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The Audacity of Poping
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The much-married Newt Gingrich converts to Catholicism this weekend—and I’d pay a year’s salary to have been a bug on the wall during his religious instruction.
Brace yourselves for a tsunami of punditry this weekend, when the much-married Newt Gingrich is received into the Catholic Church.
This would ordinarily be a private occasion, but Newt Gingrich is not ordinary. He is (I hedge) probably the most interesting putative candidate on the right at this point. Google “Gingrich” and “2012” and your hard drive will melt under a trillion hits. So attention to this event must and will be paid.
Click Here To View The Daily Beast's Gallery Of 12 Famous Converts.
BTW: “Poping” in the headline above, which—sorry—I couldn’t resist, is the traditional, British pejorative for “becoming a Catholic.” Did you hear the news? Bertie just Poped! There will be an undercurrent of anti-Catholic bias in the commentary about Mr. Gingrich’s embrace of Rome. As the saying goes, anti-Catholicism is the anti-Semitism of the intellectual class.
He and Mother Church—from whose tender embrace I myself have regrettably lapsed—will both be made out to be appalling hypocrites. Who among us should throw stones? But Mr. Gingrich’s marital history is a matter of public record, and it is not tidy. He first married at age 19, to his 26-year-old former high-school geometry teacher and then, so the story goes, presented her with divorce terms after she was wheeled out of cancer surgery.
Mrs. Gingrich #2 was dumped after her husband had carried on an extramarital affair with a fetching, blond congressional staffer named Callista Bisek, who went on to become the present Mrs. Gingrich #3. This Family Values paradigm was complicated by the fact that whilst Mr. Gingrich was filibustering Ms. Bisek over the Speaker’s desk, he was simultaneously leading the impeachment charge against a naughty president of the United States.
To be sure, Mr. Gingrich has since been at pains to emphasize that it was not Mr. Clinton’s naughtiness that he minded, but his perjury. Well, OK, but really, sir. As the noble Rochefoucauld taught us, “Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.”
As for Mother Church, she’ll come in for drubbing this weekend for seeming two-faced about the sanctity of marriage. As you know, divorce is still not allowed in the Catholic Church. But here insert a large “however”—she is liberal in the granting of annulments.
Mrs. Gingrich #2 publicly ventilated her displeasure back in 2000 after she received a letter from the Archdiocese of Atlanta informing her that her marriage was being annulled—that is, rendered ex post facto invalid—on the grounds of “ligamen.” She had been married previously, so in the eyes of the church her marriage to Mr. Gingrich simply did not take place.







mikefromArlington
Word has it he's been in confession now for two days. He is now up to eleventy-billion Hail Mary's and 2.5 million Lord's Prayer
mtldeirdre
Ah, Rex Mottram courted Lady Julia Flyte in the Brideshead Revisited, not Julian.
pricklypear
Chris:
Marry a Catholic is my advice.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Ritarita
So Newt
Has joined
The medieval men's club.
A match made
In heaven
For sure.
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--wantingMysteriousTraveller
A club created for pedophiles and hypocrites.
Thwack
How ripe that Buckley is wagging a finger at Gingrich's ethical bona fides when Buckley's marital past is so pristine: having a long extra-marital affair, fathering a son he won't acknowledge or talk to, leaving wife for younger strumpet, etc. Hypocrisy IS the due that vice pays to virtue.
MrButton
If we judge one by the company they keep, this is yet more proof that "God" is either a fool or a farce.
NHBill
Christopher Buckley is a marvelous writer. I sighed, I laughed. I chuckled and I looked up words in the dictionary. All-in-all my favorite read of the week.
Texican
Pope goes the weasel.
The following phrase captures The Newt perfectly:
"He first married at age 19, to his 26-year-old former high school geometry teacher..."
Throughout his long and evil career, The Newt has specialized in talking people who should know better into emotionally satisfying but otherwise doubtful courses of action.
Your brother in Crisis,
Texican
MainelyJack
Newt is undoubtedly going to come in for a lot of teasing (or worse) however things of faith should be treated with care. All of us are sinners (even Christopher Buckley) All of us have things in our personal history we are less than proud of (even Christopher Buckley). Forgiveness is a tenet of the Christian Faith and the Catholic Church and I for one will welcome Mr. Gindgrich into the Faith and assume he is sincere and repentent. I suggest Mr. Buckley whose sense of humor and political wisdom of late has started to show signs of being tone deaf.
RubenRemus
I'm sad to see the anti-Catholicism get a head start on this comment page.
magicman
Not since Chris Angel has the Public waited so long and so patiently for a man to successfully extricate himself from a small enclosed box.
pricklypear
Those who seek truth find the Catholic Church.
Thank you.
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