Rod Dreher's decision

It's not "legal theory," but it seems relevant . . .

Rod Dreher -- author of "Crunchy Cons" who blogs here -- has posted a long account of his decision to leave the Roman Catholic Church and become Orthodox.  As many readers know, Dreher wrote a great deal about the clergy-sex-abuse scandal.

Here is a post, over at Commonweal, about Dreher's decision.  Here (scroll down) is something from First Things.

Dreher's account makes for hard, sobering reading, I think.  Fr. Neuhaus writes:

Having said that, however, Dreher’s essay is important. Yes, his decision is in large part reactive. But he is reacting to very real corruptions in the Catholic Church. I hope every Catholic bishop and priest will read his essay, and especially those bishops and priests who are inclined to heave a sigh of relief that we have weathered the sex-abuse scandal. And every Catholic engaged in the standard intra-church quarrels, whether on the left or the right, should take to heart what he says about Catholics being more preoccupied with church battles than with following Jesus.

Dreher concludes his reflection with this: “Still, those of you more charitably inclined, please just pray for me and my family, that we always live in truth, and do the right thing, and be found pleasing to God, the Father of us all.” No Catholic should hesitate to join in that prayer.

Italics added.