“While the world turns, the Cross stands firm.” But speaking to the modern world.

“While the world turns, the Cross stands firm.” It’s a quote we attribute to Saint Bruno, who lived

more than 900 years ago in Europe at the peak of Christendom. It has become a popular

phrase among Catholics, who understandably want to stand proud and defiant against a culture

that has seemingly forgotten our importance in the modern world. And while Saint Bruno likely

would agree, the quote goes back to his desire to create Christian encounters that were lacking

for his day.

Aside from the fact that the people of Bruno’s day understood the world to be flat– the revolving

world does not refer to a globe– the turning refers to the problem of Christendom where

Catholics would fight against one another for their brand of Catholicism, their influence over the

Church, and their national representatives of Catholicism to sit in Peter’s throne. Saint Bruno

was reflecting on a unity and virtue problem, not a tradition problem.

While serving as the administrator of the day-to-day activities in the Archdiocese of Reims,

Bruno found himself working for a bishop who was obsessed with protecting his own influence,

even attempting to ruin the lives and homes of those who opposed him. Later, he was an aide to

the Pope during a turbulent political era when the Church was setting itself up as a powerful

military and judicial authority that could compel the obedience of great kings. Without a doubt

his job must have complicated his prayer life. This was a golden age of Christendom. But Bruno

was aware that the culture of fighting for political relevance was not the type of tradition that the

holy Apostles handed down to us. Perhaps it was a silent protest or exhaustion, but Bruno was

not present when his boss gave a historic speech calling Catholics to arms for the crusades.

If Bruno could not find unity within Christendom, he would at least try to foster it through virtue.

The institution in those days offered people in power many perks. But he craved the type of

disarmed, and power disinterested culture that our Church had left behind centuries before.

How could a Church leader embedded in politics against his will come to live a dedicated life of

virtue during the Middle Ages? Retreat. And practice self-denial.

As Catholics, we now live in a world entirely unrelatable to the dominating political influence of

the Church that Saint Bruno knew. Bruno probably could have predicted this. He witnessed

many Catholic strongmen crowned, overthrown, and forgotten. The political, legal, and influence

machine of Christendom has largely dissipated. Today, there is no Catholic society – not in

Bruno’s sense. Not even the L.A. Religious Education Conference with 10,000+ attendees,

endless parade of bishops and priests, and a lot of incense remotely mimics the influence that

Bruno’s Church had.

The retreat from power that Bruno sought in order to be more authentically Christian was a

particular spiritual gift for his time. The way isolation is now imposed on people through cancel

culture and throwaway culture mimics this too, but twists Bruno’s gifts to make those spiritual

blessings fall flat. Society prefers Catholics be on their own, isolated away from the governing

affairs of the day. If Catholics are over here looking constantly inward at themselves, and society

is over there, then some sort of truce is able to be maintained.

Whereas Bruno brought spiritual riches to the Church for his day, today there are fewer visible

examples of the Church in our everyday life. The saint saw a direct link between prayer, justice,

and charity. Even for all of the political woes of the institutional machine, the Church was

something that you once could rely on. Today, the homeless go unnoticed, while the sick and

elderly remain isolated at home. Catholic schools are shuttering under the skyrocketing cost of

tuition forcing families out. There are simply fewer Catholics able or willing to do the hard work

of building the virtuous society.

Marred by sex abuse scandals with a worldwide figure of child victims likely exceeding a million

(as there were over 300,000 in France alone), it is no wonder that the world does not find us

credible in the way it used to. And so just like Bruno’s retreat, we too, must find a new way to

be authentic Christians for the world that we live in.

Today, the Christian experience that is lacking is one of sacramental “encounter.” One that

articulates in concrete ways how the Gospel and the Church’s teachings apply in their daily

lives. People need to trust that our traditions are passed on to help each one of us become all

that God made us for. It’s critical that people are not suspicious our traditions are an attempt to

control. Because that would not be authentic to the holy tradition passed down by the Apostles.

Namely that temptation to over-process and hyper-legalize our theology as it was in the days of

Christendom. We further know from the sex abuse crisis that without a healthy environment,

where people can call out their concerns without fear of being ostracized, that bad things will

continue to be concealed. The way to hand on the traditions of our faith, build credibility, and

sustain Christian communities relies on our openness and virtue.

I offer some reflections to help reimagine a world of virtue for the complicated culture we live in.

If you have ever heard the exaggerated phrase signaling disappointment, “don’t meet your

hero,” then you could probably guess that many –if not most– of our Catholic saints were living

some degree of let down in their lives. Post-conversion, and even until their last day. [A rather

silly example: the Sisters of the Sacred Heart were embarrassed that their founder Saint

Frances Cabrini broke into the Italian Senate unauthorized so she could petition elected officials

to help the poor. That story was hidden from all of her biographies.]

But we should stop washing the stains out their stories because, living in a complicated world,

these holy men and women are examples of authenticity and virtue despite their own

circumstances. That’s what we need today.

Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor grappled with this complexity problem. He noticed that the

world of today is less magical, less black and white. People have alternate explanations for why

natural disasters happen (aside from God’s wrath, which was the only logical conclusion of

Bruno’s day). This new age of science, democracy, and warfare through misinformation brings

us to the tail end of what Taylor would call the “Honor Society.”

In the old days of Christendom, it was important for Catholics to evaluate themselves within the

legal structures of Catholicism. How compliant were you? How attentive to the demands of the

Church were you? Were you respectful to people according to the rank in society you held? In

such a closed and legalistic society where the Church was also a world power, well, there

weren’t really any better ways to evaluate virtue.

This was, ok. It wasn’t great. But it was Ok. And perhaps Bruno recognized this for himself,

unfortunately a lot of bad actors in the Church have weaponized compliance against people.

From my own personal experiences, there were times in confession where I’ve been asked

extremely inappropriate questions but didn’t think twice because that same person regularly

preached about chastity – and for my own part it’s both natural to desire approval from your

priest and your church. A decade later, it turns out I wasn’t alone in my confusion over that

individual’s behavior.

Yet, even as I acknowledge that my experiences need to be reported –either because he was

actually exerting power over people in the name of virtue, or perhaps he just doesn’t have the

social ability to relate to others in normal ways– I’ve realized that even the A-team in

Catholicism have bad days.

How do we move past this sort of transactional virtue? The “honor society” as Charles Taylor

called it. The philosopher said that the way for faith to thrive in this environment is by building

the “dignity society” which is based on encounter. Truly getting to know somebody and their

dignity as God created them. More and more, priests in particular are facing pressures to

appear perfect, perhaps trying extra hard to make up for the actual bad guys of the past. But

perfection is not reality.

Instead, what if we understood holiness as a process of becoming all that God had made you to

be. We are on the journey together, and our priest is giving us the sacraments we need to make

it through. Instead of checking off a lengthy list of requirements to be holy, a different

understanding could help us on our lifelong journey of conversion. And that holiness is reached

through grace, but in communion with one another.