Condon's PillarCatholic.com Has Removed Its Mask Too Quickly
Well-meaning observers would have expected from Condon to target other "enemies" in the earlier stages of his webpage, instead, he chose to slam a pro-lifer who is attracted to the Old Latin Mass.
Condon humiliates Johnson with a condescending attitude accusing her of “rejecting” the Church’s moral teaching on the subject as if a random statement of the current Vatican on vaccines would constitute a magisterial text.
In addition, Johnson’s position doesn't differ from statements of Bishop Athanasius Schneider or Tyler Bishop Strickland whom Condon, interestingly, does not choose to attack.
Condon also presents dissenting from Covid-19 related political measures as a rejection of ecclesiastical authority when he writes:
“The substance of her [Johnson's] public statements also includes a rejection of mask-wearing in public, and of social distancing and compliance with public health measures for the reopening of churches for public worship. This suggests that, in addition to exercising a legitimate choice of conscience to refuse vaccines, she also dissents from the CDF’s instruction that those who do refuse vaccines in good conscience ‘must do their utmost’ to avoid becoming an agent of infection.”
To sum up, Condon presents Johnson as a freakish person with personal charisma who "substitutes for, or even trumps, true expertise or authority" which implies that Condon considers himself the "true expert" able to discern "true expertise."
He goes on complaining about an "increasing prominence of self-appointed experts" who speak as Catholics but "against the Church" across a range of subjects and presents "an evolving challenge for the Church’s episcopal leaders, especially in the United States." ["Episcopal leaders" seems to be an odd expression.]
PillarCatholic.com was expected to deliver Catholic arguments, not slander but this turned quickly out to be an illusion. The money trail could be a possible explanation.
