Many's the time I have suggested to Larry that, for the sake of his blood pressure, he should stop reading the
I should listen to my own advice.
The title of the article made it too good for me to resist reading it; The state of the Catholic church written by Richard McBrien. Mc Brien's first paragraph was harmless enough:
"If anyone wonders why the Catholic church presents such a different face to the world and to the Body of Christ today in comparison with the world and the church of the 1960s and 1970s, we need look no further than the extraordinarily abbreviated pontificate of John Paul I."
Like a fool, I was expecting - after reading that first paragraph - that the article would be an evaluation of "the extraordinarily abbreviated pontificate of John Paul I".
Very little of the piece actually dealt with John Paul I; there's very little that can be said about a Pope who reigned for only 33 days.
The actual purpose of the article was to criticize John Paul I's successor. The last 2 sentences sum up McBrien's point.
"Although he would do many good things in the 26 and a half years he occupied the office, John Paul II's appointments to, and within, the hierarchy were not among them.
And that is the main reason why the Catholic church is experiencing such difficulty today."
Yes, I should follow my own advice. I shouldn't waste my time reading the NCR......it's bad for my blood pressure.
