An unsatisfactory Jesuit

Pope Francis in the eyes of the very Catholic Pat Buchanan, in his latest column distressed that this fellow is not much interested in the culture wars and might even prioritize the church's preferential option for the poor over abortion and the struggle against gay marriage.

An option first articulated under that name by Latin America Jesuits close to the movement of Liberation Theology in the mid and late 20th Century.

And a side of Catholic doctrine totally rejected by the sons of Holy Mother Church so conspicuous in the conservative movement for their pious regard for the free market capitalism it so clearly condemns.

People like Pat and Rick Santorum and the serial monogamist Newt Gingrich.

Did I mention I graduated with a BA in philosophy from Holy Cross, once upon a time in the second half of the 20th Century, when the cold war was still on?

With the Flatley Medal, no less.

That still makes me smile.

I hadn't any idea the thing existed until they told me at graduation that I had won it - though there had been a mysterious series of tests and interviews with faculty with whom I had not been close, during senior year.

I would have preferred at the time of choice to go to U Mass, a much cheaper secular school.

But that would have been educationally very costly, both in general and with particular reference to philosophy.

Fortunately, in that regard, my parents would help pay only if I went to HC.

In many ways I loved the place, though for most of my time there I was an atheist, with occasional interludes as a vaguely existentialist deist.

Or vaguely deist existentialist, perhaps.

There were no official minors, but I had that many credits in both English and theology.

Some on the faculty attempted to recruit me for their orders, the Jesuits and the Marists.

But I was not dishonest enough to accept, either about God or about sex.

Make what you can of those who accepted the offer.

Pope Francis, say.

Update.

KOS today responds to this article of Pat Buchanan's by bitterly attacking him for being old, white, and racist.

Unclear which is the worst charge in KOS's eyes.

But all three seem hateful, contemptible, and nothing to the purpose.

Still, that's pure and honest KOS.

I am who and what he hates, though I voted twice for his man and still support him.

The more the Democrats think like KOS the more they gradually shift from being a lesser evil to an outright lesser enemy.