The Grinch won't steal Easter either.

Another law professor, another attitude:

A startling passage — in an essay by Elizabeth Scalia — AKA The Anchoress — that tries to explain — on this Good Friday — how she can be a Catholic after so many revelations about priests who sexually abuse children and the kindly protection they have received within the power structure of the Church.
...
A Tom Toles cartoon

Commenter jag said...

What a hateful cartoon to post on your site on Good Friday. It mocks the good works done by countless innocent priests. As an attorney, a law professor, a bright mind, you of all people should know that the abuse scandals do not tell the entire story of faith, of priesthood, of grace. Badly done. Needlessly insulting.

4/2/10 12:37 PM

Ann Althouse said...
"Needlessly insulting."

Do you have any comprehension of how much worse the insults could and should be? That cartoon is fucking lighthearted.
4/2/10 12:42 PM

Classy! The good news is, I hear she's contemplating retirement from UW Law, where for a time being, she was the only professor teaching the First Amendment religion clauses. Perhaps a fresher, more respectful attitude would go far in the classroom, freeing up the professor to pursue full-time her artistic pursuits.

Meanwhile, in today's Vatican services, you might say the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa hit the nail on the head:

Benedict sat looking downward when the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, who holds the office of preacher of the papal household, delivered his remarks in the traditional prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica. Wearing the brown cassock of a Franciscan, Father Cantalamessa took note that Easter and Passover were falling during the same week this year, saying he was led to think of the Jews. “They know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms,” he said.

Father Cantalamessa quoted from what he said was a letter from an unnamed Jewish friend. “I am following the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful by the whole word,” he said the friend wrote. “The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt, remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.”

Prediction? The Grinch won't steal Easter either. It lives in the hearts of too many practicing Christians, despite the snark and cynicism being taught in too many places...

Have a spirit-filled weekend y'all, especially those celebrating with family and friends.

ADDED:
Peggy Noonan:

There are three great groups of victims in this story. The first and most obvious, the children who were abused, who trusted, were preyed upon and bear the burden through life. The second group is the good priests and good nuns, the great leaders of the church in the day to day, who save the poor, teach the immigrant, and, literally, save lives. They have been stigmatized when they deserve to be lionized. And the third group is the Catholics in the pews—the heroic Catholics of America and now Europe, the hardy souls who in spite of what has been done to their church are still there, still making parish life possible, who hold high the flag, their faith unshaken. No one thanks those Catholics, sees their heroism, respects their patience and fidelity. The world thinks they're stupid. They are not stupid, and with their prayers they keep the world going, and the old church too.