The Convocation to elect the new Pope begins today.
Six essayists at the Wall Street Journal contemplate the election of the Church's new shepherd. I agree with Noonan, Weigel, and Eberstadt (most particularly). Winters and Baumann have some good things to say, but I disagree with parts. James Carroll's invocation of a "Catholic Gorbachev" is deeply misguided and offensive.
Please pray for the Cardinal electors, and for our Church.
James Carroll's was particularly inane.
ReplyDelete"A Party functionary tapped by the Politburo to shore up the shaken Soviet Empire, Mikhail Gorbachev dismantled it instead."
So the new pope needs to...dismantle the Church? Something tells me that the conclave isn't looking for someone like that. His intent seems pretty clear: The Roman Catholic Church is the new evil empire and it needs to be abolished.
But there are no Catholic haters out there. They simply don't exist.
TRISH
TRISH,
DeleteJames Carroll is a former Roman Catholic priest. I read his book, American Requiem, several years ago. He grew up in a very Catholic home, the son of a powerful Air Force general. He went into the priesthood mostly to please his parents. He was something of a radical priest in the 60's, marching against the war and for civil rights, but also doing things like inventing his own mass with counterfeit female priests.
He eventually left the Church in disgust and he never has anything good to say about it. I think that some of his criticisms were poignant but the guy is obviously very bitter about something to the point of being hateful. He's the go-to guy for Catholic haters. Because of his credentials as a former priest, no one can say that he's somehow bigoted against the religion.
JQ
Carroll is certainly on the fringe. He has all the usual lefty credentials, and his hatred for the Church is obvious. The comparision between the Church and the Soviet Union is outrageous, and his understanding of Gorbachev is wrong as well. Gorbachev was no democrat-- he was an apparatchik with a mere glimmer of insight that the old communist edifice was unsustainable and he lacked the blood-lust of his thug predecessors. For the first time in Soviet history, a Soviet leader wasn't willing to kill his own civilians wholesale. He opened the door a crack, and the whole rotten enterprise collapsed.
DeleteIt's telling that the media use "ex-priests" for commentary on the Church. I can't think of a less reliable or less qualified group to discuss Church issues. It's like asking ex-doctors for medical advice, or ex-lawyers for legal advice.
They're "ex-" for a reason.
“But there are no Catholic haters out there. They simply don't exist.”
DeleteI’m not really sure what your point is. Is there someone claiming that everybody loves the church? I doubt there are any big organizations that don’t have a host of “haters”.
-KW
@KW: "I’m not really sure what your point is."
DeleteWhat a surprise.
Do tell Admiral, who’s claiming there are no Catholic haters? Nobody, It’s a straw man.
Delete-KW
So, KW, you're admitting the problem of anti-Catholic prejudice in society? I don't think that's a straw man.
DeleteTRISH
TRISH: Don't assume that he thinks it's a problem.
DeleteBen
Actually, we don't hold "stupid ideas" about fairy tales, but that tells me a lot about your thinking. You're pro-hatred against Catholics.
Delete"Prejudice" against men who like butt sex with men isn't the same as prejudice against a physical condition like race, age, or gender either. Yet you treat it the same.
And finally, you force your non-religious morals on people all the time. You don't even care if we enforce our religious morals on people, so long as they coincide with your nonreligious morals.
Ben
"Prejudice" against men who like butt sex with men isn't the same as prejudice against a physical condition like race, age, or gender either. Yet you treat it the same.
DeleteI treat it the same because we can’t chose who we are sexually attracted to. Assuming that you’re strait, you and I can’t chose to be attracted to men; it just doesn’t work that way. Of course a gay man can chose not to act on those feelings of attraction, but I, unlike you, have no interest in controlling or influencing his actions. You will find that I almost always come down on the side of personal liberty.
-KW
@KW:
Delete[You will find that I almost always come down on the side of personal liberty.]
Goodness gracious that's funny. You agree with taking people to court for praying in school, apportioning government favors by race, functionally abolishing the right to keep and bear arms, forcing devout Christians to pay for contraception, killing children in the womb, mandating that all people purchase health insurance, instituting coercive population control programs, and denying poor people pesticides to fight malaria based on junk science.
You support massive government intervention in people's lives. "Personal liberty"? What a joke.
@KW:
DeleteOh, and I forgot: you advocate regulating CO2-- the air people exhale-- in order to "save the Earth".
Lot's of personal liberty there.
KW believes in personal liberty! Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! I cannot believe you said that!
DeleteTell me, if I own a hotel and I don't want to host a lesbian wedding, shouldn't I be allowed because it's my property?
What a clown. Can I squeeze your big clown nose, Bobo?
Ben
Let's not forget that he thinks that the government should be allowed to censor speech if the person speaking is just an asshole bigot provocateur. That's the kind of personal liberty KW likes. The kind that involves censorship.
DeleteChoosing who you are attracted to isn't the point. It's who you sleep with. And of course, in a free country, you should be able to sleep with other consenting adults without the police busting your door down. But if someone else disapproves, then they have that right to, and sometimes that means you won't be able to force people to do things your way and you might suffer consequences. Freedom doesn't mean freedom from consequences. That's what you want.
Race and sex are who you are. Sexuality is what you do. There is simply no comparison.
JQ
The most intrusive people in the world are environmentalists. They like to dictate lifestyle choices based on the amount of resources consumed. There's never any end to it. If they can tell you how much fuel your car can burn and what kind of light bulbs you must use, the can tell you how many offspring you're allowed to have and where you're allowed to go on vacation. You're against that, right KW? Because if you aren't, you are not in favor of personal liberty.
DeleteBy the way, who is forcing their religion on you? Is someone forcing you at gunpoint to receive the sacraments?
Joey
I think what KW means is that he's adamantly opposed to anyone telling him what to do, but if he wants to tell someone else what to do, that's different. Why is it different? Because in KW's mind, KW's program for running everyone else's lives makes perfect sense. When he talks about personal liberty he means the freedom to live his life his way, as well as the freedom to live your life his way.
ReplyDeleteBen
KW feels oppressed by the Catholic boogeyman.
DeleteTRISH
Oh the HUMILITY! Congrats to the catholic church's new high-profile accessory after the fact!
ReplyDelete