27 July 2011. A Considered Reply to My Critics…

Often, kind friends of mine inform me that this one or that one has taken exception to something that I’ve written. Well… if you take a strong position on ANYTHING… someone, somewhere, is going to oppose you… it’s the way of it in our fallen world. Here’s a quote  from Abraham Lincoln that puts it all in the proper perspective:

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how… the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what’s said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

THIS is truth… so, guys, there’s no need to inform me that this one or that one doesn’t like what I’ve written. I’ll tell ya what… read what I write… read what they write… then, make up your mind according to your own lights. That’s so much better than a pointless ad hominem exchange. In any case, I KNOW that I have opponents. See that long line on the right? Yep… that’s all of those who think that I’m a dangerous nutter. See that equally-long line on the left? Those are the folks who agree with and support me. As one correspondent put it:

Vara, you’re a true Child of our Holy Church!  It’s an honour to be aquainted with you and to assist you in your work on the Internet.

You pays your money and you takes your choice… just remember, priests have no right to push you around… they have no special privileges. “A priest is a priest only when he’s vested”… never forget that. It’ll keep you from falling into either the Scylla of anti-clericalism or the Charybdis of hyperclericalism. BOTH are wrong. Never forget that priests are just ordinary jabonies in riassas. Most are good guys… that’s why they don’t get the “plum” parishes. They don’t need you to put them on a pedestal… they do need your ordinary human care and concern.

So… if you see that someone’s attacking me, you don’t need to tell me… I can guess it… hell, I KNOW it. I’m saying things that discomfit many who’re used to getting their own way. They say, “L’Église c’est moi”… I say in reply, “In a pig’s arse”. Always ask questions… that’s the gift that the Church gives you. The Church gives you the proper tools to ask the right questions to find the correct answer… it doesn’t give you pat answers in 25-words-or-less form. NEVER forget that…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Wednesday 27 July 2011

Albany NY