“I will counter you with another Pauline lesson and that is to reject being a man pleaser when it comes to proclaiming the message of the Gospel.”

Allen’s point is that no care was taken by Rome to communicate well. It’s a false choice to say that B16 has to choose between being a shill and being shrill. A good communicator knows how to deliver news curious, unwelcome, or potentially scandalous. It is the role of a pastor to unify, and our pope sometimes seems indifferent to that. If he can do better, he probably should. Take the last word, my friend.

I don’t disagree with much of what you have said but I think that is because you have changed the discussion. Hierothee had taken issue with the appropriateness of Fr. Z’s comparison. The context of that comparison is Allen’s professional columns with “most” of what he sees in the combox discussion. The responders who post “five, ten, or even twenty times daily” surely do not comprise “most” of the responders to which Fr. Z refers.

In fact, I do not disagree with your claim that it is not “impolite or irreverent” to make the suggestions Allen does about B16’s media savvy. I simply argue, as does Hierothee, that it is wrongheaded. It is one thing to take into consideration the potential to be mistaken in one’s actions, it is quite another to fail to lead the Church in truth and unity because of fear of how the media will negatively spin something. I will counter you with another Pauline lesson and that is to reject being a man pleaser when it comes to proclaiming the message of the Gospel.

I think my observations about the more excitable elements of the blogosphere are spot-on.

As for John Allen’s observations, he does put a lot of time and thought into what he writes. It is not impolite or irreverent to suggest that the pope seems to have little feel for good pr. It might be suggested that a lesson from Saint Paul is needed, to be all things to all people so that some might be saved.

What the Church does and says is observed by more non-believers than faithful Catholics. An evangelical outlook might suggest the public face of that communication would serve to draw people in to the Gospel, not send them off in recoil.

I don’t know why, but I really do expect more of you. Hierothee points out that comparing a professional who has the luxury to spend time composing, editing, and reediting his prose in order to perfect it with the average combox responder who usually is stealing a couple of minutes here and there from one’s other duties is not exactly a fair comparison. To make the accusations you do appears to be, in short, disingenuous I am afraid.

Given the quantity of comments from some people, we know they have the time. As Shrek once commented, “What they lack is the capacity.”

“And, moreover, who gets paid to do so?”

Ah, the motto of the economic me-generation. I only do quality work if there’s something in it for me. Heaven help the children of such persons. I can see the allowance withholdings stacking up until the Old Catholics get their ex-coms lifted.