Papal Encyclicals and the Bard's Plays: What They Tell Us about Modern Villains

Liberal conspirators planning to smear Robert Bork, two
of the "howling pack" who killed his nomination.

I belong to an interesting book club. We alternate reading Church documents with reading the plays of William Shakespeare.

What's the connection?

The four of us just happen to be interested in both. But what I'm finding is that, as a Catholic, Shakespeare addresses the big moral issues just like the papal encyclicals do. The effects of the seven deadly sins: pride, avarice, anger (think of the number of tragedies that deal with murder), lust, etc. We've been drawing the plays at random, but choosing the encyclicals by interest (with the qualification of being pre-Vatican II). The second play drawn was Coriolanus. Despite two semesters of Shakespeare in college, Coriolanus is one of the few plays I'd never read.


It's an interesting play. The hero, Gaius Marcus, gains the name Coriolanus by capturing the city of
Corioli. He is a warrior champion. Defeating the enemy at Corioli almost single-handedly after being trapped in the city, he refuses to be politically correct at home. He will not pander to the populace with honeyed words and by baring his breast (literally) to show his war wounds.

Lying is what liberals do!

His enemies are a despicable group of cowardly politicians who frankly reminded me of Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, and their liberal conspirators who slandered Judge Robert Bork to prevent his rise to the Supreme Court and tried to do the same to Clarence Thomas. The evil politicians use Coriolanus' refusal to stir up the people who declare him a traitor and demand his exile. Sound familiar? (I think Robert Bork could relate.) So instead of rising to the level of a consul for his courage and heroism, Coriolanus becomes a homeless vagabond. Sadly, he sinks to the level of revenge which certainly fits the pagan Roman context.

Robert Bork, on the other hand, turned to writing. The liberal conspirators labeled Bork a racist. He, in turn, examined the role of liberalism (read Democratic party) in The Tempting of America pointing out it was liberals who wanted to enshrine slavery in the Constitution. I think he would approve of Dinesh D'Souza's new film, Hillary's America. See the film and compare Hillary's America documenting the historical truth about the Democratic party to the bugaboo raised by the despicable Ted Kennedy about Robert Bork's America, one systematic and deliberate lie after another. We are living in Hillary's America; things would be much different if we were living in the America envisioned by the man of integrity named Robert Bork.

Modernists Kasper and Marx conspiring?

Right after reading Coriolanus, we studied Pope Pius X's encyclical on Modernism (Pascendi) and the Syllabus of Errors. The document exposes the internal enemies of the Church and their methods: the way they intermingle lies and truth, their elevation of personal conscience above divine and ecclesial
authority, their insistence that they are faithful in their vicious dissent, their devaluation of Divine Revelation... Shakespeare would have a field day with these modern day villains. The pagan rogues of Coriolanus engage in corrupt plotting less than today's modernists who continue to inflict the Church at every level. Think of the plotting during the recent two Synods on the Family and the fomenting of dissent against Church authority. Think of the way Amoris Laetitia is being used to undermine the indissolubility of marriage and promote relativism

Yes, some things never change. The evil politicians of Coriolanus, the evil politicians in our current administration and in Congress, the evil Church politicians and their lay conspirators -- they all wear the same garments -- sheepskin and a smile. "They lie deadly that tell you have good faces." More and more, sheepskin isn't enough to cover their wolfish natures.

How to deal with them? Pray and expose them. Our Lady, Help of Christians, intercede for us.