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Entry: The Addams Family Chapel Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_addams_family_chapel#11141 Post contents: Dear John Zmirak, I skimmed through most of the (to me, pointless and fungible) comments which argued obscure points of theology on this thread. But I have thoroughly read, and appreciated and enjoyed, John Zmirak's reply to me. JZ, I remain a Protestant, but I regard you - not all Catholics, but you personally - as one of the brightest and most eloquent lights of Christianity in our time. And I know that you, JZ, know, that most Roman Catholics don't think about the Immaculate Conception in rarefied theological ways. Most Roman Catholics just revere Mary in a common-sense way as the Mother of God. So do the Eastern Orthodox Christians, and so do traditional Protestants (of whom I am one, as an active member of my local Anglican Church here in Australia.) Now it's Christmas season in Australia - and here in Perth, a mostly Protestant city (and mostly British-stock, unlike Sydney these days) - where most of the (mostly Protestant) denizens of Western Australia STILL take Christmas very seriously (Western Australia is the most conservative state in Australia) - well, we have Christmas in Summer! And in this very Anglo/Scottish-PROTESTANT city of Perth, there are pictures of Mary and the Christ Child, all over the city during this Christmas season. And almost no one here thinks or cares or knows the slightest thing about the "Immaculate Conception" (except for the handful of traditionalist Catholics who attend the Latin Mass at Perth's oldest Catholic Church, built circa 1840 - JZ, you would love that old "pioneer" church, and I've attended their mass although I refrained from taking the sacraments...but JZ, if you ever visit Perth, I would like to go with you to a Latin Mass at Perth's oldest RC church, the pioneer RC church built c 1840!) I mean: my next-door neighbour is a nominal Roman Catholic. His (second) wife is Anglican. His father's father was a Protestant from Yorkshire (my Ball family's province), and his mother was Irish-Australian, the granddaughter of an Irishman who was sent to Australia as a prisoner. My neighbour doesn't care, or even KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT Roman Catholic doctrine. But he is a professed Christian, and he says so without embarassment. To him - and to his Protestant wife, and their Protestant children - and to me, too - the technical details of the theology of the "immaculate conception" don't mean much. All we care about, is the simple truth that God chose to be born as Man, and God's mother was a Virgin. All else, all other elaborations on that simple profession of Faith, are superfluous, except for the (so-called) "wise" whom St Paul excoriated. Merry Christmas, John Zmirak! And my (Hong-Kong born Chinese, and now Australian) Lady, who is an Anglican Christian, has been playing "Ave Maria" over and over again on my CD player!~ Sent at: 2008 10 07