Everything stops at the church door. Fine, I admit it. I'm a politically conservative Catholic, so I'm inclined to agree with Dolan at the level of the political anyway, and tell these fascists to can it. But it doesn't really matter. If they were angry pro-lifers (even though that's an infinitely more worthy cause) WE DON'T BRING POLITICS TO MASS! Why is this hard?
I don't know what you are doing, but when I enter the church, nothing else matters. I won't even talk to you unless you make me. One of the things I love about the Church is that one is generally expected to be quiet in sacred spaces. I was used to noise in the sanctuary in my protesting days, but I didn't like it. The other day, the priest told people to be quiet in the sanctuary; I was so happy.
That's supposed to be one of the theological advantages the Church has over other Christian communities. (Yes, I intentionally phrased it that way to annoy you. Maybe you'll think critically about the definition of "Church," and stop pretending that a few nice words in my direction makes up for the rebellion of the 16th century. In addition, if you believe exactly as your theological forefathers did, nice words, while much appreciated, don't really make you less of a protestor, or less wrong. I'm willing to make the sacrifice in your opinion of me as an un-ecumenical scumbag or whatever, just so you know the truth of the matter. And no, Vatican II didn't really change anything, despite what some culpably ignorant leaders of yours may have said. It's all very clear in the Catechism, so I'll leave it there. Rant over.)
But Catholics are good at ignoring what the Church actually teaches, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But isn't it sad when people expect the household of God to be just another human institution? Isn't that worse than the politics? To think that this is all politics?
I don't know what you are doing, but when I enter the church, nothing else matters. I won't even talk to you unless you make me. One of the things I love about the Church is that one is generally expected to be quiet in sacred spaces. I was used to noise in the sanctuary in my protesting days, but I didn't like it. The other day, the priest told people to be quiet in the sanctuary; I was so happy.
That's supposed to be one of the theological advantages the Church has over other Christian communities. (Yes, I intentionally phrased it that way to annoy you. Maybe you'll think critically about the definition of "Church," and stop pretending that a few nice words in my direction makes up for the rebellion of the 16th century. In addition, if you believe exactly as your theological forefathers did, nice words, while much appreciated, don't really make you less of a protestor, or less wrong. I'm willing to make the sacrifice in your opinion of me as an un-ecumenical scumbag or whatever, just so you know the truth of the matter. And no, Vatican II didn't really change anything, despite what some culpably ignorant leaders of yours may have said. It's all very clear in the Catechism, so I'll leave it there. Rant over.)
But Catholics are good at ignoring what the Church actually teaches, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But isn't it sad when people expect the household of God to be just another human institution? Isn't that worse than the politics? To think that this is all politics?
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