Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Ignorance

Never underestimate the desire of Catholics to remain ignorant.  Someone(s) told me that.  I used to run a religious book store that a had all kinds of classics, and up to date books on Catholic and non-Catholic paths.  We had a few religious articles too.  The store just could not turn a profit.  Now, the same space has a few books and lots of religious articles/things/baubles and it is doing quite well.  Most Catholics prefer shiny stuff rather than learning.  They prefer their leaders just to tell them what to do.  These unread people get all upset when they hear bishops disagreeing.  "What am I supposed to believe, or do?" they anxiously ask.  Well, if such people had been better educated and a more inquiring mind, they would know history.  Bishops disagree.  It is the way of religion.  We worship God and not the Catholic Church.  We are an imperfect group who because of our own prejudices, can only approximate what God wishes.  We know little, but in our worse moments, profess to know all.  All religions seem to make a common mistake, and in this we are all alike.  They profess to be too right, and everyone else too wrong.

4 comments:

  1. One of my favorite books is "Lamy of Santa Fe" by Paul Horgan which received a Pulitzer Prize in history.Remarkable people lived in those days, holy men or not. The chapter on Lamy's { first bishop of Santa Fe} trip to Rome to attend a session on the infallibility of the pope is not only educational but very amusing---the arguments amongst the bishops almost lead to fisticuffs in some cases and being ejected from meetings in others. Lamy was an interested bystander.I highly recommend this book mostly because of the feats accomplished in spite of great distances in the West and hardships endured that were just a matter of life at that time. This man was a real hero who traveled thousands of miles on horseback or more commonly on the back of a donkey to fulfill his missions. Not your run of the mill biography.

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  2. Well perhaps you might suggest a few books that we ignorant catholics shoud read.

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  3. Try America Magazine and Commonweal Magazine for starters and their books reviews.

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