Pope Francis, Obama & the Crazies

Controversy has been brewing over a couple of lines in Austen Ivereigh's new biography of Pope Francis "The Great Reformer." Mr. Iveriegh has admitted that his phrasing of one paragraph was unfortunate, and is correcting it in future editions. But, the real problem is not that Ivereigh misphrased something. The real problem is that there are a bunch of people - actually few in number I suspect, but noisy - who are looking for some evidence, any evidence, that Pope Francis is not a legitimate pontiff. Earlier this year there was a gaggle of blog posts arguing that Pope Benedict's resignation was not legitimate. Now, they pounce on Ivereigh's account of the conclave. It reminds me of nothing so much as the loud complaints about President Obama's birth certificate being a fake. It is crazy. We can argue with people who don't like Pope Francis, but, to borrow a phrase from Barney Frank, arguing with someone who thinks Francis is not the pope is like arguing with your kitchen table.