St. Pius V Corner: Sanctified In Truth… With Anime?

The function of all art lies in fact in breaking through the narrow and tortuous enclosure of the finite, in which man is immerged while living here below, and in providing a window to the infinite for his hungry soul. Thus it follows that any effort – and it would be a vain one, indeed – aimed at denying or suppressing any relation between art and religion must impair art itself. Whatever artistic beauty one may wish to grasp in the world, in nature and in man, in order to express it in sound, in color, or in plays for the masses, such beauty cannot prescind from God. Whatever exists is bound to Him by an essential relationship. Hence, there is not, neither in life nor in art – be it intended as an expression of the subject or as an interpretation of the object – the exclusively “human,” the exclusively natural or immanent… Naturally, We are far from thinking that in order to be interpreters of God in the sense just mentioned, artists must treat explicitly religious subjects. On the other hand, one cannot question the fact that never, perhaps, has art reached its highest peaks as it has in these subjects.

Pope Pius XII, Address On The Function Of Art (8 April 1952)

Today marks the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Traditionalist Catholic calendar – when the Holy Family appeared in the Temple at Jerusalem to have the infant Jesus ritually consecrated (see St. Luke 2:22-40). The day’s Mass begins with the distribution of blessed candles, while the verse “A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” (from St. Luke 2:32) is sung, calling into mind how Christ’s appearance serves as a precursor to the salvation of all peoples – both Israelites and otherwise; how all truth emanates from Him and is communicated to all peoples. I am reminded of two things from this verse: on one hand, the missionary activity of the Church, who sent clerics throughout many dominions to bring the message of Christ to as many people as possible, and extend His kingdom on earth. Among these nations was Japan, who through the efforts of the great Jesuit preacher St. Francis Xavier in the 16th century, and Fr. Bernard Petitjean almost three centuries later, though their number remains small to this day.

Which brings me to the topic of discussion. Three weeks ago on the hell-site known as Twitter, a Traditionalist Catholic priest from the diocese of Covington, Kentucky, Fr. Jacob Straub, wrote a tweet in reply to a now-deleted criticism refuting the idea of Christianizing Japanese culture as ridiculous. Following a brief historical outline about how Christian ideas began to influence, and uplift societal values to higher things, using the Western Roman Empire as an example, and summarizing that acknowledging Christ as our King and Saviour is the cure for all society’s ills and shortcomings, ended with “TLDR: We’re going to make anime Catholic, and there’s nothing you can do about it”. This sat well with everyone except a few illiterate monkeys who replied rather crudely to Father’s comment; ranging from “You can enjoy anime, but anime will never be Catholic” or, instead of providing a well-thought out rebuttal, divorced the tweet from the rest of the thread’s context and go ape over it.

Even among some Traditionalists, I’ve noticed there’s a tendency to brush off secular entertainment as something inferior – anime included. Unlike the atheist, who furiously insist that media should not promote any bias towards religion, they will rightfully point out the depraved situation regarding modernity, as seen through its various promoted values, concluding that the only hope lies in surrounding themselves with strictly Catholic content to preserve the Faith and a semblance of order. I’m all for Traditionalists educating and developing spiritual habits in light of Faith; however, we should also remember that Jesus Christ Himself did not limit His teaching to the synagogue or descriptions of Heaven alone, but through His parables via everyday situations – discourse between workers (St. Matthew 18:21-35, 20:1-16, 25:14-30), family (St. Luke 15:11-32), nature (St. Mark 4:1-20, 13:28-31) and different classes of people (St. Matthew 7:24-27, 25:1-13, St. Luke 10:29-37, 16:19-31) – using them to convey the eternal truths of God.

The Sacred And The Secular

Like the parables, at the heart of Fr. Straub’s mini-treatise concerns the transformative power that God, “who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable” (Titus 2:14), in His teachings and work of deliverance, manifests through the deeds of mankind: “For in him we live, and move, and are; as some also of your own poets said: For we are also his offspring.” (Acts 17:28). The reality of Christ as the epitome of Truth is made manifest all the more, and as such its power immense, offers on the minds and culture (especially non-Christian ones such as Japan) at large a means of renewal. Whatever existing values are cherished by them, are not only given a new light and presentation, further reflecting the glory of God more closely. I believe the same route should be taken in our attitude towards anime: “…whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8). So when Fr. Straub says “We’re going to make anime Catholic”, it’s not necessarily a call to make the content strictly concerning religious matters. Rather citing it reflects a sentiment that such shows can, even if implicitly, offer a parallel to making us consider the things pertaining to Christian truths within them.

This echoes the same as St. James: “Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration.” (St. James 1:17) In spite of the profane authorship of anime, that part is irrelevant. What makes a show Catholic is, at least on the bare minimum, a capability of pointing some way towards the truths of Faith (and not just specifically the basic ones like “Do good and avoid evil”). So long as the presented content is lawful and do not present anything inherently, outwardly and prevailingly objectionable in appearance or philosophy, there’s room for that qualifier to hold. But again, in light of Faith: this means rather than saying “Yo this stuff is fire” we should interiorly contemplate, “What is here that I can find relatable to the things of faith?”; thinking on them, and how they can be applied to enrich our spiritual lives and surroundings. No longer does it become a game of catch-up with the latest shows of the season, but a process by which, with the mind of St. Paul recalling: “All things are lawful for me, but all things do not edify.” (1 Corinthians 10:23) – if Christ is the cornerstone of our life, and our actions are to reflect Him, suffices it not that the things I partake of be efficacious for my becoming an instrument of grace and sanctification, for working the same in others?

Exactly this was the driving force when, beginning in 2019, I noticed these patterns which sowed the seeds of my blog’s repurposing to what it is today! To name a few instances, taken from my St. Pius V Corner posts:

• Little Witch Academia‘s entire theme parlays conservative thinking lines, with rhetoric and sequences that is much like the anti-Modernist reaction of Pope St. Pius X’s program
• Angel Beats, with its quasi-purgatorial setting, is a show that deepened my devotion to the holy souls in Purgatory, and expounded their immense love for God amidst imperfection
• Digimon Adventure, apart from its characters’ battle against concupiscence and vice, centers on their pursuit of mastering virtue through habitual execution of it, which spiritual writers like Fr. Lorenzo Scupoli or St. John of the Cross have encouraged
• Hyouka, which involves characters solving mysteries, employ historical, literary and logical methods to debunk its difficult roots, which parallels the traditional method of Scriptural exegesis taught by the First Vatican Council or Pope Pius XII (more on this another time)
• Children Who Chase Lost Voices by Makoto Shinkai treats the subject matter of death in a mature way, despite the young age of its cast

The Church Fathers On This Subject

In Scripture itself – see, in addition to Christ’s parables, some books of the Old Testament, like that of Esther, Joshua or the books of Maccabees, Kings or Chronicles that specifically deal with historical events. Yet, these stories contain many lessons and positive character traits that we can adopt as our own to accompany our walk in faith; no one who calls themselves Christian would call for their diminishment as sacred texts. Writers like J.R.R Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton and Dante Alighieri are regularly praised among Traditionalist circles, owing to them basing their stories upon these sacred principles, their style even commended by Popes alike. Still, that begs the question, which no doubt has been raised many times: “Of what value do works of fiction serve? Are not Catholic materials sufficient enough?” For spiritual growth, I concur its helpfulness and eminent value: but I like to think of Christ’s desert admonition: “Not in bread alone doth man live” (St. Matthew 4:4)

Believe it or not, we have precedent for these in the Church Fathers, the esteemed theologians whose contributions to Catholic doctrine have been numerous and beneficial to the service of God. While they stressed the importance of keeping touch with spirituality, at the same time some did not dissuade the faithful from studying the literary works of their non-Christian fellows:

• “Whatever things were rightly said among all men are the property of us Christians.” (St. Justin Martyr, Second Apologia, Chapter 13)
• “Nay, but let every good and true Christian understand that wherever truth may be found it belongs to his Master; and while he recognizes and acknowledges the truth, even in their religious literature, let him reject the figments of superstition...” (St. Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine, Book #2)
• “Into the life eternal the Holy Scriptures lead us, which teach us through divine words. But so long as our immaturity forbids our understanding their deep thought, we exercise our spiritual perceptions upon profane writings, which are not altogether different, and in which we perceive the truth as it were in shadows and in mirrors… So indeed must we also, if we would preserve indelible the idea of the true virtue, become first initiated in the pagan lore, then at length give special heed to the sacred and divine teachings… If, then, there is any affinity between the two literatures, a knowledge of them should be useful to us in our search for truth; if not, the comparison, by emphasizing the contrast, will be of no small service in strengthening our regard for the better one.” (St. Basil the Great, Address To Young Men, pgph#2-3)
• “The heavens, earth, air, and all such things are not to be condemned because some have wrongly interpreted them and venerate the creatures of God in place of Him. On the contrary, we select from them what is useful both for life and enjoyment and we avoid what is dangerous, not opposing creation to the Creator, as the foolish do, but acknowledging the Maker of the world from His works, and as the holy Apostle says, bringing every mind into captivity to Christ… [rejecting] whatever leads to demons, and error, and the abyss of perdition... from such material we have drawn profit for piety, by learning to distinguish the better from the worse, and from its weakness we have made our own doctrine strong.” (St. Gregory Nazianzen, Funeral Oration For St. Basil, pgph#11)
• Several Fathers (Sts. Jerome, Ambrose, Clement of Alexandria, or Athenagoras of Athens to name a few), in their works provide relentless quotations from pagan literature as a means to allegorize the truths of Christianity. True, they kept references to such brief and in passing, not wishing it to supersede the main topic, but only to prove a point with them at hand. Who’s to say that, at least for the layperson, the same can’t be done?

It was far from their intention to use this to vindicate, or glamourize, the mythological elements of the ancient era, as superior to Christ! But better yet, one can see a demonstration of the principles stated in the previous paragraph in their teachings. Let their record demonstrate the means by which we should order our motivation for recreational activity such as watching anime: they should remind us how “…in such a way that God, who created things, rested not in the things themselves so created as in the end, but rather rested from created things in himself in whom his beatitude consists… so, we too should learn to rest as in the end not in his works or in our works, but rather from works in God himself, in whom our beatitude consists.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Sentences, Distinction#15.3.3).

Conclusion

St. Basil, who recommended the proper reading/understanding of secular literature, officiating a Divine Liturgy

Do not fall into the error of those who shun everything that’s non-sacred as irreformable or void of any potential for good. Follow the example of the Church and Her greatest theologians and advocates, who enshrined and rendered acceptable to Christian service everything lawful at their disposal. Make each into a prayer of sorts, a way of sorts to discern God’s plan for us! As St. Francis of Assisi would say: “Sanctify yourself, and you will sanctify society” – and this will be sensible when we realize that God works through various persons, modes and lenses – to make His presence known within us, that we may embody them and “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). Like everything, there’s good and bad in their usage – but it’s up to us and how we use them that determines their value. If there’s anything from my experience, anime has been a positive supplement to my Christian experience. It’s definitely possible to benefit from it, as long as if our foundation is properly rooted – and this, through grace and our God-led conscience, is the key to that. Were that be the case for everyone; as Fr. Straub’s sentiments go!

Perhaps it is sufficiently demonstrated that such heathen learning is not unprofitable for the soul; I shall then discuss next the extent to which one may pursue it. To begin with the poets, since their writings are of all degrees of excellence, you should not study all of their poems without omitting a single word. When they recount the words and deeds of good men, you should both love and imitate them, earnestly emulating such conduct. But when they portray base conduct, you must flee from them and stop up your ears… for familiarity with evil writings paves the way for evil deeds. Therefore the soul must be guarded with great care, lest through our love for letters it receive some contamination unawares, as men drink in poison with honey… So we, if wise, shall take from heathen books whatever befits us and is allied to the truth… And just as in culling roses we avoid the thorns, from such writings as these we will gather everything useful, and guard against the noxious. So, from the very beginning, we must examine each of their teachings, to harmonize it with our ultimate purpose, according to the Doric proverb, ‘testing each stone by the measuring-line.’

St. Basil the Great, Address To Young Men, pgph#4

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