Furthermore...

I am still on the IRL. There was a very pleasant atmosphere (fraternal, as Fr. Benedict would say), but a few things rather troubled me. For example, among the display tables and vocation exhibits was a promotional display for a Tridentine Mass assocation. Now, the Mass is the Mass, and while the Tridentine Rite is not my cup of tea at all, that's not the issue. What I found a bit unnerving was that a display like this, at an "Institute on Religious Life" conference, seems to infer some kind of association between religious life lived in a somewhat traditional (bad word: let's say "essential") way and the (as their literature put it) "old Latin Mass." There's a connection being proposed that is not correct, as if the way we were living our religious life had more to do with a warm and valid nostalgia for the past, and was not a contemporary response to the call of Jesus. As a religious, I really dislike having my lifestyle identified as something from an idealized or longed for past! And I get really nervous with associations of this type, because it seems to say that religious life itself belongs to the past!
I was also unnerved (that happens a lot, actually--me getting unnerved) to hear that one of the groups that was present, a kind of secular institute, was planning a public and very visible presence around theaters for the opening of the "code" movie. Their rationale is that if people only realized how hurtful the movie's premise is to sincere believers, they wouldn't be so hard-hearted as to buy a ticket.
Frankly, there is a time for innocence and naivete, and there is a time to be "as prudent as serpents." I like Barbara Nicolosi's proposal, and I am trying to publicize it far and wide, that everyone should get to the movies on May 19--but the movie to see is "Over the Hedge." That kind of peaceful protest could impact box office returns for the first weekend of release of both films, and send a very clear, unavoidably direct message.
So I was troubled by that naivete which could play so easily into the hands of the commercial movie interests. Especially since this organization tends to make use of symbols that dovetail with the exotic "symbology" in the code book. It would almost look as if the studio had paid these guys (it's a male group) to draw attention to the film! Poor things, but still: get real, gentlemen!
So the IRL was a bit of a mixed bag. The highlight was Fr. Benedict, and the second delight was at being among so many consecrated persons.