At The Boston Globe, columnist Joan Vennochi, who admits to being a “cafeteria Catholic,” has announced that she has left the Church.
Sixteen years ago, when the clergy sexual abuse scandal dominated headlines in the Globe, I was still a cafeteria Catholic. I attended Sunday Mass, sent my children to religious education classes, and even — Lord, forgive me — conducted one at my dining room table, all while picking and choosing which beliefs to personally embrace.
No more. At a certain point, the accumulation of scandal, plus the church’s positions on issues like birth control and gay marriage, led me to conclude the cafeteria didn’t satisfy me as a customer. Or, for that matter, even want me as one.
Joan Vennochi
It seems that Father Joseph Ratzinger’s prediction for the Church is coming true:
And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of faith. It may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but it will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.
Father Joseph Ratzinger, later to become Pope Benedict XVI
