When I got to that passage, I quit reading.
We have more in common with other Christians than we have differences, and that part of this article is good. But the author JUST COULD NOT AVOID THE TEMPTATION to be be patronizing and insulting. SO all of his effort at explanation is wasted because of his attitude.
The Catholic Church in the United States has some very distinctive attributes as opposed to the Catholic Church in other countries. In most of the world the Catholic Church is the church of everyone--rich and poor, nobility and peasant, intellectual and simpleton. But in the United States the Catholic Church occupies a very small niche: immigrant, urban, liberal (in the old sense), and very, very, very intellectual--and unfortunately that means snarky. The Church that baptizes totem poles out of compassion for "indigenous pipples" can't seem to tolerate Southern hicks who believe the first eleven chapters of Genesis are as literal and historical as the rest of the Bible.
Nineteenth century liberal Protestant criticism has been adopted as a distinguishing characteristic of Catholic identity, coming right after Mary and the papacy.
I don’t know where you are, but here in Indiana the Church is made up of all ethnic groups and incomes.
My church is heavily “redneck” being in the south central Indiana. We have a priest who is a good teacher, 9 vocations from our parish, and a 24-hour Perpetual Adoration chapel.
I found no one snarky about my Protestant questions when I was in RCIA, and I never have heard a homily about Protestants, except once to explain the Council of Trent.
So I simply cannot relate to your comments as they do not apply to my area.