You wrote:
“Maybe, but it’s his intellect that gets airplay, not his saintliness.”
I dunno, after all, he’s called SAINT Thomas Aquinas and not THE INTELLECT Thomas Aquinas.
“As I said, in the USA the Catholic Church is the “thinking man’s church.” By definition that excludes most people and thus forfeits the title of “catholic.””
Sorry, but that makes no sense. If someone calls the Catholic faith the “thinking man’s church” that doesn’t mean those who are not educated or are not thinkers are excluded. Think of how many of the poor, poorly educated and illiterate were devout Christians throughout the ages. Are they suddenly not Christian at all? Are they suddenly not Catholic Church members?
Judaism is known for its intellectualism, Talmudic studies, questioning, etc. Yet we know that not all Jews are thinkers or intellectuals.
For some reason you seem to have missed a very important point I thought I had made. Genuine bumpkins exist in the Catholic Church by the thousands, but only because their ancestors were converted 1700 years ago. That is the only kind of Catholic bumpkin in existence. To be a Catholic bumpkin, one must be born one. On the other hand, to enter the Catholic Church, one must be an intellectual.
Judaism is known for its intellectualism, Talmudic studies, questioning, etc. Yet we know that not all Jews are thinkers or intellectuals.
The study of Torah is a commandment.
Chr*stianity simply has nothing complementary to Torah study. Torah is from Heaven, chr*stian intellectualism is from Greece and Rome.