Fr Longenecker has just observed something which I first came to experience over 30 years ago: As I travel around the country visiting parishes and speaking at conferences I am constantly amazed at the reality of two separate Catholic churches existing together with practically no conversation between them. On the one hand we have what might be called the American Liberal Catholic Elite. They occupy most of the academic institutions. They have their own East Coast publishing houses, and universities with prestigious reputations. They write papers and award one another with honorary degrees and talk a lot about helping immigrants. In fact they don’t really talk about much of anything other than that and, of course, being kind to homosexual people and people who are divorced and remarried and so forth. They do their theological writing and research and further their academic careers. They also pretty much dominate the hierarchy–most of whom are men from the same elitist backgro

Benedict XVI once wrote on the Parable of the Sower and the Seed: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart; this is what was sown along the path.” Our Lord reminds us here that His teaching on the Kingdom of God in its fullness remains fruitless for those who see the Kingdom as merely an earthly kingdom, having rejected its supernatural dimension. This seed bears no fruit, and its fate is the spiritual fate of the hearer. What the Sisters of Notre Dame DeNamur taught me in my formative years was that there was more to my existence than things temporal, challenging me to work toward holiness and the salvation of my soul Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam   that I might enjoy happiness with Him forever. Here is the lastest example of furuitlessness: Outlook  Perspective Evangelicals and Catholics made their peace. Catholics are paying the price. Some have begun to realize they traded ortho