Fisking

is an art form, best left to practioners with intelligence and insight. I give you Father Z on an AP hack writer:

Another ridiculous AP article deconstructed:

AP, which unprofessionally has declared open season on Pope Benedict – engaged in a relentless ad hominem – has a piece which cites as the mainstay non other than Richard McBrien. They drag in a 'conservative' for reasons of ballast, but they crack on upon their course.



My emphases and comments.

Pope's ivory tower past adds to his detachment



By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writer Vanessa Gera, Associated Press Writer [AP's correspondent in Poland] - Sun Apr 11, 1:41 pm ET



VATICAN CITY - Long before entering Vatican life, Pope Benedict XVI won renown as a theologian and a German university professor, penning more than 40 books and winning a devoted following of students who respected his prodigious memory and brilliant mind.



One thing absent from his resume? Significant time as a parish priest. [I think what we are about to see here is a common liberal trope: when you want to discredit someone or something, say that it or he isn't 'pastoral'. Personal anecdote: I was once told by a chancery hack in a diocese where an ultra-liberal bishop was in charge that their concern about me was that I was conservative but I was intelligent. I am not making this up. If I were 'less intelligent', and, say, more 'pastoral', well... then.... First, liberals only think liberals are really intelligent. But when they run across [FILL IN BLANK] on the other side which is smart, effective, successful, etc., they label that thing or person 'not pastoral'. A perfect example is what Bp. Trautman says about the new translation. I already have the sense that that is what you are going to see in this article.]

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)