I think this "Idoltry of life" is a straw man

And this isn't?:

apparently, the most important thing to do is worship God in church (not iwith our actions in the outside world), listen to our bishops and, above all, not rock the boat.

Wow. A veritable who's who of "ewwwww".

Rule of college inter-faculty/administration relations: The fights are so bitter because the stakes are so small

Yes, and I am glad DA is doing that. I like Fr. Barron, but again, that whole celebrity priest thing...

It sems that somebodies are not reading EVERYTHING Fr. Pavone has written

That's because it is a nonsense standard for making informed decisions. I have not seen Mark or any other critic of Fr. Pavone dispute that he has good intentions, done good work and written good, civil and encouraging things. These things are even mentioned by critics in passing, but only in passing because they are not in dispute and no point discussing what no one is disputing. What IS in dispute is his recent activity and statements in the public record that a Catholic can reasonably find disturbing at the very least. Put it this way: One doesn't get to pile a bunch of good works on one end of the scale and take that as balancing out fudging in other areas.

Actually, there IS a conspiracy but it isn't going to bother about priests acting like Willie E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner. :)

As much as I want to blame Obama for everything including the chick-weed in my yard, England has been on this anti-Catholic kick long before President Nothing showed up.

You may have a point. For example. A month or so ago, Ireland and Austria (or was it Australia?) politicians were threatening to pass laws that made it criminal for priests to not report sex abuse he hears about in the confessional. I haven't heard word one about it since then which indicates they were just gassing. But then there was the attempt by Voice of the Faithful to pass legislation in Connecticut to turn the hierarchy upside down. Thankfully, Catholics united to squash that fairly quickly.

But we should remember that this is all trial ballooning and illustrates the problem with resisting agents of chaos: they can lose 1,000 times---they only need to win once.

If I were an English bishop, I'd start calling the mosques and get the Muslims stirred up about this. I'd bet support for this legislation would evaporate quickly.

It's good (and rare) for a man like him to live in fear of facing the consequences of his sins.

Agreed. However, I would point out that a foreign country grabbing up Cheney is little different from people that plan or call for (fortunately unsuccessfully so far) grabbing up the Holy Father during a foreign visit and putting him on trial for ignoring child abuse or killing people in Africa for not allowing condoms. Like torture, snapping up invited foreign visitors for a politcally-correct kangaroo court is a shortcut; or, to borrow from A Man for all Seasons, cutting a road through the law to get after the Devil.