...then they came for the crucifixes?

I can not, of course, fully understand comprehend the manner in, and the the degree to which Christianity is part of the national psyche of Italy, but the outrage over a European court ruling against crucifixes in Italian schoolrooms seems genuine, principled and possibly useful, if it stirs Europeans Christians to deeper consideration of, and a resolve to strengthen their identity as, a society, a civilization whose roots are Christian.

I feel something of the sort in the American experience of Catholicism. Our nation's birth being so different, its experience of religions has been different, but I don't think it can be argued that while various branches of Christianity had more to do with our founding than secularists would like to admit, the Catholic Church has always been Other.

And the less Other it becomes, the less Catholic it becomes.

Sometimes Catholics have done it to themselves, so eager to kiss the the hindquarters of various goddesses: Prosperity, Political Power, Fame, Popularity...no, no, I'm just like one of you, I don't take orders from a foreign power, I don't let my club membership in the Catholic Club affect my judgement or opinions, I don't need time off on a Thursday to go to Mass, I don't need to forfeit the game on Sunday morning, I don't snap mackerel....

And sometimes it's done to us -- no, you can't say that at graduation, run an adoption agency that way, have a permit for that gathering, expect us to change the date for you, refuse to sell that, ....

I wonder at the locus of the tipping point, exactly when do we notice and protest? (Niemöller would know how to word the answer memorably.)

We so casually allow "superfluities" to be whittled away, picked away, bargained away.

Bit by tiny bit we acquiesce to the removal of what we might once have unquestioningly held to be an essential part of ourselves, but now seems mere ornamentation...

What a surprise, to sit in the chair at the salon, expecting a little trim to update our look, and in place of the hairdresser with his little scissors see the headsman approaching with his axe.