Also, I recently had an interesting discussion with Bud Macfarlane, the author of this article, and he had read this thread and asked me to pass along the following comments:
Message From Bud MacfarlaneI was told about your discussion of my article, "Our Lady Weeps: the V-Monologues Comes to Notre Dame," and I've truly enjoyed reading your comments. I especially admire the intelligence and charity in which you carry on your discussion. Here are a few of my own comments:
1. A couple of months ago, before I heard about the Monologues coming to ND, my wife Bai started a group for ND Alumni called the Notre Dame Society. Our mission is to help support devout students on campus who are doing positive things for the faith. The network has grown very quickly, and we've set up a core group of students to keep us informed and let us know what they need. It seems like a few of you Freepers are our kind of ND alums, and would want to get involved. If so, email Rachel Richmond (ND '00) and she'll plug you in. No money involved: it's all done through the Net. E-mail here
2. Yes, ND76 was right that the ND Law School and Architecture schools are still solid (though Ave Maria School of Law, which I've been involved with, is going to run rings around it eventually. The faculty is cream of the crop and their first students are choosing Ave Maria over ND Law and UVA Law, I hear, and have the LSATs to get into just about anywhere). But I would send my sons to ND Law or Architecture. And yes, Texas A&M is a good school with one of the best Newman Centers in the country.
3. FYI: Practicing--and I emphasize "practicing"--Catholics (25% of the U.S. population are baptized Catholics) tend to vote conservative in large percentages. Bush pulled 10% more of the Catholic vote than did Dole--the single largest demographic shift in large voting blocks from 1996 to 2000--and the margin of victory. Deal Hudson of Crisis Magazine helped Bush realize that Republicans can't win without getting the Catholic vote. Whether you like Bush or not is besides the point: pray for the Catholic counter-revolution to triumph. Unfortunatley, only 40% of baptized Catholics actually attend Mass regularly. If that can go to 60%, the whole political landscape will shift in the U.S. dramatically and permanently. The Depression Era FDR Catholic Democrat is dying off, finally, so every new devout Catholic means a conservative vote. Aslan: let's roll!
Thanks. Keep fighting the good fight.
Bud Macfarlane Jr., MI
You can visit Bud's website at www.catholicity.com