The American Spectator

br> — Joseph Baum br> Newton Falls, Ohio /p>

“The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of Bishops,” said St. Athanasius. How pathetic that this might actually be a best case scenario, for given what we’ve seen in the Church over the past several years, it is more than plausible that lower ranking churchmen factor into hell’s flooring material as well!

Kudos to Pope Benedict for his reliably rumored role in the dismissal of Jesuit Thomas Reese from his dissenting-veiled-as-publishing role. Here’s to the hope that, while he’s got the “Jebbies” in his sights (with apologies to St. Ignatius, and to the faithful Jesuits who remain) the Holy Father will also take a hard look at Georgetown University’s abortion-embracing Robert Drinan, and at Boston College President William Leahy, who’s university over the past several days has announced a move to accommodate in its diversity statement our world’s oh-so-tragically-put-upon sodomists.

Later, when Benedict hopefully moves on to the daunting challenge posed by the many derelict American Bishops, may fellas such as the good Bishops Fabian Bruskewitz and Raymond Burke be allowed more prominent roles, so that the confused and sissified wreckage that has been wrought by the likes of Roger Mahony can begin to be dealt with in earnest!

p>If Pope Benedict has yet to articulate a mantra for his pontificate, a la the Great John Paul’s “Totas Tuos,” then I humbly suggest “So little time, so many heretics.” It probably sounds even better in Latin! br> — Francis M. Hannon, Jr. br> Melrose, Massachusetts /p>

The American Catholic clergy is not in an enviable position, and to be quite honest, it is because Jesus was neither a good Republican nor a good Democrat.

If Republicans stand for individual responsibility, and Democrats for group responsibility and/or individual irresponsibility, Jesus was arguably inconsistent. In the matter of abortion, the most fundamental of individual responsibilities, Jesus would be a Republican. In the matter of giving to the poor, never mind the Protestant work ethic or creating opportunities for the poor to become rich, Jesus would be a Democrat, see “easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” and the parable of the widow and the Pharisee and the rejected suggestion to the rich young man to “give up all worldly possessions and follow me.”

The American Catholic clergy find themselves with an irreconcilable dilemma, forced to choose between Republican individual responsibility and Democrat individual irresponsibility. For reasons known only to their own consciences and their Creator, they choose the latter, the clergy being overwhelmingly registered Democrats. Hence their blind eye to politicians who are the champions of individual irresponsibility, and their miserable failure to pronounce them not Catholics.