ARTICLES

Missionaries in Reverse

Why Is Catholic American Laity So Obsessed with the Pro-Life Movement?

By Christopher Zehnder

Editor: this is the third News Notes story on a Sullivan member of Miles Jesu. The other two described Andrew Sullivan as seminarian and newly ordained priest.

"I need not, perhaps, describe a country that surpasses the United States in technology and social infrastructure," a country where "everything is new, beautiful, comfortable, and affordable." But describe it, he did, and in no flattering terms. That country, he said, "is truly a spiritually dead country."

I was speaking (actually corresponding, by e-mail) with Joseph Sullivan, a "local son" from El Cajon who now works as a missionary in Vienna, Austria. In a striking historical irony, Sullivan, a Californian, is working as a missionary in a part of the world that once sent missionaries around the world. He was describing for me what he found in one of Europe's most prosperous countries -- Germany. "There are few children" there, he said, "also very few old people. It was impossible to find a weekday Mass, and confession was out of the question, even on weekends. People in general looked depressed as they went about their daily activities."

Sullivan went to Europe 13 years ago as a lay missionary for Miles Jesu, a Catholic association of priests and lay men. Sullivan explained that he went first to "the then called Czechoslovakia" where he spent five years "doing missionary work to undo the damage the Communists did against the Faith. At the same time," he continued, "I had to warn them and prevent the bad influences coming from the West. After a while I noticed that the things coming in from Western Europe were just as bad or worse than what the Communists did. The Western Europeans are much poorer spiritually than the Easterners."

In 1997, the archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, gave Sullivan and his co-laborers permission to start a foundation in Vienna. They founded the Culture of Life education program, which Sullivan described as a "mission inspired by the constant call of our Holy Father to proclaim and build up a culture of life." The program's goal, said Sullivan, "is to let as many people as possible know of the inhumanity to which the 'Culture of Death' leads. We are doing this through the printing of literature, advertising, internet, and publishing articles. More importantly we are involving local people. We have several groups in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and are expanding into Germany." The work of the Culture of Life program, though, goes beyond the dissemination of literature. "We provide people an opportunity to go deeper into a solid Catholic spiritual life by offering retreats for young and old. They need to be united and to support each other in spreading the Culture of Life. We also involve ourselves in helping the poor with basic needs." The program has received a loan from the Austrian Bank to buy a formation house outside of Vienna, which will be used for youth retreats and adult education programs. "The location is ideal as the center of our apostolate in Austria, Germany, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic," said Sullivan.

As a lay missionary, Sullivan might seem something of an anomaly. "Our membership," said Sullivan, "includes men and women; laity and priests; celibate, married, widowed, and single people, all united together as a large family under one general director. Although there are priest and bishop members of Miles Jesu, the lay members comprise the vast majority of overall membership (more than 90 percent). Miles Jesu, then, is not a third order, that is, a lay addition to an existing religious congregation. Nor is Miles Jesu a religious congregation. It is a form of consecrated life in the Church for the laity, whose purpose is to instill Catholic ideals and goals in the world to further the Kingdom of Christ, making Him the center of all human life."

Sullivan ascribes his choice of life to God's grace and the influence of his mother. "My mother saw that all her 12 children never missed Sunday Mass at three parishes, Holy Trinity and St. Kerien's in El Cajon, and Guardian Angels in Santee. She saw that everyone received good religious instruction." Yet, despite his mother's influence, Joseph, her seventh-born, gradually lost interest in religion as he grew older. Though he still attended Sunday Mass, and though he desired to help others, his own "selfish desires" were getting the better of him. This tension grew during his years at El Cajon Valley High School until Sullivan finally had to ask himself, "was I going to waste my youth in self-gratification or was I going to get involved in something really worthwhile?"

Sullivan saw two of his brothers doing "something worthwhile;" one had entered the military and the other had joined Miles Jesu. His brothers gave him, he said, "real life examples of possible ways of serving others. One was a soldier of Jesus, and the other was serving in the American military." Seeing the options, Sullivan chose what he thought the "easier" route -- he would enter the military, only to be rejected "on account of my flat feet."

The day after the military rejected him, Sullivan received a call from his brother in Miles Jesu. "He asked me if I wanted to go to a youth retreat in Chicago. Thinking, why not, what have I got to lose? I boarded a plane for Chicago. That retreat in Chicago changed my life. By meditating on the life of Christ and on the Gospels I realized that the best thing a person can do is to help others give their lives completely to God. So I decided to join Miles Jesu as a lay missionary and to prepare myself to make the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience."

After two years of formation in Chicago, Sullivan was sent to Spain and then to Central and Eastern Europe. "Our Lord has placed me in many difficult situations especially in the Ukraine and the Czech Republic, having to learn how to survive and evangelize," said Sullivan. "I was on the brink of failure, because of lack of financial support and the stress involved in starting a new life and missionary work in a former Soviet bloc country. The Lord has given me the opportunity to learn three foreign language: Spanish, Czech, and German (and a smattering of Slovak and Polish) and to be able to use them often." Alongside his missionary work, Sullivan is studying psychology at Webster University in Vienna. After taking his bachelor of arts, he will pursue post-graduate studies in psychology. Sullivan said he hopes to play a role in Christianizing modern psychology.

Meanwhile, Sullivan continues with the Culture of Life education program. The program's success, said Sullivan, has differed from country to country. "In Ukraine people are thirsty for God. People wanted more," he said. In contrast to affluent Germany, the Ukraine, said Sullivan "is steeped in poverty;" still, he noted, the country is "alive, happy, full of life and gusto -- tragically poor but very religious. We were able to start our work relatively easily in a relatively small amount of time. In the Czech Republic people are much more skeptical to the point where they will not commit themselves to anything, and almost to the point where they will not believe anything. The Mormons I spoke with in Czech said that their mission is failing there. The Jehovah's Witnesses have a hard time, too. Unfortunately this attitude affects Catholic evangelization efforts as well, but not as badly as we thought it would. People were interested and started coming to us asking us to prepare them for baptism.

"Germany and Austria are quite different," continued Sullivan. "Both are very affluent countries, but spiritually poor. People in general are not too interested in life issues or religion, for that matter. Although most of Austria is by tradition Catholic, and Germany (except Bavaria), Protestant, they are both rather apathetic. But there is some hope. After so much religious apathy, young people are starting to look at deeper things." Sullivan told of a young German woman he met on a train from Prague to Vienna. The woman fell away from her Protestant faith when she was a teenager; still she was interested in discussing religion and life issues. When Sullivan met her, she had decided it was important to take a closer look at religion. "After much correspondence by email, visits, and instruction she was baptized into the Catholic Church this past December by the cardinal of Vienna," said Sullivan. "She is now a committed Catholic and goes to daily Mass. She is even considering a vocation to the consecrated life."

Germany, said Sullivan, is further hindered from receiving the Gospel by an "inferiority complex" that is the inheritance of World War II. The Germans, said Sullivan, "feel that they have made a big mistake and will do anything to be sure that it will not happen again. This is manifested by the striving for a sense of security -- a security, unfortunately, grounded in material wealth. Without a deep religious faith it is easy to think that there is nothing wrong having three cars, five televisions, a boat, two houses, two dogs, three cats, and one child (Austrians have lots of house pets). A whole new consumerist culture was created which is constantly pushed by [the government, the media and the economic system.] Because there are fewer children, in order to compensate for the decreasing population, more goods must be sold." The media, government, and big business facilitate this materialism, said Sullivan.

As far as "life issues" go, Austria and Germany, said Sullivan, are worse off. Birth rates "are plummeting," he said, "a mother can abort her child up to the ninth month using state funds. They have also approved the use of the 'day-after pill,' and are now debating a bill in their parliaments to allow euthanasia. America is, in general, healthier than Europe in three important areas: religion, politics, and social attitude." Social attitude, said Sullivan, "is something that reflects the religious background of a country and is manifested especially in politics. America's foundation emphasized the strength of the people and what a difference an individual can make. In Europe, because of its history, people are much more apathetic. They really don't see anything that can be done about the so many cultural and social problems that plague society, so they easily give up without even starting. 'What's the use' is a common harangue here. Americans are much more active and see that they can make a difference. The European laity are much more difficult to get going. I remember speaking with a Catholic friend of mine here in Austria, who asked me why the Catholic American laity are so obsessed with the pro-life movement and the fight against abortion. 'Aren't there many other issues just as important?' he asked. That is when I realized the difference between America and Europe. American laity are focused and united on the most important issue. European Catholic laity are not as united and not as focused."

To change this attitude, lay missionaries are very important. "The argument from a priest or nun will not have much weight for a pro-choice atheist; to him, priests and nuns oppose abortion [simply] because God said so. If God does not exist, then so much for that argument. These people can't seem to get beyond the clerical garb that shouts 'God' at them, and so many of the graces that God wants to give are rejected. A person who opposes abortion, because it is simply wrong and against our common humanity, will have much more of an affect. But anybody can do that, one does not even need to be consecrated. A consecrated layman, though, can provide an important element that no ordinary layman can provide -- the special grace a consecrated person has from giving his entire self to God."

The Culture of Life education program exists solely on private donations. To handle the costs of their new house, studies and other costs of the apostolate, Sullivan is looking for benefactors willing to give $20 a month. To donate or to receive more information on the apostolate, write The Miles Jesu Culture of Life Education Program, c/o Bessie Sullivan, 1726 Summertime, El Cajon, California 92021. (Checks should be made payable to Miles Jesu.

TOP