Thanks for this. If you get a chance to watch, “Examined Life,” the interviews with West and Martha Nussbaum are extremely good, and merit watching the entire film.

Upon reading this post I remembered the as-promised LP, and it is now packaged and will be to your door very soon.

– Michael

Historically, the various Religious communities have developed particular and distinctive forms of ministry following the charism of their individual founders. This has its own impact on the resulting ecclesial community.

As Michael said: “many of the ecclesial forms within Catholicism are not parishes”. This is an extremely significant point to consider, if you wish to understand the universal and historic reality which we call Catholicism.

Think of Benedict and Scholastica in their communities, Francis and Clare, Dominic, Thomas Aquinas, Ignatius Loyola, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Alphonsus Liguouri, Elizabeth Seton, Dorothy Day, Teresa of Calcutta etc. All these holy men and women flourished and nurtured the faith outside of parochial structures. Sometimes even despite the objections and complaints of the local diocesan episcopal hierarchy. The charismatic element and the institutional church are not always in perfect harmony. But they have managed neverthless to coexist and even complement one another for the sake of the Reign of God.

I would have been so tempted to write something like this on my own blog, if only other jackasses didn’t already suck the class out of such a maneuver.

Looking forward to the book.