"Where's the Rage, Catholic Men?"

Thanks to Margaret for sending Rod Dreher's column at DMN, Feb. 8:

.... "I loathe cruelty and injustice," Teddy Roosevelt once wrote to a friend. "To see a boy or man torture something helpless whether in the shape of a small boy or little girl or dumb animal makes me rage." It's fine to be conventionally virtuous, he said, but if these qualities are unsupported by "something more virile, they may tend to evil rather than good."

"The man who merely possesses these traits, and in addition is timid and shirks effort, attracts and deserves a good deal of contempt," wrote Mr. Roosevelt.

By that chivalrous understanding of manhood, we Catholic men – bishops, priests and laymen – are a pretty contemptible lot these days....

"In all times the laity have been the measure of the Catholic spirit; they saved the Irish Church three centuries ago and they betrayed the Church in England," said the great Cardinal Newman. By that standard, the American Catholic spirit is passive and demoralized. We cannot let this stand. The church, if it is to be saved, will not be delivered, in the main, by today's clergy.

I used to think it'd be great if my boys grew up to be priests. Now I'd rather they joined the U.S. Marines: men with chests, men with backbones, men who know evil when they see it, and who aren't afraid to fight. I am privileged to count a few priests like that as friends. They are true warriors of faith. They are also truly rare....

The Newman quotation is from Duties of Catholics Towards the Protestant View in Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England.

It was also quoted by Fr. C. John McCloskey in Laity, Priests, and Holiness.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 02/10/05 09:08:47 PM
Categorized as Religious.