Physician, Heal Thyself

Anti-Catholicism has been taken to a new level in this country. First, Dan Brown's completely fictional DaVinci Code is taken as "gospel" by many who either don't know better, or don't want to know better. Jesus is seen as merely human and Mary Magdalen as His wife (and a goddess, apparently). The DaVinci Code is one of a long line of heretical novels which prey upon people's ignorance of Catholicism and portray the Church as a corrupt secret society with evil designs upon the world.

Recently, though, this blatant anti-Catholicism has risen to new heights. Not content with merely spreading fabricated accounts of the inner workings of an "evil" church, intolerant atheists are now stooping to the level of the blatantly malicious. On Sunday, June 29, Webster Cook, a Student Senator at the University of Central Florida smuggled a consecrated Host out of Mass and "held it hostage" before returning it a week later.

Paul Zachary Myers, a professor at the University of Minnesota, responded to the University of Central Florida incident by requesting, via his blog, for someone to "score" him some "consecrated communion wafers". He promises to "show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare."

This is an adult! This is a professor whose blog, at the time of its posting, was accessible through the university's website. I can't imagine such public disrespect to any other religious group being allowed to take place.

There are now websites, books and YouTube videos who seem to derive their sustenance from mocking all things Catholic and deliberately desecrating what Catholics consider holy.

A new breed of atheists, dubbed "Evangelical Atheists" by some, seem to think that it is their job to wrench people out of their faith. Using the same tactics that playground bullies use, they make fun of people who hold strong beliefs, until many who are alienated and disaffected join their bandwagon and abuse others in order to inflate their own fragile egos.

Richard Dawkins is one such atheist. He blames religion for every evil in the world and urges atheists to be more forceful in expressing their beliefs. His arrogance has provoked many with little knowledge and less respect to disdainfully defile others' beliefs for their own self-aggrandizement.

In short, it is now sanctioned in many circles to perpetrate what amounts to hate crimes against Christians. Some who would be rightly horrified at a crime against a synagogue or a mosque, think nothing of laughing at someone who sees fit to deliberately profane something held sacred by Catholics.

Extremism of the kind thought to be the sole bastion of various cultist religious groups is now seen as "edgy" and humorous by many. Those of us who are offended, just don't get the humor, apparently. We are "out of touch" and overly sensitive, it seems.

Why aren't we laughing?

When a society decides that physical or emotional violence against any group is acceptable, funny and entertaining, it is sliding down the road of 1930's Germany. If it is ok to belittle and dishonor an entire religion and culture, we are not far from open persecution of the type seen under the Nazi Regime. If we have no compunction about pointing our finger and openly ridiculing the dearly held beliefs of fellow human beings, and, indeed, actually committing violence against their houses of worship, far from being enlightened scientific humanists, we are no better than the depraved doctors of the Third Reich.

Our Lady of Sorrows, Pray for us!