Quote:
Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
The entire history of the Catholic church shows quite clearly that Rome will talk a good game about kicking out people who say X or Y, but will only do it if it can seal the deal and burn them at the stake --- literally. Mother Church has learned all too painfully that if you can't silence the critic entirely, eventually he will start sounding sensible and bingo you've lost X% of your membership and 100% of your credibility.
Mark my words --- if Rome moves to excommunicate President Kerry, 40% of the Catholics in churches throughout America will vacate their pews. Good for the Lutherans and Episcopalians, I suppose, but bad for dioceses that still need to pay child abuse settlements. American bishops are begging Rome not to push the excommunication issue, and priests are begging their bishops to communicate that message, too --- they might want to end abortion, but they don't want to end Catholicism in America to accomplish it.
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In other words, a giant "no comment". Hey, y'all are saying its merely a matter of people characterizing themselves. That part about the American church begging the Pope to look-over-there for a few minutes is a perfect explanation of how wrong those self-proclaimed Catholics are. Their names aren't in the Book, whether they cheer for Notre Dame or not. And I doubt that attendance at Mass goes down. These are a good portion of the people who only show up for midnight Mass at Christmas.
On a less hyperbolic note, just like your reasoning about how to get really-the-same-as-gay-marriage (i.e., don't use the term "gay marriage"), my vast experience with an almost entirely Catholic (or self-proclaimed "Catholic) background in Chicago is that 70 or 80% there can be talked into a state's-right view of the issue... just as long as they have the impression that it will be available somewhere. In other words, nobody really has an objection if its banned in Utah and Indiana.
Of course, if that happened, I'm probably moving to Indiana, but that's a topic for another day and another board.
