The one comment visible when I read the article written by the sure-to-be-objective author of "Pius XII: Hitler's Pope," began with "I'm sorry," the now Pavlovian response of nearly anyone who intends to defend Catholicism--never mind Traditional Catholicism--orally or in writing. I'm sorry! Well, I'm not. Nor I am, however, very angry, as I was warned I would be, because I have grown nearly inured to this sort of thing and will save my anger for turncoat Catholicsm, sellout clerics and the likes of Hans Kung, who would sooner have Obama as pope. Now THAT makes me angry. This article was simply one more annoying screed.
The commenter was civil and reasoned, qualities that cannot be attributed to the author of the article, whose "flusteration" [my neologism] at Catholics and the pope shows through when he makes the peculiar observation that "In 1965 a historic U-turn had occurred at the Second Vatican Council." Hunh? An historic U-turn? They turned around and went back? Back to what? Back to the Protestant Reformation, perhaps?
This rather dreary scold ends with a warning that the Holy Father, in the event that "ultra-right-wing movements should rise up to take advantage of social fragmentation and unrest," [something ultra-left-wing movements have also been known to do] might "by a process of reactionary heliotropism" [OOO! Such veral pyrotechnics!] turn "back to the example of the 20th century Piuses."
Now there's a U-turn we could ALL hope takes place!
The "reactionary heliotropism" piece of purple prose implies something interesting: the sunflower turns to the LIGHT, not to the darkness, so this return to the "example of the 20th century Piuses" would thus be a positive rather than a negative turning. U-turns, heliotropism... Mr. Cornwell seems to have no idea in which direction he really wants us all to go.
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The commenter was civil and reasoned, qualities that cannot be attributed to the author of the article, whose "flusteration" [my neologism] at Catholics and the pope shows through when he makes the peculiar observation that "In 1965 a historic U-turn had occurred at the Second Vatican Council." Hunh? An historic U-turn? They turned around and went back? Back to what? Back to the Protestant Reformation, perhaps?
This rather dreary scold ends with a warning that the Holy Father, in the event that "ultra-right-wing movements should rise up to take advantage of social fragmentation and unrest," [something ultra-left-wing movements have also been known to do] might "by a process of reactionary heliotropism" [OOO! Such veral pyrotechnics!] turn "back to the example of the 20th century Piuses."
Now there's a U-turn we could ALL hope takes place!
The "reactionary heliotropism" piece of purple prose implies something interesting: the sunflower turns to the LIGHT, not to the darkness, so this return to the "example of the 20th century Piuses" would thus be a positive rather than a negative turning. U-turns, heliotropism... Mr. Cornwell seems to have no idea in which direction he really wants us all to go.