Love as the "secret" of Catholicism and the dangers of "atheistic secularism"

[briansloan]

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor writes intelligently in today's Guardian, emphasising that love is the great secret of the Catholic Church. He argues that, contrary to popular belief, it is religion that permits the freedom of the human spirit because it takes us to the core of our relationships and our nature as moral human beings. Conversely,

Comments

[pw201]

I'm not sure I'd count most of the comments as vilification (except perhaps the link to Priest Off!, but then maybe that's fair comment). The comments rightly point out that he's got a cheek talking about HIV in Africa. Many commenters make similar points to yours about his dismissal of secularism. The points about what happens when Catholicism rules (gets the "whip hand", as one commenter put it) are well made, also.

The Cardinal seems confused about secularism. What it means is that religion is not privileged in the public sphere, not that religion is not allowed there. However, all the arguments I've seen from Catholics on the upcoming Bill boil down to "this is wrong because the Church says so". I think it's right to say that there should be no expectation that non-Catholics will respect that sort of argument.

I'm not sure it's the forum that's causing the negative response. Most of the BBC's Have Your Say commenters are dumb as bricks Daily Mail readers, yet you'll find similar sentiments there. I think people don't want

[briansloan]

1. You're preaching to the converted about Have Your Say

[l_j_b]

On a sort-of related note - did you see the 'Secrets of the 12 disciples' program on saturday? I was expecting channel-4 rubbish, but 'twas very interesting.

[briansloan]

Yes, it was quite good, if repetitive and dumbed-down.