Ross Douthat Quotes
During a frustrating argument with a Roman Catholic cardinal, Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly burst out: “Your eminence, are you not aware that I have the power to destroy the Catholic Church?” The cardinal, the anecdote goes, responded ruefully: “Your majesty, we, the Catholic clergy, have done our best to destroy the church for the last 1,800 years. We have not succeeded, and neither will you.”
Douthat, Ross. The New York Times, The New York Times Company.
His response was to being asked whether he could do something with Russian Catholics to help Laval win favor with the Pope, to counter the increasing threat of Nazism. This quotation is often used as an example of Stalin’s disrespect for the Papacy. However, in this case, the Pope was extremely weak politically and some argue spiritually for he did not oppose Hitler and the Nazis very much. Defenders of the Papacy argue that Hitler had overwhelming force and little respect for the Pope, and ironically this was what Stain was referring to. Ironically, another Pope, John Paul, had a major part in bring down the Soviet Union and he had no divisions.
The Roman Catholic Church hierarchy had just cracked down on some nuns and their orders who were discussing and debating classic church positions, like male only priesthood, birth control, women’s roles in the society and in the search. There were many strongly worded admonishments from the Vatican. Down found it odd that the Church Fathers should be so distressed by activist nuns when their reaction to Priest sexual predation of young boys was by comparison, so mild.
Ross Gregory Douthat (/ˈdaʊθət/) (born 1979) is an American conservative political analyst, blogger, author and New York Times columnist. He was a senior editor of The Atlantic. He has written on a variety of conservative topics, including the state of Christianity in America and "sustainable decadence" in contemporary society.
