(National Catholic Reporter. Phyllis Zagano).
Catholic bullying is spreading across the land. In the latest example, Minnesota Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire organization threatened Commonweal magazine and theologian Massimo Faggioli over Faggioli’s April 22 essay, “Will Trumpism Spare Catholicism?” The commotion is too weird to behold. It began like all schoolyard fights. Barron, or someone who works for him, thought Faggioli, who teaches at Villanova University, called the bishop a name. In best fourth-grade fashion, an unsigned “cease and desist” email went to Faggioli and to Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi. Apparently without a lawyer or even a dictionary nearby, the email claimed Commonweal and Faggioli were guilty of “slander,” usually applied to spoken defamatory statements, instead of published ones, which are libel.