Michael Gerson: Catholic Church endures, flawed but indispensable

Here's an article that you can get behind, talking about the importance of the Catholic Church as a defender of reason and personal dignity from the Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN).

Moral behavior may continue to ride in grooves of socialization or genetics, but moral assertions are fundamentally arbitrary -- always trumped by a two-word response: "Says you."

By asserting that the human mind can grasp moral truth, Catholicism also defends the reliability of reason against the superstitions of our time.

And this is important for a very practical reason: because a belief in human rights is also a moral conviction.

An institution accused of superstition is now the world's most steadfast defender of rationality and human rights. It has not always lived up to its own standards, but where would those standards come from without it?