Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: "These People Do Not Mean Humankind Well"

In response to a comment so egregiously, so personally, nasty (it was a personal attack on Sr. Maureen Fiedler) that it has now been deleted from this National Catholic Reporter thread, mountain dweller writes,

I'm getting convinced that the condition of heart behind a lot of right-wing Catholic views is malicious, and the condition of grace is depleted. These people do not mean humankind well.

To which Ana replies,

The sheer meanness and nastiness of some of the self-appointed "orthodox" Catholics takes the breath away. Whenever I think I'm used to it, someone else comes along and reminds us that those who self-identify with this group of "orthodox" Catholics do not seem to be Christians - they do not follow Christ, they do not seek to live what Jesus taught. If these people are truly representative of what the Catholic church is moving toward, then it is not Jesus's church. Someone has stolen it and we can only pray that at some point Jesus's real church will be restored.

Laura Hetchler Kuntz then states,

But, I think that clear leadership in the direction of kindness and love would sort a lot of that out. In many ways I think we are experiencing a church that does not know what it is about, that is truly struggling in a variety of ways. Painful, isn't it? 

And mokantrx says,

I agree. Imagine a church wherein the leadership's primary words each and every day seemed centered on kindness, compassion and love, and where the lightning quick bolts to censure or silence were not aimed at those who might disagree, but at those who were not charitable, compassionate, or kind... 

What a very different place this church could be... 

And they're right, it seems to me: all of them. But think for a moment about what this means.

It means that, increasingly, for the world at large as well as for many fellow Catholics, the movement  of reaction and retrogression that has now captured the very heart of the Catholic church is branding the Catholic church as "does not mean humankind well." And as about anything except kindness, compassion, and love.

And that's a pretty dreadful place for a religion that claims to be all about kindness, compassion, and love to end up, isn't it?