Read on Twitter
1/ I have thoughts about #antiCatholicism. Do you mind if I share? I don& #39;t dispute that there is anti-Catholicism as much as one can find anti-anything in an ugly, polarized world.
But I do have doubts that anti-Catholicism as a force worth noting in our world at all.
But I do have doubts that anti-Catholicism as a force worth noting in our world at all.
2/ First, it& #39;s hard to be a victim as the hegemon. #Catholics are the largest group of religious believers in the US, still. We also have outsized social and cultural influence. Maybe some of that depends on & #39;what kind of #Catholic& #39; you are. But now here comes my point.
3/ I was & #39;the #Catholic faculty member& #39; on a public university campus in the South for a decade and a half. Do you know how much anti- #Catholic prejudice I encountered?
So much that they gave me extra funding for plainly Catholic research topics.
So much that they gave me extra funding for plainly Catholic research topics.
4/ There was a secret to how I avoided #antiCatholic prejudice. Would you like to know it?
I never behaved as if the non- #Catholic world owed me anything. I never reminded people I was Catholic (except, I hope, with caritas et amor).
I never behaved as if the non- #Catholic world owed me anything. I never reminded people I was Catholic (except, I hope, with caritas et amor).
5/ Now let& #39;s reflect on the public witness of #Catholicism during the last five decades.
We& #39;ve behaved like a hardball pressure group, lobbying and trying to move election outcomes.
We& #39;ve told the world they& #39;re just wrong about almost everything.
We& #39;ve behaved like a hardball pressure group, lobbying and trying to move election outcomes.
We& #39;ve told the world they& #39;re just wrong about almost everything.
6/ We& #39;ve tried to deny healthcare and employment based on sexuality.
We& #39;ve claimed to be victims over and over.
And all that has happened while minimizing how the church has victimized... you don& #39;t need the list.
We do not come off as very honest or sympathetic.
We& #39;ve claimed to be victims over and over.
And all that has happened while minimizing how the church has victimized... you don& #39;t need the list.
We do not come off as very honest or sympathetic.
7/ I think here of something Abp Charles Chaput wrote in his 2008 book--"Catholics...too often stay silent out of a misguided sense of good manners."
Would that it were so! Let #Catholics be so misguided as to have good manners!
Would that it were so! Let #Catholics be so misguided as to have good manners!
8/ My guess is that the sorts of #Catholics +Chaput and others hope for are the ones encountering what seems to them like anti- #Catholicism.
There are other #Catholics who never encounter it for some reason. But I don& #39;t think it& #39;s because we& #39;re not public abt our faith.
There are other #Catholics who never encounter it for some reason. But I don& #39;t think it& #39;s because we& #39;re not public abt our faith.
9/ Neither do I think it& #39;s because we shrink from the challenges that faith in public life presents.
But I do think there is a lot to be said for good manners. Maybe there would be less & #39;anti- #Catholicism& #39; if more #Catholics remembered that.
But I do think there is a lot to be said for good manners. Maybe there would be less & #39;anti- #Catholicism& #39; if more #Catholics remembered that.
