Evening, Thask.
And Hank if you're reading, you had a similar post.
When a self-described, intelligent atheist agrees with what I've read elsewhere, I tend to agree about Bruno. He entered the Dominicans under false pretenses, denying Christ's divinity, etc., etc., but keeping everything under his hat--a very strange cat.
I think it was wrong to submit Bruno to that fate, though not sure about "torture". It took 7 years to evaluate his case. The dangerous thing for the church in any age is to allow the culture to influence her members, rather than vice versa. The church was too close to the state in the context of the times.
Hopefully there is a similar level of outrage at the champions of the French Revolution, flying the flag of "Reason" (Reign of Terror) and introducing the guillotine to clerics and Catholic peasants, et.al., the gulags, and this guy...
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=290513
I hope I'm like you, Thask, in that I'm not going to let anyone else decide for me what's true--not even episcopal malfeasance in the past or present. I simply find what the Catholic Church
proposes as truth compelling, like scores of intelligent and sincere individuals far more than me.
I'm not about the hopeless attempt of "converting" anybody over the internet. When I do participate, against my common sense, it may be to clarify a fact or present my beliefs as reasonable.
