And the world gets crazier

Did you catch this litte jewel by Simcha on the transfer of Cardinal Burke?

"Have you heard the latest about Cardinal Burke? I haven't. I also haven't heard the next-to-latest, or the thing before that, or the rumors that were circulating about the possible repercussions of what might happen if the rumors that had been previously circulating turned out to be true-ish. I don't know, and I don't care. And it's been a deliberate decision not to care, and a deliberate decision not to know what's going on."

And you are supposed to be a credible go-to person for commentary on current Catholic events because...why?

As she goes on to explain, what goes on in Rome is "not important" to the layman:

"I've seen the headlines speculating, refuting, predicting, reassuring, warning, and celebrating. And I haven't read any of them. Why not? Because it's not important to me.

Me, as a layman with a job and a family and a personal conscience that keeps me busy enough all by itself. And if you were honest, you'd admit that it really isn't important to you, either -- not unless you work directly for Burke, or are his personal friend and will miss him when he moves to sunny Malta, the lucky son of a gun. It only seems important if you are addicted to following all the ins and outs of a 24-hour religious news cycle that has about as much to do with the Gospel as the schematics for the HVAC system at the Metropolitan Opera House has to do with music."

So, unless you are Burke or work directly for him, Burke's transfer - and all other news coming out of Rome - has almost nothing to do with you and you should admit it's not important (by the way, Simcha, the headquarters of the Knights of Malta is not literally on Malta; it's in Rome).

Here's the real gem:

"...It would be weird if you constantly followed the every last move a CEO makes when he decides to hire and fire and make changes in an organization that you don't work for, and it's weird when you do it to the Pope."

Except it is precisely neo-catholic bloggers and apologists who for the past twenty-years have been insisting that we do just that - pay attention to every little sneeze out of the Vatican, publish the transcript of every single papal interview and commentary, no matter how casual, and insist that the faithful hang on every word out of the pope's mouth. This has been standard neo-cath fare for decades now. Now with Francis, we are being told it's "weird" and "really isn't important" - even though under the previous two pontificates this sort of hanging on news from the Vatican was extremely important, or so the neo-caths told us so.

She goes on: 

"If you feel personally attacked or personally vindicated by something that is happening to Cardinal Burke, then guess what? You're imagining it. Nobody's doing that to you. You're doing it to yourself, by insterting [sic] your fears or desires into something you can't possibly have any inside knowledge about."

So...because something bad or good did not happen to me personally there is no longer room for consternation or rejoicing? While it is true that we don't want to have an obsessive interest in matters that don't concern us, the idea that the criterion of whether we should care about something is whether or not it touches us personally is problematic on many levels.

She ends her piece with this little diatribe:

"You, with the subscription to Whimpers in Blogvillia! You, with your Blackberry set to play "Dies Irae" every time Four Lattes Daily resets their Novus Ordo End Times Ticker. You, with the Lady Cardinal robes in your closet, still in the dry cleaner bags, waiting to be whipped out the moment it Finally Happens. You, with your all your personal clocks set to Central European Time, so you don't miss a moment before you weep or break out the Chateau de Schutte '79 every time the doorman at the Roman Curia unlocks the front door, sweeps off the doormat, and chases the homeless cats away in preparation for another day of things that never do and never could have any affect on your personal life."

Very professional.

Now let me ask you this:

Why is this sort of rambling nonsense from a typical Patheo$ blogger considered credible while an extremely professional, well-written and informational blog like Rorate Caeli is not? Rorate - a blog whose track record at breaking important stories is as stellar as any professional investigative journalism outlet - is taken as an unreliable source while the author of the article quoted above gets featured regularly on the front of New Advent, as if the above-cited ruminations are some sort of revelation of insight that the Catholic world just can't do without?

We are no longer at war with East Asia. We are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia.

The Catholic world keeps getting crazier.