That's ign'ant, dog

Here's an example of the glib, ideological nonsense that oozes from much of the reporting on the scandals in the Church.

Mr. Kristof tries to pull off a David Brooksian "there's two types of people in the world" column. In this case, there are, supposedly, two types of Catholics: 1) out of touch, traditionalist old men in the hierarchy who are obsessed with rules and who have been inept or dishonorable in their response to the recent scandals and 2) free-wheeling hippie social workers who believe in a more live-and-let-live approach. This is, for lack of a better word, really idiotic.

In fact, some of the most impressive workers for social justice have been quite traditionalist in their beliefs. And the more hip, liberal wing of the hierarchy wasn't exactly stellar in its handling of the scandals. Moreover, one of the few people who actually comes out of the scandals looking fairly good is the rottweiler himself. I don't mean that most journalists look fondly upon Benedict XVI. But those who care enough to find out will see that he was one of the few who saw the troubles early on and acted to reform the system. Luckily for Pope Benedict, he doesn't do the good things that he does to get praise from silly, glib, sensationalist journalists.