Posted on July 27, 2022
Yeah, I’m Catholic. Not the best in the world. Maybe not even in the top ten.
I may get there though. The snark, ridicule and contempt shown by columnists and online commenters at the New York Times and Washington Post on everything and anything Catholic has been getting my Irish up and is causing me to be more energized in defense of the Faith Community into which I was born.
I grew up in a very Catholic environment. My father was one of ten, three of whom became Nuns (Sisters). When I was quite young, one or more of the Sisters would visit. They always wore the old style full religious habit. I have vivid memories of one of the Sisters looking at me in a way that made me think she knew I had been very bad and she knew the particulars of my reprehensible behavior in great detail and if she had anything to do with it God was waiting to give me a good ass kicking.
I was about three years old when all this was going down and all I could think was “how did she know?”
Luckily there was a friendly uncle who often came by for Holidays. He was a Jesuit Priest, Fr. Fred Berrigan, SJ (not related to the Berrigan brothers of the sixties). Father Fred was always in a good mood and he seemed to think I was good company. I liked him a lot. So, I guess things evened out, all things considered.
Church on Sunday was not a “maybe” thing in the Callaghan household. If you were living in the house you went to Mass.
But, religion, or “God”, was almost never mentioned in the house. God was Sunday Church. Being Catholic in our world was who we were. No need to talk about it Continue Reading…..
About 10 years ago I was invited by a friend to attend a meeting at a Conservative
Temple in Washington to hear a Rabbi and well known Jewish official in the US Government
talk about Jewish life in America (intermarriage, attendance at Temple) and the status of
support for Israel by American Jews.
The meeting was on a Tuesday Night on a cold winter night. There were about 500 people in
attendance. I think I was the only one there who wasn’t Jewish. I know I was the only male who was
not wearing a head cover.
Let me repeat. THERE WERE 500 PEPOLE IN ATTENDANCE.
It was a fascinating, intelligent discussion. Those in attendance were completely up to date on foreign
policy and current events.
No other community in the USA comes close to matching the commitment and intensity of the American
Jewish Community. As a result of that commitment, and other factors, the State of Israel is very well
treated by the US Government.
There is a lesson to be learned by those willing to learn.