Very keen observation in the midst of Michael Warren Davis' essay about heresy. He quotes the two offenders:
...what Cardinal McElroy said is that “the exclusion of men and women because of their marital status or their sexual orientation/activity is pre-eminently a pastoral question, not a doctrinal one.” Likewise, Cardinal Cupich condemned those who would “exclude sinners from fuller participation in the life of the church until they have reformed, out of respect for God’s justice.”...
....and goes on to say that 'we all know what that actually means.' He notes that the Cardinals, too, know what it means.
Then there's this wonderful exposition:
...Some conservatives are accusing the Cardinals of heresy. But I’m not. Just the opposite, really. At the risk of sounding cute, I really don’t think they’re worthy of that name.
When I think of a heretic, I think of Giordano Bruno or Miguel Servetus: brilliant men living—and dying—in the service of some fantastical error. They might be wrong. They might even be damned wrong. But they possess certain virtues a Catholic can’t help admiring: courage, sincerity, a genuine desire for truth.
Objectively speaking, the missives published by Cardinals McElroy and Cupich were neither courageous nor sincere....
Recently, we spoke with a priest about a problem: a transvestite (and proud of it!) is likely to be driving a school bus full of Catholic grade-school children. The priest told us that it was not likely that the pastor of the parish (not ours) will do anything about it because 'he would get blowback.'
You see the commonality here?
At one time, the Catholic priest was muscular in defense of the Faith and morals, especially as it applied to children in his parish school. And as Mr. Davis observes, at one time, heretics were muscular in defense of their heresy.
Now, C S Lewis' horrifying analysis has come true:
... The result of such chest-less education, as Lewis warns, is a dystopian future. “We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise,” says Lewis. “We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”...
And those traitors have Red Hats and white skullcaps.
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