It's making the rounds, so I'll put it here. David Kubiak comments on Mel Gibson's interview at Open Book:
I have always believed: that there is a certain kind of Catholic (mostly male and mostly heterosexual), acutely aware of his own sinfulness, for whom AmChurch will just never get the job done. If there had been no old rite to come back to I think Gibson would have jumped out that window he talked about. There should be much to ponder in this phenomenon for the leaders of our Church. The kind of Catholicism that brought a Hollywood superstar to his knees does not include Fr. Bob and his Eucharistic harem.David's pithy reference to the Permanent-But-Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist aside, he's right. What happens when a man in this condition sees Fr. Mulcahy flanked by two altar girls and five members of the Ladies' Priesthood Auxiliary Society, after having delivered a seven-minute homily which attempts to immanentize the velveteen rabbit's eschaton amidst a fountain of gush about God's soft, complete and nonjudgmental niceness? The man will do one of three things:
A). Conclude there's no way this religion could redeem someone like him.Do you know what men need? They need to do what Robert DeNiro's character in The Mission did -- something strenuous, and cathartic, penitential, and utterly challenging. They need to have the faith Jeremy Irons' character in The Mission had -- so totally and utterly Catholic that they'd march straight into bullets for it. There's gonna be a lot of unhappy men who, having watched The Passion, find themselves back among the altar girls listening to gender-inclusive Scripture readings and invitations to "reflect, this Lent, on how we might be more open to God's calling." If you want a preview of what's going to happen go start your car, leave it in park, and redline the engine.
B). Conclude that redemption is, however unlikely, not something worth bothering about.
C). Look at his watch.
D). All of the above.
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