Edit: You might not be aware that the problem with 5th Column Catholics is a problem in other parts of the world with similar symptoms and etiology, like a ringworm or as one Lefebvrist put it, a "spiritual Aids" infection which afflicts different parts of the body with weeping sores and black spots. These days Catholic 5th Columnists tend to be in one way or another, advocates of the normalization of sodomy.
Last week, we were treated to Mark Shea, who not only wants to canonize apparently active homosexuals, but even wants to anathematize fellow Catholics!
Like ringworm, or Aids spots, homosexual enabling Bishops have infected different parts of their host, the Church. They seem to be primarily a problem in the West. Then there are those who aid them and often defend them at opportune moments in their careers, the left-leaning Bill Donahue, for example.
I was prompted to note this when I took into consideration Damian Thompson's adoption of the Mitre in his attempt to use his 4th Estate to enjoin the abuse hoax as a means of continuing an attack against the Irish Church when he demands the resignation of Cardinal Brady. Someone should demand ferret face's resignation.
It may be interesting to discuss the Damian Thompson thing in light of the Soho Sodom Mass being advocated by the troubled Archbishop Nichols, which to be fair, Thompson has criticized in the past.
This frankly blasphemous "Mass" was formerly condemned by the Catholic Herald, but not any more. +Vincent Nichols'
Mass for sodomy which he reaffirmed last February according to the Herald's almost joyous commentary, provides grist for conspiracy theory speculation about what kind of people are running the Herald now. It's interesting to take note of a fifth column which continues to worm its way if not into the hearts, at least into the minds of a more traditional, less trendy, Catholic readership. Marching victoriously from Tablet blogs like Holy Smoke.
Damian Thompson is
currently, the editor and chief of the Catholic Herald, so then it's hardly surprising that its tone changed from William Oddie's
story of shock and scandal that a Catholic prelate could be so indifferent to propriety and Catholic thinking to an article practically praising.
But it's more than just conspiracy theories. When the Editor isn't complaining about the new Left, he's wringing his hands on behalf of marriage equality, striving at least for a little respect for "gays". This morning on Twitter, he was even recommending the outing of a Tory MP he believes is living in a secret homosexual marriage "solemnized" abroad. He twits:
Someody should find out whether any Tory MPs are in gay marriages contracted in other countries that recognise them.
Apparently, he's hoping to cleanse the hypocritical Tories and is fretting that Cameron will be changing his position on gay marriage. Or is he letting his twitter-crowd fret over it, frankly it's not easy to tell.
But there are other tells besides this. Like American counterparts, Thompson engages in sly or not so sly points of advocacy between the conservative and neo-conservative, Austrian School soundbytes complete with tips of the hat to the reigning political correctness.
Whether he's advising the Church that it will lose a battle against
marriage equality, perhaps it is as he says, for the glee of watching the Liberal Bishops adopt a reactionary position, but even when Thompson appears to be defending Catholic positions, he insists on inserting this or that marginal cultural or political fetish, for example, commenting on the presumably chaste but tantalizingly youthful "homosexual" Catholic in-crowd and distinguishing
them from those ageing, tacky Lefties in rainbow velour track suits like +Nicholoson's Sodom "Mass" . His apologetical circus of attempting to keep within the bounds of modern political correctness and yet belong to the theologically korrekt, chic, lacy, Gothic, Anglo-Catholic world of dark and Romantic chapels is almost painful to watch, rather like watching an elderly homosexual try to fit into an old pair of patent leather motorcycle pants. From the
Catholic Action Blog, which had some of the same concerns I do, he is quoted thusly:
And as for young homosexual Catholics, [There's no such thing as homosexual and Catholic] well, some of them are Lefty activists but many are traddies who wouldn't be seen dead in Warwick Street unless Mass was celebrated in the Extraordinary Form. And this is just a guess, but I reckon most of them are pretty impressively celibate. I don't judge them, or gay couple friends of mine whose intimate life is none of my bloody business.[Sound familiar?]
Actually, he sounds a lot like German Scholastic Theologian and authority on St. Thomas Aquinas, David Berger, who now claims to be an authority on the sex lives of the high clergy. But then, as far as we know, Damian Thompson is at least cleverer than Berger, and is living a blamelessly chaste life, despite the scandalous ambiguity of his language.
Edit: I've long been a critic of Damian, one whose name he bears is probably shaking his head, and I have observed the things for which he most often will raise his blade. He's not just interested in pretty lace vestments, incense and the sensual cadences of the canon sotto voce as the beeswax candles flicker in the gloom, he really does believe that those who commit the sin of sodomy in word or in mind, deserve special status and bristles venomously when he senses these dainties are portrayed as they are. The subject was an article by Father Zuhlsdorf, who usually gets the Damian lace chasuble sign of approval, where Father portrays such people perhaps as they are. Heaven forfend that a Catholic priest should condemn immorality and teach:
