It was a great honor and privilege for me to attend the first inaugural Masculine Genius Institute held on the grounds of Mundelein, IL at the Cardinal Stritch retreat center and near Mundelien Seminary and Marytown.
The purpose of this inaugural men’s summit was to forge a vision of manliness.
The summit founders are Mark Houck, president of The Kingsmen and Dr. Phillip Chavez.
The mission of MGI is to promote serious presentation and discussion of the work experience, expertise, and research on the natural and supernatural dimensions of manliness in order to further genuine manly development and conduct.
The vision of MGI is that men throughout the world be well informed and well trained about their natural and supernatural mission, identity, and journey so they may thrive in authentic manliness as the Creator designed.
The presenters Dr. Deborah Savage, Reverend Fr. Joseph Levine, Mark Houck, Fr. Gabriel Torretta, OP, Dr. Phillip Chavez, John Horvat, Dr. Greg Bottaro, Dr. Peter Colosi and Matthew Christoff are some of the greatest Catholic minds in the Church today and experts on inherent characteristics of manhood from perspectives of anthropology, sociology, neurology, theology, and other fields.
We had a number of invited attendees including renowned Catholic author and speaker Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers.
Research findings along with discussions and data and statistics will be published with recommendations for educational advancement and pastoral care.
The goal of the summit is to produce media resources for the Church which emerges from the research and findings presented, as well as the resulting recommendations, to advance the integral development of manliness.
I would like to share comments by Bishop Thomas Olmsted, Diocese of Phoenix –
“I’m grateful to The Holy Spirit for stirring up in men a hunger for the word of God and a longing for closer friendship with Jesus. These are signs that we are not alone as we address the crisis in fatherhood that exists both inside and outside the Church and as we seek, in this age, to be men of integrity and holiness of life. Accordingly, I offer my encouragement and prayerful support for The Masculine Genius Institute’s inaugural summit. May it bear good fruit in the Church and the world.”
And Dr. Deborah Savage – Director of the Masters in Pastoral Ministry Program at St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity at The University of St. Thomas –
“It would be impossible to overstate the importance of these proceedings or the depth of our common concern for the questions that bring us together here. We all know that the future of our civilization depends on both grasping and affirming the nature of man, not merely in the abstract, but as it finds expression in each and every man and boy. This is a moment in history that calls for real and sustained courage and I am very grateful to the organizers of these proceedings – and immeasurably honored to have been invited to contribute. Because though many of the women we know or hear about might be upset to hear it stated quite this starkly: there simply is no future without the contributions, the leadership, and the protection of real men. The truth is that if it weren’t for men, we would still be living in caves, afraid to come out.”
I, Charles DeFeo, would like to add my own personal comments about what I experienced from listening to the reports of the presenters and the questions that came out of it. I cannot start talking about man without first addressing woman and encourage all to prayerfully read Genesis chapters one and two to learn about God’s plan for man and woman from the beginning as well as the Gospel of Matthew starting at chapter 5 verse 29 and finally Matthew chapter 19 starting at verse 7 through at least verse 9.
Man and woman are complimentary and make no mistake about it. Physically and neurologically man and woman compliment each other in every way and that is the way God designed us and it will be proven when the results of MGI are published in all areas scientifically, psychologically and spiritually. No matter what a culture tries to say or change the fact is men are men and women are women, each with different and unique God given traits; little boys are boys and little girls are girls starting in the woman’s womb. Woman is made to carry and bear life and man simply cannot carry and bear life, however woman cannot bear life without man. Man is outward in every way including his reproductive body parts and woman is turned inward phsysiologically and emotionally, hence our complimentarity.
Man and Woman can share some similar characteristics like empathy for instance to name one but women just have naturally different characteristics than men and it’s proven in their different brain chemistry and makeup.
A man dressing like a woman or wearing lipstick does not make him a woman nor does a woman dressing or acting like a man make her a man.
I would like to turn my focus to manhood, womanhood, what a husband and father are and what wife and mother are and the family unit.
Sociologically speaking when we look down upon a woman for being a stay at home mom we do great damage to the family unit which is the building block of society. Not only should this not be looked down upon but conversely it is the highest good for the family unit. The reason being is the woman is sacrificing, laying down her life for the good of her family, community, society, church and God.
This dynamic can only take place if the man fully understands his role as leader, protector and provider and in turn lays down his life for his bride (as Christ did for His bride, the Church). So man must fully understand his role as to what God has called him to be and his heart must be oriented toward God to fully actualize and provide a stable environment for his wife to live and thrive and grow into the her role as fully actualized woman, wife, mother and person God created her to be and to be open to children and teach, raise and train them in the way they should go (see Proverbs 22:6). The woman is man’s helper and it was that way from the beginning.
This represents the ideal plan of God for man, woman, marriage and family and the home becomes a nuclear church as Pope St. John Paul II instructs and explains in his writings which I encourage you to read. Start with his Theology of The body.
Because we live in a culture where more often than not the man and woman both work outside the home it is paramount that both man and woman in the sacrament of marriage, and only marriage, lay down their lives for each other in sharing household chores and loving each other with dignity and respect always lifting each other up and never tearing down under all circumstances. Men should never ever be ridiculed as dopes by their wives as is so often depicted on TV. Woman should never be taken advantage of by her man in any way nor should she ever be objectified. Man and woman need to avoid viewing any pornographic material ever. Man and woman in the sacrament of marriage, not cohabitation, which is not marriage, help each other and work together for the highest good of family and community and Church!
The only person a man or woman should ever see naked is their spouse. Sex is for marriage and marriage is between a man and a woman.
Boys and girls starting at the youngest age should be in schools of the same sex only and that should continue throughout high school and possibly even college in my opinion.
Let’s continue to love one another with Agape love! The love of Christ, the Son, in the Father and proceeding from the Holy Spirit and let’s model our families after the Holy Family Jesus, Mary and Joseph, all three of which exhibited the ultimate traits of manhood in Jesus and Joseph and womanhood in Mary, our Blessed Mother and let’s never forget to pray unceasingly with and for each other and continue our journey on a daily basis to walk by faith to live, even when we cannot see!
Charles DeFeo: Catholic Blogger and Useless Servant of Christ 