In the New York Times, Ross Douthat takes aim at Austen Ivereigh on the issues surrounding Amoris Laetitia. I just want to tell Douthat to exhale. We are not in a "crisis of orthodoxy," but we are seeing something unprecedented: The dubia Douthat defends are not actually dubia; they do not raise questions in good faith. They try to ensnare the pope the way the Pharisees tried to ensnare Jesus That Douthat doesn't see this is regrettable if not entirely unforeseen.
Speaking of hysteria, Lifesitenews describes a "climate of fear" at the Vatican. You can go back to the time of Vatican II and find the same things being said: The climate of fear is not the result of a "police state" mentality, as Lifesitenews suggests, it is the fear of those who resist growth and development of doctrine.
Michael Gerson, at the Washington Post, just keeps getting better and better. In his article this morning, he notes that conservatism, as it is best understood, has nothing in common with the ascendency of Trump's version of the GOP. The money quote, one to which liberals should attend as well:
In the midst of all our justified skepticism, we can never be skeptical of this: that the reason for politics is to honor the equal value of every life, beginning with the weakest and most vulnerable. No bad goal — say, racial purity or communist ideology — outweighs this commitment. And no good goal — the efficiency of markets or the pursuit of greater equality — does either.
