Archbishop Chaput on vitriolic emails.

Insult to injury.

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The mocking, sneering rabble-rousing blog posts and comments I read yesterday against Hillary Clinton, just because she questioned, "Who painted this?" as she admired the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe - a perfectly reasonable question for a non-Catholic to ask BTW - suggested to me that good Catholics not only hate the sin, but they also hate the sinner, especially as it concerns political figures. Granted, some personalities may be unpleasant, but to condemn and mock someone because they are not acquainted with Catholic piety and devotion is clearly uncharitable and mean spirited.

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Anyway, I thought Archbishop Chaput's commentary on the vitriolic tendencies of good Catholics online might be something for us to consider.

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"I used to get some hate mail before I was online, but not nearly as much as I did afterwards. I think the way that we have immediate access, which means we immediately speak out of our emotions rather than write a letter, send it the next day, you might change your mind. Instead you write it and you push the button to “show them,” you know, that kind of thing.

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So I think our immediate ability to communicate has led to a coarsening discourse for one thing. I gave a talk recently – I think it may have been when I was in Toronto, where I said that the Lord reminds us that we are sheep among wolves, but it’s important for us not to become wolves ourselves because of our experience, and I think that often happens.

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Some of the worst emails I get are from Catholic conservatives who think I should excommunicate and refuse communion to Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. of Colorado and to former-Sen. [and now Secretary of the Interior] Ken Salazar of Colorado, and why aren’t you doing this? I mean, just awful kind of stuff that they write. Sometimes, I must admit, that when I write back, I’m not as friendly as I should be. But I try not to be mean." - Source

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Nice language.
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The Archbishop also said this, "The left mail I get will use terrible words but be less vitriolic. They use the F-word and things like that, call me names like that. But the right is meaner, but they’re not as foul."

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I have wanted to comment on the fact that I've noticed Catholic bloggers using the F-word in various context within their posts, actually printing the word - I find that just a horrible word for a Catholic to deliberately use online or in private. Unfortunately, I've used, "effing" or "f-ing" on occasion when I've been passionate about an issue, but I quickly realize what I've done and go back and remove it.

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Very often our self-righteous anger is just that, self-righteous, while we remain smug, defending our rights, often unaware of the scandal we give.