Just when you thought it was safe to return to the Blogosphere...

- he's baaaaaaack!

Yes, folks. It's Fred.

Back with more dumb-ass attacks on the Catholic Church.

This time, I'm afraid I can't protect him from himself any longer.

I am reluctant to expose his folly to the world but, if I do not, I may be accused of over-stating the case.

So I shall have to let him make an ass of himself, all by himself, with a free hand.

Here's his latest out-pouring [numbering added]:

"1. Read anything by David Kertzer on Pius IX if you want to learn some home truths about a pointlessly reactionary figure mostly admired outside Italy.

2. He had to hire mercenaries from outside his own lands to defend him-even the backwards King of Naples didn't have to do that.

3. Only those who didn't have to live under your church defended it, only those (the Belgians, Croats, Irish, Quebeckers) accurately described as being more papist than the pope.

4. If you enjoy dressing up in fancy medieval costumes, that's your business.
If your clergy molest children or adolescents,or try to take away a woman's right to choose, that's our business.

Theology has gone from being the queen of the sciences to being the science of queens.

And we Protestants are the biggest hypocrites?"

Not all Protestants by any means, Fred. Only the hypocritical ones. Does that include you, Fred?

A few corrections of his above errors:

1. False. No home truths at all. David I. Kertzer is one of a number of secular Jewish writers who seek to blame the Catholic Church for most of the evils that have happened to Jews. Kertzer was given wide access to the archives in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and, like the odious lapsed Catholic John Cornwell, he repaid the generosity of the CDF and the Pope by making up grotesque exaggerations, distortions and inventions about the Church to further an unworthy cause (and perhaps line his own pockets?).

If Fred really had any evidence of misconduct by Pope Pius IX he would cite the original sources but he can't, so he doesn't. He turns to a polemicist, instead. It's a frequently abused technique much favoured by those with no arguments or evidence.

Bong! Wrong, again, Fred!

2. False. In a remarkable show of international solidarity for the Pope and the Papacy, Pope Pius IX was defended by Catholic volunteers from all over the world, many of them the descendants of families, both noble and peasant, who had fought against the French Revolution. He was also defended by the Austrians and by the French alternatively, often for political reasons. The French President/Emperor, Napoleon III, did so for purely political motives since, in his youth, he had himself thrown bombs at previous popes. Because of his peace-loving nature, Pius IX did not maintain much of a standing army and so, when he came under attack from the Italian anti-Catholics and Freemasons, funded and supported by Yank and British Protestants, he needed aid. He got it - from volunteers!

Oh, and by the way, Fred, the Kingdom of Naples was set up by Bonaparte, given to his underling, Murat, and disappeared with both.

The haughty Joachim Murat, Bonapartist King of Naples, was, in fact, the son of an innkeeper and both anti-Catholic, revolutionary scoffer and pompous, self-obsessed dandy, although also a capable soldier. An early supporter of Jean-Paul Marat, the fanatical and bloodthirsty Jacobin revolutionary, Murat was ousted after the fall of Bonaparte and executed.

After Bonaparte's defeat in 1814, Murat reached an agreement with Austria and was allowed to retain the throne of Naples. When Bonaparte returned to France for the Hundred Days in 1815, Murat once again sided with him. Murat issued the Rimini Proclamation in the hope of saving himself by allying with the anti-Catholic Italian nationalists. The ensuing Neapolitan War between Murat and the Austrians was short, ending with a decisive victory for the Austrian forces at the Battle of Tolentino. Murat fled, and Ferdinand III of Sicily, IV of Naples, the rightful king, was restored to the throne.

King Ferdinand I and Queen Maria Carolina of the Two-Sicilies and their family. Maria Carolina was the daughter of the Empress Maria Teresa and sister to Emperor Joseph II. They were restored to the throne after the fall of Bonaparte and Murat.

Murat attempted to overthrow him but was quickly captured. Murat was then given a taste of his own medicine and executed by firing squad in Pizzo, Calabria. The next year, 1816, finally saw the formal union of the Kingdom of Naples with the Kingdom of Sicily into the new Kingdom of the Two Sicilies with Ferdinand as King Ferdinand I.

Blessed Pope Pius IX was not raised to the Pontifical throne until 1847.

So, Fred, by the time of Pius IX, there was no Kingdom of Naples.

Bong! Wrong, again, Fred!

3. False. The Church was most ably defended by those who lived in traditionally Catholic countries. As I have already also said, Pius IX was defended by French troops - a country that had destroyed its Catholic government and was now headed by a man who used to throw bombs at the Pope. Fred is laughably wrong in his assertion that it would be hard to imagine anything further from the truth.

Further, the Austrians also defended the Pope and the Emperor had his own issues with the Pope so that no-one would ever describe Austria as "more papist than the Pope" - except a know-nothing like Fred.

As for the Quebecois, they were once among the most loyal of British subjects since Britain had defended Catholic Quebec from the rapacious Yankee Catholic-haters in 1812. The Irish, on the other hand, often put rebellion against the British above loyalty to the Church and the Pope. You might as well compare chalk and cheese, Fred.

Bong! Wrong, again, Fred!

4. False. More Protestant clergy have been charged, arraigned and convicted of child and adolescent abuse than Catholic clergy.

Protestant clergy "dress up" in medieval costume as much as Catholic. Catholic clergy do it to honour God and show devotion

It is not a woman's, or anyone's, right to choose to kill another innocent human being, however much some Protestants think they can try to get round the Commandment not to murder.

That's "our" business, Fred, just as much as it is yours and the other thugs and heavies to whom you seem to want this "business" to be entrusted.

I'm sorry to see Fred defending killing of the innocent.

As you can see, Fred, we Catholics are willing and able to defend the innocent from people like you!

Bong! Wrong, again, Fred!

5. False. Theology remains the Queen of Sciences as the better Protestants will also tell you. On the other hand, if by the "science of queens" you mean promoting homosexual practices, that was done by Protestants long before any Catholics began to copy them.

Bong! Wrong, again, Fred!

6. False. It looks like you have scored an own goal, again, Fred!

Give up, Freddy. You're onto a sure-fire loser.

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