Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. : On Being An 'Ultra-Catholic'

I cannot resist taking a stab at defining what a modern ultra-Catholic is. Some temptations are difficult to resist. Briefly, in today's multi-descriptor world,

an ultra-Catholic is one who is a believing Catholic, a fairly rare bird.

The country is full of ex-, disagreeing, non-practicing, right-to-choose, leave-me-alone Catholics. They tell us that they are better than their hapless co-religionists who naively think Catholicism is credibly the most intelligent thing on the public or private scene.

In the public area, the most often cited "authority" on what Catholics believe is the dissenter.

Catholics are the one group about which no one has to speak accurately. A be-knighted ultra-Catholic holds the Nicene Creed as true.

He thinks divine authority exists in the Church.

He knows that he, a sinner, needs forgiveness. But he does not make his sins into some social-justice crusade. He does odd things like go to Mass on Sundays, even in Latin.

He thinks it is fine to have children. He prefers to work for a living.

He also knows that the Church is under siege in the culture. He belongs to the real minority.

Link (here) to the full article at InsideCatholic.com