NJHN Web Talk

(Cross-posted at Candles in the Dark)

The uber-right wingnut Maggie Gallagher swoons over Ratzie and compares secularism to communism. She quotes him as follows:

"A dictatorship of relativism is being built that recognizes nothing as definite, and which leaves as the ultimate measure only one's ego and desires ... Having a clear faith, according to the credo of the church, is often labeled as fundamentalism," he said. "Yet relativism, that is, letting oneself being carried 'here and there by any wind of doctrine,' appears as the sole attitude good enough for modern times."

First off, Ratzie doesn't even acknowledge secularism in this tidbit. He is addressing Catholics who don't drink all of the kool-aid the Vatican serves up. How that leaves them with nothing but ego and desires beats me. I'm not interested in understanding his thinking, because I know it's bullshit from the start.

Maggie (the Irish barmaid, as she calls herself) goes on, with an argument she appears to have honed with her drinking buddies in a barroom:

What were the cardinals thinking in selecting such a man? My best guess is a recognition that, with the death of communism, the great challenge to the church comes from secularism.

From where I sit, the great challenge to the church comes 1) from its own adherents, most of whom typically love the Pope but ignore what he tells them to do, and 2) from its thousands of pedophile priests. They are slowly but surely being brought to justice, and via the courts are helping to drain the church of money--which is after all its raison d'etre.

Secularists consider the church irrelevant. We have better things to do.

Benedict is the patron saint of Europe, where Christianity is in sad decline. Even in Italy, only 25 percent of Catholics attend mass weekly. Europe poses the question most starkly: How can the Catholic Church continue to respond to modernity, confidently and successfully?

Note the ridiculous question. How can the church "respond" to modernity? Not "how can the church modernize and become relevant again?"

The answer is, as it has been since the start of the Enlightenment, it cannot. As modern ethics advance steadily, the church remains mired in the muddy thinking of the Middle Ages.

Readers are encouraged to pillory Ms Gallagher at MaggieBox2004@yahoo.com.
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