It is easy to make jokes about C&E Catholics – those that make it to Christmas and Easter Mass.
This is a better take from then-Cardinal Ratzinger.
“It just may be that we, thus drawing a new breath, are prvileged to sense something of the breath of God’s love, of the sacred peace whose gift to us is the blessing of Christmas. It is for this reason that we should not single out those who feel they cannot have faith anymore and try to rob them of their emotions, which may remain as the last echo of their faith and which may allow them to be part of that breath of fresh air of the holy night, which is permeated by the breath of God’s peace. Rather, we ought to be grateful for their preserving this last remnant of God’s gift on Christmas and ought to make an effort to celebrate a blessed Christmas with them all.
From: Dogma und Verkündigung, pp. 383f.
Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (I. Grassl, Ed., M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans.) (p. 398). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.”
