Catholic Answers “pilgrimage”/cruise

From Michael at catholicanarchy

m | General, Church, Anti-Capitalism | Saturday, May 5th, 2007

The image of the boat is frequently used as a symbol for the Church. But I have never heard of anything like this.

I clicked over to Catholic Answers guru and super-apologist Jimmy Akin’s blog to check out his outlandish series of posts justifying the use of torture. (Morning’s Minion sufficiently dealt with Akin’s errors here.) In another, more recent post Akin apologizes to readers for his recent lack of blogging which he says is due to being in the midst of preparations for the “Catholic Answers Pilgrimage/Cruise” happening in May. Curious, I Googled “Catholic Answers cruise” and found this site: www.catholicanswerscruise.com.

The Catholic Answers crowd continues to amaze me. When they aren’t slipping partisan voters guides under your windshield wipers while you’re at Mass — guides that list “non-negotiable” issues for Catholic voters — or busy themselves justifying war and torture (the latter of which is designated an “intrinsically evil act” in the encyclical Veritatis Splendour!), they are hanging out on a cruise ship together in the Mediterranean feeling good about themselves, drinking champagne with Fr. Frank Pavone and calling it a “pilgrimage.” You have got to be kidding me.

Let me share a few of the highlights from the online cruise brochure.

The site assures potential cruisers that “these events are private and exclusively for Catholic Answers cruise participants” and that they will be “traveling with like-minded individuals.”

A amazing image of bourgeois Christianity if there ever was one. If only we could always “do church” with “like-minded individuals.”

Guests will enjoy a “Catholic Answers private mass, located in the Some Enchanted Evening Lounge.”

I’m picking up on a theme here: private. The name of this liturgical space amazes me. These are the people who constantly harp on contemporary liturgy for being “irreverent?”

Finally, we have the “Catholic Answers General Session, featuring such speakers as Akin and Fr. Frank Pavone, located in the Masquerade Theater.”

“Masquerade” is right.

I’m not really sure which adjectives to apply to the Catholic Answers crowd anymore. Certainly they perceive themselves to be an elite of some kind, a “church-within-a-church.” And you know what orthodox Christians have called these types: gnostics. I have a feeling that these upper-crust Catholics won’t be offering scholarships to less fortunate Catholics who cannot afford the ticket price but who would really like to learn more about the Catholic faith — the Catholic Answers version, anyway. That’s okay, though, if they can’t afford it, they are probably just too lazy.

This Mediterranean cruise with daily Mass and a few “Catholic” sprinklings smacks of the Ave Maria, Florida Super-Catholic-Land-Oasis that Dominos Pizza Catholic capitalist Thomas Monaghan plans to build. Plans? Planned? Is it finished? When can I go? I want to make a pilgrimage too. Florida sounds nice.

Private Masses with “like-minded” individuals. Having a Bud Light with Jimmy Akin and Co. Catholicism-as-vacation! I could not think of anything less authentically ecclesial.