BOSTON (MA)
Standing on My Head
September 12, 2014 by Fr. Dwight Longenecker
cruxLast evening I attended the official launch of Crux–the Boston Globe’s new website dedicated to “all things Catholic.”
The venue was the splendid campus of Boston College. In the afternoon I had the chance to tour the campus with fellow Patheos blogger Tim Muldoon, and had the better part of an hour with theologian Fr Robert Daly SJ–we reminisced about our mutual friend, Dom Sebastian Moore OSB, who was a monk at Downside, an irascible intellectual and former professor at BC. I picked Fr Daly’s brain about the thought of Rene Girard for one of the books I am working on.
Veteran Vatican reporter John Allen is the Boston Globe’s catch from many years of reporting at the National Catholic Reporter. Allen’s objective reporting on Catholic affairs has won admiration from Catholics from both sides of the “right-left” divide as well as respect from journalists in the non-Catholic world.
I also met MaryAnn Glendon again–former ambassador to the Holy See and now serving the church in a new role helping to reform the Vatican Bank. The panel included Globe writer Margery Egan, a theology professor and Robert Christian–the editor of Millennial–a website for young Catholics. Hosffman Ospino, a Boston College assistant professor of Hispanic ministry and religious education was also on the panel.
Cardinal O’Malley gave an excellent speech on Pope Francis–highlighting Francis teaching that while the church is in the business of compassion and social justice she is not just an NGO. The reason for the church is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Cardinal Sean also criticized Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (has he been reading my blog?) MTD is that particularly American version of the Christian faith which reduces the gospel to a miss mash of self help religion, good works and the idea that God is perhaps “out there” and is to be used as a kind of fire extinguisher or someone one might just call on for help when nothing else seems to work.
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