The reviews are starting to come in on Benedict's new encyclical from the usual suspects, and already the fur and webbed-feet are flying and bills are wagging. First, you need to read George Weigel's jaw-dropping neo-con agitprop article on it - Caritas in Veritate in Gold and Red... The revenge of Justice and Peace (or so they may think). "Muhuhaha... So they may THINK..." He's really outdone himself on this one. Ah, those nefarious plotters at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace! Communist dupes, fifth-columnists, fellow travelers and useful idiots, to the last man!
It's disappointing and vexing to Weigel when people won't do what the pope says, but it's absolutely infuriating to him when that same old "truly gentle soul" of a professor-pope doesn't do what he says, much as he tries to hide it...
Next, over at America, you should check out the take on Weigel's piece from the guy who's rapidly becoming my favorite Catholic commentator as the epitome of common-sense on ecclesiastical and political matters and where they meet, Michael Sean Winters, called New Heights of Hubris from George Weigel. Winters skewers and eviscerates Weigel so thoroughly and effectively that an obviously stung Weigel felt compelled to leave a peevish reply in the combox.
And lastly, please see the satirical piece on Weigel's review that Morning's Minion wrote on Vox Nova - The Good Pope and Bad Advisors - A Fable by George Weigel. It's one of the funniest things I've read in a long time, and I won't even try to leave snippets and quotes from it, because to do so would be an injustice to the wonderful humor to be found throughout the whole thing.
4 comments:
Interesting columns. I haven't read the encyclical yet, but I'm amused that almost immediately people were asking if an encyclical had to be obeyed. Funny, they don't ask that with Humanae Vitae or, with less weight than an encyclical, Theology of the Body.
Hi Jen,
If you go to the Fisheaters forum or somewhere like that, you'd be amazed at how many of these folks know all the arcane details of the various encyclicals and will debate them and their comparative merits endlessly. A big problem a lot of them have with Vatican II is that it contradicted encyclicals that had been issued previously like Pascendi and Mortalium Animos. Seems to me, if they're going to be in the business of matching up encyclicals against ecumenical councils, they have to go with the councils.
I once was told by a Presbyterian apologist, who'd watched all this squabbling about encyclicals, how glad he was that all he needed to know was the Bible.
This one sounds very good. I'm very much looking forward to reading this one all the way through, and not just reading about it.
Great post, Jeff. All encyclicals are equal -- but some encyclicals (or parts of them) are more equal than others.
Hi Liam,
Encyclical Derby! I wonder which was the King Kong of all encyclicals? I say Leo's Rerum Novarum
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