I’ll admit it, I like to give Rod Dreher a hard time. (Not that he ever noticed) However the few times I have commented on Rod it has never been about his faith. His self proclaimed moniker of Crunchy Con is my typical fodder, for while he may be crunchy I don’t find much conservative about him. Further, he has a chronic case of foot in mouth disease.
So in a nutshell my beefs with Rod are based on him sometimes being a weenie liberal and for saying some dumb stuff. Hey, I say lots of dumb stuff too. (*Note: I have never been accused of being a weenie liberal. Ok, yes I was when I bought a Prius but I had some rain forest in Peru chopped down to re-establish my bona fides – anyway)
Today I want to write about Rod, his faith to be precise, but I am emphatically not criticizing him. As I suspect some of you may know, Rod used to be Catholic but a few years back he converted to Orthodoxy. I will not go in to his reasons here, he can explain it better than I can if you are interested. Suffice it to say that I don’t agree.
Yesterday he wrote about his (still current it would seem) belief in the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima in 1917. An Orthodox reader asks him how he reconciles his belief in Fatima with his Orthodoxy, given the conversion of Russia, the Immaculate Conception and all. His continued devotion to Our Lady and his struggle to reconcile his beliefs with that devotion seem heartfelt.
I agree with Rod that the conversion of Russia for which we are to pray does not mean only Western Latin Rite Catholicism. An Orthodox Church as part of the universal (Catholic) Church with its Bishops in union with Rome would suffice very nicely I think. This day I think is getting closer all the time.
While I don’t think such a reunion with all of Orthodoxy is as imminent as some would suggest, I do think that it is possible (perhaps even probable) that I will live to see some level of this union.
The question I would ask Rod (or any other Catholic–>Orthodox convert) is has he ever wondered what his view will be if he finds that that first bus out of town ends up delivering him right back to his front doorstep?
If that happens, I think Rod will know who to thank for it. She never lets go.
October 14, 2009 at 3:26 pm
One of these days someone in the Orthodox faith is going to tick him off and he'll be out the door again. My guess is that he'll end up an Anglo Catholic.
October 14, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Sadly I'd have to agree with the PP…
October 14, 2009 at 5:24 pm
You have a Prius? I often joke to my husband that they're sold off the lot complete with an "Obama" sticker on the bumper. Then, he replies that he secretly wants a Prius, too.
I totally agree with you about Our Lady. She truly is Our Heavenly Mother, guiding us in the way we should go. And, I think she's guiding me towards a Suburban… 😉
October 14, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Jen,
In my defense, I drive 63 miles one way to work each day. I have contemplated putting an NRA bumper sticker on to confuse people.
October 14, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Why not take a train to work(VRE/MARC/Metro; I assume you're near DC)? Then wear a prolife t-shirt (person inside and out) and hat (previous embryo)?
It's fun. (One time I had a person sit down next to me (metro) and he looked up the website on his blackberry/etc. (prowomanprolife.org: PETP people for the ethical treatment of people; I wish they also had the subtitle "born and preborn" too))
gbm3
October 14, 2009 at 9:27 pm
No worries! I understand, Patrick. You need to answer the burning question, however, did you have to opt out of the standard Obama sticker? Did they charge you extra?
October 15, 2009 at 12:17 am
Why not email this post to Rod? He answers mail.
As a former Catholic, now Orthodox . . . Before the split we were Christians. When all divisions disappear do you assume that we all be Catholics? Peter was first the bishop of Antioch, I would think that it would be absurd that we might suddenly all be Antiochians. The reality is that there was more than one Apostle, that they each founded Churches. Christ is (according to Rome) present with the Orthodox Church in her sacraments. Is the Eucharist more perfect in one place and less in another? The Orthodox (regardless of individual opinions) have continued to recognize the canonical territory of Rome even though they disagree with some of Rome's tenets. That is why there are no dueling Sees of Peter (a Catholic one and an Orthodox one).
The Orthodox and Catholics both pray for the reunification of the faithful. What form that will take is beyond imagining. It will take prayer, fasting, and open hearts all around. I look forward to that day with expectant hope.
October 15, 2009 at 12:42 am
Mrs. Darcy,
Please do not read things into my post that are not there. You wrote:
"When all divisions disappear do you assume that we all be Catholics?"
By default, yes. Catholic means universal. So if the Christian churches are united as one it is by definition a "Catholic" church.
As a matter fo fact in my post I hope I made clear that unity does not mean all latin rite. Rather the communion of the various different churches.
I hoped that was clear in my post. I don't think we disagree on much here.
October 15, 2009 at 1:11 am
Well that's why I asked. Sorry for the seeming aggressiveness of the post. I might have over shot assertive and landed on aggressive, after reading some of the other posts and based on past experiences in the combox. I do not think there is an argument betwixt us. May authentic Christianity rule the day!
October 15, 2009 at 3:14 am
I'm worried about Dreher… I get the feeling that he's drifting even further away from the Catholic faith. I read his blog a lot (I guess I'm a glutton for punishment), and it seems that he saves all of his vitriol and anger for anyone on the right who stands up to the left.
In his recent Nobel post, rather than doing the whole "WTF DID OBAMA DO TO DESERVE THIS!?!?!?" he went out of his way to stress that Obama had nothing to do with the selection and was probably embarrassed. He scoffs at notions that Obama is a socialist (um, isn't it plainly obvious), and he writes frivolous posts about how it would be great if the Obamas raised chickens on the white house lawn or some such nonsense.
Anyway, it has echoes of when he left the Catholic Church. He would post things about how awful he thinks the church is and someone would respond, "then why don't you leave it, already?" and his response was that he hadn't left it because he still believed it to be true.
I do fear that sooner or later, he will drop the social conservatism bit and become a full-fledged Obamaton. He brings up gay marriage a lot, constantly concedes its inevitability, doesn't argue against it, although he will throw in an aside that he doesn't believe in it. Once, he even referred to Andrew Sullivan as "married." I don't think he will necessarily leave Orthodoxy – he likes its asthetics, and if there's room for George Stephanopolis, Paul Sarbanes, and Mike Dukakis, there's room for him.
Anyway, my impression is that he's an emotional, confused, easily impressed guy who is infatuated with liberal elites and is headed down a dangerous road.
October 15, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Sorry to be blunt, but I can't stand Dreher. And I do not understand why the woman who sits in for him when he's on vacation, etc., even bothers since she is a very stick-to-your-guns orthodox type Catholic. She sometimes acts as if it's a badge of honor to do so, and I truly believe she needs to rethink her involvement over there.
The people who comment on Dreher's blog are as lefty as can be and no amount of reasoning with them (b Dreher or anyone) else seems to matter. It's a crowd that I do not understand and a crowd that seems to be a specialized click of some sort.
Holly