Overheard in the cyberworld

Everything is anonymized to protect all perpetrators; myself included.

[in a discussion of the Protestant tendency to splinter]
Catholics, near as I can tell, do their utmost to keep everyone in the family, but it's a big, loud family that argues vigorously, angrily, noisily and endlessly.

[from someone who had gone church-shopping]
So back I went to the Catholic Church where everyone was welcome from the poorest janitor to the richest doctor. Inclusion of all sends a powerful message. And although this may seem frivolous, we often thought of Hillaire Belloc's, "Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, there is laughter & good red wine." Did you know that Catholics laugh more than Protestants? I'm convinced they do & often find Protestant congregations & churches pretty grim.

[a discussion on some recent statements from bishops]
I really don't understand why anyone would leave the Church because of the stupidities or the sins of bishops.

[in a discussion of behaviour on Usenet groups]
Instead of responding to shameful acts or inaccurate teaching by going to your spiritual father for guidance (and counsel to keep you on the road of repentance and humility) what we're tempted to do is either refute or bemoan "heresy" and scandal in a public forum where we can get lots of positive feedback for our eloquence in defense of truth --- or we can feel like persecuted martyrs when everyone rejects our arguments. Pride can raise us up and throw us down into hell without the social stigma of other sins like fornication or drug abuse --- but it's just as harmful to the soul. "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble."

[response to bickering over who the real Catholics are]
We are all "practicing" Catholics....practice practice practice in the hope that one day we will get it right.
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