ARTICLES

Slow Down. Wiggle Your Toes. Don't Panic

Scott Keller is Helping Catholics Keep Their Heads

By Christopher Zehnder

"I want Catholics to get out there, get off their butts, get engaged, and do their apostolate. You don't have to have somebody doing it for you." I was talking to Scott Keller, founder of the Saint Athanasius Apostolate. Catholics from around Fresno might remember Keller and his apostolate; he introduced the Catholic Rights and Obligations conferences held there in the late '90s. The conferences featured a slate of solid Catholic speakers and featured debates between Catholic and Protestant evangelists.

The Scott Keller I spoke to in December 2002 was the same Keller of a few years previous. He is still trying to encourage Catholics to "get off their butts" -- but a few things have changed. For one, Keller, an airline pilot and fighter pilot reservist, and his family have moved to Shirley, Massachusetts; for another, his apostolate has taken a new direction. Though conferences are still in the offing, the Saint Athanasius Apostolate now has a more comprehensive vision.

When I asked Keller about the differences between then and now, he replied, rather prosaically, that the apostolate is now incorporated, 501c3 -- "It's gone non-profit." But then he moved to the meat of the matter. "We've had time to reevaluate and kind of shore up the original concepts," he said. According to the apostolate's website (www.5thprecept.org), the apostolate was formed "in order to defend and promote the Holy Roman Catholic Faith against its many challenges, both internal and external." It has laid "special emphasis" on the internal challenge faced by the Church, since "it is in this arena that most of the damage is currently being leveled at our beloved Faith."

"There have been plenty of programs we've done in terms of debate and so forth," Keller told me, but "there's more than ample apologetics groups out there doing the same thing. The apostolate is still going, number one, in the direction of the internal struggle." Keller is developing a tape series and has a tithing program, called the 5th Precept Program. In all that he does, though, Keller wants to keep the focus on the good of the soul. "The battle," he said, "is not the most important thing. The battle is about your religion -- the Catholic faith. I think people get mixed up. I think they get caught and sent off in a different direction because they see all that's going on and what they want to do and they lose perspective on what we're here for. We're here to die and be judged. We're not here to sell a bunch of audio tapes. Your faith comes first, then your family, and then all the rest of the stuff. Not your apostolate."

So it is that Keller wants to develop a tape series based on a book called Preparation for Death. "I'm going to sit down with a priest and go chapter by chapter," said Keller. "None of this makes sense unless you understand you're going to die and something is going to happen afterwards. It's a basic thing." This hits close to home for Keller, for in 1996 he was hit by a Dodge Ram pickup and knocked thirty feet. "It almost killed me," said Keller. "One thing I got out of it -- there was no revelation, no cloud opening up -- is that, 'I am going to die now.' When you go through life looking for happiness -- when that's your end-all, be-all, its... (here he paused.) If it wasn't for the truth of the Faith, I would be doing what I feel like doing. Why not?"

In focusing on the essentials, Keller has kept the apostolate small; he has only two board members (one being Charles Wilson of the St. Joseph Foundation -- a canon law organization based in San Antonio, Texas) and three priest advisors. He wants to avoid becoming a spiritual "demagogue" with his own jealously protected "niche." "I'm not interested in niches," said Keller. "I'm interested in Catholics being Catholics. My hope is that other people will do the same thing. I have a mutual support program, and basically it's going to be small groups working autonomously but with the same goals and objectives. I want Catholics to get engaged in this. I'm not looking to be some huge organization -- I don't think that's necessary right now. What's important is getting certain programs out there the people can use to facilitate being the Church, soldiers for Christ, and the Church militant."

Keller sees himself as a facilitator, helping Catholics know where they need to go for knowledge of the Faith and helping them with tools to fight the fight. But he's not going to do the work for them. Individual Catholics, said Keller, "need to get engaged -- it's a term we use in the fighter pilot community -- being engaged, having situation awareness. We all know there are problems out there -- but what do you do then? That's the challenge -- what do you do then? I was reading Hebrews 2, and one verse said, 'therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it.' The commentary was talking about how people in the hierarchy -- or anybody for that matter -- can fall into apostasy out of neglect of God's teaching -- not just a conscious, clear rejection of the Faith, but this neglect of paying attention, this neglect of teaching correctly, can lead a group or institution into apostasy."

And Keller is not directing his appeal to the clergy, but to laymen, who, he says, have lost their role in the Church. "We talk about obedience in the Church," said Keller, "and you look at the bishops in this country -- how obedient have they been to Pope John Paul II? By the same token, how obedient have the priests been to the bishops? But, by George, if you are a lay person, don't you dare question anything! There is a paradox that the Catholic laity approach a priest as if he is not approachable now. People believe that you can't question a priest! I think the laity has this misconception about what obedience really is. They have to be obedient to their Faith, first. Just going to Mass and turning a blind eye is not obedience. That's not what Jesus wants. It's clear throughout history."

But laymen, says Keller, have to be well-equipped and not go off half-cocked. "When you see something that is blatantly wrong," said Keller, "don't get me wrong, you need to go to expertise. I don't just do this apostolate without expertise. I make sure everything is canonically correct. I go through the St. Joseph Foundation if I have a question about something; I just don't do it on my own. I seek expertise as much as I can. I'm not going to be stupid. Some people, the first piece of literature they read, they believe, because they are angry with somebody. You can't do that. You' ve got to be cool about things. You've got to keep your head about you."

Hence, the apostolate's different tape series -- on Church history, showing that problems in the Church are nothing new; on canon law, "Your Canonical Rights as Catholics," from the St. Joseph Foundation; and on the levels of authority in Church teaching. This series will develop, said Keller, "what are the differences between an allocution, an encyclical, a dogma, a doctrine. What people don't understand is that even councils had problems in the past. Things are said that are incorrect. Councils say things that are incorrect. Popes have had to correct things that are incorrect -- because we are not talking about teaching on faith and morals in an infallible sense. Catholics have to understand the proper levels of authority. Everything that comes out of there is authoritative, but if it doesn't go with the tradition, you have to ask [Church leaders], 'can you help me here, I'm confused.'"

But knowledge serves little if one does not know how to act to counter the internal problems in the Church today. "So how do you keep your sanity?" asks Keller. "How do you keep yourself from getting angry and going off and doing something stupid? How do promote your own faith without losing it and your family's faith when you have all this garbage that you are surrounded with? When people come into the Church, they're zealous, they've got the Eucharist, they've got a personal relationship with Christ -- the most personal one you can have -- all this truth, and all of a sudden, the deeper they go into their Faith, the more they start reading, and the more involved they are, they say, 'oh, my God! What a madhouse!' Then they go through despair, then they get angry, then they get impulsive. There's a fork in the road people get to -- they say, either I'm going to handle this correctly and fight the battle Christ wants me to; this is the cross of our time; or they lose their faith again; or they take the bunker mentality, they go into isolation. That's not what a Catholic is all about. You live in the world without being worldly. We live in a very serious time, but that's they way it goes, it's too bad; that's just tough. We have to deal with it and be successful at the same time."

So, Keller developed what he calls the 5th Precept Program to help Catholics deal with the problems in the Church in an effective and sane manner. The program, said Keller, is based on the precept that requires Catholics to support the Church financially. The 5th Precept Program, he said, "helps Catholics in the responsible fulfillment of their obligation to financially support the Church and does so with a plan of correction. Confusion often arises because Catholics have the misconception about when, where, and how they're supposed to financially support the Church. There's a canon law, number 214, that says one has the right to participate in the public worship of the Church in accordance with legitimate norms of one's own rite. So, if you go to Mass and they are not following the rubrics, you could very well be sinning, if the abuse is bad enough, if you are supporting that parish. You're responsible for not funding a situation like that. This program is about funding the Church without feeding the beast, so to speak. It allows the possibility of correcting a specific problem."

The 5th Precept Program consists, simply, of a three coupon assortment: a green coupon ("Thank you for following the Church!"); a yellow coupon ("Warning! I'm about to halt my donations to you!"); and a red coupon ("I am no longer donating my money to you!") The coupon assortment comes in an Activist Kit that includes books, tapes and a prayer card.

Keller says that the program is not about coercing priests and bishops, but "about charitable correction." The beauty of it, he says, is that "it takes away the argumentation, it takes away the frustration and the anger, because you send in your stuff and say, 'I have a concern, can you get a hold of me, please?' And if they do what they typically do now -- ignore you -- you send a stub in saying, 'I have this $14,000 check I'm sending in to the Sisters of Charity, see you later. Oh, and by the way, if you still want to talk to me, I'm still open to talking,' or 'I'm putting the money into a savings account, and when you guys change the policy, when you decide to take care of this pedophile problem or decide to take care of the teaching of Wicca in the Catholic class my son attends, or when you're finished doing the liturgical ballet, I'll go ahead and give the money to you.'"

Keller says that he hopes to add coupons for corporations and businesses. "Believe me," he said, "business listens to this, and, unfortunately, money speaks in the hierarchy right now. It's not about the Faith, it's about, you put your money in the kitty, keep your mouth shut, and we'll be nice to you. If you get control of the purse strings, believe me, they're going to listen to you. No more argumentation, no more screaming matches; just take your money, build the Church with your funding, put it where it belongs, research where there are some good things happening within the Church, and build that up while the rest of it kind of falls off, like leprosy. The infrastructure is destroying itself. Truth will win out, it's just, how long."

The program, insists Keller, "is not a tool of revenge or coercion or anger or anything else that is non-productive. And the action of true correction will not succeed unless it is made in the spirit of charity and prayer. It's charitable, and it keeps you in a good mood. So slow down. Wiggle your toes. Don't panic. God's in charge."

One aspect of the St. Athanasius Apostolate that might give some pause is its Traditionalist flavor. For instance, the Activist Kit offers three books by noted Traditionalist author Michael Davies. Keller, however, does not see the apostolate as a "Traditionalist" thing. "I prefer the Tridentine Mass," he said, "but when I go to London, I go to the Brompton Oratory where they say the Novus Ordo. But they do it correctly, within the rubrics of the Novus Ordo Mass. I have misgivings with it [the Novus Ordo], but it is Jesus. And let's face it, I'm 41, and I didn't start going to the Tridentine Mass until 1997; so where was I getting my sacramental graces before that? I was receiving them through the Eucharist at the Novus Ordo Missæ."

Keller doesn't insist on Traditionalism in the apostolate, but on Sacred Tradition, which, he says, is "what's been done throughout all of history, what's been consistently taught, everything from morals and faith, the dogmas, to the liturgy, to family issues, the priesthood, you name it. It's what has been taught all throughout the history of the Church for 2000 years, not just the last 40. The teachings of the Church do not change."

The St. Athanasius Apostolate, said Keller, is meant to unite faithful Catholics, Traditionalist or not. "I think people have to stop being so micro in their thinking," he said. "I am really very troubled about the battles and turmoil taking place in the so-called society of love we're supposed to have in the Catholic faith -- where we stab each other in the back left and right. What I'm hoping is that we have Catholics concerned about the Faith and they'll utilize the system responsibly and work together in the same direction. If they embrace heresy or do something inappropriate, like toilet paper the bishop's house, then they lose their association with what the whole program is supposed to do. But I'm trying to get Catholics to work together and put aside many of the differences aside right now.

"I had a priest tell me that he thought this was going to be the tool of the time. I don't know how true that is going to be -- the way things are nowadays and the apathy and complacency going on, who knows what's going to happen? Nobody likes to fight the battles. That's not a lot of fun. Being a martyr's not a lot of fun, unless you're Saint Eustace or St. Lawrence -- but they had a special grace. But we're all martyrs right now, in a different sense. If you're fighting this battle, you're going to be attacked."

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