In a Canberra Times article, John Herron, an Australian senator lays out the Catholic landscape for the Pope. This landscape is broader than simply Australia and is succinctly put, so I share it here (emphasis mine).
John Herron has been a very public Catholic all his life, as a senator for 11 years, as a Howard government Aboriginal affairs minister, and as the ambassador to Ireland and the Holy See.
He advised the Pope there were five types of Catholics in Australia. There were relapsing Catholics, who returned to the faith when stressed; and nominal Catholics, the tick-the-census-box types. There were anti-Catholic Catholics, baptised but who hate Catholicism (”There are a lot of them around,” the Pope told Herron), and smorgasbord Catholics, who take bits they like and leave those they don’t (the Pope called them “cafe Catholics”).
And then, Herron told the Pope, there are practising Catholics. “Like you and me.”
You gotta love this. In hearing all of the negative from many of the MSM outlets in Australia it is pleasant to here this one (and others that are not protester obsessed). It makes me wonder how many anti-Catholic Catholics and smorgasbord Catholics work for the ABC or the Melbourne Herald Sun or some of the other outlets.
By the way, what kind of Catholic are you?
H/t to Creative Minority Report
