Patrick Madrid is one of those “Catholic apologists” who would make me run as far from the Church as possible if I believed for a minute that his reasons were the best reasons to be a Catholic.
He has posted, evidently admiringly, an article about the incompatibility of yoga and Catholicism written by the late Father John Hardon, S.J. In the event, I know one U.S. bishop who performs an hour of yoga every morning before his morning Mass. In addition to the spiritual benefit, it helps with his bad back. Had Madrid taken the time to do a little research, he would have learned that some seminaries in India teach yoga, and as well all know, the curriculum of a Catholic seminary is approved by the Holy See.
One of the best reasons to be a Catholic is that even a vague awareness of the Church’s history instructs that the process of inculturation allows us to use for Catholic purposes many and diverse aspects of other cultures. We can baptize anything but sin, I seem to recall a theology professor telling me. But, in Madrid’s crimped version of Catholicism, there is no room for yoga in the Church. I wish I knew how to say “poppycock” in Hindi.
