The Sovereign Merciless Order of Malta – Another step toward creepy.

UPDATE 12 April 2018:

This whole thing reminds me of something.

Do any of you remember waaaaay back in the 1980’s when John Paul II removed the head of the Jesuits and replaced him with his own pick Father, later Cardinal, Paolo Dezza?

Dezza went on to silence Jesuit left-wing (is there any other kind?) criticism of the Pope.

Of course the Jesuits and rest of the catholic Left reacted badly to that and denounced the silencing of criticism.

I wonder… has the catholic Left denounced this silencing of criticism?

___ Originally Published on: Apr 11

In the Palazzo of the Doge in Venice there is a rather creepy slot in the wall where people could drop anonymous denunciations of their fellow Venetians.  What could possibly go wrong with that?  Right?

Did you read the Catholic Herald story?   It seems that the Sovereign Military Merciless Order of Malta (SMOM) has commanded its members not to say or write anything “offensive” about Pope Francis.

Also, and this is a little creepy, members are instructed to grass on, rat out, any member who does say or write something “offensive” about the Pope.

It isn’t entirely clear what might constitute “offensive”.   But then again, during the Cultural Revolution in China it wasn’t entirely clear what was “offensive” about Mao.

I don’t remember them doing this about John Paul II or Benedict XVI.  Then again, they were under different ownership at the time, weren’t they.

Is saying something like, “The Pope made a mistake about how he handled the situation of the Chilean bishop” offensive?

Is saying something like, “I think the Pope should wear the traditional papal vestments for the Urbi et Orbi blessing” offensive?

Is saying something like, “What the Pope said about women being ‘strawberries on the cake’ was offensive to women!”, offensive?

Do you suppose this is retroactive?   Are Knights of SMOM suppose to tattle on anyone who wrote something “offensive” about Benedict XVI?

Where does this stop?

Who else will move in this direction?

(That’s a trick question.  It’s already being done on a wide scale.)

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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5 Comments

  1. Spinmamma says:

    As I understand it, this is partially due to Spire’s book about the “Dictator Pope.” I believe the letter also mentions any defense of the author is equally verboten. The amusing thing about this is that they entirely miss the irony that their heavy handed approach reinforces the allegations in the book.

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  3. Mariana2 says:

    I’m so embarrassed for the Order of Malta.

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  5. TonyO says:

    D’ya notice how the gloves come off when the libs are at the helm? When it was Benedict at the helm, “dialogue” and “debate” and “two sides to any issue” were all over the place. “Criticism” was always at least potentially “constructive criticism”.

    But now that Francis in at the helm and his selected person is in charge at the Order of Malta, they drop that old position like a hot potato. Now it’s “criticism is disrespectful” and “my way or the highway, bud”. The hidden tyranny of the tolerant. Or, as we like to say at whatswrongwiththeworld.net , the “shrieking harpies of tolerance“, dictator version.

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