inside america

A Cultural Virus
Exploring the tenacious infection that invades our modern mentality, we are invited to look inside ourselves first, to where this malady separates man from Christ, to the point of changing our understanding of freedom. St. Augustine helps us to navigate this hidden crisis.

by lorenzo albacete

In my column last month, I offered some thoughts about how to best respond to our bishops’ choice of religious liberty as the point of intersection between faith and culture, especially during the celebration of the Year of Faith. In this column, I intend to continue this reflection.
I have seen how many of my friends are depressed and disappointed with the victory of President Barack Obama. These include Republicans and Democrats; rich, middle class, and poor–most of whom like Obama as a person or even agree with many of his policies. The great obstacle to better relations with him is the impression that his Administration is hostile to the teaching of the Church in matters of public policy concerning the issues of life, gender, family, and sexuality. (The opposition to the Church’s teachings in these areas also originate in powerful Catholic officials and advisors at all levels in the federal government of this Administration.) Provoked by the government’s announced intentions to adopt a health insurance policy that involves paying for contraception, abortion, and other such practices, the bishops sought to mobilize their supporters to vote in accordance with their consciences, as formed by the Church. Programs at all levels of Church life were designed and used in parishes, dioceses, schools, hospitals, clinics, and more. Catholic organizations, foundations, and individuals spent millions of dollars in support of this cause, and yet Obama was re-elected.
What is going on?
I suggest the problem is not Obama or any administration. The problem lies within us as Catholics. A virus, a cultural virus, has infected our spirits. This virus is not responsible for the morality of our behavior–that comes later. Nor does it depend on which Administration is in power: we could be led by King Louis of France with Joan of Arc as Secretary of Defense and Thomas More as Attorney General. The virus would still be there.
How do we respond to this? What exactly is this virus like? How does it harm us?
A good source for studying this virus is St. Augustine. In The City of God, he writes about the “causa,” the human cause, to designate that which propels us to act because our humanity is at stake. This “human cause” is completely dependent on our relationship with two men and the impact that they have on us. These two men are Adam and Jesus Christ. The relationship with them is the key to our fate as humans.
The virus of the dominant culture attacks by separating the two and keeping them separate. The virus does not seek to eliminate Christ directly from our culture; it knows that won’t work. The virus attacks Adam, man, in order to deny to Christ a flesh in which He can become Incarnate.  The words of Christianity remain, but they come to mean the opposite of what they originally meant. Such is the case with the word freedom.
In The City of God, Augustine describes the difference between “presumption” and “confession.” Presumption is the granting of salvific power to human thought by itself. A merely human project. In the coming column, I shall attempt to explain these two ways of acting and their relationship to freedom.