There remains within some aspects of institutional Catholic culture a desire to be affirmed by the legacy legitimatizing institutions of American public life. The fantasy that if we obscure our weird little popish superstitions, the NY Times will think we're cool.
This is the residual gift of our immigrant past, and maybe the historical circumstances once made the aspiration of social normalcy understandable. But anyone can see the damage it has wrought to the Church, and it is time to stop caring that people will figure out who we are.
We do not let our yes be yes and our no be no, because too often we are trying to find some magical gnostic key to explaining the faith in a way that will cause no scandal. We are left causing scandal while failing to explain the faith.
I wear two woolen squares connected by cords on my neck, so that when I die the Blessed Virgin Mary will pray me into heaven. I'll bet at least half the bishops at the USCCB do too.
If Yale or the New York Times think that's weird, they're right. It's time to stop giving a damn.
If Yale or the New York Times think that's weird, they're right. It's time to stop giving a damn.
I think it was inevitable that lay people would realize this before, for example, bishops, because a bishop can still live mostly within the ambit of the Church’s institutions. We can’t.
We’ve known for a long time that religiosity, and especially ours, was socially taboo.
We’ve known for a long time that religiosity, and especially ours, was socially taboo.
By the way, I am nervous to die without it by drowning in a pool or something; even though I obviously KNOW better, I’m not sure I believe better. So yeah, that’s who we are.
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