In 1999 I petitioned my bishop to relieve me from pastoral duties so that I could write about the links between Christian anthropology and empirically validated psychotherapy. Since then, I have written four books expanding those connections and explicitly dedicated to the Catholic Psychotherapy Association (CPA).
However, despite their care, dedication and exemplary work, I grew restive that even for sincerely devout Catholic CPA psychotherapists, their work, methods, and research were far too indistinguishable from best practices in most other psychological and psychotherapeutic programs. I will confess that some of that are the result of my many religious experiences, a few of which I describe in my second 2021 book on religious experiences. For more on my books see www.catholicmystagogy.com.
For both CPA and what I continue to experience in parish life, my personal interest was not directed toward criticizing, blaming, or trying to reform parish life or even the great work of CPA.
Instead, my search for the last three years has been to search for what was missing.
What I edited out of the search was any idea of reforming parish or CPA. Both have their own history, and parish as we see it goes back at least to Pope Leo the Great (+471) tinkering with that is way above my pay grade!
However, in the interest of brevity, let me skip over the almost countless steps in my search to say that where my search has led me is to look repeatedly to the American bishops’ repeated calls to the laity (Called and Gifted, 1995, 2001). Namely, to holiness, community, mission/ministry, and spiritual maturity.
I have come to believe that looking at those four calls are in no way theologically lacking. However, as a psychologist I am impelled to say that hesitations in answering those four calls, are radically, fundamentally, and intricately involved with whole domains of psychological, social, motivational, learning theory, reinforcement, and similar domains of social science research and study.
Thus, my work in capsule form is
the call to holiness as best conceived as ascent in steps, transitions, and periods,
the call to community not just the Mass but faith-sharing small groups (FSSG),
the call to mission and ministry as not just being fed by the Word and the Eucharist but for laity to be sent to serve,
the call to spiritual maturity not currently theological so much as psychological and developmental.
If the reader keeps my renewed focus in mind, all the rest I write will hopefully make more sense.
Deacon Ray Biersbach, PhD, July 25, 2025
