GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN: Awesome para. from Australian Cdl. Pell:

…The most profound changes emanated from the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, the most problematic of all the Council documents at least in its implementation. This constitution quite properly called for dialogue with the surrounding culture rather than condemnation and urged us to emphasise what was common rather than to begin immediately with our differences. This is fundamental to the way we now see ourselves as an integral part of Australian society, the main reason why the majority accepts us as such and why all educated Australians now automatically and rightly presume that they have every right to comment publicly on distinctively Catholic teachings on e.g. the impossibility of women’s ordination, or contraception or the mandatory celibacy of priests. Most Australians are much slower to do this with e.g. the Orthodox or the Jews and Moslems.

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See, the neat thing about this passage is that it talks about something that ordinarily really irks me–random people who barely know Balaam’s ass from a hole in the ground, yapping away about Crap They Wot Not–and points out that it’s due to engagement with the surrounding culture, which I love about Catholicism. The Church is such a tabloid religion, so willing to get down in the gutter and start punching, so willing to bring the Cross to the people. Mysteries without secrets; an up-front and brazen faith. And if you shake it in people’s faces… people will talk about you. Because you’re hot.