We just happen to be Catholics, right?
Does it make any difference what we are?
Does being Catholic really, ultimately, mean much of anything?
“So the power of deception, which is over others’ minds (symbolised by the invisibility given by the Ring), is an essential component to the power over others’ bodies and lives and actions. Machiavelli and Hitler both understood that principle, that’s why they knew that propaganda was an essential part of war. The evil empire that controls modern world media knows that too, though its aim is not political conquest (like Machiavelli) or military conquest (like Hitler) but the far more apocalyptic spiritual and religious conquest of conscience, of soul.”
— Peter Kreeft, The Philosophy of Tolkien (Ignatius Press, 2005), 181.
We live in a world of “just-happens-to-be.”
That is, this man just happens to be a Mormon.
That woman with the veil happens to be a Muslim.
The man next door is a Baptist, and my boss says that he just happens to be an atheist.
That young man is Chinese; the taxi-driver is from Ethiopia.
My nurse is Russian, my doctor Irish, and my favorite restaurant just happens to be Italian.
The fullback is black, the CEO is Japanese, and the man who mows my yard just happens to be from El Salvador.
And we just happen to be Catholics, right?
Does it make any difference what we are?
We are, after all, supposed to get along together, no matter what we hold.
No “hate language” is allowed. Everyone loves peace. We are not to bother anyone in his “beliefs”.
We are to tolerate most everything. Continue reading
- James V. Schall, S.J. in The Catholic World Report
James V. Schall, S.J. taught political philosophy at Georgetown University until recently retiring.