This fiction of "catholic teaching" is one that many contemporary conservative Catholics think is genuine orthodoxy. If fact, an unbiased study of history will show that this "fortress church"  is an illusion.
         I am one that many "true defenders of the faith" do not count as a real Catholic, baptism and confirmation notwithstanding. I have studied the saints, Catholic and other, read Merton (God bless him) and more recently Richard Rohr and I have come to the conclusion that there are many who do not "get" what grace is, nor do they understand what it means to be Christian. 
          I regret sincerely that some of the writers for the NCR do not measure up to the standard of journalism once maintained when Tom Fox was editor (read Penny Lernoux's PEOPLE OF GOD if you care) but Catholic they are. Christian they are. As for you, I have no such assurance. Thomas Merton wrote in effect, "Better an inculpable atheist than a religious egotist".