At Crisis magazine, Regis Martin has penned an extraordinary screed in which he accuses most of the nation's - and the world's - bishops for cowardice because they do not follow the application of Canon 915 the way that Cardinal Burke and Bishop Paprocki and Archbishop Vigneron do. Mr. Martin writes:
Now it not altogether true that all the bishops are sunk in cowardice; there are real and undeniable pockets of resistance out there, of Shepherds not supinely bent on going along in order to get along. An outbreak of niceness may well be raging throughout the land, causing not a few of our leaders to soft pedal the hard sayings of the Gospel. But not all are lowering their voices lest they give offense to the wolves baying just beyond cathedral doors for episcopal blood.
Mr. Martin seems blithely unaware that Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict also did not interpret Canon 915 as he wishes all bishops to do.
Like too many other conservative Catholics, Mr. Martin is more fond of the miserableness of the Gospel than of the joy of the Gospel. I agree that the Gospel includes some hard sayings. I would like to hear Cardinal Burke, Archbishop Vigneron and Bishop Paprocki use their next fundraising gala to reiterate the Blessed Mother's words in the Magnificat about the rich being sent away empty. Also, could Mr. Martin explain what would be so bad about an outbreak of niceness? Whence this paranoia?
