When Catholics Behave Like Barbarians On The Internet

Michie · Aug 21, 2023

A well mannered priest assaults a security guard. Really? Benefit of the doubt?

Some of you will remember a couple of years back when accusations were made against Father George Rutler. It was alleged that he assaulted Ashley Gonzalez, 22 at the time, a female security guard.

Father Rutler then suffered a horrendous trial by Twitter and much mudslinging in the media. The feeding frenzy that ensued exposed a number of higher profile Catholics as less than reasonable with only bullets for brains. Bullies tend to attack those who remind them that they lack the very virtue with which their targets are imbued. Attacks on virtuous priests and others confirm that members of the mob are merely attempting to mask their own inadequacies.

Father Rutler writes with such a clever turn of phrase and such intellectual clarity that one finds oneself often re-reading him not just because his priestly wisdom and intelligent commentary is so edifying but because in our “soundbite” culture it is great to be stretched intellectually by language that forces the reader to think more carefully about everything relating to the Faith and current affairs and history. To readers of CWR who will have come across him before, it will be no surprise to hear that he has often been likened to a modern day “GKC” and most certainly as a priest whose gift for oratory and apologetics is held in the same parity of esteem as the renowned Monsignor Ronald (Ronnie) Knox. - Edmund Adamus (2020)

Clarifications, admissions and corrections testifying to Father Rutler's innocence have been painfully few, and those essays that pretend to be apologies are woefully inadequate if intended to mitigate the wrong that was willfully committed against him by Catholic social media entrepreneurs, almost entirely so-called progressive Catholics, who tarred and feathered a good priest and then celebrated their self righteous indignation and moral superiority (as if they had any) by dancing on his reputation, and as if they had won their way into heaven for doing so.

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