Anti-Catholicism: Is It All Bad?

.
Jesuit Father Mark Massa spoke at the College of St Scholastica recently and Sister Edith who blogs at Monastic Musings captured some of his interesting thoughts:

Fr. Massa closed his talk with Ten Reasons the New Anti-Catholicism Might Be Good.

(1) The challenge reminds us that there is a cost to being a disciple, and
(2) emphasizes the creative tension with mainstream culture that many - especially young people - have not experienced.
(3) Every religion must balance the priestly (pastoral) and prophetic dimensions - where Catholics may have been too pastoral; individualistic American culture needs the message of their prophetic voice.
(4) The sense of being other reminds us that we are part of an ancient, trans-national group; we have here no lasting city (Hebrews 13:14) and
(5) reminds us that any witness to the Gospel will always meet opposition.
(6) This tension is a constant reminder to those of us who live comfortable lives in a rich nation that our responsibility goes beyond ourselves.
(7) The anti-Catholic critique keeps us from settling into a comfortable ritual, forcing us to re-invent and reinvigorate our traditio in each generation.
(8) The tension is itself part of Catholic life - neither withdrawing entirely from the world, but always aware that we can't fix its ills through our own strength, and
(9) helps us to keep our loyalties to both the American democratic ideals and the Catholic communal ideals in mind. Finally,
(10) the tension makes us more faithful American citizens - able to critique the nation and culture we love in order to make it better.

Fr. Massa's talk has a strange effect on one's emotions and thoughts. Catholics, for the most part, don't hear or discount or gloss over the snide humor, hostile comments and negative perspectives that many Americans express toward the faith and the Church. It is not comfortable to hear it described in graphic, almost clinical terms. As if that were not bad enough, he tells us that there is a factual basis for this negative perspective: we really are different, even decades after the end of ghetto Catholicism and Vatican II. To finish off the evening, he tells us that all this suffering is, in fact, good for us because it brings us back to our core relationship with Christ and his Church, stronger than we would be without it.

It takes a Jesuit to turn a topic like anti-Catholicism into another way to speak the Paschal mystery. Monastic Musings