Fearful Idolaters

Adam S. Cohen's review of The Pope's Divisions: The Roman Catholic Church Today by Peter Nichols was so blatantly anti-Catholic that I have no choice but to respond. Mr. Cohen reveals his bias immediately when he says, "the book's dust jacket...features two Catholic clergymen praising the book's analysis," and implies 'we should therefore conclude the book to be full of lies. Apparently Mr. Cohen still views the Church as a bunch of sinister wizards plotting to take over the world from the Vatican, a view which even most Protestant fundamentalists no longer hold. The message is that anything a priest says is automatically false. If this is not pre-judging, I don't know what is.

Why does anti-Catholicism persist at a university where discrimination against Blacks, Jews, women, American Indians, and other is piously denounced? The answer is that many people are afraid of religion. People need gods, and if they have rejected the "old" one they must invent a new one, whether it be sex, football, consumerism, or even Harvard. But the problem is that the old one refuses to go away. Henry Rosovsky may say. "Harvard is here forever," but in fact, Harvard is not here forever. The Christian Church is here forever, and in the year 4000, when Harvard and The Crimson are long forgotten, the Church will be facing new critics. Undoubtedly they too will criticize it for thinking in centuries.

Merry Christmas John McDermott