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 Off the Record

dancing in the end zone

By Diogenes (articles ) | April 09, 2010 5:53 PM

Simply put, what Rome says no longer matters.
Boston Globe editorials have been making that argument for decades. But now the Globe has found a new mouthpiece: an ordinarily intelligent Boston University professor, Andrew Bacevich, who specializes in international relations. It shows:
If Wall Street rules applied, the Catholic Church would today be filing for Chapter 11 protection while fending off an Anglican takeover bid — depending on your point of view, a delicious or ironic prospect.
Anybody who has followed religious affairs over the past decade will scratch his head over that sentence. Catholic dioceses are filing for Chapter 11 (bankruptcy) protection, and the Anglican communion is a takeover target. But the Bacevich column isn't really an analysis of facts. It's a proclamation.

The collapse of Christendom — the concept of a secular order based on Christian precepts — is now fully complete. So too is the triumph of modernity.

Writing about the storm of criticism loosed against the Church, Bacevich says that Easter Sunday was a "joyless occasion" this year. Yet the tone of his column is remarkably upbeat. The collapse of Church authority, he says, is "something that serious Catholics should relish." The Globe relishes it, anyway.  

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Show 3 Comments? (Hidden)Hide Comments
  • Posted by: wolfdavef3415 - Apr. 10, 2010 3:17 AM ET USA

    http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=5071820 "Youth swimming coaches, many certified by USA Swimming, the sport's national governing body, have been able to molest young swimmers and then move from town to town, escaping criminal charges and continuing to victimize other under-aged swimmers, an ESPN "Outside the Lines" investigation has found." Is this organization going to fold also? Will the Olympics be a 'joyless occasion' if an American swimmer wins Gold?

  • Posted by: Lucius49 - Apr. 09, 2010 7:06 PM ET USA

    When Goebbels tried to use the misconduct of priests to undermine the Pope, Bishop Konrad von Preysing wrote:"The Church of Christ will overcome today decline, error and vice in her own ranks as in the past."Do not be led astray from the belief in the eternal mission of the Church. " "You will triumph over even the mighty in broad bands and more powerful opponents who attack - because the gates of hell shall not prevail."

  • Posted by: Defender - Apr. 09, 2010 6:53 PM ET USA

    Obviously the professor doesn't understand history and has no concept of international relations. Just as the Brits tried to eradicate the Church from Ireland, Catholics will endure. The professor obviously doesn't like the Church by how he writes, so expecting an objective analysis of what and how things have transpired is too much to ask. One can only imagine what the students in his classroom must be subject to.

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