The Young Turks

After 16 years of combined Catholic and Lutheran education I have personally reached the conclusion that a lot of this stupid social engineering bullshit they try to do misses the forest for the trees.  Privately, several priests I've talked to have admitted as much to me as well, but our illustrious Holy Father would never concede such a thing; he is a hardcore authoritarian, much to the detriment of the faithful, I think.

Today, Martin Sheen spoke at my commencement and delivered a speech that actually moved me to tears about the Catholic values of service that motivated many of us to apply here in the first place.  At one point, in one voice the entire student body delivered thunderous applause and cheers to a remark he made about the arrogance of the nativism many people in this country display in the face of our rising immigration rates.  Given our generally conservative student body, I was really impressed.

There is much that is highly admirable about our faith, its traditions, its history and the hierarchy which actually does get some really fantastic work done.  There is also much that is backwards and sometimes downright revolting (c.f. the priest abuse scandals).  While we might really enjoy celebrating the comparative lack of intellectual arrogance displayed by the Catholic Church (at least historically) compared to some of the most visible Protestant ones, let's not lose sight of the mission progressive Catholics have to work to change the Church for the better.

Go Irish!