Skeptical Faith

Google Image I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a bit of election anxiety. I’m not crazy about either presidential candidate, to be honest, but using the standards of my faith, I greatly prefer one over the other. Other people will undoubtedly have a different preference. But if my preferred candidate is not elected, I fear a further corruption of democratic processes, further deterioration of the value of honesty and integrity, tolerance and benevolence. And greater authoritarianism. Some will say that these negative traits apply equally to both candidates; that both candidates lie, are intolerant, etc. But as I said, though I don’t fully endorse either, I think there is a great difference in their moral characters, and I believe morality and ethics are basic qualities to seek in a presidential candidate. Thought Better of Myself I’m not pleased to feel that anxiety. I thought better of myself, but there’s so much at stake, I suppose it’s to be expected. I keep coming bac

Google Image I vividly recall when, as a kid, I learned that a priest who was popular nationally for his ultra-traditionalist, anti-Semitic radio broadcasts, was excommunicated by the Catholic Church for insisting that non-Catholics could not be “saved.” At the time, this news confused me because I thought that’s what we learned in the Catholic school I attended. Later in life, I better understood the church teaching on the subject but still believe the teaching is ambivalent and misunderstood by many Catholics, let alone non-Catholics. On the one hand, Fr. Feeney’s view confirms the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John that “No one can come to the Father except through me.” On the other, the church attempts to explain how non-Catholics can enter God’s kingdom with the esoteric doctrine of the “baptism of desire.” "Seeks the Truth" "Every man who is ignorant of the gospel of Christ  and of his Church,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “but seeks the truth