THE PROBLEM WITH CONTRIVING TO BE CONTROVERSIAL

Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins:

I have never much kept up with Catholic “politics,” if that’s the word. I depend upon Always Forward, from our own Angelus, for daily news of the Catholic world.

And I read one blog: Neal Obstat, faithfully maintained by the wonderful Dr. Tom Neal, husband, father, and Professor of Spiritual Theology at Notre Dame Seminary Graduate School of Theology in New Orleans.

 In a recent post. Dr. Neal wrote of his conscious choice to avoid being a “controversialist.” I couldn’t agree more.

That doesn’t mean you never say things with which people disagree. It means you don’t make a career, in or out of the Church, out of being a provocateur and a hater.

READ THE WHOLE PIECE HERE.