Why Catholics Are Right

[OnlyNatural]

This is an excerpt from a book called 'Why Catholics are Right,' saw it in the newspaper this morning. If this is the one excerpt chosen to support the book's claim, then wow... pathetic. Just pathetic.

I thought I'd let you guys take a look, perhaps pick it apart. It certainly merits that. If he thinks whining about anti-Catholic attitudes is the best defense for his faith, that's just an epic fail.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Catholi...story.html

The importance of Catholicism is that in a culture where various forms of religious and atheistic fundamentalism, crass materialism and clawing decadence eat away at civility and civilization the only permanent, consistent, and logically complete alternative is the Roman Catholic Church.

That's about the only 'evidence' given for why Catholics are right. And then the whining begins:

Anti-Catholicism attacks and criticism...These days, tragically, the Catholic clergy abuse scandal is thrown in somewhere [Is he saying the tragedy is that people keep harping on it??]. It has to be discussed, but it has to be discussed honestly and accurately. The rest of the punches thrown at the Catholic body? The Church was nasty to Galileo, the Church tried to convert Muslims and the Crusades were horrible, Hitler was a Catholic and the Pope was a Nazi, the Inquisition slaughtered millions of people, the Church is rich and does nothing for the poor, children were abused and the Vatican knew about it all and did nothing, celibacy leads to perversion, Catholics worship statues, Catholics believe the Pope is infallible and can never do anything wrong, and so on and so on and so on.

It's all nonsense -yet it's nonsense that is given a veneer of credibility by thinking people who shape opinion, which, again, makes the Church unique in the 21st century as a victim institution.

And this last quote, below, is just priceless. I can't believe he thinks the two situations are equal. By desecrating a Holocaust memorial, you're disrespecting millions of actual innocent lives lost. But by desecrating some communion wafers? You're disrespecting an entity that almost certainly doesn't exist except in your collective delusions! Tragic real-life facts are NOT the same as personal beliefs that are unsupported by evidence, no matter how deeply they are held.

"As Catholics, we believe the host is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. Witnessing the desecration of the host [on YouTube] causes anguish to Catholics all over the world. In the past, YouTube has removed videos offensive to Jews and members of other religions, including one showing a teenager urinating on a Holocaust memorial. Why can't Catholics be afforded the same respect for our deeply held beliefs?"

[Rev. Rye]

This brings me to the anti-Catholicism that has become the last acceptable prejudice in what passes for polite society and has become so obvious and so pronounced that to even repeat the fact seems almost banal.

Seriously? And anti-Hispanic prejudice isn't still alive and well in this day and age, even by politicians? Hell, what about fat people, smokers, pedophiles, Arabs, naturists, intellectuals, Germans, Canadians, Nazis, PeTA, transsexuals, Papparazzi, southerners, mormons, atheists, Scientologists, pagans, satanists, and people from New Jersey? And that's just what I came up with on the top of my head.

Very few people dislike Catholicism because of its theology, but many oppose it because of the moral and ethical consequences of its teachings.

And that actually seems like a good reason to oppose it. Do people hate Nazis because of the inconsistencies in its doctrine? No, they hate it because it leads to genocide.

In spite of that, in 2008 the Internet video-sharing website YouTube hosted 40 videos showing the graphic desecration of the consecrated host. They had been posted by an anti-Catholic activist who was seen burning, nailing and stapling the Eucharist and flushing it down a toilet.

How graphic can it be? It's a fucking cracker. Would they react the same way if he did the same to, say, a saltine cracker?

but I have lost jobs in media because of my Catholic belief that, for example, life begins at conception and that marriage can only be between one man and one woman. Being part Jewish, on the other hand, has positively helped me in my career, whereas my serious Catholicism has led to at least two firings and many doors in media being closed.

Why do I get the feeling there's something he's not telling us?

It has to be discussed, but it has to be discussed honestly and accurately. The rest of the punches thrown at the Catholic body? The Church was nasty to Galileo, the Church tried to convert Muslims and the Crusades were horrible, Hitler was a Catholic and the Pope was a Nazi, the Inquisition slaughtered millions of people, the Church is rich and does nothing for the poor, children were abused and the Vatican knew about it all and did nothing, celibacy leads to perversion, Catholics worship statues, Catholics believe the Pope is infallible and can never do anything wrong, and so on and so on and so on.

All right:
Church was bad to Galileo- Yeah, but at least they did change their minds, thus undermining his claim that the Church is unchanging.
The crusades were horrible- Considering that it was pretty much an attempt by the church to claim Jerusalem for their own, and that by the end, everybody, the Church in particular, ended up looking bad.
Hitler was a Catholic- He was certainly raised one and claimed to be one, but, evidently, it didn't do him much good.
Pope was a Nazi-If they're talking about Benedict, he was certainly in the Hitler Youth, just like every other kid in his age cohort, and the fact that he was with one destructive ideology shouldn't be lumped into the things he did with another destructive ideology. If we're talking about the problems with the popes between 1933 and 1945, even I will admit there's some grey area: remember that the Vatican was completely surrounded by one of Hitler's main allies.
The church does nothing for the poor- I will admit that the Church does help the poor; admittedly, it is the only thing me and the Church agree upon socially.
The vatican did nothing about child abuse- No, for the record, I do not consider simply reassigning pedophiles to places where they will still have access to children to be a good one. If they can send Jacques Gaillot to a diocese that doesn't even exist for being too liberal, just giving pedophiles a change of scenery seems to be a very stupid move.
Celibacy leads to perversion- I'm just going by what I see: If you want to be celibate, then power to you. If celibacy is forced, it will not work. Desire can only be restrained when it is weak enough to be restrained, as Blake said.
Catholics worship statues, and the Pope is infallible- Even I can assume that the statues are a convenient enough focal point for prayer, and that papal infallibility is only on very rare occasions.

[Rainydays]

Ok yeah, not a very telling story I admit. Preaching to the choir I suspect.

Anti Catholic sentiments are not entirely unjustified. They have a lot of political power and the pope tries to force outdated ideas on people after all. Then there's the disproportionate amount of Catholics that were/ (are?) antisemitical.

It would be better to modernize the church and not whine about the past wrongs and defend them, but I'm sure you agree.

[DeistPaladin]

...because their women are hot and you can do as you like as long as you tell someone.

Oh, wait, that's not a reason to think a religion is "right", is it?

[reverendjeremiah]

This brings me to the anti-Catholicism that has become the last acceptable prejudice in what passes for polite society and has become so obvious and so pronounced that to even repeat the fact seems almost banal.

Lets see him tell everyone he knows and works with that he is an atheist ..and then see what he writes about REAL persecution afterwards.

[Minimalist]

...because their women are hot and you can do as you like as long as you tell someone.

You'll be wanting to get those eyes checked, D-P!

[DeistPaladin]

You'll be wanting to get those eyes checked, D-P!

Maybe I've just known some unusual ones.

[Cinjin]

Boo-fuckin-hooo
The almighty Catholic church is taking criticism and its finally become a little uncomfortable for them.

I wonder how uncomfortable the victims of the Spanish Inquisition were, or perhaps those children who will bear the mental scars their priest gave to them for years to come?

Yeah, I'm real fuckin sorry you don't like the way your church is viewed in today's modern world. Let us all get right on that for you and see if we can't get things back to those golden years we've all come to know as the fucking Dark Ages! Who doesn't miss the weekly floggings, the torture, the child rape, and don't forget about the years of slaughter during the crusades!? It was just SOOO much easier to victimize the world back then.




Oh, but since you admitted it and said you're sorry ... no problem, everybody slips up now and then.

[Doubting Thomas]

You'll be wanting to get those eyes checked, D-P!

I don't know, that second one in line doesn't look too bad. And my wife is Catholic and I think she's hot.

But the one thing you have to remember is that if you get her pregnant, it will be hard to talk her out of keeping it.

[thesummerqueen]

"As Catholics, we believe the host is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. Witnessing the desecration of the host [on YouTube] causes anguish to Catholics all over the world. In the past, YouTube has removed videos offensive to Jews and members of other religions, including one showing a teenager urinating on a Holocaust memorial. Why can't Catholics be afforded the same respect for our deeply held beliefs?"

When you own the media, you get to do whatever the hell you want. Thems the rules, sucker.

Call it payback.