This week’s edition is being brought to you by the letters A and Z.
- J. Arthur Bloom, “John Zmirak: On a Mission From God to Get People to Stop Reading Writers He Doesn’t Like,” The Mitrailleuse – The dust has settled. Twitter accounts have been blocked. Tweets have been purged. And what did we learn in the end? That if you oppose liberalism in any form, you are no friend of John Zmirak. Bloom provides a good overview of yesterday’s cyber-brawl over liberalism, “friendly fascism,” and the apparent inability of certain defenders of Catholic liberalism to comprehend other people’s socio-political positions.
- “Consecration of Fr. Jean-Michael Faure,” Society of St. Pius X – Yesterday, the inevitable occurred: Bishop Richard Williamson, formerly of the SSPX, consecrated a new bishop for his “Resistance” movement. The Society, understandably, is displeased with this move and they explain why in a communique which draws important distinctions between yesterday’s illicit consecration and the (in)famous 1988 consecrations in Econe.
- Fr. John Hunwicke, “SSPX and Unity,” Mutual Enrichment – As one of the comboxes on this blog recently demonstrated, levelheaded discussion of the Society of St. Pius X is almost always in short supply. Thankfully, Fr. Hunwicke is around to replenish the larder. His earlier thoughts on the Society’s situation are also worth digesting.
- Marcin Mamon, “The Making of a Christian Taliban in Ukraine,” The Intercept – If you’ve ever read Michael Burleigh or, before him, Eric Voegelin, you should know that the story of political-religious movements is not confined to the Middle East. Ukraine is unveiling several forms of messianic or quasi-messianic movements, all of which appear to be rooted in some iteration of Slavic Orthodoxy. Although the Russian Orthodox Church’s “Russian World” vision has received some critical attention, the specifically Ukrainian nationalist movement Mamon discusses in this article takes Christian political theology to a whole new level.
