Catholics bashed! Ice melts! Rain falls! (More at Eleven)

Another day, another email. Somebody—in this case, the ladies involved in the TV talk show called "The View"—are sniping at Catholics and Catholicism in general.

If you're like me, you receive "alerts" like this every day, or at least fairly often. (Actually, if you're like me, please go immediately to a quiet place and ask Our Lady to help you. I'll wait.)
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Feel better now? Good, because I'd like to talk to you about Catholic Persecution and What We Should Do About It.

What we should do about it? We should pray for those who persecute us. We should spread out and evangelize.

We should—we must—do our bleepest to accomplish two things:

1: Get ourselves into Heaven
2: Get those who persecute us into Heaven

How do we do this?

1: We pray for ourselves
2: We pray for those who have fashioned themselves as our enemies
3: We behave ourselves and do not give scandal to any non-believer (or believer!)
4: We try to instruct those who bash us (because usually—albeit not always—they are misinformed)
5: We continue to pray

How do we not do this?

1: We do not attack those who have fashioned themselves as our enemies
2: We do not hate those who have declared themselves our enemies

Don't get me wrong.

I love the Catholic League and think Bill Donohue is one of the most courageous of men. But we're all not Bill Donohue and when we try to act as if we are, the results are sometimes not pretty.

For example, I've read or heard comments that would make a sailor blush.

I do not need to know about Rosie O'Donnell's sexual preferences. I'd rather not hear about Jay Leno's so-called marital difficulties and for Heaven's sake, spare me Joy Behar's ugly remarks. (I've never even heard of Joy Behar until today, incidentally.)

Try to understand this and you'll be a better person for it.

If you're Catholic, you're going to be bashed. Deal with it. Live with it. Try to embrace it, if you can, and above all, forgive and pray for your bashers.

For immediate help, gaze upon your nearest Crucifix. That's what He's there for.