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.