Such willfully obscurant and dishonest nonsense. And boring, too. Very, very boring.

And good lord, I wish that my understanding of Catholic theology was "nil". But, alas, it's not. So, when I read this sentence:

The intelligibility of God is so bright, according to the great Catholic mystics, it overwhelms our minds with darkness, and can only be penetrated by the will.

I literally laughed out loud, because:

1) What?

2) Seriously, what??

3) Although I don't know exactly what he's getting at here, I can discern enough to assert that this is nothing like what I was taught during twelve years of Catholic schooling (including many doctrine, scripture, and theology classes) and eighteen years of mass, etc. In my experience, an "average" Catholic (i.e. not a Jesuit theologian) either has never heard of "the great Catholic mystics" or knows of them and thinks they are crazy.

Thus, Jackson is being both intentionally confusing and purposely dishonest. He certainly knows, for example, that, when looking for guidance, Catholics turn to the Pope, the Bible, and official Church doctrine, not the "great Catholic mystics". This misrepresentation is his attempt to wiggle his way out of taking responsibility for the actual damage caused by the actual Catholic Church. It's one thing for him to live in the mystical magical unknowable ineffable bright-sparkly-God version of Catholicism that he's invented, but it's quite another to pretend that his magical ineffable sparkly Catholicism has anything to do with Catholicism as it is actually taught and practiced.