In the midst of the turbulent 1960s, Drs. Paul and Timmie Vitz, both confirmed atheists, married in the living room of the house of Timmie’s mother, pronouncing vows Timmie had written herself. Paul was an assistant professor of psychology at New York University and had been an atheist even before he bought into the secularist ideology which prevailed in the field at the time. Timmie was also a young professor, specializing in medieval French literature.
The stage was set for a dreary existence in the faculty housing of NYU in Greenwich Village. But unbeknownst to either of them, Someone was seeking their hearts and their lives. That Someone had a plan that neither of them would ever have dreamed of in their newfound love for one another.
While neither one would have quite put it into words at the time of their marriage, they both felt a certain restlessness inside, as if something were stirring. For Paul, it came to the fore with the birth of their first child, Rebecca, in 1971. He began to ask himself, “What does it mean to be a father? What do I stand for in life? What will I pass on to my daughter?”
He concluded that only four possible choices could be made: “I could pick liberal politics, new age spirituality or traditional Christian religion as a world view. Or I could remain pretty much as I was: a self-worshipping skeptic.”
Paul knew many young people active in liberal politics, but they didn’t impress him at all. New age spirituality seemed little better than a tourist religion: people would pick aspects of spirituality that suited them, and within a few months move on to something else. As for the worship of oneself, he came to see that anyone who engaged in that was pretty much a fool. (He even later wrote a book he describes as his seminal work: “Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship.”)
That left traditional Christian religion. Though not particularly pleased with this option, it drew him and Timmie enough to begin attending services at an Episcopal church.
Paul recalled, “The Gospel was being preached quite articulately from the pulpit, and that attracted me.” As Paul and Timmie joined a study group, they found themselves more and more often adhering to the Catholic position on issues. Timmie remarked, “It wasn’t difficult for me to return to Christianity, but I found myself embarrassed at being an Episcopalian—a member of a church founded by Henry VIII.”
The tug continued, and in June of 1979 Paul and Timmie officially entered the Catholic Church together. One thing that helped draw them was becoming friends with a good number of strong, solid Catholic priests. One of them was Father Benedict Groeschel, CFR, himself a psychologist, who would become Paul’s sponsor at his confirmation into the Catholic Church.
After that, their adventure truly began. Five more children were born, one of whom, Daniel, later became a priest. The moving story of his desire to be a martyr for the faith ended with his death from brain cancer on Good Friday of 2019.
In the midst of these joys and sorrows, Paul found himself helping to found the Institute for the Psychological Sciences in northern Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC. Now known as Divine Mercy University, its mission consists of instilling an integral, holistic, faith-based vision of the human person in future psychotherapists, counselors, psychologists and spiritual directors, often incorporating the writings of St. John Paul II and the theology of the body.
After more than 53 years of marriage, Paul and Timmie have come full circle from atheistic professors to training the next generation of faith-filled psychologists and counselors. And they couldn’t be happier.