POST CARD
Niclaus Gerhaert von Leiden reliquary bust of Saint Barbara c. 1465 ashwood with polychromy [detail]
It's a totally weird story, but her legendary beauty has inspired gorgeous work by artists for more than a millenium, including this one which grabbed my camera on my last visit to the Metropolitan Museum.
The attraction of the Catholic faithful to human beauty has ever been thus, and the current Roman pontiff appears to be no exception, judging from stories and pictures documenting the charm of his personal secretary.
Came across this gay catholic blog in my internet travels.
http://johnheard.blogspot.com/2005/06/sabbath-st-josemaria-escriva-or-how.html
As I read it, I felt myself being drawn into the religion of my childhood. The author is good. He is a talented, faithful and pious wordsmith Then, quite jarringly, the author equates historical European anti-Jewish programs with modern day abortions. He is also very disrespectful of women. That is the problem with religion. It seems to be a dark destroyer of rational thought.
Recently, at a family gathering, a sister, a nurse, a devout Catholic, was passing out plastic babies to the children from her white linen bag. The babies are not baby dolls as you might think, they are plastic fetuses. They come with an anti-abortion informational card.
There are aspects of Catholicism that I like. I have the road map wired into me, installed in childhood by parish priests, nuns and relatives. I just have to read some flowery Catholic literature, even if from the laity such as the blogger I linked for, to unlock the internal God box that contains my religious belief. I fight it. I want to be modern, secular, antisexist, anti-racist, free of religious dogma, forward thinking, rational, and progressive. The Roman Catholic Church I fear is none of these.