Washington D.C., Apr 8, 2010 / 18:27 pm
Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of National Review Online, responded to Maureen Dowd's latest column attacking the Church, calling the the New York Times writer's piece more sarcastic than substantial and offering her own opinions on the state of the Church amidst the sex abuse scandal.
On Tuesday in the New York Times, Dowd, who calls herself “a Catholic woman who makes a living being adversarial,” hurled numerous complaints against the Catholic Church, criticizing how she feels women are treated. Dowd first targeted celibacy, calling it “outdated,” she then denounced what she believes to be corruption among Church leaders, and asserted that “the church is dying from a thousand cuts.”
Lopez, who is also Catholic, responded on April 7 in the National Review Online, saying that although “there are many things to say both about her column and what's going on in the media and in the Church,” what “sticks out from Ms. Dowd’s column today is this closing line: 'How can we maintain that faith when our leaders are unworthy of it?'”
“If the pope himself were possessed, if every priest and religious were evildoers, there would still be Christ and there would still be the fact – which, if you’re Catholic, you believe to be true, or so claiming to be Catholic suggests – that He died for your sins,” wrote Lopez. “If the pope were corrupt, I’d like to think I’d still have faith. It’s not the human leaders with free will who are at the heart of the faith – and the Church – but the Eucharist, literally.”