The Eucharist For Dummies

It amazes me the degree to which people we are supposed to take as "public intellectuals" are in reality dumb as a box of rocks. Case in point; the Washington Post's non-Catholic "religion journalist" thought she would like to take Communion at the Catholic funeral mass for Tim Russert. She then wrote about the experience in the Post.

Now, she has been criticized for her distasteful mockery of the meaning of the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist, and she cannot understand why.

I was really close to him, and I was grieving. And I thought me taking the Eucharist would be a thing that he would really enjoy. And all these things are what religion should be about. ... There's no sign out there that says you're not allowed to take Communion. [The Catholic Church is] like, "Everyone is welcome. This is God's house." God doesn't turn people away, supposedly.

I'm not sure which is scarier, the shocking ignorance of Catholic belief in a journalist specializing in religion, or the hubris of someone who believes the beliefs of a two thousand year old faith should be trumped by one person's whimsy.

First Things has a good take on this:

“I’m very pluralistic about religion, and I feel that everyone should respect everyone else’s.”

For Sally Quinn, respecting all religions apparently means all religions must respect all of Sally Quinn’s religious choices. She needn’t respect a religious community’s desire that only those in communion with Christ and His Church receive the sacrament of communion.

Evidently, respect is a one-way street.