Can I lend you a stamp?

By Diogenes ( articles ) | May 23, 2003

Remember Cardinal Ratzinger's 1988 Erasmus Lecture in the auditorium of St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Manhattan? In the middle of his address (on biblical exegesis) gay agitators jumped to their feet and began shrieking "Nazi eunuch pig!" at him. They were then escorted outside by the police to join a much larger group who began to bellow and to drum with their fists on the windows of the auditorium. Three or four people who were present told me it was disturbing and frightening.

Now a man in Ratzinger's position must get a nearly continuous correspondence reporting on the antics of homosexual activists. In his office in the drowsy Vatican curia it would be easy and natural for him to dismiss the accounts as exaggerations. His view from the podium of the Erasmus Lecture, however, gave him the best possible education about what the Church is up against. A million documents and videos couldn't have done the job better.

Cardinal's Arinze's remarks at the Georgetown commencement are a blessing in and of themselves. But the reaction of his adversaries may also provide an unintended boon. We're told that "a letter protesting the speech by Cardinal Francis Arinze was signed by about 70 faculty members at the Jesuit university."

Boys, keep them letters coming.