Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Intellectual Catholicism

I'll probably cover this topic in more depth and with a much more personal tone at a later point as I continue to go over the religious journey that I went through in my life. Suffice to say that for much of my journey one of the major themes was trying to justify my Catholic self to my intellectual self. Those things always seemed to be in great conflict and almost seemed mutually exclusive to me. Through the influence of several very intelligent Catholics I was able to overcome this conflict, but that is a story for a later time. Really I just wanted to share this quote from Stephen Colbert, the actual person, not the persona he plays on TV.

I love my Church, and I'm a Catholic who was raised by intellectuals, who were very devout. I was raised to believe that you could question the Church and still be a Catholic. What is worthy of satire is the misuse of religion for destructive or political gains. That's totally different from the Word, the blood, the body and the Christ. His kingdom is not of this earth.

This quote really resonates with me and it in someway helps to sum up how I was eventually able to deal with being both an Intellectual and a Catholic. I feel like if I had heard this quote when I was trying to deal with the issue it would have helped me a lot. As it stands it just helps to reaffirm my current position and feelings with regards to the Church and even religion as a whole. All and all I think this is a very poignant and insightful quote.

I hear in my mind
All these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind all this music

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