gene - thanks for the kind words.

To a Catholic who is a devout or very active - it's very difficult to separate our Catholicism from who and what we are. An attack on our Church is an an attack on us personally for many people. I think that is where a lot of this comes from also.

To be honest - I was a lapsed Catholic. I hadn't practiced my faith in a long time, but reading the bashing there stirred something in me and got me back. To me the Catholic Church is family in a very real way. Others can attest but when I came back to the church the VERY first thing Fr. John said to me was "Welcome Home". I know those same words have been spoken to others who joined the church 1000's of miles away - it's an attitude or way of living.

I liken it to more of someone slandering your family over the phone - you stand up for it then sooner or later you just hang up the phone - not out of fear of what someone is saying but tiredness. I didn't have to pick up the phone to begin with and I can put it down at any time. Thats what Rick did IMO - he put the phone down for a while.

AFAIK - Rick never said CATC is gone forever. It may be back with the flip of a switch. That said - I had noticed that there was usually 12-30 people in there all the time but few posters. The number of people chiming in here on the subject leads me to believe that many were interested. Why then weren't there more posters? Means 1 of 2 things.

1. They didn't feel comfortable posting due to the perceived tone there.
2. They had nothing to say - well that is hard to believe. I think we all could add 20k+ posts to our totals for things we wanted to say but kept our mouths shut.


Me