Putting the Pope and Church bashers in perspective

I understand that the execrable Garry Wills – who is capitalizing on the papal news to sell another book full of distortions and lies – had an interview somewhere in which he predictably bashed Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church.

What sort of judgment will descend on those who make a living by hating on the Pope and the Church?

Yesterday I read something from the Catholic League which puts quislings like Wills in perspective.

Assessing the Pope’s Record

February 14, 2013
• Garry Wills [ex-seminarian]: “What we really need are no priests.”
• James Carroll [ex-priest]: The pope “has seen only a solemn obligation to defend the church.” [Italic added.]
• Richard Sipe [ex-priest]: “Certainly, he did a lot, but it was all reactionary.” [Italic added.]
• Daniel Maguire [ex-priest]: The “scandal of the papacy [is] one of the last absolute monarchies in a democratizing world.”
• Ronald Lauder, president, World Jewish Congress: “The papacy of Benedict elevated Catholic-Jewish relations to an unprecedented level.”
• Abraham Foxman, national director, ADL: “He [the pope] was good for the Jews.”
• Rabbi Yona Metzger, Israel’s chief Ashkenazic rabbi: Benedict’s papacy exhibited “the best relations ever between the church and the chief rabbinate.”
• Imam Hassan Qazwini, Islamic Center of America: “I have so much admiration for the pope, for being honest and humble.”
• Nihad Awad, national director, Council on American-Islamic Relations: “We offer the American Muslim community’s best wishes to Pope Benedict XVI.”
• Geoff Tunnicliffe, secretary general, World Evangelical Alliance: “I appreciate his [the pope’s] courage of ideas…and his boldness in warning us of the dangers of moral relativism….”
• Rev. R. Albert Mohler, president, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: “Pope Benedict has offered a brave and intelligent defense of truth against a relativist tide.”
Bill Donohue, who put this together, opines: “I could offer many other examples, but the point is obvious: embittered ex-seminarians and ex-priests suffer not only from profound anger—ultimately directed at themselves—but their perception of Catholicism makes them look twisted in comparison to the sentiments of Jews, Muslims, Protestants, and others.”

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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

  1. rtjl says:

    Wow – many who are first…

    I remember when Mother Teresa died, members of various local protestant denominations and a local synagogue organized a memorial service in her honor. On one occasion I happened to be prestent an informal gathering of the organizers at which they marveled at their inability to interest Catholic leaders in participating in honoring her. To quote them “The only people who are not interested in honoring her are the Catholics”.

    Go figure.

  2. poohbear says:

    Pope Benedict continues to unite people of good will, even as he steps down from the papacy.

    Those who bash him will continue to bash everyone who is not like them. They are a sorry lot who live in a very small world where they are their own god.

  3. Stvsmith2009 says:

    The thing is, these former priests and seminarians don’t care about Christ’s Church and never did. It is all about them, all about “me”.

  4. midwestmom says:

    Did you see Wills on Stephen Colbert? Utterly insane.

  5. Jeannie_C says:

    Funny you should mention this guy as yesterday I wrote two lengthy e-mails to a friend in New Jersey defending Transubstantiation and the need for consecrated priests to celebrate the sacraments. This friend, a lady in her 70’s, had once been a devout R.C. but no longer practices, rather has devised her own form of worship of what I don’t quite understand.

    Gary Wills was interviewed on a radio show she had recently listened to, she described him as a “well respected speaker and theologian”. HA! just as I thought, a smooth talking slanderous heretic, a minion of Satan. What shocked me was her acceptance of his glib denunciation of Transubstantiation, his insistence the Eucharist is only symbolic, his statement all could perform this act. She said a caller rang in saying much of what he promoted sounded like Lutheranism, to which he responded what’s wrong with that?

    We have to guard against indifferentism in our ecumenical efforts as we see evil encroaching through attempts at protestantizing our faith.

  6. Southern Catholic says:

    Why does Wills even bother labeling himself as Catholic if he rejects transubstantiation and other sacraments?

    (sorry if this is a double post, linked to the video of him on the Colbert show)

  7. Tradster says:

    He could have really added to his proof by including comments by the heretic sisters.

  8. majuscule says:

    I woke up in the night wondering if we had heard from Dan Brown yet. I didn’t lose any sleep over it and finally just now remembered to search Google News for references.

    I can’t find anyone who has interviewed him on this. There were references to Brown, such as the recent news was “like something out of a liturgical Dan Brown novel“…

    I am sure we will eventually hear from him–much as I hope not.

  9. Supertradmum says:

    Sadly, some of the clergy here have entered into the fray. All I know is that this Pope is one of the holiest, most brilliant, humble, kind, gentle, scholarly, simple, and just plain wonderful of the Holy Fathers I shall ever see.

    And, I exploded this morning and wrote a defence of his resignation on my blog after reading disrespectful and misleading references to him. Sad, and may I add, while having a little rant, that the good nuns back in 1957, taught me that curiosity was a sin. I think this pope will go down in history, if there is anyone around to write it 100 years hence, as not only a great unifier, but also as a Doctor of the Church.

  10. Stumbler but trying says:

    “I could offer many other examples, but the point is obvious: embittered ex-seminarians and ex-priests suffer not only from profound anger—ultimately directed at themselves—but their perception of Catholicism makes them look twisted in comparison to the sentiments of Jews, Muslims, Protestants, and others.”

    So true! I was consoled to know that our Holy Father has reached others by his love of the truth and his faith in Christ Jesus. His example will never die, long may it live! I am not surprised by the bitterness and unhappy ex-seminarians and ex-priests who spout off. A sad reality but one that will not diminish the splendor of TRUTH.

  11. PostCatholic says:

    PostCatholic: [ex-seminarian] “I was born Catholic in 1970 and so I’m probably excremental like the other formerly Catholic people ennumerated above. I believe Joseph Ratzinger viewed the Catholic church I was born into and grew up loving as a terrible mistake and not truly Catholic, and coming into power in the 1980’s as I entered seminary, he did his best to correct that mistake. I think his theology narrow and exclusive, but I admire his integrity. I have had occasion to meet him, and thought then and continue, unwavering, to think he was a kind and generous and genuinely good, however benighted. It would have been nice to reconcile his intensely binary view of right and wrong to the transcendent realities of love. I wish so good a man a happy retirement and consider him a great soul. I am certain his increasingly exclusive world-view will ultimately result in a smaller, purer Catholic church with which in all good conscience I must absent myself. I consider his ideal church morally repugnant and bankrupt and sincerely hope, for that reason, his vision is successful and his church further sinks into irrelevancy.”

  12. PostCatholic says:

    I must learn to use that preview button.

  13. JacobWall says:

    @Supertradmum,

    ” I think this pope will go down in history … as a Doctor of the Church.” I agree. I’ve been telling my wife that for the last week or so. (Before he announced his abdication.)

  14. Supertradmum says:

    Post, why this statement? “I am certain his increasingly exclusive world-view will ultimately result in a smaller, purer Catholic church with which in all good conscience I must absent myself”

    Can not all good people rejoice when any group becomes purer? And as to smallness, is size an issue? Just wonderin’

  15. JacobWall says:

    Some people ask why these ex-almost-priests continue to call themselves Catholic. It’s easy. It gives them more weight. In promoting his heresies, distortions and stupidities, James Carroll regularly has himself introduced as a “former Catholic priest, who still loves his Church but …” This gives him a facade of authority. If he had to say he was a “former Catholic priest who came to terms with his own beliefs and joined the Anglicans” it would have far less weight. The criticism would them be coming from the outside.

    Some friends and family members love these guys, and see them as “defenders of Jews,” which is how Carroll presents himself. Obviously, Jews don’t agree.

  16. acardnal says:

    PostCatholic wrote, “It would have been nice to reconcile his intensely binary view of right and wrong to the transcendent realities of love.”

    “The transcendent realities of love”? What does that mean? If you mean the Pope should condone sin – such as homosexual behavior, or divorce and remarriage, or contraception, or euthanasia – and call it “love”, then you are mistaken.

  17. Johnno says:

    PostCatholic: “Look at me! I am holier than the Pope! But not so holy as to avoid backhandedly insulting him beneath peppered words of praise for garnishing. But someday I and my ‘church of love’ shall ascend and place our seat above the throne of God!”

    I expect you will get what you want over the short term… but you’re going to be eternally disappointed in the end if you keep this up.

  18. Suburbanbanshee says:

    PostCatholic, I was born in 1970, too.

    The transcendent reality of love is that a doctor should tell a patient he’s sick and treat his ills, instead of lying to him and letting him die fat, happy, and ignorant.

    Jesus Christ, our Good Physician, was not one to mince words, either. He won’t force the medicine of His Body and Blood down our throats, but He has fairly strong words about its importance if we’d like to live.

  19. PostCatholic says:

    Post, why this statement? “I am certain his increasingly exclusive world-view will ultimately result in a smaller, purer Catholic church with which in all good conscience I must absent myself.” Can not all good people rejoice when any group becomes purer?

    Well, I can.

  20. wmeyer says:

    PostCatholic, right and wrong are binary. Any compromise between them is a victory for the wrong, and a departure from what is right.

  21. robtbrown says:

    PostCatholic says,

    It would have been nice to reconcile his intensely binary view of right and wrong to the transcendent realities of love.

    Is there any better example of such a reconciliation than “hate the sin, love the sinner”?

  22. Rushintuit says:

    Bishop Fellay thinks Summorum Pontificum was the greatest act of Pope Benedict’s pontificate. It certainly helped, but there were times in the past when the Traditional Latin Mass was the norm and the Church still fell into grave crisis. The proven remedy then, was to get all of Christendom on their knees praying the holy rosary!!!

  23. wmeyer says:

    Nice comment from Rev. Mohler, but I have not forgotten when years ago, in a Larry King interview, he said that even the pope could be saved, if only he would accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior.

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