The Anchoress was asked by a reader to respond to Maureen Dowd's latest anti-Catholic screed and she has obliged.
Oh how she has obliged:
Dowd has demonstrated that she really doesn’t understand much about Catholicism and its unending, beautifully nuanced and constant move toward God’s ever-present “Yes” — a fundamentally sophisticated and paradoxical means toward true freedom. As with many other issues, she has completely bought into the arrested-adolescent perspective, which can only perceive the church as a numbing “no.” Since Dowd is unwilling to plumb the depths of the church in order to seek out its richness, there are absolutely no surprises in the piece, and I was ready to push it aside until she hauled out Mario Cuomo, as she is wont to do from time-to-time.
Just as Nancy Pelosi recently (and badly) tried to give talking points to Catholicswho support gay marriage, nearly 30 years ago Cuomo helped give Catholic politicians and pundits cover and talking points to assist in their dissent on abortion. Now, Dowd was turning to Cuomo again, looking for something cleverer and less ham-handed than Pelosi’s try. Cuomo served up this:
“If the church were my religion, I would have given it up a long time ago,” he said. “All the mad and crazy popes we’ve had through history, decapitating the husbands of women they’d taken. All the terrible things the church has done. Christ is my religion, the church is not.
Oh, heavens, Mario, when did you start channeling Anne Rice? You’re running on the cheap and inefficient fuel of emotionalism, here! There is not a church man or church woman alive — including, I would wager, Pope Benedict XVI — who would not agree that if the institutional church were not surviving by the grace of the Holy Spirit it would have long-sinced ceased to be, because its human administrators have always been faulty, sinful, broken but redeemed people. But to say “Christ is my religion, the church is not,” is both ignorant and laughably self-serving.
She's hardly done so read the rest.
Ignorant and laughably self-serving is a kind way of describing so many who engage in Catholic bashing. They largely base their criticism on false premises and assertions while completely ignoring the good and the holy that makes the church unique.
I have little tolerance for that 'arrested-adolescent perspective'.
Maureen is sadly not a real Catholic. Watch how she worships. Watch what she believes.
Watch how she lives.
Jesus is the Catholic Church. We are the Body of Christ. At Mass, we eat the Body of Christ. Our bodies convert Jesus to the Holy Spirit. God the Father created everything in the Universe. Evolution continues, no thanks to Maureen. God will rest when the Seventh Day arrives. We are currently still in the Sixth day!
Posted by: Dynan | Monday, May 21, 2012 at 10:09 PM