Thursday, October 20, 2011

Occupy the Catholic Church?

Scott Richert on those who would subvert the Church.
I very rarely comment on the bad aspects of other Catholic publications. I'd rather focus on the positive things to be found in each than on the ways they might contradict or subvert Catholic teaching. That's why, for instance, I occasionally cite or discuss John Allen's columns in the National Catholic Reporter (Allen is perhaps the best Rome correspondent employed by any English-language Catholic newspaper), but keep my silence about the rest of that publication.

But every once in a while, a publication runs something so monumentally stupid that it would be wrong not to say anything. That is the case with a blog post on "In All Things," the group blog of America, the Catholic weekly run by the Jesuits.

The post, entitled, "What If 'Occupy Wall Street' Could Be Attempted in the Catholic Church?", was written by Tom Beaudoin, a Boston College Ph.D. who is an associate professor of theology in the Graduate School of Religion at Fordham University, where (according to his website Rock and Theology—that's rock music, by the way, not Peter or the rock of our faith), "he teaches courses in practice-based theologies." The Jesuits used to understand that "practice-based theologies" is redundant; any true theology implies practice. Of course, that's not really what Professor Beaudoin means by this awkward phrase. (Read entire article.)
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2 comments:

anothertwocents said...

On what grounds do you and Mr. Richert assert that occupying troubled institutions is a "secular" phenomenon?

Did Jesus not cleanse the temple of money-changers with a bullwhip?

Is it not more Christ-like to agitate forcefully for the end abuses in the church rather than look the other way and let people get hurt, as did the cowardly John Paul II who either knew or didn't want to know about the abuse problem right up to Legionaries of Christ founder?

Occupying chancelleries would have saved the Roman church billions and much credibility.

Nancy Reyes said...

sounds a bit silly...most of the "OWS" types are white liberals...not the poor.

I once heard a talk by a Holy Nun, who when asked how we believers could help the catholic church survive the tidal wave of sin and scandal, and she said: become a saint.