Twice in the last twelve months friends have written to me warning me not to speak at particular conferences. They have advised me that I will be associated, toxically and perhaps beyond repair, with and by the “wrong kind of Catholic”.
They might be right. Guilt by association is now becoming a common currency of reputational assassination on all sides in the Catholic Church. The conservative Catholic world – that ought to be tautologous – in the US is particularly susceptible to a certain type of visceral party-split.
