{"id":105534,"date":"2018-08-31T00:49:58","date_gmt":"2018-08-31T07:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=105534"},"modified":"2018-08-31T06:37:51","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T13:37:51","slug":"kathryn-lopez-recently-interviews-my-friend-dr-dawn-eden-goldstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2018\/08\/kathryn-lopez-recently-interviews-my-friend-dr-dawn-eden-goldstein.html","title":{"rendered":"Kathryn Lopez Recently Interviews My Friend Dr. Dawn Eden Goldstein"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I love Dawn.\u00a0 She was out her in Seattle last week and we had lunch and she was her sensible, sweet self.\u00a0 She\u2019s a fascinating character.\u00a0 Raised in a Reformed Jewish household, became a rock and roll journalist, as well as somebody who did an interview with one of my heroes, Stan Freberg, she went on to work in the New York press, cooking up brilliant headlines like for stories like the one about the cop injured by an exploding toilet (HURT IN THE LINE OF DOODY) and her headline for one of Trump\u2019s marriages (THE LADY IS A TRUMP).<\/p>\n

Eventually, she became a Catholic and then got her doctorate in theology (I\u2019m not clear what the exact alphabet soup is) and is now teaching for Holy Apostles. Anyway, recently Kathryn Lopez did an interview with her and she, a sexual abuse survivor, spoke about the current crisis in the Church.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a taste<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the moment I began to change my mind about Catholicism,\u201d she recalls. She was at a meeting of the New York City G. K. Chesterton Society. \u201cSomehow the discussion turned to the scandals, and I made some derisive comment about how Catholics disbelieved the reports of abuse that were then flooding the news media.\u201d Goldstein was especially \u201cirritated\u201d after reading comments that tried to suggest that the scandals were really \u201ca witch hunt orchestrated by reporters who hated the Church.\u201d Her surprise came when the Catholics around her weren\u2019t trying to look away from or explain away what was being revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were angry about the abuse,\u201d she says, \u201cangry that such despicable and criminal acts were being perpetrated by their own priests, in their own Church. They didn\u2019t at all want the abuse covered up, as I had assumed. Rather, they wanted it brought into the light so that abusing members of the clergy could be brought to justice and the Church could be purified.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was when I saw ordinary Catholics who were furious about clergy abuse that I started to consider seriously the Catholic Church\u2019s claim to be the true faith,\u201d she remembers. \u201cI entered into full communion with the Church in 2006 and have never looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n

But now, in the wake of more demonic filth \u2014 first involving former D.C. cardinal archbishop Theodore McCarrick and then the Pennsylvania grand-jury report \u2014 why doesn\u2019t she quit? It\u2019s a question some Catholics are getting, and asking themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t leave the Catholic Church, because I know too much,\u201d Goldstein says. \u201cI know now that Jesus gave the Church the Eucharist. Yes, the Orthodox have it too, but they have it only because they have retained the apostolic succession that properly belongs to the Catholic Church, which is headed by the successor of Peter. I know now that my sins are really and truly forgiven when Jesus absolves me through the ministry of a Catholic priest.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s where she knows she belongs. It\u2019s where she believes God wants her. \u201cMost of all,\u201d she says, \u201cI know that the Catholic Church is where Jesus gives me the ongoing healing for which I long. And it\u2019s ground zero for the tribulation described in sacred Scripture, as can be seen in the unrelenting efforts of the devil to corrupt its bishops, priests, religious, and lay faithful.\u201d<\/p>\n