Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Rich Mullins, Catholic?

(source)
Yesterday was the nineteenth anniversary of the death of Christian singer-songwriter Rich Mullins, a favorite in the so-called contemporary Christian music movement during the 1980s and ’90s. While the Christian music genre was and is a largely Protestant movement, Mullins has long enjoyed some popularity among American Catholics because of the occasional influence of Catholic liturgy and spirituality on his songs, and because of his aborted attempt at conversion. I listened to him occasionally in my pre-Catholic days, especially in high school.

Raised in a family of Indiana Quakers, Mullins was baptized in the third grade and imbibed an atmosphere of social justice theology and pacifism from early childhood. He began performing music, both for a choir and in a band, at Cincinnati Bible College in the late ’70s. His career as a musician took off in 1981 when his song “Sing Your Praise to the Lord” was recorded by Amy Grant, who at the time was one of the most popular Christian recording artists. He soon began recording his own albums, and enjoyed both popularity and the respect of his fellow music ministers.

Very much a melancholic and prone to extreme moods, and (reportedly) occasional drunkenness, Mullins’ lyrics were often shockingly personal with only a thin veneer of metaphor as a barrier between him and his fans. Most of his songs are prayers, and his body of work composes a kind of Protestant Psalter. Musically, his style fluctuates between cheap praise-and-worship pseudo-rock, and intimate dulcimer-infused minimalism. His hit single “Awesome God” is not especially indicative of his larger work.

In the 1990s Mullins came under the influence of Brennan Manning, a laicized Franciscan priest who had been writing devotional books like The Ragamuffin Gospel, which notoriously out-Luthers Luther in its monistic exaltation of grace over works. In spite of this, Mullins developed an increasing fascination with Catholicism, and his 1993 album A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band is structured in part on the new Roman Mass. In September 1997, he died in a brutal car accident on his way to a benefit concert at Wichita State University. A few days later, Fr. Matt McGuinness, head of the university’s Newman Center, shocked the musician’s mostly Protestant fans by stating publicly that he had been intending to be received into the Catholic Church.

As it turns out, Mullins had flirted with the idea of conversion for years, and had made it all the way through RCIA two years earlier before backing out of the decision. By 1997, he was often attending daily Mass and had written a musical based on the life of St. Francis of Assisi. He had finally arranged with Fr. McGuinness to make his profession of faith on September 20 at WSU Newman Center. McGuinness had also arranged for Mullins to make his first Confession with Fr. Paul Coakley (now the archbishop of Oklahoma City) at the Church of the Resurrection, a few miles north of WSU.

Today could have been the anniversary of his reception into the Church Catholic. Yesterday was the anniversary of the day he died on I-39 outside of Lostant, Illinois, a ten-hour drive from the Church of the Resurrection. McGuinness was not shy in claiming Rich Mullins as a “convert by desire” in a statement given shortly after the musician’s death, but one truly has to wonder. I am no disciple of Leonard Feeney, but it is hard to ignore a sudden and unexpected death happening so soon before a formal conversion, and presumably while sacramentally unshriven (Mullins assured his priest friend that he indeed had many sins to confess). McGuinness even mentioned in his statement that Mullins had told another friend that he was intending to move his reception back two weeks to October 4, for the feast of St. Francis. Would he have simply kept moving the date back again and again, from a failure of nerve? It’s impossible to say, but the evidence is not optimistic.

To die without Confession, without Confirmation, without the Eucharist—Quantus tremor est futurus, / Quando Judex est venturus, / Cuncta stricte discussurus!—it is a terrifying prospect. I do not wish to be morbid nor to minimize the potential of God’s mercy, but Mr. Mullins did not die a Catholic, however much he loved the Catholic milieu. The year he died, he mused in an interview, “The issue is not about which church you go to, it is about following Jesus where He leads you.”

It seems that Jesus finally led him to a lonely stretch of I-39 on a Friday night in September. Who knows where he went from there?



20 comments:

  1. Err…the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches otherwise.

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  2. I've certainly heard of more pessmistic cases. There are two saints who I keep in mind whenever such things are speculated. The first is St. Therese (the French one) who was known to pray for the soul of Judas "because he, more than anyone, needs it" (there is a beautiful love there, no matter how apparently hopeless what she was praying for may seem).

    The other is Anastasius of Sinai:
    "It would not be fitting to probe God’s judgments with one's hands."

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    1. Like I said, I'm trying not to minimize the potential of God's mercy. My point is only that damnation is a very real prospect for all of us, especially when we repeatedly delay repentance and conversion. The drama of Mr. Mullins' life is a reminder that death can come to us at any moment, and we must be ready.

      That being said, I would never pray for the repose of the soul of the Iscariot. He is damned and beyond our help. Even St. Therese had her little flaws.

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    2. Of course. Iscariot's damnation is repeatedly assured of in the Byzantine Spy Wednesday Office, as assured of as that of the unrepentant thief's.

      Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi

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    3. As well as in the Holy Thursday collect.

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    4. It wasn't St. Therese who prayed for the soul of Judas. It was St. Teresa of Avila. Both women have been named Doctors of the Church!

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  3. Your tone is a little sarcastic. And your closing comment is disrespectful. So sad. Do you think it's cute or witty to be making a joke about a man's death? Rich Mullins was an amazing man of God, who much like Jesus, always made self righteous religious people like yourself, uncomfortable. PS. God bless you, and open our heart to greater mercy and compassion.

    "Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation." (CCC 847)

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    1. Who is joking or being sarcastic? To die outside of the Church, when the sacraments were so close, is a matter for sober reflection. My suggestion that someone could die without the grace of final salvation is meant as a matter of serious contemplation for us all, not as the punchline to a joke.

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Rich was united to the Catholic Church when he became a Candidate through RCIA. And yes, your final comment was something worthy of the confessional.

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  5. In 1983 at a youth group gathering at Oak Hill High School in Indiana. He was wearing a necklace that looked like a miraculous medal and I asked him, "are you Catholic?" He seemed offended and said, "what would make you think that?" I told him I though his medallion was a sacramental. He laughed.

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    1. I guess your question to Rich was prophetic. Jimmy Abegg, Rich's close friend and bandmate says that in about 1995, his daughter gave Rich a medal of his favorite saint, St. Francis of Assisi. Rich wore that medal constantly and he was still wearing it when he died.

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  6. Rich Mullins did indeed die a Catholic! He was not, as the author of this blog suggests, looking to keep postponing his entrance into the church, and his death on the way to receiving these sacraments does not change the fact that he was already a Catholic in the sight of God. Rich had actually been telling his friends for months about his plans to enter the church. Fr. McGuinness has a few of his facts backwards. According to his friends, Rich was planning to enter the Catholic Church on Oct.4, 1997, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi at St. Timothy's Catholic Community in Mesa, Arizona. He had been attending that church since New Year's Eve 1996. During the last three weeks of his life, he stayed with the Kruse family in Elgin, Illinois, while he helped his fellow band member, Mitch McVicker record his first album. During his stay, he told the Kruse family of his intent to convert. The last weekend before his death, he briefly returned to his home in Tse Bonito, New Mexico, where he visited with friends and colleagues. During that stay, he told his producer, Jim Chaffee of his plans to enter the Catholic Church on Oct.4. He also told a couple of his friends that he had a strong sense that he would not be the one to carry out all the plans that he had to teach much and do missionary work with the people on the Navajo Reservation. He said that he had a sense that "something had changed". Upon his return to Elgin,IL, something else apparently changed in Rich's soul. He began to crave the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, and apparently realized that he could not wait a couple more weeks to enter the Catholic Church. For several days, he played telephone tag with his spiritual director, Fr. Matt McGuinness. When they finally connected, the night before Rich's death, he told Fr. McGuinness, "This may sound strange, but I HAVE to receive the Body and Blood of Christ." Rich did not say anything to Fr. McGuinness about waiting until Oct. 4 to enter the church. As was stated in the blog, Fr. McGuinness made arrangements for Rich to make a General Confession of his life to (now Archbishop) Paul Coakley on Saturday, Sept. 20 and they agreed that Rich would make his Profession of Faith and his First Holy Communion at the 7:00 p.m. Mass on Sept. 21 at the Newman Center at Wichita State University. Rich was no doubt ready in his heart to make his first Confession, profess his belief in the Catholic faith and receive his Lord and Savior in Holy Communion. He had surrendered to the Will of God, and apparently, this final surrender was what the Lord was waiting for. Rich Mullins went home to be with the Lord on Sept. 19, 1997 and Jesus Himself received Rich into his Church.

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  7. You do not have to be Catholic to be saved
    Romans 10:9
    New King James Version
    9 that (A)if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Also
    John 3:16

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    1. The Bible also says “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." Matthew 77:21

      Rich Mullins did both. He confessed his faith and his love for Jesus almost constantly, and he did his best to obey God's commandments and love his neighbor as himself. When he sinned, or failed in charity, he repented and asked for forgiveness from God. Rich Mullins was a sinner in need of God's mercy. He placed his hope and trust in Jesus. As we pray in the Te Deum "In You, Lord is our hope and we shall never hope in vain."

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  8. I believe that the Catholic Church is the one, holy, Catholic, apostolic Church. I came "Home" from the evangelical church. When I initially shared my insights with my evangelical friends, they couldn't see it nor understand it...and neither could I for many years prior to my conversion. Nonetheless, it didn't diminish my love of Christ nor my desire to follow Him before becoming Catholic. For this reason, I always exercise great caution when speaking of the eternal consequence of one's soul...it's far above my pay grade. Let us instead exercise great grace and pray for the souls of the departed. I am by no means a universalist (all souls go to Heaven), but I do believe that we will be delightfully surprised by whom we see there. While the teaching states that there is no salvation outside the Church, remember that Protestant denominations are all sourced from the Catholic Church and insofar, they contain a "part" of the Truth, just not the fullness of it.

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  9. The author of this article does not have his facts straight about several aspects of Rich's conversion. First of all, it was quite sincere and the result of much prayer, reading, reflection, spiritual advice and his attraction to Catholicism was one of the hallmarks of his entire adult life. He went through RICA not just once, but twice, and he delayed his formal conversion as long as he did because he wanted to make certain that he truly believed all the teachings of the Catholic Church. He had no respect for "cafeteria Catholics" or lukewarm Catholics. By the spring of 1997, he told his Catholic friends that he was ready to convert soon, but he wanted to wait until after his upcoming concert tour. Fr. McGuinness and the author of this article were mistaken when they said that Rich talked of delaying his official conversion to Oct. 4. the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. That was Rich's original plan and that is what he told friends weeks earlier. But something happened that final week of Rich's life - perhaps a premonition, or a deep insatiable longing for the Eucharist. For whatever reason, he decided to move up the date of his entrance to the Catholic Church to Sept. 21, 1997 NOT delay it! Rich could not wait to become a Catholic and the night he died, he was on his way to Wichita to make a General Confession of his life to (now) Archbishop Paul Coakley. Rich was already a Catholic in his heart. The Church does believe in "Confirmation of Desire" and we have every reason to believe that God granted this grace to Rich Mullins.

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  10. I just want to challenge the author's comment that Rich "was intending to move his reception back two weeks to October 4, for the feast of St. Francis." Actually just the opposite is true. Rich originally intended to enter the Catholic Church on the Feast of St. Francis at St. Timothy's in Mesa, Arizona, but for some reason, during the last week of his life, he decided that he could not wait until Oct. 4, so he contacted Fr. McGinness and moved the date of his confirmation up to Sept. 21 and he made plans to enter the Church in Wichita instead. Rich could not wait to become a Catholic!!

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