Picture ~ St. Perpetua

Freedom from Catholicism

I know a young man who is heartbroken and devastated because his fiancée’s Catholic mother informed her daughter she would absolutely refuse to attend their wedding unless the couple agreed to use contraception.

“I raised an intelligent, independent daughter,” this woman insisted, “smart enough to get into [a prominent Ivy League School]. That daughter should be smart enough not to become enslaved to the rules of a bunch of old celibate white guys wearing dresses in Rome.”

As for “celibate,” well, I’ll give her that. But criticizing people who take advice from celibate priests in Rome about sex is like criticizing people who take advice from Tibetan monks about consumerism.

Do people say: “Hey, how can you take advice from that Buddhist monk in Tibet about shopping; he doesn’t ever even go to the shopping mall”? No, they don’t. Why not?

Well, because anti-Catholicism is one of the last acceptable prejudices in the country.

Things people would never dream of saying about other groups, they’ll say without reserve about Catholics.

And a degree of ignorance that would be downright embarrassing in other contexts – on the level of: “But don’t all black people eat watermelon?” — will cause no public embarrassment whatsoever when the ignorant comment is about Catholics and Catholicism.

Read more at Freedom from Catholicism.