Okay, the conservatives who once championed Pope Benedict XVI - and labelled journals like NCR "dissenting" or "unorthodox" and "cafeteria Catholics" - well, those conservatives are now in full meltdown.
Sandro Magister's latest article details the anger and hostility directed towards the Pope by people who have evidently forgotten the fact that the old line about being "more Catholic than the Pope" was always intended as a joke.
To wit, this from Ave Maria Univerisity's Luke Gormally: "It seems to many people I know that it is both irresponsible (because it creates confusion in the general populace about the exercise of the papal magisterium) and self-indulgent; self indulgent because it is a case of the Pope retreating to his ‘comfort zone’ of writing and talking while neglecting urgent tasks of governance."
Can you imagine what the comment section would look like if anyone here at NCR called Benedict "self-indulgent"?!!!???
