The bottom line on the recent dustup over Father Dwight Longenecker’s attack on traditional Catholics was summed up in this exchange here on The Remnant’s site yesterday:
Steve Stewart
I’m going to go way out on a limb and post without anonymity. Father Longenecker is a good priest and a good man. His opinions are fallible but he’s done me a great service as a priest in the confessional. I disagree with him on matters theological and ecclesiastical but he is still a priest of God Most High and I don’t doubt his sincerity or his intentions. Our responses should be better than a wave of hysteria that will only confirm him in his opinion. He’s wrong about trads, I am one and he knows it and he’s treated my trad sensibilities with the utmost of consideration.
Michael J. Matt
Steve: Father needs to retract. And if he’s half the priest you say he is, he will know that he must retract. Here’s why: There is absolutely no reason for anyone anywhere to jump to the outrageous conclusion that, given enough rope, traditional Catholics (even the nutty ones) will resort to physical violence. This is calumny, pure and simple. It’s wrong on so many levels… but coming from a Catholic priest it is dangerous and scandalous. Through guilt by association, it also naturally runs the calculated risk of dragging the whole movement into the fever swamps of domestic terrorism where the Southern Poverty Law Center and other far-Left groups have been trying to confine traditional Catholics for years. Here’s where Father’s article enters into the realm of the indefensible, regardless of how good he is in the confessional. There is no excuse for this–none at all–and he’s too intelligent to have failed to anticipate the fallout. This was either malicious or incredibly stupid. I prefer to presume it was a stupid mistake on his part. So, all Father needs to do now is publicly retract and I will pull this article down. MJM
Steve Stewart Well it appears he’s just doubled down on his blog, I don’t know what to think.
