Today, February 14, Saint Valentine’s Day is celebrated, presbyter and martyr. There is some confusion surrounding three characters from ancient Rome with the same name, but it seems that the commemoration corresponds to that of a bishop of Terni who, in the 3rd century, risked his life many times to administer the sacraments. It is said that he had a predilection for uniting couples in holy matrimony, as that multiplied the desire in others to establish a Christian home. Apparently, he gave flowers to these couples who committed to getting married.
The world has perverted this story of a bishop who died for the faith and the hatred of it by those who killed him, turning Saint Valentine into “Valentine’s Day,” a purely consumerist holiday in which the question of Christian marriage is not even raised.
Well, there are currently groups (or movements, or brands) in the Church that have decided, in a move worthy of a three-card monte player, to “baptize” the worldly holiday that was born from a Christian feast, with the celebration of events that, of course, require passing through the cash register. There are two events fundamentally: “The Ball of the Season,” in Valencia, organized by Aute, that Catholic groupuscule on which some bishop should keep an eye, and Cristinder, organized by who knows who, in Madrid.
There is no need to dwell much on “The Ball of the Season,” which took place on February 6. Announced with great fanfare on its Instagram (@aute__) as “a different ball” to which they invited: “The Ball of the Season. Lose your head for Love. A conversation about true love…”; with 30 guests selected by the organization and a Mass. A very baroque aesthetic, short videos on Instagram of people in period costumes writing letters with quill pens… to end up in a short encounter where the guests, sitting on the floor, listened to the guru of the Aute brand (from “authentic”) and his wife, always relegated to the background by this authentic narcissistic windbag, talking about their dating and marriage experience. It is not known what knowledge they have, but they pontificate on their subjective experiences, always on the same topics, always for a fee, creating a lot of expectation that, in the end, deflates.
The second event, the one with the most substance, is Cristinder. As you can see in the image that illustrates the text, it is presented as a session in a nightclub on Serrano Street in Madrid on February 15, with drinks included in the entrance fee, centered on the concept of “speed dating” for single Catholics aged 28-48.
Let’s break down the worldliness and dangers for naive young people (and not so young) that this setup exudes:
- The name: CRIS-TINDER, from Christian Tinder, we suppose, because it’s a dating thing. What is Tinder? Tinder, according to its own website, is “a dating app.” It promotes itself with these words: “Attention, singles of the world! If you want to find love, are looking for new friends, or want to take it easy, Tinder is your dating app. With over 55 million matches (something like ‘hooks’ between people through the app), it’s the ideal place to find what you’re looking for. Let’s be honest: the world of relationships is very different today, because many people meet virtually. With Tinder, you have millions of single people at your fingertips. Whether you’re straight or part of the LGTBI+ community, on Tinder you’ll make sparks fly.” A friend who has explored the app also tells me that, among other things, it’s possible to add a unicorn icon to express interest in having sexual threesomes.
Is this really the most appropriate inspiration to present an event for meeting single Catholics? If the organizers wanted it to be recognizable as an event for meeting potential partners, they should also have taken into account everything else: that many people use Tinder, as we know, only to find one-night sexual partners, that it promotes homosexual relationships and that, as is evident, it has absolutely nothing to do with Christian dating that leads to a Catholic marriage.
- The organization: There is hardly any information about this event, beyond an Instagram account with very little activity and absolute secrecy about who is behind this. A group of young Catholics, perhaps? It’s not known.
- The dynamic: The hours that this afternoon in the venue lasts are dedicated to speed dating; that is, to quick dates, literally. Specifically, 6 dates. So, I imagine that one is in this nightclub on Serrano Street (although it changes location each new time), and can meet six Catholic people of the opposite sex to see if with any there are possibilities to start dating. In fact, on its Instagram (@cristinders), the event is defined as “the Catholic speed dating event of the year,” with the hook “you may spend Valentine’s Day alone (sic), but you have no excuse to continue like that on the 15th.” It is defined as “dating events for Catholics, through which almost 400 single Catholics aged 25 to 45 have passed looking for a partner with their values, with whom to form a family.”
The objective is very praiseworthy, of course, but the forms are not something purely accidental, but rather form part of the essence, and bringing the world so frivolously into the Church or putting a label of “Catholic” on something of this caliber does not seem to me the most dignified way to proceed. Many will say that there are good intentions behind this. Really? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. There are much more dignified ways to put single Catholics in contact who seek to start Christian dating.
In reality, it not only seems worldly to me, but perverse: the appearance of good hides the world sneaked into the Church. Because the forms, as we said, affect the contents, and this is nothing more than a banalization consumerist of the search for a partner with whom to begin Christian dating focused on marriage and forming a family.
It reminds me of the inversion of what Jesus Christ said to the Father: “they are in the world but they are not of the world.” In the case of these events, it has become that they are in the world because they are of the world and they introduce the world and its banality into the Church. There is no doubt that there will be people who attend with all their good will, just as there is no doubt that there have always been heterodox groups in the Church, but we are reaching limits where some authority should call a halt. I have no idea if a bishop has the obligation or authority to supervise an event organized by laypeople in the territory of his diocese just because it carries the Catholic label. What is certain is that, de facto, we all see how bishops bless any worldly thing that gathers a few young people who call themselves Catholics.
The implausible extremes to which the situation is reaching include the delirious “I Jornadas Villa Exuma” in Pozuelo de Alarcón, held on Saturday, February 7, focused on vocation: business, religious, and marital. With “afternoon gathering, soft drinks and dinner, DJ, drinks, party and music,” and the presence to speak about religious vocation of Father Enrique, Superior General of the Pontifical Institute of Canon Law CPCR (Cooperadores Parroquiales de Cristo Rey) and Mother Consolatrix (superior of the Incarnate Word family in Madrid and intervocational missionary). There it is. The event “Para quién soy,” organized by the CEE, already dedicated itself to mixing to confuse vocations to the priestly state, religious life, and marriage, but throwing in the business vocation there already seems delirious to me. You can see it with your own eyes on its Instagram account (@exumavilla).
In these days when the FSSPX has announced the consecration of new bishops for July 1, a couple of news items about it on this portal have highlighted two fundamental issues: the first, that the supreme law of the Church is the salvation of souls; and, the second, that, in the very words of the superior of the FSSPX, Msgr. Davide Pagliarini, “in an average parish, the faithful no longer find the necessary resources to ensure their eternal salvation”. And that is sadly true in too many cases.
On the one hand, there are the bad priests. And on the other, the baptized who, precisely because of that, follow their own desires and seek teachers who tell them what their ears itch to hear (Tim 4:3). But then, aren’t we facing the situation described by Our Lord of the blind leading the blind (Mt 15:14)? And we already know the conclusion: if a blind man leads another blind man, both will fall into the pit.
In rural areas, the situation is already agonizing: a friend from a small rural village in the diocese of Terrassa, near Barcelona, told me a few days ago that in the course that the new parish priest has been there, he has not baptized anyone and has only celebrated one marriage. That is the reality of the rural Church. In the big cities, however, things are different. It is where all these neoconservative events of Regnum Christi, Hakuna, Alpha, and the like occur. Above all, in Madrid and now also in Valencia, with Aute. Events with a multitudinous vocation of party, little talks, beer, and music that suit the bishops so well to build a narrative that has nothing to do with the reality of the Church: the reality of the rural Church is death in the medium term due to lack of priests and faithful, and the patch, in the meantime, of ladies who celebrate paraliturgies. It doesn’t matter. That gets covered up. It doesn’t interest. It doesn’t fit the successful narrative.
In the big cities, parishes are mostly moribund, with priests in charge of several of them and hardly achieving anything. But the bishops, in desperation and to not accept the situation, sign up for the four mass events a year to pretend that the Church is in a fabulous moment, while the data on attendance at Sunday Mass and other sacraments indicate the opposite. It reminds me of Pedro Sánchez’s psychopathic narrative: a Spain heading toward chaos and misery while he says it’s “going like a rocket.” And they bless all kinds of activities in which there are “young people” and “Catholics.” With a particularity that we had already mentioned once: all these activities are made by neoconservative movements or brands and, worse, they don’t resemble in anything what the bimillennial Catholic Church has said and done, with its own organic development, without ruptures or strident novelties; neither in its forms nor in many of its contents.
Ecclesial progressivism is dying, although it tries to die killing. But neoconservatism in the Church, so numerous, resembles a herpes that is strangling it.