Browsing over to Salon.com and seeing Frances Kissling's byline is never a pleasant experience for me, but after Benedict XVI recinded the excommunication of the four Society of St. Pius X bishops, I knew that she would show up sooner or later. And here she is: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/01/29/antisemitism/
I've published responses to Kissling's earlier pieces in the Salon letters section before, so I won't go over my objections to her here. She earns her living playing the Zell Miller role in the Catholic Church, plain and simple. I don't think anyone who gives the matter any thought would really quibble with that characterization, except perhaps in degrees of magnitude.
But as someone once said, every ten years or so David Brenner tells a funny joke. This rapprochment Benedict XVI engineered with the late Bishop Lefebrve's ultraconservative group has grated on me ever since the effort began. Then on Sunday, I heard about what the one bishop said and that he still was getting back into the Church. I was scheduled to do the readings during the 9:30 Mass, so soon I found myself silently seething over the decision in full view of several hundred people.
It is tempting, of course, to blame the messenger. One suspects that Benedict tried to make peace with the right rather than the left because, ultimately, there is nothing anyone in the Church can do that will ever satisfy Kissling and those like her. And truth be told, Kissling does overstate her case a bit here. Personally, if I was donating money to the Southern Poverty Law Center, I'd like an explanation as to how an investigation of a relatively obscure Catholic splinter group forwards the center's goals. But for a liberal Catholic who remembers that the Church teaches that one does not have to be Catholic or even Christian to gain salvation, this whole business leaves a bitter taste.
If one believes in God, then it must follow that the Universe is ultimately not a democracy. And if one believes that the Church is truly the Church Millitant, then it deserves a fair hearing. But I do think back on some prominent Church leaders who have come back into favor after some time -- Lefebvre himself, obviously, but also people like Savonarola, who I asked for help before reading on Sunday. My belief is that eventually good sense will prevail.
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