When the Apologetics Subculture Goes Bad

Time was when lay apologists understood that there is no office of “apologist” in the Church and that our efforts to defend the Faith were supposed to be done with respect to the Magisterium.

These days, however, it is just as easy to find anti-Catholics among “apologists” as it is to find them sitting at Maureen Dowd’s laptop. Case in point, self-styled “Catholic Champions” who decide that their job is to save the Church from the false teaching of the Second Vatican Council by ignoring the Decree on Ecumenism’s teaching concerning Protestants that

“The children who are born into these Communities and who grow up believing in Christ cannot be accused of the sin involved in the separation, and the Catholic Church embraces upon them as brothers, with respect and affection”

and

“Before the whole world let all Christians confess their faith in the triune God, one and three in the incarnate Son of God, our Redeemer and Lord. United in their efforts, and with mutual respect, let them bear witness to our common hope which does not play us false.”

Instead, the anti-Catholic Catholic, confident that God Almighty has called him to rescue the Church from the Council, pens screeds like “The Demonic Theology of Protestantism“–because a cathartic act of contempt for the Magisterium is more important than the Faith to the anti-Catholic Catholic whether he is a Progressive or Reactionary Dissenter. Indeed, we are now coming full circle to the weird world in which Hans Kung can now join hands with the Mel Gibson’s dad in the glad declaration that the Pope is not the Pope. In their own special way, people like Matthew Bellisario and Maureen Dowd have more in common than they realize. How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in unity.