As Catholic as you wanna be

I just read in the journal First Things, that a local Florida university of the Roman Catholic Church, Ave Maria University will be having an entire conference devoted to the key moral encyclical Humanae Vitae. This key moral encyclical is, in many ways, a litmus test for TRUE Catholic cultural identity (sadly, quite different from Post-Vatican II institutional identity as mired as it is in Jesuit homosexual priests, pluralist Religious Studies faculty at places like Marquette, etc.). So, although $50 for the registration fee, and myself as an "annulled" Catholic (liberal Catholic annulment granted, not by my decision), I will try to make it down there to Naples, Florida in order to help 're-build' Catholic culture.

So, what does it TRULY mean to be Catholic?

Like I just wrote, supposedly "Catholic" professors favor everything from abortion, physician-assisted suicide to even occasionally practicing Buddhism if it strikes their fancy.

Similarly, since parts of Catholic Higher Education essentially adopt a gnostic position regarding salvation (especially the Jesuits for some reason . . .), we can no longer go the direction of Thomas Aquinas and equate faithful ecclesial leadership with how many degrees that are loaded behind one's name (I have three and half by the way . . . two masters degrees from Duke, a bachelor's in religion from #9 Davidson College and 3 years of PhD studies including a semester of dissertation research from Notre Dame). Instead, prior to Thomas Aquinas, and still much the case in Eastern Rite Catholicism (Melkites), perhaps ecclesial leadership should be based in a "mentorship" model. Yes, a baseline M.Div. should be necessary, but after that, as our Jesuit lavender mafia demonstrates (to borrow Richard John Neuhaus's useful caricature of contemporary Jesuit institutional identity), "more academic degrees" is actually proving harmful more than helpful to the life of the Church. I guess that St. Augustine was correct in arguing that pride is the root of all vice. Ph.D. studies generally promote pride, and the full Ph.D. generally destines many a Catholic (and Protestant) soul to equal numbers of years in purgatory as years spent in one's "flourishing academic career."

So, in conclusion, in standing up for our rights as Catholics, let us not only confront the secularist without, but let us also begin house-cleaning within. For me, this meant leaving the Ph.D. program at Notre Dame (and subsequently shaving at least 40 years of time in purgatory, I'm sure :-).

Love in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Heretic-Hunter Extraordinaire