I’m not a Roman Catholic, and might even admit, if you catch me with my guard down, that I have inherited a mild, grumbly, occasional anti-Catholicism from my upbringing.

One thing I’ll say for the Pope & his legions though, in all sincerity:

They take the human intellect seriously. (I don’t say they ALWAYS did; I say they currently do. They learned a B–I–G institutional lesson from the Galileo fiasco & are determined not to be caught like THAT again.) A Catholic intellectual is, more often than not, a

real intellectual. I don’t say I’d agree with him about everything, or even anything, but I know I’d have a real fight on my hands, against someone who knew how to throw a punch.

Here is some evidence, from Drudge.