Marc the Bad Catholic is Back
… And he is in rare form and rarin’ to rumble.
Allow me to quote his potent end paragraphs:
But The Freedom From Basic Social Abilities Foundation took center stage this time, spending all sorts of cash on an ad in the New York Times entitled “It’s Time To Consider Quitting the Catholic Church.” It was aimed at liberal Catholics, because Muslims are scary.
It’s basically a rerun of this puppy…
…with more whine and less balls. But once I got over the joy of their puns (“Exit en mass,” did you think of that all by yourself?) and really read it, I couldn’t believe how nice these folks were being. They essentially summed up what the Church has been trying to tell people for years, that if you aren’t going to live the teachings of the Catholic Church and profess what she professes, you do not understand what it means to be Catholic — to be a member of the Body of Christ.
When the NYT ad said that those who support abortion, sterilization, and contraception should realize the Church is never going to change its mind and consider leaving, I thought, well shoot! That’s what we’ve been telling Nancy Pelosi for years!
The ad proclaimed the alarming indestructibility of Church doctrine, and Her refusal to conform to our fads and fashions. It came from a moronic angle, but to the liberal Catholic nourished by the beauty, truth and goodness of the Church — who would no more consider leaving the Church than leaving his family — it begs an examination of conscience. Sure, it says “Here is what the Church believes. Here is what you believe. There is a disparity between the two. Leave the Catholic Church.” But there is an unspoken alternative to the NYT ad’s message, an alternative every bad Catholic will hear, whether he wants to or not: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” The ad leaves only two options: Either you, or a two-thousand-year-old institution that produced the greatest art, theology, philosophy, science, and music the world has ever seen, is correct. Know thyself.
Now don’t mistake my trivialness. This is unprecedented bigotry. It’s been a long time since a specific religion was publicly attacked and defamed in a national newspaper, and they weren’t exactly times of love and tolerance. But the reasons our enemies are foaming at the mouth over the Church are the very reasons we embrace Her. The Church is too pro-life, too ancient, it stands against the modern age — amen, amen, in saecula saeculorum.
So I thank God for the enemies of the Church. With every ugly, classless attempt to end the Eternal Revolution, to persecute the Persecuted Body, and to scorn the Communion of Saints, they remind us of how good, how true, and how beautiful the Bride of Christ is. A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness — somewhat hilariously — cannot comprehend it.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
