by Matthew Chominski

The Personalist Project is, 'a non-profit organization based in West Chester, PA, dedicated to the spread of Christian personalism. Personalism is philosophy that focuses attention on the truth about the nature and dignity of persons—a truth directly at stake in the deepest and most difficult problems afflicting our society today.'

Kathleen van Schaijik is co-founder of The Personalist Project with her husband Jules.

On June 3rd, The Personalist Project will be holding an event, 'Dietrich von Hildebrand on Human Sexuality: 3 Ways of Attraction, 3 Dangers in Action, 3 Ways for Renunciation.' The event will be held at the Holiday Inn in West Chester, PA. Click the prior link for more information and to rsvp.

The Publican of Philadelphia: Can you give a short summary of what the evening will entail, who will be speaking, what they’ll be speaking on, and why they were asked?

Kathleen van Schaijik: Dr. Michael Healy is the Franciscan University

professor who introduced Jules and me to philosophy 25 years ago in

a course on the Nature of Love, which drew mainly on the thought of

Dietrich von Hildebrand and John Paul II. It was Dr. Healy who later

urged us both to continue our studies in Liechtenstein. And a couple of years

ago he agreed to be one of the founding directors of the Personalist Project.

It happens that this week we are hosting our first annual advisers

and directors retreat in Spring Lake, NJ. Because he would be in town for

that event, Dr. Healy offered several weeks ago to give a public lecture

for us on von Hildebrand’s vision for human sexuality. We were thrilled,

and immediately put it on the calendar and started looking for venues.

Then came the explosion in the Catholic blogosphere following Christopher West’s interview with ABC news. We love passionate debates on important topics, but we were a little dismayed by the misunderstanding and acrimony that seemed to be flying between Catholics in this case—especially because in our studies and experience, we had always found von Hildebrand and Wojtyla to be very close to each other. We admire Christopher West’s effectiveness in reaching people with the message of the Theology of the Body. We know many people who have discovered or been renewed in their Faith because of him. And we were convinced that the editors at ABC hadn’t done him justice. At the same time, as disciples of von Hildebrand and friends of Alice von Hildebrand, we share some of the concerns and reservations she expressed. In any case, we wanted to see the topic aired in a way that would encourage more dialogue and bring the disciples of von Hildebrand and JP II into closer contact with each other.

Jules had the idea of inviting Christopher West to give a response to Dr. Healy’s talk, and he generously agreed. It seemed like Providence to all of us—a way for the similarities and differences between us to be drawn out through dialogue and in a spirit of friendship and mutual help.

So, Dr. Healy will present a lecture that he had prepared long before the recent controversy; Christopher West will give a 20-30 minute response, and then we’ll open the floor for questions. Afterwards there will be drinks and light fare and general good fellowship. The emphasis will be more on discussion among friends than on debate between opponents.

PP: What does a focus on von Hildebrand’s work on sexuality potentially afford the Church and the world, and even the conversation between the Church and the world?

KVS: Von Hildebrand’s books on Marriage and on Purity, first published in the 1920’s, represented a dramatic challenge to conventional Catholic thought and ethos. The tendency of the time was to see sex as nothing more than a means to procreation—as if its whole moral value lay in the fact that it produced children for the Church. Von Hildebrand rightly detected in this tendency a de-personalizing instrumentalization of the spouses. Their love for each other and their mutual self-donation was not seen as something good and beautiful in itself, but only as a means to an end. He also sensed a puritanical distaste for conjugal love, which he resisted with all his passionate, Italian heart as well as his incisive German intelligence. Why should Catholic philosophy and theology consign romantic love to the poets and composers and artists? Was it not the greatest source of human happiness as well as our highest earthly good? Had not Christ Himself raised conjugal love to the level of a sacrament?

His work in this area was a kind of clarion call urging the whole Church to recognize and cherish the beauty of marriage and its incomparable depth and power in human life. And this was 40 years before the sexual revolution got rolling.

Since then, of course, Puritanism has been replaced in the culture by hedonism and pornography, which are manifestations of the same fundamental wrong of utilitarianism that both von Hildebrand and Wojtyla spent their lives fighting. Utilitarianism is basically the error of treating other persons not as ends-in-themselves, but as objects for our own pleasure or ambition that we can use and dispose of as we please.

In our day, with society awash in violent and ugly images of in-your-face sexuality, I think it is his vision of the beauty and meaningfulness of love that resonates most. It’s not something trivial, it’s not just for kicks, it’s not about what floats your boat: it is the very meaning of life, the secret of the universe, the heart of God’s plan of salvation for the world and for each individual human soul. This is what touches hearts and gives hope, while it gives us the strength to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve that kind of love.

PP: We know that ‘theology of the body’ was written, at least in part, in response to the dissent from Humanae Vitae, what was von Hildebrand’s response to that encyclical?

KVS: Alice von Hildebrand told me that before he became a Catholic, her husband had difficulty seeing the immorality of artificial contraception. When he raised the question with the priest who was preparing him for reception into the Church, he got a stern answer: “Either you accept everything the Church teaches or I will not bring you in” (or words to that effect.) Von Hildebrand, a proud aristocrat and a brilliant philosopher, humbled himself completely and without hesitation. “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” Then, as his widow tells it, he was almost immediately rewarded with floods of insight into the mystery of conjugal love and the evil and ugliness of birth control. This led directly to his book on marriage, which has had such a powerful impact on the mind of the Church and on so many personal lives. He showed that whereas an absolute, unreserved self-donation is the very essence of love, the essence of birth control is a refusal to give and a refusal to receive the gift of the other in all his or her reality and fullness. Birth control also deliberately excludes God—the Author of Life and Love—from the marital embrace, which, as a consequence, becomes, rather than an intimate collaboration with Him and a source of life and love for the world, something sterile—even worse, it becomes something de-personalizing, something death-dealing. It would be impossible to exaggerate von Hildebrand’s abhorrence for birth control and all crimes against human life and love. He was nothing if not a champion of those two great glories.

I can only imagine how anxious the months leading up to the promulgation of Humanae Vitae must have been for someone so acutely conscious of what was at stake! I know that when the encyclical came out, von Hildebrand was elated with joy and gratitude. And he immediately rushed to the Pope’s defense, publishing his booklet, A Sign of Contradiction, within a month or so of the encyclical. He was certainly one of the first major Catholic thinkers to defend Humanae Vitae, which he ever after considered the great achievement of Paul VI’s papacy.

PP: Do you see any significance in von Hildebrand being a married man and John Paul II being celibate, yet the two contributed so greatly in the areas of marriage, sexuality, etc.?

KVS: Who can help admiring the Providential perfection of it? So much of the world’s unseeing and self-defeating dismissal of the Church’s teaching on sexuality is based on the claim that “frustrated old, celibate men” can’t possibly understand what sex is. But in von Hildebrand you have a married man (a married man who had been a kind of pagan before his conversion) leading the way—leading the way in unfolding the greatness and beauty and power of conjugal love lived under grace, as a sacrament. Wojtyla, as a priest and pastor, who was also the close friend, confidante, and confessor to a large group of young adults as they were falling in love and getting married, had a breadth of perspective that no layman can match. He also had the personal experience of having renounced human marriage so that he could give himself completely—spousally—to Christ and the Church. The experiences and perspectives of both these men have enriched the treasury of the Church beyond measure. It’s a great time to be alive and Catholic!

PP: Do you expect any large divergences between what Healy and West say, or do you think there will be more of a complementing and reiterating?

KVS: I guess I expect we’ll find fundamental agreement with perhaps some differences on a more superficial level. It’s hard to predict which will dominate the discussion, since I haven’t read either talk, and it will partly depend on the questions that come from the audience. Either way, we look forward to enjoying and learning from the experience.

PP: There has been quite a discussion going on about Christopher West’s recent appearance on ABC’s Nightline. Do you have thoughts on this conversation going on between Catholics?

KVS: It’s all good. I don’t mean that every line that’s been written has been good. What’s good is that the topic is being discussed, and that differences are coming out into the open where they can be dealt with properly. None of us should be scandalized to find Catholics passionately disagreeing with each other. This is the way truth emerges in the world and gets a stronger foothold in our minds and in the wider culture. So, even when I think individuals are unjust or over the top in their criticism of fellow Catholics, I can’t help thinking in the end: “O happy fault!” How maddening it must be for the devil. He thinks he’s got Catholics going at each other’s throats (and he does!), but in the end, all it does is serve God’s plan of salvation for the world, because the truth gets out into the light. And truth has a force and a staying power that error and nastiness can’t match.

PP: Any future plans for The Personalist Project you can speak about?

KVS: Yes! Very soon we’ll be launching the Linde: a kind of virtual pub for Personalist philosophers. It’s named after two establishments in Liechtenstein where we used to gather for food and beer and philosophical conversation between classes or in the evenings. The idea is to provide a place where personalists can meet and converse about anything and everything from a Personalist perspective, while others can “listen in” and comment or raise questions if they like.

Then, too, rumors are that next year two of our three “leading lights”—

John Henry Newman and Karol Wojtyla—will both be beatified.

Since Newman especially is far too little known, we’re going to be

dedicating a course to his thought.

We’ll also be offering the Philosophy of the Person course again.

We’ll have several public lectures, and a new line-up of great movies

for the philosophy through film club.

Longer term, our dream is to establish a residency program for more in depth

studies in personalism. But one thing at a time.

For more information on The Personalist Project, click here