Garry Wills, so adroit at parsing Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation," so subtle in his analysis of Verdi's Shakespeare operas, loses all nuance when he tackles intra-Catholic issues. Then, like the Verdi of the early potboilers, it's all villains and heroes.So in the June 7th New York Review of Books their regular bishop-basher is at it again. The full article is available only to subscribers, but they give you enough material to get the drift. However, passing strange is the photo that serves to dress up the diatribe. I wonder whether the Dominican Sisters of Mary will appreciate being the poster girls for Wills' harangue. Check their website.

Robert P. Imbelli, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, is a longtime Commonweal contributor.

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