Interesting post from Thomas Hibbs on National Review Online today:
Catholic schools, the majority of which are under the control of the local bishop, have many virtues, but they typically produce graduates who are theologically illiterate, but who — because of their affiliation with Catholic education — think that they already know everything about the Church. Asking your average graduate to say something intelligent about, say, the trinity or the communion of saints, would prompt responses akin to those Jay Leno receives when he walks the streets of L.A. quizzing ordinary citizens about American history and current events.
In their indifference to doctrine, many American Catholics are already more American than Catholic. Tocqueville observed that the effect of democratic culture upon religion is to deflect the believer's attention away from specific and divisive doctrinal issues toward general moral principles. The vague pantheism he predicted is evident precisely in the popularity of the vacuous term "spirituality" as a replacement for "religion." What many Catholics apparently believe about the core doctrinal issue of the Eucharist is that it's just a symbol. But if you don't believe that what the Church teaches about this and other fundamental issues is true, why, especially these days, remain Catholic? As Flannery O'Connor once remarked in response to the suggestion that in our enlightened age no one could continue to believe traditional Catholic teaching about the Eucharist : "If it's just a symbol, then to hell with it."
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