Stupid for a TIME headline: "Poll: Catholic Beliefs At Odds With Vatican Doctrine"

Pope Francis ponders if and when TIME magazine might issue any fundamental changes in its ideological and illogical reporting. (Okay, we made that up. At least we admit it when we make stuff up.)

by Carl E. Olson | CWR blog

I'm still laughing at this one, recently posted on the TIME magazine site:

"Poll: Catholic Beliefs At Odds With Vatican Doctrine"

Really? Whatever does that mean? That what the actual Catholic Church teaches—that is, her beliefs—is actually different from what the Vatican teaches? Huh. That would be strange, to say the least, since what the Catholic Church believes is, in fact, doctrinal, and it just happens to be the same stuff about faith and morals that the dread Vatican is supposed to be upholding, promoting, teaching, defending, clarifying, and such.

(Come to think of it, Dan Brown, how did the Catholic Church express and define doctrine before the Vatican was created centuries after the time of Christ?)

Yes, yes, I know. It's supposed to means that what certain, special, and super-enlightened Catholics believe is in opposition to "Vatican doctrine," which leaves us in a silly pickle: people who are supposedly defined by being "Catholic" are rejecting the very doctrines that, in fact, help identify and shape them as Catholic qua Catholic. Of course, you can be a baptized Catholic and say you believe adultery is wonderful, insist the Trinity is a bunch of metaphysical nonsense, and crow you have no interest in going to Mass—but that actually makes you a certain kind of Catholic: a bad Catholic.

And how do we know what constitutes being a good Catholic? Sure. In fact, there's quite a paper trail on that, beginning with the Bible, followed by Councils and such, not to mention the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Specifics? For starters, belief in the Credo, being in a state of grace, attending Mass on Sunday, and giving proper assent to the teachings—that is, doctrine—of the Catholic Church.

How about a more accurate headline? Such as: "Poll: Bad Catholics At Odds With Vatican Doctrine"

Too judgmental? Hmmm. The truth can hurt. Unless you don't believe in truth. In which case you might be a bad Catholic.

But that's not all. The piece is typical MSM boilerplate, which is to say, it employs the same old vacuous labels and confuses categories. Typical. For instance:

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