Name-calling seems like it’s becoming a new norm, and that’s maybe thanks to Donald Trump.
Even the Catholic Internet is beginning to sound Trumpish. It’s almost enough to make you wish Putin would go ahead and cut off our internet.
Almost.
Somehow Trump has managed to make a serious run for the Republican nomination while unapologetically calling other candidates names, even to the point of insulting Carly Fiorina’s appearance and, perhaps, referencing women’s menses. He has called Marco Rubio a “clown” and a “baby,” Fox News’s Megyn Kelly a “bimbo” and Jeb Bush a “very low energy kind of guy.”
Didn’t his mother ever tell him not to do that?
When the country was wrapped up in Popemania in late September, Trump’s soaring popularity leveled off and his numbers even dropped in some polls, and he hasn’t recovered.
One thought: Could all of Francis’s preaching about mercy and the spirit of encounter have rubbed off on the American people? Dare we consider that maybe, just maybe, in comparison to Pope Francis, Trump didn’t look so hot?
Alas, there was no instant national conversion. Trump-like name-calling is legion, and, regretfully, especially among some Catholics. Not only is it anti-intellectual and an impediment to constructive conversation, it’s really unattractive, even repellent. I imagine Jesus was quite serious when he said, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Name-calling was not what he had in mind.
Without naming names (!) here are just a few of the childish epithets used on the Catholic internet to describe Pope Francis and those who support him: “heretics or lunatics or both,” “smarmy” and in true Trump Style, “Frankie Baby.”
These are Catholics we’re talking about!
Bunch of jerks. Oops.
And today we celebrate...