Brown Scapular as Catholic Dog Tags

Tom Perna has a blog and he posted a great piece on Catholic Dog Tags, the Brown Scapular. I picked it up from a Facebook post from Chicago radio personality and writer, Mike Houlihan, who like me went to Mount Carmel High School in Chicago.  The Brown Scapular was certainly significant for everyone who went to Mount Carmel. 

A lot of us Baby-boomers were believers-then non-believers-then believers at various times in our life.  I mean for us, the generational mantra was "is it relevant" and at least for a while many of us, we were "far out there" and not on solid ground and Catholicism seemed out of touch. I remember arguing with one of my college friends who believed God was a space alien. I was "far out" there somewhere, but I was not buying that nonsense.  Now-a-days, that same friend of mine is so far to the Christian right, he thinks Saint JP II was a liberal. Latin is the only church language for him, etc.

In the 1970s, books and theories about aliens causing practically every phenomena known to man were extremely popular. People were adapting to a new freedom of thought, but the alien thing didn't hit home for me. I was back at church as I started to be Dad to one, two, three, four---and then five and six.  Now, I am grandfather to one, two and three so far.  I don't know exactly how I am doing, but at least I'm pretty good at simple addition.

Getting Back to Scapulars

I think it's fair to say that a lot of people who wore scapulars in their youth are back it today, but I really don't know.  Perna points out in his post, that in 1251, "the Blessed Mother appeared to Saint Simon Stock, Prior General of the Carmelites in England, and showed him the scapular...Through Our Lady’s motherly Queenship and Advocacy, the Scapular has a strong spiritual ability since she intercedes for the graces when things seem dark and hopeless." For Catholics, the Blessed Mother is a "Blessed Mother" and we pray for her to intercede.

I am not going to get off on the Da Vinci Code right now, but I have to believe the dumbest thing to pin on Catholicism is to see it as male dominated religion.  Our Catholic moms guided us as kids at home and the Sisters were the strongest teaching influence. Most of our dads were working, working and working. Priests were infrequently seen compared to the women in our lives. And powerful priests may have guided the ship of a Catholic parish, but the Sisters were the ones that carried most everything out and interpreted most everything for us.  

When the Fascists and Communists tried to take over the culture in Germany and Russia, they outlawed religious youth groups. If they tried to do that in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, they would have been tossing a lot of nuns in jail to do it. It's ironic in that the fight for equality in jobs has led women to a much less influential position in many homes and in the church itself. I don't say that as some kind of reactionary, I just think the Moms today have nowhere near the influence on their kids that they had back in the Baby Boom Era and the lack of nuns is a fundamental loss and tragedy. 

Many couples have no children at all today. And many young people hold onto two or more part time jobs to make ends meet. Kids have been replaced with Smart Phones, technology bills, fantasy league sports, cars, restaurants, concerts, and connectivity with hundreds of Facebook friends.

But, the Scapular serves as kind of road-sign for our faith and more and maybe, just maybe it will be a trendsetter towards a rebirth in the importance of many good things. Perhaps the importance of children and leading a faith-filled life. 

Lawrence Norris is the author of the thoroughly entertaining book, The Brown and White, a nostalgic look at boys Catholic High School back in 1967-1968.