{"id":2142,"date":"2009-01-31T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-31T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2009\/01\/what-i-love-about-the-catholic-church-1\/"},"modified":"2009-01-31T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-31T20:00:00","slug":"what-i-love-about-the-catholic-church-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2009\/01\/what-i-love-about-the-catholic-church-1.html","title":{"rendered":"What I Love About the Catholic Church -1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>OK, Here goes a whimsical series about what I love about the Catholic Church. Some posts will be one liners. Others long winded. Some serious, others not so. They\u2019re in no particular order, either logically or of priority of importance. I hope you enjoy them. Why not tell others to tune in? I\u2019m trying to boost my readership\u2026<\/p>\n

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I love the Catholic Church because it is for brainy, sophisticated, cultured, artistic people and it is also for those who are not. It is a church for haute couture and hoi polloi. You can enjoy a Raphael Madonna or a plastic bottle of holy water shaped like the Blessed Virgin with a crown for a cap that unscrews. You can appreciate a picture of the Last Supper painted by Leonardo on the wall of a refectory in Florence or one painted by number on black velvet and hanging in a trailer. You can study the philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas or be an imbecile and still be a good Catholic. Nobody\u2019s excluded, in fact to really stand everything on its head, a good Catholic has to consider the peasant, the holy fool, the child, the tasteless ignoramus and the devout ditz to actually perhaps and possibly being closer to heaven than the smart, the rich, the tasteful, the privileged, the powerful and the educated ones. Indeed, to enter the kingdom of heaven one has to become like a little child.<\/div>\n
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Is there any other expression of Christianity where both extremes are so valued? I think not.In most every society Protestantism divides along social lines, and each despises the other\u2013some with snobbery, the others with reverse snobbery. In the Catholic Church you get a duchess and a dustman kneeling together in prayer, and the same Mass that is celebrated in Chartres Cathedral is also said in a drab American church that looks like a huge ice cream cone that has fallen upside down. All of this is a wonder, and echos to me that, \u201cHere is reality. Here is the true Church.\u201d<\/div>\n
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PS: The nun in shades is just for fun, and is shamelessly nicked from The Crescat<\/a><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, Here goes a whimsical series about what I love about the Catholic Church. Some posts will be one liners. Others long winded. Some serious, others not so. They\u2019re in no particular order, either logically or of priority of importance. I hope you enjoy them. Why not tell others to tune in? I\u2019m trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat I Love About the Catholic Church -1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"OK, Here goes a whimsical series about what I love about the Catholic Church. Some posts will be one liners. Others long winded. 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