The Pope may have his own good reason...

[fpb]

,,,but however difficult it might have been, I disagree with his decision to reform rather than close down the Legion of Christ. Catholic orders depend on the charism of their founders, and there has never been - so far as anyone knows - an order whose founder was a proven, all-around villain who is rumoured to have rejected the Sacraments and cursed God before he died. The order is rotten from its premise, which is to be dependent on donations from some of the most corrupt financial aristocracies on the planet - those of Mexico and Chile. It should have been dissolved, its assets used to compensate Maciel's victims, and whee that was not necessary simply sold for charity (the Church should not keep assets so obviously tainted), its priests placed in the secular priesthood, and its lay members encouraged to joined other lay movements. Now, alas, we shall keep this unhappy innovation - an order founded by a villain of the basest order.

Comments

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Well, it depends whether the subject has been flogged to death or not, but I haven't seen it covered from a sincere Catholic PoV. (Note that I do not read the Italian press, so I may be out of left field on that one.) I am absolutely persuaded, however, that either in English of French, there isn't a voice like yours and you should find a place.

But my experience has always been to pitch pitch pitch until something gets taken, then of course it becomes easier to sell the second one, etc.

Have you tried starting a Telegraph blog with your more public postings (excluding fandom, I mean)? Google is very good on referencing them, and it would be a good window for your stuff.

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

I have to second this, in all respects (although, when it comes to having a Telegraph blog, there is the matter of whether Fabio feels like dealing with certain regular commentors).

I really think he might do best focusing more attention on forums (like Il Foglio) which don't create the same sort of comment-thread peanut gallery as (comment-enabled) blogs do.

That isn't to say that blog discussions don't have their place, I just think a bit of separation between the forum in which the essays are published and the ensuing discussions might be a good thing. There have been multiple occasions when I've wanted to link something of Fabio's but elected not to because of the ensuing comment threads...

[shezan.livejournal.com]

The Torygraph regular commentators make you pine for the more elevated, kinder, more thoughtful and tolerant commentators of the Mail's website, that's true. But the visibility is excellent... and there's a way to ban the more annoying offenders: there used to be a button which doesn't appear any more, but is still embedded in the code - if anyone should give you especial grief, I'll dig out my tutorial on how to make them VANISH. (If some nasty comments made their way to your post, you erase it and repost after you've banned the nutjobs. You'll lose all comments, though.)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

The trouble is that I would be tempted to inform them as to their parentage, moral qualities, and physical consistency, rather than just delete them. And there are limits to what you can say on Telegraph space without damaging yourself.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

No, no, they're complete cretins, with just the necessary amount of tweeness - you won't even be tempted. I mean, it may be worth it to lay into a Nick Griffin wannabe, but some ghastly expat Hyacinth Bucket in a ranch house in Martinique, nit-picking whatever obscure fact she acquired somewhere in a redbrick polytechnic next to which the University of East Anglia towers higher than Christ Church? Naaaah.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I hadn't read this. I have to say that it is a shining demonstration of why invective at its best is a minor but genuine artform. I am grinning from ear to ear and almost wishing I had thought of it.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

*bows to this encomium from The Master*

... of course I am describing one particular woman of especial, unrelieved ghastliness there. She does exist, down to the house in Martinique. I had to ban her, she was leaving literally dozens of comments on my posts.

That being said, the Torygraph have just changed the whole layout of their blogs, and I loathe the new one, so I may give up on them. That, or ask for a blog on the pro journos side.