Conservative but not Resistant
Patheos writer Fr. Dwight Longenecker is the latest to respond to the Wapo accusations of ‘conservative’ resistance, but he sure isn’t very nice about it or very conservative either.
The Post lists nothing specific from which they draw their conclusions. They mention Cardinal Burke, who seems to have been sidelined fairly well these days, but little else. Longenecker sees this as proof that there actually is no ‘conservative’ resistance to the Francis agenda among Catholics.
This article from the Washington Post gives a typical progressive slant on Catholic news.
The headline suggests that “Conservative Dissent is Brewing Inside the Vatican.” Ho hum.
You can guess the tired narrative: Pope Francis is the great reformer who wants to clean up the corrupt Vatican Bank, open communion to divorced and re-married people, lift the ban on artificial contraception, give the nod to abortion, make way for women priests and green light same sex marriage.
Except of course that he’s spoken out clearly against all those things.
Talk is cheap, but the UN’s Paris global warming agreement is expensive. “Does Francis care about the pro-death agenda of his policy partners,” a conservative might ask?
Nevertheless, he’s a subtle worker don’t you know, and he’s moving things along slowly but surely. Here a clever liberal appointment and there a back room deal. Here a little wink and nudge to journalists and there a promotion of one of his liberal buddies and a demotion of one the bad guys. In other words, the Vatican is working just like Washington DC and any powerful organization–it’s a network of crafty cardinals, manipulative monsignors and corrupt curial officials.
This kind of not-funny sarcasm is a liberal trademark. You’re supposed to feel stupid. At least in Washington they don’t pretend to be Catholic.
Of course there will always be politicking in any organization and the Vatican is no exception. Furthermore, there will always be disagreement and dissent within an organization.
Of course, but there’s no dissent in the Church Militant. The heresy is all on the outside – or is Father still talking about Washington?
Is there “dissent” amongst some conservative American Catholics? There is certainly some genuine ugliness rumbling in a few extreme traditionalist blogs, but must we take seriously flat earth bloggers who rant about the pope being a communist antiChrist, modernist, Jew loving, infiltrator who is ushering in the New World Order of Illuminati/Freemasons? Probbly not.
I think we’ve just crossed some of that resistance the Post laments. You can tell by where Father chooses to bring down his hammer. If we Catholics weren’t faithful, sincere, and effective, FrancisPriests like Fr. Longenecker wouldn’t smear us.
And if you can’t tell the difference between a destructive pro-communist Pope and a conservative, you belong at Patheos, not among the faithful ‘resistance.’ There’s more to it than a goatee and a gun.