Oh Cardinal... Please Stop Tweeting...

This is how I feel when I read
Cardinal Mahony's twitter feed...

Last night I trudged down to the basement to do something that needed to be done this week, that I'd been putting off. There were seeds that needed to be planted and put under lights and I was going to be soaking peat disks in water and pressing little seeds into them.  Something else was on my mind though.  I'd been reading about a certain Cardinal from my home states' recent tacky tweets and was trying with all my might to feel some sort of charitableness towards the man, rather than indulging in the random thoughts that kept popping into my head like "there's no one I'd rather see in prison orange."  

I know that I winced when I saw him when the Cardinals were getting ready for the election and I winced when I muttered his name as a prayer intention for our family rosary and I can't think of a time in recent years when I've had such a hard time praying for someone and it has nothing to do with that monstrosity he inflicted on the diocese of Los Angeles.

And then I went on and began reading more and the reactions to the post by Patrick Archbold were not what I expected.  I think I understood the motivation behind the post when I read it the first time.  I'm pretty sure he was calling out the Cardinal from the City of Angels on his rude, mean spirited tweets insulting our beloved retired pontiff.  I didn't see it as an attack on our newly elected Pope by any stretch of the imagination.  The thought didn't even enter in my mind, because I think the intent was pretty clear.

But in the world of Catholic blogging, we might all be a little jumpy right now.  There are people out there who are attacking our new Pontiff and the attacks come from places we didn't necessarily expect.  

I feel that same protective impulse each time I see something nasty and absurd and yes, it absolutely hurts even more when it comes from someone who should be supporting Pope Francis and praying for him, rather than running about bemoaning his election because he's not the Pope that this person's personal conclave would have elected.

That wasn't what Patrick Archbold was doing in his post though.  He was responding to Mahony's tactless tweeting.

And Mahony?  Well... I'll try not to wince and will ask that we all pray for him.  He needs it.  His tweets were divisive and insulting.  Those words were cowardly, attacking an elderly man who's retired and gone away to pray for the sins of the world, and cloaking it in words like "humility."  Our new pontiff seems to be a wonderful humble man.  Our old one was as well.  There's one person in this tweeting debacle that isn't exemplifying the virtue of humility and thank heavens he will never sit on the chair of Saint Peter.  Thankfully he isn't even at the helm of diocese any longer, which will hopefully limit the damage which may be done going forward.

I was really hoping he might have learned something over these last years.  Pray that he does going forward... or at least stops hurting the Church he's sworn to protect.