A growing number of people seem to believe that as long as you claim the label you are as good a Catholic as the Pope.
Some decades ago when I was a priest in the country, I blessed many marriages and generally attended the wedding reception. As a priest my presence was acknowledged and welcomed. I tried to ensure the telegrams and speeches were not too crude; efforts that met with mixed success.
Regularly when tongues were loosened a bit, someone would tell me that he was “a bad Catholic” or “non-practising”. I don’t attend many weddings today but I fear that the “bad Catholic” species is almost extinct. I am not talking about the RCs, the retired Catholics, who have broken with the Church. My subjects are those other RCs, who are resting or relaxed.
What seems to be new is that so few of the resting or relaxed see themselves as “bad” Catholics.
In fact a growing number seem to believe that as long as you claim the label you are as good a Catholic as the Pope!
To begin to understand this development we might run together two truisms.
What is in the cat comes out in the kitten and the anti-religious pressures today, especially in the media and entertainment, are formidably strong.
In other words, if the parents have little idea about faith and moral principles, then their children will be carried further away by the culture. Continue reading
His Eminence, Cardinal George Pell is Archbishop of Sydney. His popular opinion piece features regularly in Sydney’s Telegraph
Image: The Australian
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