Just Like Us
A Protestant Quibble with Fr. Mankowski
by S. M. Hutchens
I have just read with immense satisfaction the late Fr. Paul Mankowski’s trenchant and scintillating blog contributions collected by Philip Lawler in Ignatius Press’s Diogenes Unveiled. At Touchstone, we have always regarded Fr. Paul as one of our guys, but I must say his remarks about Protestants draw blood. These days, we find ourselves all too typically vilified, especially among conservative Catholics like Cardinal Mueller, who use us as noisome examples of what Catholics are in danger of becoming in a collapse into liberalism, which might happen if they didn’t possess the Ultimate Immunity of being members of the one, true Church, in living communion with Pope Francis.
Such remarks are found in some abundance in Catholic publications, where it is less likely that we will overhear the hauteur and contempt, which ranges from snide digs to best wishes for a short stay in Purgatory, such as Joseph Pearce bestows on C. S. Lewis. Fr. Mankowski, for example, writes:
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S. M. Hutchens is a Touchstone senior editor.
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