A self-identified "TradCatholic" writes in to say, "I’ll tell you right now: If some African witch doctor becomes Pope, I’m leaving the Church."
Mark's response to this knuckleheaded outburst is far, far more charitable than anything I can muster, so go read the post.
Just as "TradCatholic" is repulsed by the possibility that our next Pope may be African, so the Perpetually Aggrieved Grievance Professionals on the left are scared to death that the next Pope might be Catholic.
Lining up to wheeze out their '68 cliches and tie-dye slogans are the usual suspects: Kung, LCWR, NYT, "Catholics" for Choice, blahblahblah.
What faithful Catholics need to keep in mind: God is in charge of the Church. His servants--that's us--mess things up all the time. . .always have, always will. But the secret to being at peace with the next conclave is that the 70-80 yrs that most of us are around is nothing when placed in the context of our Salvation History. A speck, a pittance. God is in this for the long haul. Just focus on the 70-80 yrs you've been given and give God thanks.
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Sorry Father, I think Mark Shea still comes off as smug in this post, because he paints all traditional-minded folks with a broad brush stroke. How about calling out this man just on his racism, and leaving it at that?
ReplyDeleteMatthew, he pretty clearly says that not all traditionalists are like this. I know all traditionalists aren't like this b/c I know many from my days at UD.
DeleteSorry Father, but Mark Shea has long had a bee in his bonnet about trads. Since "they're not all like this", if you please what is the point of his post? Since every one of the nasty faults Mark imputes to "some" trads can just as readily be found amongst non-trads, Mark's post (along with his "who, me?" plausible denials of animus) is either meaningless or else a fine example of the passive aggression for which he so handily skewers others. So much of what Mark says is very, very good, but when he's bad -- you know what I mean.
DeleteRomulus
Since the gentleman has a problem with an African, how much of Catholic thought does he discard since St Augustine is an African?
ReplyDeleteWell, you see, Augustine wasn't REALLY African. . .or something.
DeleteLooney tunes lefties are recognizably ridiculous, but Rad-Trads are deeply messed up...
ReplyDeleteJudging from the anecdote included by the Nigerian priest I heard preach today in South London there are plenty of witch doctors in Africa still. Certainly that was the impression he wanted to give. They just aren't Catholic priests let alone Cardinals so aren't likely to be in the running for papal elections.
ReplyDeleteI highly doubt that any pope would have made any witch doctor a cardinal anyway. So I don't think we need to worry about an African witch-doctor becoming pope. I truly am shocked by the amount of racism towards blacks that STILL exists.
ReplyDeleteThe source for the "African witch doctor" at Shea's blog seems to be from the comments here:
ReplyDeletehttp://prowesternchristianity.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-pro-western-christian-reading-list.html
Notice that the twitter feed for this "Pro-Western Christianity" (https://twitter.com/West_and_Christ) has nearly 1,000 followers and is only a few months old.
"Pro-Western Christianity" is new to me.