Book Review: Papal Teaching on Private Property – 1891 to 1981
This is the type of bullshit that drives me up the wall. Andrew Sullivan is touting this as the reason he stays in the Catholic Church. And as I learn more and more about the world, I have a really hard time reconciling radical leftism and Catholicism. This is a perfect example. That which is being disparaged here, the Institutional Church, (though I may disagree with strongly on some topics) separates the Catholic Church from all other Christian Churches. Even of world religions, only Mormonism (which is not Christian) understands the importance of authority and Institution in the mix with scripture. Sure. Get rid of the pope. And the bishops. And even the priests. Now tell me what is left. My best guess of what it would look like is a shepherd-less flock of heresy, doctrine diluted to secularism (which is what “progressive” Catholics want, after all), and an abrupt relocation of the people closer to hell…
The columnist may have used Flannery O’Connor to justify her anti-Catholicism here, but I raise her one quote:
…what you seem actually to demand is that the Church put the kingdom of heaven on earth right here now, that the Holy Ghost be translated at once into all flesh. The Holy Spirit rarely shows Himself on the surface of anything. You are asking that man return at once to the state God created him in, you are leaving out the terrible radical human pride that causes death. Christ was crucified on earth and the Church is crucified in time…The Church is founded on Peter who denied Christ three times and who couldn’t walk on the water by himself. You are expecting his successors to walk on water. All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful. Priests resist it as well as others. To have the Church be what you want it to be would require the continuous miraculous meddling of God in human affairs…
– Flannery O’Connor
Man I’m pissed. If you don’t believe the Holy Spirit is guiding the hierarchy of this Church, despite the pitfalls of sin, why are you here? There are plenty of churches with sexually active gay clergy, diluted heresy, and other worldly things that you seem to find so attractive; What is keeping you here?
-kj-