One of the best Catholic news pieces appeared last weekend at National Catholic Register: Monks, Beer and Christendom. It combines a handful of things that have interested me for awhile.
First, it revolves around the Monks of Nursia, which I assumed was a large, well-established, ancient order. Not so:
Father Cassian Folsom, prior and founder of the Benedictine community, addressed the audience. Father Folsom began his own rebuilding project in 2000, when his then-two-year-old community was invited to take up residence in an empty monastery in Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict. Abandoned 200 years earlier, during a period of anti-religious fervor under Napoleon's rule of Italy, the Benedictines moved into the monastery that was missing 90% of its roof and began rebuilding. For this community of 20 monks, which includes many Americans, the physical tasks of rebuilding parallel the spiritual rebuilding that is needed in the increasingly secularized West.
Second, it features Ross Douthat, who I've long enjoyed, and his thoughts about secularism. He makes an interesting point that I'd never really considered:
Keynote speaker Douthat then addressed the audience on the topic of “Religion and the Fate of the West: Being Catholic in a Secular Age.” Douthat, who converted to Catholicism along with his family at age 16, declared that “secularism is weaker than you think. The ordinary run of human experience tends for people reaching for the numinous.” He cited surveys and polls that show that as many people today believe in the supernatural as earlier generations. What has declined is not belief, but institutional religion, and he gave four reasons for this: political polarization, the sexual revolution, cultural affluence and relativism. He noted that the bestselling book Eat, Pray, Love “is St. Augustine's Confessions” for today, since it clearly presents the individualized spiritual yearnings of so many people today.
And finally, it talks about beer. The Monks, I'm told, make a killer beer. And they use it to raise money for their little monastery and to evangelize:
Father Folsom spoke about the challenges of building a monastic culture – one in which the Benedictine life of prayer, work and consecration to God infuses one's entire life – in a world so saturated with secular images and messages. He said that the monks' primary objective is the worship of God, which then shapes everything else that they do. This includes their work of brewing beer, a task begun by the initiation of a monk from Texas in order to provide income for the monastery.
“Beer is a hook for evangelization,” Father Folsom explained. “People come to the monastery to buy beer and end up talking about more serious things.” To great laughter from the audience, he presented a slight alteration of a famous line from Hilaire Belloc more in tune with his monastery's work: “In Catholic circles there is much good cheer, with fine friends and strong beer. At least I've always found it so. Benedicamus Domino.”
