Notre Dame/Notre Shame

I'm not going to bother writing a lot about my opinion of Notre Dame.  I do love the talk I've seen on Father Z's blog and his comments about certain letters and articles written about it.  

See the following articles from Father Z:

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/03/mcinerny-on-notre-dames-vulgar-lust/

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/04/dr-edward-peters-dissects-fr-jenkins/

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/03/patrick-buchanan-on-notre-shame/

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/04/fr-sirico-of-acton-institute-to-fr-jenkins-of-notre-shame/

and those aren't the only ones, just a few...

To sum it up, I'm against the commencement speaker choice and disappointed with American Catholics as my eyes keep opening up to reality we are suffering an "identity crisis".  I pray things will improve.  I will never believe that you can be Catholic and Pro-choice.  That is just wrong wrong wrong.  It is a shame we have so many lukewarm Catholics in our country. 

It seems that Americans are of the opinion they can claim to be Catholic yet not follow Church teachings or just blatantly ignore them.  Should you really be in line for Communion if that is how you live your life?  I guess since you don't understand the implications of your actions and thoughts that you may not realize the detriment to your spiritual life and soul as you stand in that line.  Oh the ignorance.  It is sorrowful.  I'm not trying to be judgmental, I'm fully aware I can tell you of your mistake without crossing that line of judgement.  We are put here to be a community of faith and to help each other.  If I ignore your sins and misjudgment out of what I think maybe charity is in actuality not charity.  

My friends and I made a comment at lunch on Sunday that it is 70% (I don't like posting a number without knowing it is right but I have been assured it is, so....) of American Catholics don't know or believe that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ.  WHAT?  I recall when I was little I said something about the Eucharist and I used the verb "symbolizes" and my parents jumped on me right away to correct my error (I thank God every day for their love).  In my defense, I was young, I used the wrong word but I knew at least that I believe it was definitely the Body and Blood. I was just an ignorant child using a word without understanding fully the implications of my word-choice.  Hell, I still do that as an adult and I am reminded of it constantly (thank you, Matthew, for putting up with my mistakes and for telling me when I make them *slight sarcasm, slight*).