{"id":35143,"date":"2016-06-22T03:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T07:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=35143"},"modified":"2019-12-21T10:56:20","modified_gmt":"2019-12-21T15:56:20","slug":"kathy-shaidle-wonders-if-the-pope-is-even-catholic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2016\/06\/22\/kathy-shaidle-wonders-if-the-pope-is-even-catholic\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathy Shaidle wonders if the Pope is even Catholic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Her latest column for Taki’s Magazine<\/em><\/a> discusses her own journey away from the Catholic church and the current Pope’s own journey in a similar direction:<\/p>\n

Such are the epochal times we\u2019re living in that even timeworn truisms are at risk of obsolescence.<\/p>\n

Take \u201cIs the Pope Catholic?\u201d Those of a certain age may prefer Steve Martin\u2019s absurdist gloss \u2014 \u201cDoes the Pope shit in the woods?\u201d \u2014 but the original has been every wise guy\u2019s idea of a witticism for as long as I\u2019ve been alive, and presumably longer.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m not the first to wonder<\/a> if the election of Pope Francis has rendered the phrase extinct. Great news for anyone whose taste in conversation veers away from the Runyonesque, but obviously not so great news for, you know, the Church.<\/p>\n

Years ago, I would have cared more.<\/p>\n

I spent much of my career as a semiprofessional Catholic<\/a>. Besides working in Catholic publishing, such as it is, I\u2019d called my first blog Relapsed Catholic. That was in 2000. When the American priestly sex-abuse scandals<\/a> exploded shortly thereafter, I was in a uniquely helpful position: Canada had undergone an identical crisis the previous decade, and my blog posts about both found an eager readership. I encouraged others to start their own sites, and eventually an informal network grew up \u2014 run by priests, nuns, canon lawyers, laity \u2014 which I nicknamed \u201cSt. Blog\u2019s Parish<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was then, as I am now, the resident brat. When, in 2002, America\u2019s clueless cardinals called for a Day of Reparations \u2014 during which the laity would perform penance for what were undeniably clerical<\/em> sins \u2014 I blogged that collective guilt was exactly one of the \u201ctrendy modern notions\u201d (like the New Age \u201ctherapy\u201d sporadically employed to \u201ctreat\u201d pervert priests, and the diocesan deference to secular lawyers\u2019 morally dubious advice) that had exacerbated the corruption. Jesus, I noted, had been bracingly clear<\/a> on the topic of child abuse: \u201cIt would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cImplicitly,\u201d I blogged<\/a>, \u201csomeone has to stay dry. And do the tying. I\u2019m delighted to volunteer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Her latest column for Taki’s Magazine discusses her own journey away from the Catholic church and the current Pope’s own journey in a similar direction: Such are the epochal times we\u2019re living in that even timeworn truisms are at risk of obsolescence. Take \u201cIs the Pope Catholic?\u201d Those of a certain age may prefer Steve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[360,86,1333],"class_list":["post-35143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","tag-christianity","tag-criticism","tag-papacy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-98P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35143"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53671,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35143\/revisions\/53671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}