Frames are for pictures – the Church teaches its message as it always has; simply, directly, and repeatedly.

Scientists do not debate, sir, they propose theorems and them examine them. Philosophers and rhetoricians debate. Since the Church has many philosophers and rhetoricians we are aware of that and, thus, expect others – even scientists! – to understand and follow the process of debate.

“The Church would rather you be Catholic and a fool than an atheist and wise”

No, sir, the Church simply knows that you cannot be an atheist and be wise thus we hope to make everyone Catholic so they may learn wisdom.

“If you’re not already Catholic, what’s wrong with perversion is catching diseases.”

No, sir, the issue with perversion is that it is perverted. Thus, anyone who is perverted need wisdom, disease or no.

“Consciousness does not obey, it thinks for itself…”

Foolishness, sir, simple foolishness. Does a child not obey its father? Does a citizen not obey just laws? Rejection of legitimate authority is one of the first hallmarks of modernity. And if the rest of your knowledge of the Church is as accurate as your beliefs on meditative prayer, then I suggest you read more about the Church itself, not what others think of her.

Nine out of ten of what we call new ideas are simply old mistakes.

Yes.

There is no other case of one continuous intelligent institution that has been thinking about thinking for two thousand years. Its experience naturally covers nearly all experiences; and especially nearly all errors.

Were the Church truly wise she would know that the most important parts are being able to communicate and persuade.

Charitably, much of this art is dark; telling it in public is apt to destroy its usefulness. For example, it is not persuasive to openly admit you know how terribly stupid a 100 IQ is in absolute terms. Nevertheless, to pitch the message accurately, it is necessary to take it into account.

The Church does not pitch her message accurately.

Unfortunately, the disease causing the anti-rhetoric seems clear.

that a sexual perversion is good because it produces no life

The Church would rather you be Catholic and a fool than an atheist and wise. If you’re not already Catholic, what’s wrong with perversion is catching diseases. The Church nevertheless attacks the disease free.

Worse, this is not merely doctrinal, but cultural. The Church refuses to learn to marshal arguments as a modern scientist would, and rather insists that the scientist learn to marshal them as the Church has. Then, she blames the scientist of moral decrepitude.

I also see the materialist obsession with numbers, in reflection. How did ‘shut up and compute’ appear before the idea of computers?

torturing the slaves for evidence because the individual is nothing to the State

The Church can say that this lead to that in the past. It’s a good start, but she does not strive to understand how or why. Thus, her arguments repeatedly fall to ‘this time it’s different,’ as indeed it is, every time. On the other face of this coin, there are times where the logic is the same but the face is different, and thus passes the Church’s scrutiny.

This is fundamentally why the Church is in retreat. She was persuasive in her early life, but refuses to learn what has changed. She expects what was once persuasive to remain so, and she is wrong.

The above idea appeared because the Church is a power structure, its main purpose is to provide obedience. Consciousness does not obey, it thinks for itself, and thus must be opposed. (Catholic meditative prayer did not disappear coincidentally.) It is unfortunate that it apparently takes two millennia for this particular mistake to mature, but now the Church cannot think for itself.