Reading the comments that supposed Catholics post after some of their articles is an eye opening and frankly, frightening experience. The articles themselves are bad enough, but the comments afterwards are often worse.
:sad_yes: Ya know, I’ve been reading that website for several years (as frequently as I can stomach it, which is infrequent). I.m.o., the comments section has deteriorated significantly. There are a few more rational, subdued, & knowledgeable commenters among the unpleasant majority, but I have seen less of those voices recently, and perhaps with good reason. (It’s hard to be heard over the din of such cacaphony.) I don’t always agree with those few voices – sometimes I do, when the theology is sound & the points are well made; but when I don’t agree, their points have been made with moderation and thoughtfulness.
Regarding the Barbara Johnson story, those comments which appear on that site are alarmingly vicious, toward Church authority, toward Church doctrine, and toward any contributor who dares repeat Catholic doctrine regarding (for example, the condition for reception of the sacraments). The sense of personal entitlement and privately determined morality is squarely in opposition to Catholic doctrine. It’s interesting to me that fewer respondents focused on the canonical aspects, while more focused on respondents’ hatred of orthodox Catholic sexuality.
But since it did come up in those comments, and since I have seen it referred to in other “liberal” Catholic outlets, I want to reiterate that the Church does not consider reception of communion to rest with the receiver’s “feelings” – in general, on the occasion of a specific Mass, or on the occasion of grief or anguish. The conditions for reception of Eucharist have everything to do with honest self-examination & self-awareness as to one’s moral state, without regard to the occasion of that sacrament and the supposed personal “need” or “meaning” assigned to that event.
If I’m in a state of mortal sin (let’s say I introduce a boyfriend to the presiding priest as “my lover” or “my partner,” it makes no difference what the occasion is – someone’s wedding, First Communion, or the funeral of my sister: I am not “more” entitled to receive than at any ordinary Mass: I am not entitled to receive at all.
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