I mean to say about the desire to go back to before, and about how we just can’t, and about how much of our present malaise—because, let’s face it, we’re in a rut around here and have been for a while—is really owing to our desire to go back to before: to before Francis, to before Benedict, to before JPII, to before the Council (Vatican II, Vatican I, Trent, Lateran V, Florence, Constance, take your pick—you get the idea), to before the collapse of Christendom, to before the Great Schism.
There are days I’d like to go back to before the abuse-and-coverup crisis exploded into worldwide scandal, and that desire is perhaps the most pernicious of them all.
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