Replies

" (and yes, Kolokotronis, I know you're Orthodox)"

Then why, pray tell, did you feel compelled to extend your rant to me? I have zero sympathy for anti-Roman Catholicism.

"During my six years in the Catholic Church I often felt like an orphan because there was nothing culturally familiar to hold on to"

You didn't hang around long enough to understand that while the various Catholic ethnicities you mention seem to and do predominate in the Church, nevertheless, "In Christ there is no East nor West, no Greek nor Jew." For a convert to be a Roman Catholic, like to become Orthodox, requires a transformation of one's very being, a change of the "nous". It isn't simply changing denominations and it is, I am told, a very hard thing to accomplish. I've been told time and again that "You cradle Orthodox had it easy. You were born this way." I suspect that's true. Changing your being, not simply your mind or the way you cross yourself, changing the way you look at the world so that you attain a Catholic or Orthodox mindset, or world view (which is most certainly not an American protestant world view, as Pyro points out)doesn't happen over night.

"Why was a simple-minded Belgian peasant so much dearer to G-d (at least as implied by the Catholic Church) than a simple-minded rural Southeastern redneck?" and then "What is the connection between Father Raymond Brown and Juan Diego? Between Hans Urs von Balthazar or Karl Rahner and the illiterate peasants of Brittany or the Indians of Bolivia? What is it? What am I missing here?"

The Faith...quite simple actually. By the way, the "simple minded" Belgian, or Greek or Breton peasant or an Indian of Bolivia or a tribesman in Ghana or Uganda will probably make it to heaven long before those of us who pretend to know will. The Church has always taught that. It is one reason why the Ladder of Divine Ascent shows a bishop pitching head first into the Pit and the Pope is known as "The servant of the servants of God" and the EP as "His Modesty".

What are you missing? Perhaps humility? You should go back and try again.

"(and yes, Kolokotronis, I know you're Orthodox)"

Then why, pray tell, did you feel compelled to extend your rant to me? I have zero sympathy for anti-Roman Catholicism.

My profoundest apologies. I pinged you because as a member of an ancient liturgical church you have a similar perspective from which you can comment and also assumed (forgive me) that Orthodox tend to be very anti-Catholic. Rest assured I shall ping you no more.

The Faith...quite simple actually. By the way, the "simple minded" Belgian, or Greek or Breton peasant or an Indian of Bolivia or a tribesman in Ghana or Uganda will probably make it to heaven long before those of us who pretend to know will. The Church has always taught that. It is one reason why the Ladder of Divine Ascent shows a bishop pitching head first into the Pit and the Pope is known as "The servant of the servants of God" and the EP as "His Modesty".

So the rednecks aren't among all these wonderful peoples why? Because we're all reincarnations of wicked people from other cultures shut out of Heaven and G-d is punishing us by making us a people everyone else hates and looks down on?

What are you missing? Perhaps humility? You should go back and try again.

Of course. People like me who question why the apparitions of Guadalupe or Knock or Fatima are enthusiastically endorsed while Noah's Flood or the parting of the Red Sea are "myths" are just slopping over with arrogance. We all deserve to go to Hell for being born into the Bible Belt rather than Brittany or Portugal.

I'm sorry, but I'll never be "humble" enough to accept the Raymond Browns, Karl Rahners, and Teilhard de Chardins of the world. If that makes me arrogant then so be it. And by the way, you're hardly a paragon of humility yourself--or perhaps you only seem arrogant from the benighted "redneck" perspective?