Sticks and stones...

|You can imagine it can't you, kids in a playground having an argument. It could be over anything, the best football team, the strongest in the class, which of Mozart's concerti has the most evocative phrases... ok maybe not the last one. Then comes the crunch the smart kid comes up with a devastating line, one that requires time and thought to respond to in an adequate fashion. His youthful opponent does not have the time, or the patience or perhaps the mental capacity to respond in an equally cutting/ intelligent/ humorous manner. Desperately casting around he strikes upon pure gold, the best possible retort, ' At least I don't wear glasses, specky four eyes!!'
   Brilliant tatic!! Now it devolves into a spiteful tit for tat at the lowest level, name calling. In one fell swoop the loser changes the playing field and brings his more skillful opponent down to his level, the original subject for the argument is lost amidst such classic lines as 'well you must eat poo because you have smelly breath!'
         Let us now leave the lowly school playground and wing our way to the exquisitely ornate halls and corridors of the Vatican  where the Filial Correction was received, studied and deliberated upon in a mature and thoughtful manner. Well no, it wasn't. The response was more akin to playground banter than to the measured response from the ancient see of Saint Peter. Pejorative names, dismissive utterances and shady practices are the answer from the lap dogs and what about Il Papa himself, what was his response when this was presented to him weeks ago? Not a sausage. The prince of dialogue, the champion of the peripheries what say you? Not a word.
   Anybody who follows the Argentinian pontiff will be well used to this. The humble prelate remains aloof while his underlings scurry about muddying the waters. The actual substance of the questions, the calls for clarification, the appeals for orthodoxy are left unanswered, ignored, while the proposers are vilified, demoted and persecuted.
Mercy is quickly substituted for spitefulness.
Stick and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.
Its time to brave it out, its time to stand up and say no more, no more willful destruction of the One True Faith.