New Beginnings

from Pope Francis Generation to the Third Space

The short version

I’m changing the name of this Substack and podcast to better reflect my own spiritual evolution over the past three years and the fact that I’m now a mental health professional as well as a catechist. Specifically, I’ve had the growing conviction that I need to align myself more with the vulnerable and marginalized in the Church than with the institutions and hierarchy.

Practically, over the next few days I will be changing the name of this Substack and the web address. Your subscription, whether it’s free or paid, will stay the same. If you want to continue following me, you don’t need to do anything.

Welcome to the Third Space.

Why Pope Francis Generation

When I first started this Substack, I explained why I chose the name Pope Francis Generation. It was inspired by a speech that Bishop Barron gave in 2018 (and a riff off of “John Paul II Generation”). Barron explained how the “heroic ideal” that JPII inspired in people had a “shadow side” that left those who fell short of that ideal feeling despair.

Back then I wrote:

“I think Bishop Barron is exactly right.

The spirituality that I inherited from members of the John Paul II generation contained a lot of fear. 

The turmoil of the culture—especially from the threat of Communism and the aftermath of the sexual revolution—I think provoked a tendency to see the Church and her teaching in a defensive way. The Church and her teaching we set up as objective, unchanging bulwarks in opposition to the changing culture.

But this defensiveness came at a cost. It turned the outside world into something to be feared instead of persons to be loved. The comfort of the objective ideal left little room for the weak who were unable to live the moral law. It created a tendency to fill in the grey areas of Church teaching with clear black and white answers of our own making. 

I think the JPII generation took the heroism of John Paul II’s life and teaching and subtly turned it into a Pelagianism that made us, and not God, the primary actors in our growth in holiness. At least, that’s what was passed on to me.” 

I still think all of that is true. Francis’s teaching and emphasis stands out when juxtaposed (though not in opposition or contradiction) to the values and legacy of the John Paul II Generation.

I believe that his image of the Church as a field hospital and the centering of the Kerygma undermines the fear-based culture war Christianity that I see so prominent in the Church in the US.

I believe Francis’s teachings have helped combat spiritual abuses in the Church. I think synodality (i.e. greater emphasis on co-responsibility and co-power with lay people) could provoke structural reform. I think Francis’s teachings about sin and human dignity have helped correct areas where Church teaching has been (and is still being) misunderstood and misused to spiritually abuse people. I think his criticism of clericalism is dead right and absolutely needed.

I believe all of that is true, and nearly three years ago I started this Substack and podcast to promote just those teachings. But in the past year I’ve grown increasingly uncomfortable with the name, Pope Francis Generation.

After many months, and several conversations, I decided to change the name of this website and podcast to Third Space.

Why Change

My relationship with God and with the Church has evolved a lot in the past several years. In 2018, when I helped start Where Peter Is, I was a full-time catechist at my parish and deeply invested in helping others understand the Church’s teaching. Looking back on that time, perhaps my biggest motivation was to promote the teachings of Pope Francis that had given me so much freedom in my own relationship with God and the Church.

In 2021, when I started this Substack, I was still working at the parish, but I had started my first year of grad school. At that point, my motivations were shifting such that my long-term goal was to provide pastoral counseling for Catholics who have been spiritually abused, counseling for Catholic ministers, and counseling education so that ministers are more equipped to help others in their ministry. My more catechetical and apologetical side was still present, but less so.

Dominic and I started the podcast in 2022. The goal of that podcast, as we said at the beginning of every episode, was to create a space “for Catholics struggling with the Church’s teaching, who felt like they might not belong in the Church anymore, but who still hunger for a God of love and goodness.”

We also started the podcast a couple of months after I suddenly and unexpectedly left my parish job due to my pastor—and boss—abusing his power in some really public and ugly ways. The podcast was a way for me to continue doing “ministry” in some way. And your paid subscriptions were a necessary source of income for my family for the two years I was a full-time grad student.

Now it’s 2024 and I’m not unemployed anymore. I now work full-time as a licensed counselor. I’m no longer just a catechist, I’m a mental health professional. More significant than the practical changes though, my relationship with the Church has continued to evolve.

As I’ve written about before, I’ve felt real tension over this past year with my continued association with Pope Francis because of the decisions he has made regarding Fr. Marko Rupnik and other issues surrounding abuse in the Church. I wrote last fall:

“When someone, especially someone in a position of authority, has demonstrated that they are not interested in our safety, then there’s often the grueling process of shedding the expectations we had of them, of setting boundaries, keeping them at a safe distance and not expecting them to care and provide for us.

And if that person is a public figure, I also believe it’s prudent to stop promoting them. I can’t tell you how many Catholic leaders, writers, apologists, and speakers I have stopped recommending to others because of their public lack of concern for the truth or the dignity of others. And sometimes not continuing to promote a public figure feels a moral obligation out of respect for those they’ve harmed.

But disassociating from Pope Francis feels a lot more difficult for me.

Part of the difficulty is because of how much Pope Francis has influenced my own faith. I’ve said it before—because it’s true—if it weren’t for Pope Francis’s teachings I don’t know if I would still be Catholic. More than anyone else, Francis has convinced me of God’s goodness. I love Pope Francis. Like nobody else in the Church, I’ve experienced him as a spiritual father.”

I have felt more and more convicted that the Heart of the Church isn’t the ecclesiastical institution, isn’t the hierarchy, and isn’t the pope. Jesus said, “whatever you do for the poor and vulnerable among you, you do for me” (cf. Matthew 25:40).

Over the past year I have been convicted that the Heart of the Church is the vulnerable and marginalized and those who serve them. And I believe it’s more important for me to associate myself with them, even more than it is for me to associate myself with the pope.

As confident as I am that this is the right direction for me to go in, I’ve also felt some real grief over moving on from Pope Francis Generation. Part of that is tied in with my own grief of losing Pope Francis as the hero that I held him up as for years, of really seeing and believing his flaws and failures. Part of it is, frankly, because I’m generally terrible at naming things and the name Pope Francis Generation felt like a rare win for me here. But ultimately, this change more genuinely represents who I am today.

What Third Space Means

I’ve shared on the podcast before about something a friend of mine, Monica Pope, articulated: that there needs to be a “third space” for people who have been harmed by the Church. Often, the responses that people who have been harmed hear from others when they share their experience is either 1) defense of the Church/dismissal of the harm done or 2) a “burn it all down, you never needed it anyway” mentality. But those response leave no space for people who have been hurt in the Church but who still desire, in some way, to be a part of the Church.

The truth is powerful and healing, whether its spoken publicly or just said to one other person. Both of those responses are inadequate because both deny the full truth, either the truth of the harm experienced in the Church or the truth of the goodness and grace experienced.

Acknowledging all that’s true, the good and the evil, is difficult. It can be a terrible tension. But, like many things, that burden is easier when it’s shared with others.

In the Third Space we will discuss the good in the Church (including Pope Francis’s teaching), and we will discuss the ugliness and evil in the Church. We will try and live in the grey, avoiding easy answers and black & white fundamentalism, hopeful for what the Holy Spirit will bring from the tension.

The Future

So what does this mean and what’s in store for the future?

Over the next week or so I will be changing the name of this Substack, the domain name, and the name on the social media accounts. Your subscription, whether it’s free or paid, will stay the same. If you want to continue following me, you don’t need to do anything. Also, there may be some downtime as the site is updating, but it should get back to normal quickly.

I am keeping the popefrancisgeneration.com web address and will direct it to the PFG podcast archives. Dominic and I are recording one final PFG episode. All of the episodes will stay up, but after the final episode it will no longer be updated.

This fall I will launching the Third Space podcast!

In sociology, “third place” refers to places outside of home or work, places like coffee shops and libraries where people can build relationships, be creative, and share ideas. They are places of encounter and discussion. That is what this podcast will be.

Every episode I will have conversations with guests about those grey spaces in Catholicism. We will talk about both the harm and the good in the Church. We will discuss what Catholicism would look like if we practiced what we preached about the infinite dignity of every human person.

Also, as I continue to move forward in my career as a mental health professional and a catechist, I want to provide resources and formation about spiritual abuse in order to help these leaders—and every Catholic—recognize and prevent spiritual abuse; know the harm that spiritual abuse can cause; respond to individuals who have been spiritually abused; and promote structural changes to make their communities safer.

So I will continue to write about spiritual abuse and religious trauma and offer resources like my spiritual abuse workshops. I have several opportunities available and coming up:

1. I will be offering more online workshops this fall. These will be open to anyone but will have limited seating because I want to make sure the groups are small enough to encourage meaningful discussion. Dates and times are TBD. I hope to offer at least a couple day/time options. I will publish those dates and times later this summer.

2. I can lead an online workshop for a private group—like your Bible study group, parish staff, seminary cohort, men’s group, catechist formation class, priest small group, religious community, etc.—and tailor the schedule to your needs.

3. I can travel and give an individual talks about spiritual abuse or lead a day-long workshop for your parish, diocese, priest convocation, diaconate formation, etc.
   
   Email me at paul@faheycounseling.com if you want more information about any of these events.

I’m so excited about these changes and for what God has in store for the future. Thank you so much for you continued support as I’ve evolved over the past three years.

-Paul