Outdoorsmen in the Catholic Land Movement

Andy Hickman and I recently had an exchange on X wherein we discussed the perplexing lack of representation of hunters and anglers in Catholic culture. The Catholic Land Movement has for years (over one hundred if you go back to the start) been promoting the stewardship of the land through small scale agriculture and distributist policies. Although they do hold classes and discussions around hunting and firearms, there is a lack of focus from the broader Catholic world on the blood sports and their inherent link to Catholic culture.

St. Hubert of Liege is of course the most well known of Catholic hunters, him of course being our Patron Saint. We all recall the story of him finding the faith while out hunting between the antlers of a stag which is recalled so commonly on every bottle of Jagermeister. As Andy wrote there were other hunters and people of the forests throughout Catholic history but they were few and far between compared to the abundance of agrarian saints. Perhaps it is due to the basics of population density and the lack of priests available to sparsely populated regions or perhaps it’s down to the isolation which many forest dwellers prefer. Here in the Upper Great Lakes, Fr. Baraga of the Upper Peninsula became known as the “Snowshoe Priest” for his efforts traversing the harsh snowy forests of the UP to bring Mass to the faithful. Further east were the North American Martyrs, the most famous of which was St. Isaac Jogues who infamously returned to the savage New World after having been tortured and maimed on a previous mission only to be tortured and killed upon his return. Special to me is of course Fr. Jacque Marquette who led a team of voyageurs and natives to explore the Mississippi.

The Catholic Land Movement as Andy wrote, ‘must have room for’ hunters and anglers. While the agrarian stewardship of the land is vital, so too is the conservation of a rawer part of creation that sportsmen engage with. As a hunter and angler, I believe that the work done to conserve habitat and game is most important and offers us a chance to honor God through our sacrifices in defending His creation. In a similar manner, the hunter engages in a bloody ritual, not too dissimilar to the Mass itself in which he sacrifices much in the pursuit of his quarry. No one loves a mallard or scaup as much as a duck hunter. No one loves a deer or bear as much as someone who has dedicated much of his life to learning their habits and behavior to more effectively hunt them.

The extreme nature of the Catholic life is well suited to a hunter. We feast and we fast. A hunter knows all to well what it is like to go home empty handed. For most of us, we’ll still be able to eat but our blood memory still aches at the thought of a meatless winter. Conversely, there is no greater feast than the celebration of well killed game. The roasted hunk of venison or my personal favorite, a nice fat duck bring a pleasure that can only be appreciated by those that have had the good fortune to engage with it first hand. Words cannot do the pleasure and joy of these feasts justice. Jim Harrison once wrote of Catholic priests:

"I well remember a group of bulbous priests at a Roman trattoria quite literally pouring down wine. I asked the waiter what they were celebrating and he said enviously that they did it every day. They were drinking Antinori Vipera which is scarcely cheap plonk."

The seasonality of the Catholic faith is often touted by the Catholic Land Movement in their agrarian view of the world. The alignment of the liturgical calendar with the turning of the seasons is plain to see for anyone who cares to pay attention. Likewise, the sportsman transitions from game species to game species and from fish to fowl to big game as the year rolls along. Living close to the land can be instructive in the Catholic faith whether through the cultivation of agriculture or the raw edge that comes with chasing game in the forests. We more acutely feel the changing of the liturgical season when we are tied in with the natural world around us. God’s laws and the laws of Nature are inherently inseparable.

I hope that more Catholics, both agrarians and sportsmen alike, begin to embrace the natural world and our place in it as we have been placed by our Creator. We must become stewards of creation in alignment with our position in life and the mandate we have been given by God. As a sportsman I will continue to strive to honor His creation through the honest and glorious pursuit of game and the conservation of the lands and waters in which they live.

St. Hubert and St. Andrew, Ora Pro Nobis.