"How real Men can become real Catholics"

Last year (2008) a conference was held in Wisconsin entitled Building a Bridge to Bring Men Home. Catholic Online described it thus in the opening paragraphs:

The second annual Men of Christ conference attracted men from throughout the state to the Wisconsin Expo Center for a day based upon the theme "Building a Bridge to Bring Men Home." Between two celebrations of Mass, participants heard speakers link manhood and Catholicism with a call to live both.

"To be holy is to be real," Fr. Larry Richards told the gathering. "We don't need any more pansies following Jesus; we need men!"

The report goes on to recount the thoughts of a number of men attending the conference. All speak of their efforts to make Christ the centre of their lives, indicating that they will become better men in achieving this aim. And being a better man is to shoulder your responsibilities, show mercy and compassion to others, respect your wife, act honourably - in a word, to follow Christ's example as related in the Gospels and explicated by St Paul in his Epistles.

In the previous comment, I outlined the standards of behaviour that constituted the ancient code of chivalry. It's not difficult to hear these same standards reflected unconsciously in the thoughts of the men at this conference. It is stating the obvious to say that both these men and the knights of old drew their ideals from the Gospels.

In fact, any Christian man, Catholic or otherwise, should be drawn to the same standards of behaviour if he is serious about his belief. Chivalry was the consciously worked out codes of men who were Christian men in a society that was based on and grew out of Christian belief.

Comment: gerard@gerardcharleswilson.com