Even a Guy on the Left Understands
With all the attention on the Pope's illness and death, the level of ignorance about things Romish has really come to the surface. Every hack thinker has all sorts of ideas for the Church, from women in the pulpit and married clergy to rules about papal retirement. Very few, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, "get it": it doesn't really matter what you think. Flail away all you want, you're no better than shadow boxing.
For this reason, we found the following refreshing. "I may not see eye-to-eye with [Matthew] Yglesias about much, but he hit it dead on in this post: 'Am I the only one who thinks running polls on what American Catholics think the next Pope should say about various sex-and-gender issues is a bit weird? The idea that that could be relevant seems to misunderstand the nature and purpose of the Church hierarchy in so many different ways to be a bit hard to comprehend. The whole point of the set-up is that public opinion doesn't matter in this way. And even if the Cardinals are going to worry about what their flock thinks, why should they care in particular about what Americans think. There are a whole lot of Catholics out there in the wide world.'" From Thumos.
