Author Interview: David Hajduk, PhD Writes on the Angelic Warfare Confraternity, a Confraternity for Chastity

Prof. Hajduk, please tell us a little about yourself, and also what sparked your deep interest in the Angelic Warfare Confraternity.

I'm from New Jersey. My wife and I have 11 kids, and have always educated them at home. When our oldest was 8, back in 2002, she read a children's biography of St. Thomas Aquinas written by Mary Fabyan Windeatt (available here), and the book mentioned the Angelic Warfare Confraternity. My daughter was moved when she read about the confraternity and decided she wanted to join.

I wasn't even sure whether the confraternity still existed. So I did some research, calling the leadership of a Dominican Third Order chapter in NJ. They didn't know much about the confraternity or whether it still existed either! However, they were kind enough to investigate it for me. A little while later, they contacted me and told me that it did still exist, though quite obscurely. Given that it was a confraternity dedicated to the virtue of chastity, however, they thought my daughter was perhaps a bit young to become a member!

I was a high school theology teacher and worked in youth ministry at the time. Already at this point in my career I had dedicated much of my teaching, speaking, and research to the Catholic Church's teaching on marriage, sex, and the family (I eventually completed both a Master's and a Doctorate in Theology). I was eager to not only receive grace to live God's plan for life and love well myself, but also to share that plan with a world so broken by sexual immorality and deceived by lies. So, I said to the Lay Dominican on the phone, "You're right about my daughter. But I think I will join!" And indeed I did—on February 2, 2003, at the Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, NJ. 

What originally led you to write your book, Protecting Your Purity, in 2009?

It's quite a story! When I joined the AWC, I learned that the group responsible for keeping the confraternity on life support was the St. Martin de Porres Community, a group of Lay Dominicans in New Hope, KY. They had a number of apostolates, including Catholics United for Life and New Hope Publications. It wasn't long after I had written my book for teens on St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body (God's Plan for You: Life, Love, Marriage & Sex, Pauline Books & Media, 2006, revised 2018). It might have been early 2008 when I felt moved to call the community in New Hope, KY. I had begun to see that the grace of the AWC combined with the explanatory power of the Theology of the Body could prove a powerful means of helping young people to choose and live God's plan for life and love. 

I contacted the Lay Dominicans in New Hope and shared my vision of promoting the confraternity, which unfortunately was barely hanging onto life at that time. The Lay Dominicans would hold a youth conference each summer called Ignite Your Torch. We agreed that I would come to the conference and give some talks. We also met with Fr. Stephen Dominic Hayes, OP, who had a keen interest in the confraternity and wanted to see it rejuvenated. Fr. Hayes asked the provincial leadership if he could "take on" official promotion of the AWC as part of his work, and they agreed! So, the book flowed out of this. I wrote the original text, Fr. Hayes reviewed it, and New Hope published it!

As a side note, the next year at the Ignite Your Torch Conference, two young people enrolled in the AWC. One of them was my daughter, then going into her freshman year of high school—the one who had read that children's biography of St. Thomas Aquinas! Very quickly, membership grew by leaps and bounds. The Dominicans of the Eastern Province appointed the first Promoter in decades—Fr. James Brent, OP. Fr. Brent was a zealous Promoter and got Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel, OP to assist him in revitalizing the confraternity. Since those days, thousands upon thousands of people—especially young people—have joined the AWC, and now each of the four Dominican provinces in the United States has its own Promoter!

Editor's note: To learn more about the Confraternity, see its website here.

You have recently updated the book and its appearance. Could you tell us a little about that?

When I originally wrote the book, young people of the time appreciated a less formal and

Revised book cover

more "contemporary" look. So the book reflected that, especially with the illustrations. But times change. Today, young people (especially young men) are attracted to more traditional religious teaching, prayer forms, and artistic expression.  I wanted to produce a more timeless-looking book, one more classic and traditional that seemed less juvenile or tied to a particular time period or style. Thus, we changed the artwork, and I made some improvements to the text that I had been wanting to make, while maintaining its conversational style. The text on the whole, however, remains mostly the original text produced all those years ago. (To order the book, click here.)

In what way do you hope God will use this book to help others?

My hope is the same as it always has been: to catechize people, especially youth, on the virtue of chastity and help them to see the beauty of God's plan for life, love, marriage and sex, as well as to introduce them to the Angelic Warfare Confraternity as a powerful means of grace to cultivate that virtue and to live out that plan.

What age group did you write this book for?

You need to have received the Sacrament of Confirmation to join the AWC, so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who has not received that Sacrament. However, since Confirmation is received at different ages, I would say that the book is suitable for high school age and up, but also that this should be left to the parents' discretion. I think the new version has a broader appeal and that college students and other young adults will find it accessible and relevant. It does not read like a book written exclusively for teens, though teens are clearly part of the intended audience.

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•  To order Dr. Hajduk's recently-revised book Protecting Your Purity, click here.

• To order a membership packet, click here.

• To order other Angelic Warfare materials, including pamphlets, click here.