my home and my home is hurting. But my immediate concern is that time will pass and so will the attention paid to this tragedy. And nothing will change. We do indeed need to find a way to hold our leaders accountable for inflammatory rhetoric. We do indeed need to acknowledge that little has been done after such tragedies so that guns are not so easy to obtain. That is my fear. A year from now people will gather outside Walmart and remember those who were murdered. But the lawmakers will have done little to ensure it won’t happen again.

I have little control over politicians. But I do have the power to face my own inner racism, to bring it to the light of day, and to heal it. In many ways, if more of us, whatever our ethnicity, sexual orientation, position in life, if we try to heal the violence and ugliness within, then perhaps, in a small but significant way, there won’t be another El Paso.

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On Spiritual Experience

Posted on July 24, 2025 by richp45198

I recently had a spiritual experience. Our family was gathered on the coast of Oregon and one evening the area was enveloped in fog. I felt drawn to the fog and so I walked through the fog down to the ocean. I stood by the ocean and recited aloud Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog” and then recited “Sea Fever” by John Masefield. In that moment, I felt deeply connected to the ocean and to the fog. I wish I could hold onto that experience.

Over the years in my work as a psychotherapist who affirms the importance of the spiritual, many folks shared spiritual experiences with me. Some I could relate to. Others not. Some like my own experiences had to do with God. Others not.

I found an interesting article in Psychology Today from 2014 by Larry Culliford in which he identifies 8 types of spiritual experience. You might find the list helpful in laying claim to your own spiritual experiences:

Awareness of a patterning of events or what Jung called synchronicity, i.e., meaningful coincidence. I recall one such experience. I was preparing to go back East to spend some time with my dying mother. On my last day of work, a young woman came in to seek help dealing with her dying mother! At first I thought that was too close to home and perhaps I should refer her. But I chose to sit and listen. As I listened to myself, I realized the thoughts I shared were most helpful as I prepared for my own time with my mother. I met with that woman one more time a month later. By then, both her mother and mine had passed and the conversation had proved helpful. We both were at peace.

Awareness of a presence of God or a presence not named. The strongest sense I have had of the presence of God was on the morning of June 2 1983. That was the morning I woke up and felt the time had come for me to face my addiction to alcohol. But that energy did not come from me. It was and is the strongest experience I’ve had of grace.

Prayer being answered. For me, prayer is a slippery slope. I pray for my family every day and thankfully they are safe and well. But I have also dealt with unanswered prayer as have most of us.

Sacred presence in nature and a sense that all things are one. This was my experience on the coast of Oregon. There have been others. I recall my wife and I hiking in Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park. the setting was profoundly beautiful such that my wife said “I feel like singing.” We stood together and sang “Amazing Grace”. My wife the point up and we saw some hawks circling as if in response to our song. In that moment, I felt deeply connected to the birds, the canyon, and to my wife.

Awareness of the presence of the dead. Recently I had been diagnosed with melanoma. As I sat trying to address my fears, I felt some peace come over me. In sharing this with my wife in trying to understand it, my wife said “Today is your Mom’s birthday” and I did feel her calming presence.

Awareness of an evil presence. When I worked at the state hospital in South Carolina, I saw a video of a man who believed he was possessed by demons. Most of his narrative sounded more like mental illness but at one point his teeth chattered like when one is very cold, the kind of chattering you can’t do consciously. When he stopped, he said “That was Satan.” I never liked getting into looking for Satan in people’s issues. But when I think of that man, I wonder.

You might notice that the experiences I shared did not happen in Church. Spiritual experiences may happen for some within the context of religion. By and large, for me they have not. However, I do believe any spiritual experiences I have had (with the exception of that man in South Carolina) have been gifts from God. They have been there all along. Sometimes, like Jacob, I missed them such that I resonate to his words: “God was in this place and I, i did not know it.” So I must continue to work on paying attention.

Reflection: Feel free to share any spiritual experiences and/or your understanding of spiritual experience.

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Excerpt from”Turn to the Beatitudes”

Posted on July 5, 2025 by richp45198

Here is an excerpt from my latest article “Turn to the Beatitudes” published in St. Anthony Messenger, A link to the full article is provided at the end.

Christianity is in the news on a regular basis these days. Where I live, in Texas, there is increasing pressure to legislate teaching the Bible in public schools. Elsewhere we hear more about book banning. Our president once marketed a version of the Bible from which he made money. Not long into his presidency, he publicly attacked a minister who urged him to deal with such issues as immigration from a position of compassion. 

I find myself wondering what Jesus would think of the modern version of the religion and teachings named after him. I wonder if he would even recognize it. In my own distress over the current state of Christianity, I return to the core of Jesus’ teachings—the beatitudes—to see what light they would offer me. 

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he outlines the essence of a Christian lifestyle. It is more than a guide for how to treat others; it is a reference point for all of us in assessing ourselves as Christians. As with many things Jesus said, it can also be twisted to serve one’s own purpose. 

✧✧✧

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Clearly, Jesus looked with compassion on the poor as well as the marginalized and called us to do the same. In these divisive times and as we search for solutions to difficult issues such as immigration, it is important to note that Jesus called us all to reach out with compassion to those whom society might judge. He was on the side of AIDS patients when they were being judged. He is also on the side of the oppressed immigrant seeking safety for his or her family. 

Jesus is calling us to also address our attachments. Fortune. Fame. Power. Unhealthy attachments such as drugs, alcohol, self-centered sex. Jesus calls us to free ourselves from such attachments. 

It’s apparent to me that many Christians today exhibit considerable attachments to wealth and power, attachments that are at odds with being poor in spirit. 

Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Jesus, being human, mourned. When confronted with the death of his friend Lazarus, Jesus wept. At times, we are faced with dying to some part of ourselves. Perhaps we are faced with limitations through failure. Perhaps our health is challenged. Perhaps we are addicted. You might think it odd, but in many recovery programs, the recovering addict has to grieve the “death” of the addict. Often we must grieve before moving on to a new chapter in our lives. 

Jesus also suggests here that the loss I mourn will not be magically undone. In times of loss, none of us can fix the loss. What we can offer to one another is presence and comfort. We cannot minimize loss with thoughts about God’s will. What we can do is listen. 

When my mother died unexpectedly some years ago, I do not recall what different people said to me at her funeral. But I remember who was there. I remember the comfort I found, not in what they said, but simply in their presence. 

The full article is available at https://www.franciscanmedia.org/st-anthony-messenger/turn-to-the-beatitudes/

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On Being A Psychotherapist

Posted on June 21, 2025 by richp45198

I long maintained that being a psychotherapist was a strange way to make a living. It is a job that relies on human suffering. It is a job with an uncertain outcome for the honest psychotherapist knows that we do not help everyone who comes through the door. It is a job that has to do with stories. Everyone who comes to us comes with a story. Some but not all of those stories can be profound. We therapists can be overwhelmed by the stories. And yet as one lady reminded me “Hey! We crazy people didn’t ask you to do this job!”

We are often asked “What’s your approach?” Many therapists, especially these days, will use a label such as “cognitive behavioral” or “EMDR”. When I was asked that question, I would have to say “Well, that’s a bit of a story” since my approach was made up of an amalgam of approaches to which I was exposed over the years. It all started with my first class in theories of psychotherapy.

After surviving almost flunking out of graduate school, I was signed up for the first class in theories of therapy. “This” I thought “is why I’m here!” When I saw the textbook, however, I saw that it was all about THEORY not practice. What was I too do? I went to a fourth year student and asked for his advice. He recommended that I read “On Becoming a Person” by Carl Rogers and that I request supervision from Coy Robbins, an African-American social worker who was the only person in the clinic who actually did psychotherapy. Both suggestions were immensely helpful. But I also undertook my own path of exploration. I would go to the library and pick out a book by a therapist. Thus I was exposed to and influenced by Viktor Frankl, by Carl Jung, by Albert Ellis, and yes by Sigmund Freud.

Over the years, my approach continued to evolve, influenced by my interest in family therapy, in spirituality, in trauma. It was also influenced by my own therapy and my own recovery from addiction. This mix of influences made me, I suppose, a little different. One gets feedback about how one is perceived within the professional community. Thus, I would find out that I was viewed as eccentric and reclusive. I was told that another therapist said “Oh that Patterson. he’s more of a philosopher than a psychologist.” There was also a rumor that I had once been a Navy chaplain.

There were two other bits of feedback of which I am proud. One young man told me “I came to you because I was told you don’t bullshit people.” I was also told “You’re seen as a story-teller.” An eccentric reclusive philosopher who tells stories and doesn’t bullshit people. Now that I’m retired, if that’s my legacy, I can live with that.

I also believed that many of those who came to see me were there to teach me something. For example, I was blessed with an early important lesson. A woman came to see me and outlined her issue. I proceeded to pontificate on the reasons for her issue and what she needed to do about it. She listened politely and then finally put her hand up in a stop motion and said “Would you please be quiet and just listen to me?”. “You got it” I said and the witnessed her figure out her own situation with minimal input from me. At the end I said something profound like “Well, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.” I later heard this woman found the session helpful and made some difficult decisions in a way that worked for her. She gave me the gift of an early lesson not only in listening but in humility.

Maybe that’s the best kept secret of being a psychotherapist. We meet a number of people who help us learn things and grow. For that I am grateful.

I like to think that being open to new learnings stayed with me as I grew older. We older therapists can get set in our ways with a variety of habits regarding our work. I like to think I remained open to new learnings. I suppose that was reflected when I walked into the room for a first session with a woman and she said “Oh thank God you’re not young!” I guess she was hoping for someone who had lived life a bit and wasn’t stuck on theory. That I could offer her.

I leave then with this clip from one of my mentors — the great Bob Newhart

REFLECTIONS: Feel free to share any of your experiences either as a therapist or client or both.

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“Woke”

Posted on May 6, 2025 by richp45198

I have struggled with the meaning of this emotionally charged word that has come to represent a certain category of persons who have come under fire and threat these days. Here is the Miriam Webster definition:

“aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)”

Current political usage of “woke” is as a negative term implying advocacy for groups such as the racially marginalized as well as LGBTQIA+ persons. It at times is also invoked to attack those favoring environmentally friendly policies. The implication is that any supporting of so-called “woke” policies is anti-American and un-Christian.

Although not exactly the same, there is some overlap between “woke” and support of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Our government has undertaken actions to eliminate DEI policies from government agencies and has begun attacks on educational institutions supporting DEI topics and policies.

I recently watched a video of Fred Rogers testifying in a congressional hearing regarding PBS funding, something else that is currently being attacked because of being too “woke”. Here is a typical quote from Mr. Rogers:

“As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has or ever will have something inside that is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.”

“Good grief”, I thought. “That sounds like being ‘woke’!” And indeed it would appear that, with his acceptance of every child “just the way you are” as well as his own gentle challenges to issues such as racism (Remember the episode where he bathed his feet with his African American policeman?) would appear to label him as “woke”.

Then I looked through my blog. Over the years, I have written about some extraordinary people who have truly blessed my spiritual journey. Nowadays I believe they all would be called “woke” and perhaps attacked. Here are a few.

Clearly Dorothy Day and Daniel Berrigan would be called “woke”, Dorothy Day for her advocacy on behalf of the poor no matter what their race and Daniel Berrigan for his protests against a government sponsored war. Similarly the great folk singer Pete Seeger was marginalized during the era of McCarthyism ( a time which has some eerie parallels to these current times). His many songs spoke out against racism, war, and the general marginalizing of minorities.

The great Jewish scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel marched with Martin Luther King. Vietnamese Buddhist and teacher Thich Nhat Hahn spoke out against war and discrimination. Thomas Merton was vocal in favor of civil rights. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson enriched our understanding of the challenges to African-Americans. Even Vincent Van Gogh through some of his paintings captured the sufferings of poor farmers and other laborers. All would likely be labelled as “woke”.

Larry Doby and Jackie Robinson, through their integration of Major League Baseball, actively undid decades-old discrimination in a major business. Where they not attempting to establish DEI in baseball? Would that not qualify them both as “woke”?(If this seems far-fetched, keep in mind that Jackie Robinson’s autobiography was earmarked for removal at the Naval Academy as part of a government program to remove literature supporting DEI).

The late Pope Francis would appear to qualify as “woke”. Even the likes of great saints such as Oscar Romero would appear to be “woke” because of his advocacy for politically oppressed groups in San Salvador. And, yes, it even seems likely that Jesus Christ, He who spoke for the poor and the rejected, He who challenged the power brokers, He who came to wake us up, would qualify as “woke”.

As noted above, there are eerie similarities these days with the Red Scare of the 1950s. At that time, books were removed from libraries. People lost jobs. Schools were pressured to not include any information that could be interpreted as “red”. Given that Donald Trump has a direct line to Sen. Joe McCarthy through Roy Cohn, the parallel is not improbable.

The issues of today that fall under the category of “woke” are not simple issues. What is missing is intelligent dialogue. Our country has become polarized. Some of our religions are headed in the same direction. Intelligent dialogue balanced by accountability is missing in the public discourse.

As I read over my list of spiritual influences that would likely be labelled as “woke”, it saddened me. Do I agree with everything they said or did? No. But their challenges have made me think, made me reflect on what I believe. This, I think, is part of what spiritual growth entails — a spirit of open-mindedness.

I am grateful for everyone on my list as well as other spiritual influences. I guess that means I’m “woke”.

Feel free to pass this on. Feel free to comment. Intelligent dialogue points the way.

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The Catholic Church and Clergy Abuse: Impact on Faith

Posted on April 14, 2025 by richp45198

I have been reading a disturbing book titled Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church by Philip Shenon. Shenon studies the ongoing battle between progressive and conservative Catholics, made more intense by the impact of Catholics on the election of Donald Trump. Shenon’s book portrays the humanness of the Church to include the corruption of power at all levels. Shenon also pays paricular attention to the evolution of the clergy abuse scandal, making it clear that all Popes since Paul VI knew of the problem with clergy abuse and did little to intervene.

This reading has overlapped with a question I was recently asked: “How has the clergy abuse scandal impacted you as a Catholic?” It is a question that merits all Catholics’ attention. For me, it has been a journey with, it turns out, some old roots.

When I was 16 years old, I was planning to become a priest. I was invited by an order to which I was applying to visit their seminary. I roomed with a seminarian. During the night, I woke up to find him trying to molest me. I yelled “What the f–k are you doing?”, apparently scaring him off.

I never told the vocations director and really just set the incident aside. I didn’t think it affected me very much.

In the late 1980s, a client asked me if I would see her son for an evaluation. He had been molested by a priest named David Holley, who, it turns out, had been sent to the Southwest after multiple accusations of child molesting back in the diocese of Boston. She also recommended I read a book titled Lead Us Not into Temptation by Jason Berry. This book examined a case of clergy sexual abuse in Louisiana. It was my introduction to the reality of clergy sexual abuse.

I looked into what the Diocese of El Paso was doing about this issue and found out that they were doing nothing. I wrote to all the Catholic mental health professionals I could think of asking if they would be willing to help the then Bishop in formulating a response to the issue of clergy abuse, which, it turns out, was very much a part of the El Paso church. I wrote to 40 professionals and 39 expressed a willingness to help. I then presented all this to the Bishop, in essence forcing a response. A committee was established to investigate reports of clergy abuse. I was not invited to participate. Eventually, given my involvement with victims of clergy abuse to include assisting some who were suing the diocese, I was judged to be “an enemy of the church” and church officials were encouraged not to do business with me.

The next Bishop tried to mend fences and invited me to participate on that same committee. I became disillusioned over the diocesan response to one case and resigned. That same day I was contacted by a local news channel doing a story on clergy abuse to include an examination of the David Holley case. At the conclusion of the interview I said that I feared my Church was dying, generating negative blowback from the diocese that apparently lasted for several years.

I continued to treat victims of clergy abuse, many of whom were very courageous people trying to heal from devastating trauma, to include spiritual trauma. With some of these victims, it became clear that earlier bishops in El Paso knew of abuse but had looked the other way.

When I saw the film Spotlight it was like a punch in the stomach when the name of David Holley was mentioned. At the end of the film, cities with credible cases of clergy abuse were listed. I expected to see El Paso listed, which it was. I did not expect to see my hometown of Scranton Pa.

Shortly after, the state of Pennsylvania published a list of credible cases. One name stood out — Fr. Robert Gibson. Fr. Gibson had been a parish priest in our parish. He had been kind to me, choosing me to teach younger altar boys, helping me find a summer job. I wondered then and wonder now if he was grooming me.

So how has this affected my journey as a Catholic? I have had moments of anger. All of us pubescent boys and girls would fear confessing very normal acts, expecting judgment which we sometimes received. When I came to see that more than half of priests were sexually active with others and that many more practiced masturbation, I resented the guilt that had been implanted around sexuality. I found myself angry at the Church’s position on homosexuality, having learned that a significant percentage of priests were gay. I came to see that my own guilt-ridden sexuality needed healing.

I also came to see how human the Catholic Church is. I came to see the temptation of power as it permeates the Church. I came to see how power has motivated judgment and condemnation of St. John XXIII, the Pope who tried to move the Church from a position of judgment to a position of mercy. The Aftermath of his program Vatican II has revealed a powerful conservative element of the Church, an element unwilling to share their power.

A positive impact of the crisis was that it challenged me to reflect on what if anything about Catholicism still had meaning for me. That in turn helped me see that among other things I still value the sacraments. I also embraced the long Catholic tradition of mysticism. And my friendship with a handful of priests, all very good men, helped me see that healthy priestly service was possible.

The crisis also in many ways brought me to a different relationship with Jesus. As I reread the Gospels, I realized that modern Christianity to include Catholicism is far afield from what Jesus had in mind. And yet the efforts of St. John XXIII, the courageous leadership of martyrs like St. Oscar Romero, the courageous dissidence of people like Dorothy Day Lewis and Daniel Berrigan, much less the loving service of several of the priests whom I call friend indicate to me that living the life that Jesus preached is still possible.

Almost 25 years ago I wrote an article for America magazine titled “My Church Is Dying”. I believed then that sometimes we have to die to something to be redeemed. I believe in many ways my Church is still dying. Yet I still also believe that a rebirth more consistent with Jesus’ teachings is possible. It will require voices willing to challenge those who covet power. It will require voices willing to challenge the increasingly powerful ultra-conservative right wing of the Church.

What then of the attempted molesting some 60 years ago? Well, I find it amusing and a little reflective of the more colorful aspects of my own journey that I invoked the F-bomb in a seminary! I don’t think I was traumatized but I was also nowhere near being able to see that the Catholic Church has a dark side. Now I know it.

Recommended: Lead Us Not Into Temptation by Jason Berry

Jesus Wept by Phillip Shenon

Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church by the investigative team of the Boston Globe. The story is more disturbing than the movie Spotlight which is based on the Boston Globe team’s work.

If you are so inclined, pass this on.

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