Honestly, I decided against posting on this article about the mainstreaming of Catholic morality, or this one about the "fading of traditional Catholic character."

But then Allah had to go and post on it, and what's more, he asked for comments on why this might be. Here's one of the site's more ardent, and dare I say it, evangelistic atheists:

I was also raised Catholic. I think after a while, all the pagentry and Virgin Mary worship is so obviously a product of human beings, most Catholics come to the unspoken conclusion that there couldn’t possibly be a God behind all of it. God doesn’t want us to eat meat on Fridays? Really? That’s stupid and petty. If there was a God, He sure as hell wouldn’t make piddling little rules like that. Ergo, there can’t really be a God.

Catholicism - It’s like an ATHEIST ASSEMBLY LINE.

Enrique on July 13, 2007 at 11:36 AM

I've heard that sentiment expressed so many times almost exactly the same way from so many lapsed Catholics that I've begun to expect it.  It's nuts.  I know more lapsed Catholics than actual practicing Catholics.  Not surprisingly, Allah was also raised Catholic.

The bitterness and disaffection this strain of Christianity seems to inspire is seriously odd.  I'd attribute it to taking a personal thing - faith - and almost completely externalizing it.  Catholics have priests to talk to God, interpret scripture, give communion, forgive sins, and pretty much every other major function.  They've actually institutionalized a disconnection from the very things that bind us more closely to our creator.  Priests represent a degree of separation from what should be a first hand experience of God.  Of course it feels petty, phony, and fake.  As it is we see through a looking glass darkly - how much more so when there's some guy standing in the way?

You'd think the Pope would want to address this, yes?  His methods: allow the Latin mass and tell Protestants they're fakers and aren't giving out the real thing.  Oh that ought to work well.