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1/ I have thoughts about #antiCatholicism. Do you mind if I share? I don'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'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 'what kind of #Catholic' you are. But now here comes my point.
3/ I was 'the #Catholic faculty member' 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's reflect on the public witness of #Catholicism during the last five decades.
We've behaved like a hardball pressure group, lobbying and trying to move election outcomes.
We've told the world they're just wrong about almost everything.
We've behaved like a hardball pressure group, lobbying and trying to move election outcomes.
We've told the world they're just wrong about almost everything.
6/ We've tried to deny healthcare and employment based on sexuality.
We've claimed to be victims over and over.
And all that has happened while minimizing how the church has victimized... you don't need the list.
We do not come off as very honest or sympathetic.
We've claimed to be victims over and over.
And all that has happened while minimizing how the church has victimized... you don'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't think it's because we're not public abt our faith.
There are other #Catholics who never encounter it for some reason. But I don't think it's because we're not public abt our faith.
9/ Neither do I think it'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 'anti- #Catholicism' if more #Catholics remembered that.
But I do think there is a lot to be said for good manners. Maybe there would be less 'anti- #Catholicism' if more #Catholics remembered that.
