Restoring Sanctity in an Insane World

In an episode of the popular TV show “My Wife and Kids,” the wife/mother character, “J”, determines to study psychology.  Within the first few days of classes, she has diagnosed every family member and others with serious mental disturbances, from ADD-depression to bi-polar-schizophrenia.  

We laugh at this comedic absurdity (humor helps), but deep down we realize that each of us exhibits signs of some mental imbalance, minimally originating in defects of our temperament.   We are reminded of this with every tragedy resulting from extreme mental erraticism, manifested in scrambled thinking, rash and rageful speech, and bizarre, sometimes deadly behavior.  Moreover, the occult has gained significant inroads given societal atheism leading to prideful egoism and enabling spiritual slothfulness.   We see this in even the very young, so we had better pay heed and, more urgently, act within in our Catholic communities.

 
The truth is that the “devil is in the details” of mental illness, but not all mental illness is directly linked to demonic possession.  In fact, the latter is relatively rare though evil influences can exacerbate organic brain disorders.  So the truth is also that God is the primary Psychiatrist in the treatment and healing of persons and our society.  Still, we must do our part.  We  will need to live in sanctity to a high degree if not heroically.  

 
The late Carthusian and Catholic psychologist and psychiatrist, Dom Thomas Verner Moore in his 1959 classic, Heroic Sanctity and Insanity:  An Introduction to the Spiritual Life and Mental Hygiene devotes the majority of his work to exploring and sharing this truth and the necessity of prayer for living mentally stable and enriching lives.  One section interconnects this thesis:  Mental Disorders and Sanctity at its Therapeutic Level.  Therein, he explores the Freudian lies and steers therapy to the spiritual remedies found in Catholicism.   Sometimes it is as simple as living the Gospel to love God with your whole heart, mind, and soul, and your neighbor as yourself, yet “forgetting” yourself.  In brief, much of mental illness, extreme clinically biological cases aside, are rooted in godlessness but also selfishness.  

 
Throughout the book Dom Moore relates the value of religious values and spiritual life that resounds in healing.   In one uplifting story, he recalls how he helped a four-year-old child traumatized by his mother’s institutionalization.  The child became catatonic after placement in an orphanage with older children.  Dom Moore went to court and arranged a transfer a home with other children the girl’s age.  He noted, “The rapidity of the resulting cure surprised me.”

 
The more contemporary Father Chad Ripperger in his Introduction to the Science of Mental Health intricately explores the title subject integrating our Faith.  He also devotes a portion of the work to necessary Catholic attributes of mental health clinicians.  With conscientious care, excepting the most profoundly mentally ill, the vast majority of those who struggle with impulsivity, distractibility, anxiety, bodily dysphoria, mood swings, depression, and even intermittent psychosis who strive to live virtuously, will experience alleviation of symptoms even in the absence of a cure.  Furthermore, even patients with organic brain disorders are accountable for compliance with reasoned treatment and grow in holiness.

Father Ripperger, Ph.D further cautions about the futility and harm of employing mental health treaters who lack faith or outright dismiss the possibility of demonic interference outright possession.  He asserts a psychologist must “have knowledge of he general spiritual mechanisms and their essence, causes, and effects they produce on the soul.” (pg. 98). A prudent priest may need to be consulted.  

 
The famed Catholic exorcist Msgr Stephen J. Rossetti, who offers numerous deliverance prayers, including generational  ones, for the laity, speaks of various degrees and kinds of such demonic spirits and distinguishing between them:  oppression, obsession, and possession.  Unaddressed atheism has opened the door to aggressive satanic infiltration into our modern society and significantly disrupted families.  His multiple podcasts an St. Michael’s Center delve into the proliferation of evil but also remedies.

 
The worst of satanic possession was pronounced in the movie Nefarious.  One of the main characters, a possessed criminal, is examined for mental illness, but the naive, even atheistic psychiatrist fails to detect demonic presence until the catastrophic ending.  Yet, even then, the cocky doctor is startled at the movie’s close to bump into that same demon now in an old homeless women.  True, this is fictional, hyperbolic drama, but the point is that this practitioner had still not learned of real good vs. demonic evil, let alone how to best combat it.

Speaking of movies, our children are vulnerable to the emotional disturbance through film, as well as excessive screen time”, and social media.  So numerous and intense are the mediums through which Satan can employ his many minions, that without Faith, even the “alert” among us would utterly despair.  

 
Individually and in Catholic circles, we must humbly admit our previous indifference or poor understanding of the evil phenomena in our midst.  Ignorance abounds.  Most urgent is an intentional and coordinated effort to bring back a Sacramental life in love and truth to our youth while cocooning the most vulnerable and mentally injured in our daily midst.    

 
None of us can sit on the sidelines solely depending on the institutional Church (or the secular government) to address this crisis. Though there are many wonderful programs flourishing, including in Catholic schools, Jesus Christ taught us of the necessity of healthy, compassionate person-to -person encounters even when circumstances intimidate us.  

 
We are the Church:  parents, relatives, neighbors, teachers, parishioners and others who come into contact with emotionally unstable persons, sometimes as young as pre schoolers..  Early observation and compassionate response are critical.   Note that by the time mothers and fathers realize there is something seriously askew with their child, they may be already isolated in a defensive bubble, feeling rejected and exhausted by rounds of fruitless encounters with “systems of care.”  They themselves may appear depressed or, at the other extreme,  trying to just put on a happy face to avoid criticism or idle probing.   

Lovingly, non judgmentally each of us can do more to relate to and connect with the isolated, the avoided, the hurting.  As demonstrated by one determined act (Dom Moore), a child’s life was forever changed who might otherwise have devolved into chronic and lifetime mental illness.  Learn about mental illness and  provide resources to those too exhausted to gather them; make appointments on their behalf; or ease burdens in other ways.   We bring meals to families whose loved ones are hospitalized for bodily emergencies.  Consider that a psychiatric hospitalization is also emotionally, physically, and financially draining.  Include atypical children in peer group activities, especially outdoors,  even if such participation may be in short spurts.  Perhaps, visit Mom for tea or take Dad for a round of golf, as experiencing nonjudgmental companionship makes a difference.  

 
On the spiritual side, pray and offer Masses, Rosaries, and Divine Mercy Chaplets for the afflicted. Among those petitions, I pray that all Catholic dioceses and parishes address our littlest ones early on and gift them the Sacraments, including Baptism, Confession, Confirmation, and Anointing of the Sick, especially providing for their catechetical needs, mindful of lessons geared to their emotional or cognitive weaknesses.  Strengthen the whole family in prayer and spiritual growth, and develop teams of Catholic therapists well versed in theology and the Catholic Catechism, avoidant of milquetoast organizations and front line activists for a revolutionary church. As the hymn goes:  “Let there be peace in the world, and let it begin with me.”