Venom From the Right

[meow2u3]

It has been a rough week for a certain type of conservative, the type who has an over-arching need for literal certainty, who worries about straying from the party line, and who inclines towards fundamentalist understandings of all issues. First, Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the Supreme Court’s four liberals to uphold the Affordable Care Act. Now, here comes Pope Benedict XVI, appointing as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller, a man these fundamentalist conservatives have accused of heresy.

Yesterday, I noted that Rick Garnett had pushed back, effectively and convincingly, against those conservatives who are attacking Roberts. It can be hoped that other conservative intellectuals will think long and hard about the monster they have, if not created, at least abetted, a conservative political movement that is dangerous in part because it is not very smart. Something similar has been going on among the Catholic Right for some time, with groups like the American Life League being able to cast vicious aspersions and false allegations against good people and good works, without being called out by conservative Catholic intellectuals.

Rocco put up a link to the blog Rorate Caeli, which wrote about the possibility of Muller’s appointment before it was announced. They entitled the article “In charge of the henhouse?” The article was signed with a pseudonym, “new Catholic,” who is identified only as a convert to Catholicism, surely someone who knows more about the faith than, say, Pope Benedict XVI who has only been baptizing children, confecting the Eucharist, ordaining priests, and writing theology for decades. Poor Papa Ratzi – never blogged a day in his life. What could he know?

http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/venom-right

[rug]

1. That's very interesting. I didn't know that about Muller.