Like you needed to hear it again--

[katycarl]

here's our challenge, here's the gauntlet thrown down:

insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4151&Itemid=48

[syme]

Hey, I'm BA-ACK!

Good link, katy. It was a good read and a necessary (though not really unique) call to arms, but I do think the writer expresses his point too strongly -- to the point of caricature, I mean.

Especially when he says (even if it's a quote):

Catholic enclavists "have gone off into the woods to create a happy and comforting little Catholic world, well insulated from Outside. The kids are homeschooled, the women commonly wear the trademark shapeless plaid jumper/white t-shirt and sneakers combo, the men work at home, the books on the shelves are all from Ignatius or Angelus press, the jokes are clean and not very funny, conversation is always holy, the horrors of the squelching, seething pornographic world Outside are clucked at primly and the introduction of ironic humour is a wild and somewhat scandalous sensation."

Seriously, I'd be surprised if there was ANYONE like that. I know a disproportionate number of conservative Catholics and I don't know any like that. The Catholics I know may buy books from Ignatius in the sense they will read Ratzinger and Von Balthasar over Hans Kung (thank God!) or Karl Rahner (more debatable), but both of the former are quite as challenging as the latter, and deeply interested in the world. More importantly, it is only when it comes to those sorts of books that they buy Ignatius -- since they prefer right reason over kookiness -- but they also read just about anything good that anyone else would read, listen to all sorts of music, wear regular clothes, go to the movies, etc. The seminarians I know love watching Family Guy and even South Park. Etc., etc., etc. Sometimes it seems to me that certain Catholics who are interested in the world, feeling perhaps inadequate before their secular peers because their faith isn't what the world accepts as innovative and avant garde, comfort themselves by putting down their co-religionists by means of straw men.

Well, I'm being too negative about the article here -- it does have many good points, but I do think writers should avoid these caricatures in their articles.

[katycarl]

Hurrah, welcome back!

Dinner is imminent here at my in-laws', but I do have responses and intend to post them soon....