I was looking through the Twitter page of the Holy Father and although I'm not surprised, I am rather dismayed at the raw hatred and pure ignorance of the many many commenters and twits there. Some of the comments were just pure rage and others belie such lack of knowledge that I still wonder that they dare speak at all to expose the fact.
But it occurs to me, as I speak and deal with people both within and without the Church, that ignorance is not an atheist thing or merely the domain of those who hate the Catholic Church. Ignorance abounds everywhere and there's more than enough for all to share in it.
The external attacks I can fathom but it's the internal attacks I find repugnant.
Many pastors, preachers and those who occupy positions of great authority are also often wrapped in a fog of ignorance of common (okay, maybe not so common) facts and figures, especially about the faith which they are supposed to be preachers of, the faith they are supposed to hand over unstained to the next generation.
Whence comes this ignorance? What is taught in the places of formation, when basic Catholic doctrine and practice is unknown by those who are supposed to be it's guardians and teachers?
There are always those who seem too clever and cocksure in their new fangled ideas and modern opinions, who deride the traditional piety of the simple. They often embrace all sorts of ideas, no matter how outrageous, as long as it's not Tradition, not the old and honoured and venerable belief.
What they say is often very harmful to the faith and piety of simple Churchgoers, the Sheep of Christ. And the worse thing is, there's no particular motive to cast doubts and aspersions on the elements of faith and piety except to appear smart and intellectual before the people. But wait, there's more. The worst part is, most of these doubts are unfounded or based or shoddy scholarship and archaeological nonsense that masqueraded as scholarship in the 60s and 70s and were taught to these folks in the 80s and perpetuated by those in power and authority to this day. But modern scholarship has debunked most of these myths and provided explanations that often supports the traditional beliefs. Why don't these people buck up and update their knowledge constantly as is their duty as teachers and pastors?
How I despise them. Yes, hatred is not a Christian virtue but I can see the immense spiritual harm that this attitude has caused and great anger fills my heart when I ponder the damage done and the damage that continues to be done.
I try to ascribe a Christian and good motivation to these but sometimes I just see malice.
When, O Lord, will relief come?
5 hours ago