According to news reports, Pope Francis has said that the horror of ISIS justifies the use of military force. Sounds reasonable to me. But in that perverted parallel universe known as the Catholic Blogosphere, that could pose some problems. In the land where righteousness is obtained by carefully picking and choosing which statements in the last 2000 years matter, the notion advanced by former pope Benedict XVI that we've moved past justifiable war was all the rage.
That's right. Because of our weaponry and the destructive powers we posses, it might be time to reexamine the ability to fight a just war. Seems understandable. Worth a good debate, But in the Catholic Blogosphere, those words became Gospel, and anyone trying to debate - ahem - was accused of simply wanting to increase human slaughter; simply wanting to ask how many more humans can be butchered. If you were asking 'could there be times when war might be justified despite was Benedict suggests?', why you were instantly accused of nothing but wanting to elevate the carnage and the body count.
So, by that standard, it looks like our good Pope Francis is just itching to increase human slaughter, correct? Not so, for the clever Catholic blogger! In a world where amateurs reign supreme, they will have no problem invoking the post-modern mantra of punditry over principles by simply ignoring the standards they used yesterday in order to win the latest argument on the internet today. Francis will be the guy of the hour, of course ISIS deserves it, and so on.
The more I live, the more I realize how utterly useless the blogosphere is for navigating Catholic teaching and a Faith lived out. If you must, go to actual sites run by professionals, paid apologists at least, or religious. It can still be a crap shoot, but your chances of getting real examples of Church teaching will increase tenfold.
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