Francis is preparing an encyclical on Ecology for 2015

Yet another reason for the Greatest Catholics of All Time to wet themselves. He won’t say anything new, of course.  Though he may well say something old in a new way that will surprise us.  But he’s damned from the outset by the Arugula Principle of Heretic-Burning “Conservatism”. Permit me to explain.Long ago, when Rod Dreher wrote Crunchy Cons, he remarked that he was going off to lunch to have something–I forget what… so we’ll say, arugula … and somebody at the offices at NRO remarked that his food sounded “liberal”.That’s the Arugula Principle.  Conservatism used to mean “the absence of ideology”.  The refusal to politicize every damn little picky thing in the universe the way Marxists did.  But now the Thing the Used to be Conservatism politicizes and polarizes every stupid thing in the universe, even stuff like Muppets and the Lego Movie. It is obsessed with the hunt for heretics and not the making of converts. And the poison has penetrated deep into the minds of “faithful conservative Catholics” who increasingly evaluate Church teaching not by “Is it true?” or “Is it in accord with the Tradition?” but “Is this liberal-sounding, like arugula?”  That’s why Reactionaries could pore over a beautiful piece of work like Evangelii Gaudium, completely and totally ignore the central point (our mission to make converts and disciples of all nations to this beautiful Faith Christ has given us) and instead spend *all* their time whining and complaining that the pope had noted that one (1) of the obstacles to our work as evangelists is a “self-absorbed promethean neo-pelagianism” that turns the Church into Fortress Katolicus instead of the missionary enterprise it must be.  Result: self-absorbed promethean neo-pelagians hunkered down in Reactionary bunkers all over St. Blogs and refused to come out, cursing the pope for