How Does the Pope Interfere with Phillies Brad Lidge's Relationship WIth God? (Apologetics 101)

Get Religion highlights a very refreshing article about Phillies pitcher Brad Lidge. See Jesus and the World Series . I like this article and I like how he is open about this faith and does not dodge tough questions. It is interesting we are getting better coverage of religion in the sports pages than the front page as a whole.

Lidge is complex and so are his ideas toward his former Catholic Faith that he seems not too ready yet to totally abandon in some ways. What interest me about this article is how would a Catholic respond to Lidge or someone like him. In many ways a good informed Catholic could probably get him to think about things in a different way.

Let me highlight the Catholic part. The Bolding is all mine.

The pitcher's Christianity defies common classification and is subject to constant revision.

"If I had to define myself now I would be nondenominational with a heavy appreciation for and leaning theologically toward Catholicism," Lidge said. "But there are some things in Catholicism that I don't subscribe to."

That perspective hardened when Lidge and his wife, Lindsay, visited the Vatican.
"If you've seen the Sistine Chapel and you see the amount of wealth amassed there . . . if they decide there is a time when they really want to use that for God and Jesus' cause, they could spread that," Lidge said.

"They could sell all those things, auction them off and probably feed half that world's starving population. There is that much wealth stored in the Sistine Chapel. For it just to be sitting there I think is a crime. It just doesn't make sense anymore. People have given well-deserved gifts to the church, but Jesus said, 'Store for yourself not treasures on earth but treasures in heaven.' These are treasures on earth. That's not what we're supposed to be doing."
Raised in a Catholic household near Denver, Lidge attended Mass every Sunday and served as an altar boy. But religion hardly defined his younger days.

"I don't think that I was necessarily big on religion then," he said. "I was more a philosophical, rationalize-things- out type of guy."

While at Notre Dame, a school run by Holy Cross fathers, Lidge melded courses in history and philosophy with a closer focus on the spiritual texts that were required. He read Stephen Hawking and the New Testament, unwittingly preparing himself for the more serious independent study a few years later in Kissimmee.

"I really enjoyed a lot of philosophy and theology at Notre Dame," Lidge said of the coursework, some of which is required and often taught with a religious orientation. "When I did that, I sort of reworked why I believed what I did."

Lidge still identifies strongly with Catholic beliefs, but attends the Protestant-leaning Sunday chapel services with most of his teammates. His primary spiritual goal is to develop a personal connection to divinity.

Secure in his opinions but reluctant to criticize others for theirs, Lidge approaches these subjects diplomatically.

"This might be a touchy issue," he continued, before pausing. "I'm trying to think of that best word; some of the ritualistic things that are involved, some of the questions on the pope's infallibility and when that started . . . I have a lot of respect for Catholicism, but sometimes the hierarchy can get in the way of the relationship between yourself and God and Jesus."

Lidge does not always agree with the common matches of religious and political thought.

"You come to learn that a lot of times faith and reason are pitted against each other," he said. "But more often than not, they support each other.

"A lot of times people feel that conservative, sometimes right-wing, politics are more Christian than left-wing politics. That's not necessarily true. If we really want to get into it, I think Jesus would pretty much be antiwar in any circle, and that is definitely more of a left-wing approach, more Democratic than Republican. I don't favor one party. I look at the issues and see which ones I stand with morally. And I vote based on that."

Describing himself as less of a "literal Christian," Lidge does not understand why what he calls peripheral issues become divisive.

"Do you believe in evolution or not? - those can be periphery issues," Lidge said. "I choose to focus on our belief in God, which is the underlying common ground. But wars were started over those periphery issues. Christians fighting Christians."

Ahh Jesuit educated and went to Notre Dame and came out a sort of Protestant. :)

So lets examine this. What would a Catholic say to this Christian young man. I must say what stuck perhaps stuck from his Catholic education is a large Catholic Social Justice angle. As usual it appears to be a sort of narrow social justice angle perhaps. (JESUS NO DOUBT WOULD BE A DEMOCRAT) but oh well.

I am sort of amazed that as a man that is studying artifacts of the Late Roman Empire that he has the view of the supposed "wealth" of the Vatican. One gets a sense he has not really thought this through. Pointing out of course that selling all the Vatican treasures would no doubt not even come close to feeding one tenth of the poor would be good to point out.

There are major issues about if the "Vatican" has even a right to sell off 2000 years of Christian Patrimony to private collectors in which it has guard over. Has he thought about the "witness" of this art. That art and beauty proclaim the Word of God just like the scriptures?

Part of the problem here is is Lidge is reflecting I think not so much a Christian Theology about all this "art" but reflects sad state of affairs where most American don't appreciate art and music like they used. That is the dumbing down of America. The fact that he is a product of the Vatican II Church in some ways that had elements that wanted to throw it all out is a issue too.

When dealing with people like Lidge , with always a light and loving hand, it is important to get across that not all people process the world and God as he does in a very fundamental way.

Author Ann Rice who returned to her Catholic Faith points this out in a wonderful way in her recent book. I so wish I had it near me right now. She describes how in reality she is a horrible reader. She goes into how for many people the visual and sensory is how they process the world and this was key to her Catholic Faith. She got her love of Jesus from the visual and sensory experience she had in Church. A very sacramental view that I think some people overlook that people need. Again we don't all process through the written word.

He talks about the need for a spiritual connection to the Divinity. Has any Catholic talked to about the various movements in the Catholic Church that can meet this need? I am not sure what he is talking about as to ritualistic. It would have been interesting to see where he was going with that. In a sense we see here that his Catholic education failed him.

This Louisiana Baptist minister seems to have perhaps what is a good starting point to interact with people like Ledge. See Live the Trinity's post What makes worship?. Again he seems like a Christian that is working things out as we all do. Has he consider this?

The more interesting comment he made was when he said " I have a lot of respect for Catholicism, but sometimes the hierarchy can get in the way of the relationship between yourself and God and Jesus".

You know I hear this a good bit . In fact so much it seems cliche. I can never recall a moment when the hierarchy or the Pope got between me and God. Catholics need to press people on this when they hear it. I get a sense that perhaps some unfortunate aspect of his Catholic Jesuit and Notre Dame Education is having a influence here with past anti Hierarchy views.

I am really getting into researching my family history. I have found my early ancestors were huge in bringing the Baptist faith to Mississippi. What is stunning is reading the old Church minutes that have somehow survived (THANK YOU MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE).

The local Baptist Church was excommunicating (yes they did that) people left and right for the most petty and venial of offenses. Like slipping and buying a lottery ticket or getting intoxicated. This practice of excommunication from the local Baptist Church was still very much in use well into the last century. Now in a sense they had a proper and indeed Catholic understanding of excommunication. That is excommunication was for paternal and loving correction. Indeed in the early 1800's this was needed not only for Christian issues but for social order where the Church had to settle disputes.

Still it struck me that the Catholic Church on the whole tends to back away from taking a heavy hand with the average individual person in the pews except in the most extreme cases. Yes I know there has been exception but the practice of Confession is usually a remedy for much.

It is a point that needs to be pressed with people like Ledge. How exactly did the Pope and the Hierarchy get between you and God? Not eating meat on Friday? Is it a Doctrinal issue like birth Control? Is it issues dealing with female Clergy.

Just some thoughts as I read this article.