The Arkansas Catholic, a diocesan newspaper, ran an article about my father’s book The Cross My Only Hope. It’s a nice piece and a fitting venue because, as the article notes, the title of the book was taken from a homily by the former bishop of Little Rock, Andrew J. McDonald.
The title may fall somewhat under the category of click-bait: “Federal judge admits surrendering to ‘Catholic disease’”. Anything that starts with “federal judge admits” promises something juicy or scandalous, and one wonders which disease is so typical of Catholics as to be called the “Catholic disease.” And what is so shameful about this disease that one would “admit” to “surrendering” to it?
But it turns out that the Catholic “disease” is a fascination with and pull toward that strange, scandalous, mysterious, and marvelous thing called the “Catholic Church.” My father calls it a “disease” in the book because no one outside the Church wants to feel that fascination. It is unwelcome, and may, one fears, lead to a kind of death.
Which of course turns out to be true.
The article briefly mentions my own role in formatting and publishing The Cross My Only Hope. I describe my own reactions to the book here.
