To be fair, nothing.
Your reasoning is inverted, typical of modern sophistry. What I actually pointed out is that the societal ethos of the 1940s was marked by greater brutality—a reflection of fallen human nature in a harsher age. Aul Lad’s lamentable experience is evidence of individuals failing to embody the faith, not of the Church endorsing or embodying brutality. His suffering was a contradiction of Catholic principles, not an affirmation of them.
Aul Lad was trying to claim his experience had some connection to a particular liturgy, which was absurd. My own parents and grandparents had wonderful lives in the same era. Not everyone shared his situation.
Your assertion that recognizing the societal flaws of the time "reduces" the Church to a mundane institution misses the point entirely. The Church is not measured by the failures of those who fall short of its teachings; it is measured by the timeless truths it upholds. Unlike prisons or sporting organizations, the Church stands as a divinely instituted vessel of grace and redemption, even when individual members—prone to sin like all of us—fail to live up to its calling.
To argue that the Church is no different because individuals in its ranks acted brutally in a brutal age is to confuse the imperfections of man with the perfection of divine teaching. Aul Lad’s suffering was a failure of those charged with embodying Christ’s love, not a reflection of the Church’s essence. It is precisely because the Church transcends human failings that it has the power to critique them, to call sinners to repentance, and to offer hope for renewal—a reality unmatched by any man-made institution.
I don't doubt that you have a valid view and you can attend a church with wonderful priests and laity --we buried our neighbor today and the ceremony was wonderful and the trouble the priests took to make sure the ceremony/burial went smoothly in driving snow on top of an exposed hill was a lesson in Christianity .
i was a boarder in a Waterford school for 5 years and it was monastic in nature -mass every morning etc -the top room slept 99 and at the end was a room for a brother who cried himself to sleep each night sometimes sobbing for hours .
i aged 12 sat beside boys aged 12 in full length soutanes from their neck to their toes and there were 160 of them based in what is now the Faithlegg hotel .
none of them knew why they were there and most came from west Cork or Kerry or limerick with a tradition of a priest in the family .
I was confronted with corporate cruelty on a daily basis .
i can say in a cruel and viscous and precarious world where a place in this school would be life changing and allow a lucky person to escape certain poverty these trifling events would not be noticed .
Ireland moved on the corporate church did not and i witnessed it "" almost "" leaving the medieval period into an uncertain confused 20th century which did not allow for its existence on so many levels and there was/is no plan to cope with the 20th century and that is the core of its difficulty today .
the Irish catholic church is not the roman church thankfully ---- and i have a relation a monsignor whose title is now made extinct in the church while he is still alive and his recent visit to Rome to receive an award for running the dioceses on 3 occasions as bishop/administrator was honored .
i asked him what did he make of the Vatican and he paused and shook his head from side to side in wonder and disbelief at the vast corporate wealth and the vast concern solely with that wealth and power.
i got the distinct feeling that both he and i did not experience the christian virtues of the organization of which we belong at different times in our lives .
he knows by now that i would embrace any christian from any country and from any religion as would he .
Not very MAGA
