Boston Globe American Catholic columnist comes out to support his embattled clergy in places like Brackettville, Texas!

"The church exists not to save people but to point to the astonishing good news that the people -- all the people -- are all already saved."


Adapted from some clown's raving in U.S. Catholic magazine, April, 2009. "Who do we think we are?"

Now, then!

This particular clown's name, we read, is one "James Carroll, a columnist for the Boston Globe and the author of 10 novels and six works of nonfiction. His new book is Practicing [ha, ha!] Catholic, a personal history of American Catholic faith (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009)."

Four random, fragmentary examples of egg - headed pseudo - science by this great American Catholic scholar:

Example I

"The poet laureate of anti - Judaism was the author [??!! :) ] of the Gospel of John, the gospel of love.

"And as we know [wow! what a typical bravo sierra cliché!] very well by now, out of gospel anti - Judaism grew the long wicked legacy of anti - Semitism."

Example II

"[T]he greatest act of love and justice in history was the nonviolent resolution of the Cold War.

"[t]he overwhelming majority of the grassroots democracy movements in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union that accomplished this still underappreciated political miracle were atheists.

"It is the generation of Europeans who has walked away from Christian belief that has embraced pacifism, ended the death penalty, and repudiated colonialism and empire.

"It is in church - going America where violence is still met with even greater violence and where murder is punished by state - sponsored murder [Take a bow, Senior Deacon of St. Mary Magdalene's Catholic Parish in Brackettville, Texas! :) ].

Example III

"During what German philosopher Karl Jaspers called the Axial Age, running from 900 B.C.E. to 200 B.C.E., a revolution in human consciousness occurred, what Karen Armstrong calls the great transformation.

"This involved Confucianism and Taoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, philosophical rationalism in Greece, and certainly monotheism among the Hebrews."


Example IV


"The church exists not to save people but to point to the astonishing good news that the people -- all the people -- are all already saved.

"The universality of God's positive regard requires ours."

At least one of our Deacons struggled to get all this across to us just before the outside Stations of the Cross on Good Friday last week.

Poor fellow is totally out of it.

Anyway, below the very end sentence we read this notice:

"Discuss how you view the church with other readers under forums at uscatholic.org "

So, have fun!

Click on it, give it a whirl!