By Fr. Benedict Kiely
St. John Henry Newman discovered, after much study, prayer, and suffering, that the Anglo-Catholic or Tractarian concept of the Anglican Church as a via media between Catholicism and Protestantism was, ultimately, a house built on sand, without foundations. There is still a small minority within that communion that defends this thesis. But with female clergy and now a woman occupying the See of St. Augustine in Canterbury, that entrenched group is like King Canute vainly trying to hold back the waves of the ocean.
An old joke, perhaps a little cruel, considered that the famous “via media” was in reality the ultimate compromise, a “on the one hand this, on the other that,” which resulted in a position of perpetual ambiguity, both extremely painful and quite shameful.
There is, however, a very necessary stance today in our discourse, certainly in what used to be called the “printed page,” which is neither ambiguity nor a vain attempt to keep all parties content by adopting an anemic position.
Hilaire Belloc, the greatest exponent since Jonathan Swift of that specialized form of writing known as the “essay,” wrote many essays with the word “On” in the title. He could write “On Cheese,” “On Laughter,” and “On How to Get Rid of People,” for example. With that in mind, the stance, or practice, that is needed today, especially by those committed to caritas in Veritate —not only those in clerical orders, but also those who claim to speak as Catholics—, would be an attitude of moderation.
A timely example of this is the view on the State of Israel. The mere mention of this controversial topic is likely to, depending on the stance chosen, invert Dale Carnegie and “make enemies and influence no one.” The moderate stance, fully in agreement with revealed Catholic teaching and the Magisterium, would recognize the right to exist of the secular State of Israel, at the same time rejecting the extremes of a certain theology that sees in that State the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
It would also firmly reject any form of antisemitism, while maintaining the eternal and uninterrupted teaching that the Catholic Church is the new Israel. This moderate stance will enrage many, on all sides, and cause the loss of friendships from those incapable of seeing through the red fog of prejudice and fear. Practicing moderation is not a comfortable place to be if all one wants is to avoid conflict. But it is certainly not a sign of weakness.
Moderation can also, and should, be seen in those who abstain from vulgarity and profanity, particularly in writing, but also in private. It is unseemly to find Catholics using coarse language on social media or other forms of communication.
Why, one might ask, is moderation so difficult and why, now, so necessary? Its own definition implies the sense of “keeping within reasonable limits,” and its etymology encompasses the idea of remaining “within the margins.” That Middle English noun gives us a notion not only of physical limits, but also of a lack of reasonableness that, if violated in conversation or in writing, inflames rather than informs, and exacerbates rather than contributes to understanding.
There are phrases and expressions that we know are “beyond the bounds of decency.” But there are also polemical styles, very popular today, that do not serve the common good.
Moderation stimulates us, along with its good companions: temperance and good sense. We know that temperance is a virtue, in fact, a cardinal virtue, not only in matters of appetites, but also in word and action. Intemperate language may be in fashion and may foster clicks and followers for those known as influencers, but it is not a sign of wisdom or civility.
Moderate, yet wise and learned, commentators may not have the largest audience or listenership in the illusory world of podcasts, but in the long run they will contribute more to intelligent discourse. And what they say will be remembered much later, after the last influencer disappears in the fading mists of TikTok.
We Catholics, and those of orthodox faith, have our own class of influencers: we call them saints. And although some were certainly fiery in their language and tone, it was always in the service of the truth.
Good sense, that companion of moderation in the mode of public discourse, also allows us to revive a word today more often denigrated than celebrated: the other necessary virtue of prudence. Denigrated because, falsely, it is seen as weakness or as an excuse for a lack of action, including the spoken word.
True prudence, however, is not appeasement, as in the case of silence for the sake of peace. That could, indeed, signal cowardice, not the robust cardinal virtue of prudence. Remember the great definition of Churchill on the appeaser as “one who feeds the crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”
Prudence and a sensible attitude prepare the ground before action, consider wisely all the options, and act with the necessary moderation. Certainly it may be necessary to face the crocodile, but on our terms, not on the reptile’s terms.
Moderation is also an antidote to what we might call the “indolence of distraction”, in the words of John Philpot Curran, the mayor of Dublin who, like Benjamin Franklin in 1790, actually spoke about the price of the gift of freedom that God gives to men as an “eternal vigilance.”
The fate of the indolent, said Philpot, was to see their rights “become the prey of the active.” The indolent distraction of shallow chatter and intemperate communication may allow a stealthy removal of freedom in the murmur of our newly created “chatterocracy.”
Benedict XVI, as he so often did, encouraged us to moderation and its necessary companion, sensible and prudent silence. He wrote that: “silence at the right time is more fruitful than constant activity which too easily degenerates into spiritual idleness.”
Might not the moderate, as well as the meek, inherit the earth?
About the author
Fr. Benedict Kiely is a priest of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. He is the founder of Nasarean.org, an organization that helps persecuted Christians.