Moldy Peaches

An excellent article by Richard W. Garnett in the USA Today.

Garnett highlights two really important points:

1 - The Catholic social support system has played a key role in providing education, hope, safety, opportunity and values to vulnerable and marginalized children of all religions, ethnicities and backgrounds. Similarly, Catholic hospitals have long cared for underserved and disadvantaged people in both urban and rural areas, and helped to fill glaring gaps in the availability of health care.

2 - There is no good reason to petition the courts to stop the closure of many of the "targetted" churchs. The notion of separation of church and state — means that a secular court should not review the merits of the church's decisions, no matter how painful they might be to parishioners, students and teachers. It is not the government's job to referee intra-church disputes or tell churches with limited resources how best to carry out their religious missions.

Joel Plaskett sums up my thoughts on Catholicism:

I went to church on Christmas Eve