Mark Shea has been using the term "Thinking Catholic™" to describe progressive Catholics and here is an article proving his point.
Being a modern-day thinking Catholic, I am angered, confused and frustrated with the leadership of our Archdiocese.
Wow a thinking Catholic! I never tried that myself since I just blindly follow whatever the Church would have me do without mucking about with intellectual reasons for following them. A mind is a terrible thing to use. I prefer to keep mine pristine and in unused condition like a comic book or Star War figure encased in the original packaging. But not only is she a thinking Catholic but a modern-day one. Of course every Catholic in history was also a modern-day Catholic at the time.
Calling yourself a "thinking Catholic" reminds me of atheists who call themselves "freethinkers" or "brights." That you somehow make your arguments better by using an intelligence related noun . Hey maybe I can join in. I am a "Super-genius-bow-before-my-stunning-intellect Catholic."
Given the sexual abuse cover-ups both locally & nationally, the closure of several solvent churches against the wishes of their parishioners and the recent closure of an elementary school in Brighton one week before the start of school; I have to ask myself, “Is this the Catholic Church where Jesus would want to be?”
Where is due process? Where is the kindness and forgiveness extended to others? Why would the Archdiocese take this man of God, a hard-working staff and the parishioners and turn their church community upside down? What and who is next? [Source]
Of course this is the same Fr. Cuenin who openly dissents from Church teaching on contraception, supports divorce and remarriage, supports gay-rights initiatives, supports women’s ordination and testified in the State House against a bill to save traditional marriage, and is involved in the heterodox VOTF. The question is not why the diocese removed this "Man of God", but why it took so long. You could only hope that Fr. Cuenin’s supporters ar victims of Stockholm Syndrome instead of going to that parish just for his take on Christianity.
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“Is this the Catholic Church where Jesus would want to be?”
Maybe Fr. Cuenin can ask his buddy Paul Shanley. Oh yeah, and I suppose Jesus would be tickled pink to be in a church run by an embezzler. This guy doesn’t know what he is talking about.
Smart Catholic
October 05, 2005 Thinking Catholic™ Mark Shea has been using the term “Thinking Catholic™” to describe progressive Catholics and here is an article proving his point. Being a modern-day thinking Catholic, I am angered, confused and frustrated with…
Where is due process?
Terribly sorry, but the Church has never been a democracy. God, a Holy Trinity of Being, is also not a democracy. God set the Church up with shepherds (bishops and priests) to protect the flock from wolves (dressed as shepherds) whether the sheep want to be protected or not.
I’ll take the Church the way God designed it, thanks.
But you don’t understand! These are modern-day, thinking Catholics who often stack the Peace and Justice parish committees, read the NYT, go to fine colleges, score well on the SATs, appreciate art and literature, and who in true, modern Christian love passed over the zipperish foibles of the former boy President and his intern as a minor error. These are the men and womyn who promote the moral sty of sexual relativism that no self-respecting swine would enter.
Yes, these are modern-day, thinking Catholics. Not to be confused with those retrograde, superstitious fools who actually believe in the Kyrie Eleison and Confiteor. We are Church, Hear Us Squeak!
Gee, I think I’ll actually sleep better at night knowing that one of these progressive and “thinking” priests was taken down. These are the type of priests that CNN trots out to disagree with the Pope whenever he or one of the archbishops make a decision that runs contrary to “thinking” catholics and the “real” world.
I’m kinda sick of being refered to as a relic because I don’t think we should change just to please the sinful world. Look at other churches (UCC, ECUSA, etc.) who have done so, don’t see it as a succesful way to teach God’s word nor to keep the flocks souls intact. But then again, I’m not a “thinking” catholic.
Secular campuses are full of “thinking” Catholics…. “The Church can’t tell ME what to believe” types. I’ve heard “intellectual” defined as “one who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence.”
Thank God for the faithful Catholics among them.
I see cause for hope among the young.
Terribly sorry, but the Church has never been a democracy.
It’s odd, but the “democracy” in the Church urged on by Voice of the Faithful (sic)” types like the letter writer is quite selective. Quite openly, they demand the right to “choose their own pastors and bishops” using, one presumes, the electoral process.
Yet when citizens of, say, the state of Massachusetts wish to VOTE on defining marriage rather than having the definition shoved down their throats by judicial fiat, none of the “Thinking Catholics(tm)” seem to want to play ball.
The letter writer reveals:
Since that time we have moved to Revere, where we continue to drive to Newton on Sundays to attend Our Lady�s 10 a.m. Mass. The main and most important reason we do this is Father Walter Cuenin.
There’s the problem. The “main and most important reason” one goes to Mass shouldn’t be the celebrant.
Wait, there are atheists still trying to call themselves “brights”? I recall having a good chuckle about that two or three years ago, and then watching it never get off the ground.
Jesus was all about “due process.” Remember the “Temple Merchants Hearing” before the Council?
Neither do I.
No thinking Catholics please! God gave man brain, so if man inquires, investigates he can come to the natural conclusion. But the brain God gave man is dangerous so it is best for man to rely on his faith instead of his brain. Relying entirely on faith man needs no proof. It is widely held that man should not learn about the world God created, because knowledge of that world will lead man away from him. Apparently God rewards those who don’t think and punishes those who do. And doubt, if it comes from using one’s brain, is condemned. This is how “not thinking” not questioning, not doubting, not inquiring, and not investigating, has been turned into a virtue. Men can teach this to other men, because there will always be men who find it easier to follow than to think.