The silly smear of Bill Barr as an agent of a Catholic cult

As far as Barr-Opus Dei conspiracy theories go, Rohde s was relatively mild. The Guardian in October mentioned Barr s connection to the CIC, which it said is staffed by priests from the secretive, ultra-orthodox Catholic sect Opus Dei. The same month, The Nation s Joan Walsh sounded the alarm about Barr s links to extremist Catholic institutions, while an article on the liberal Web site ­Alternet speculated that Barr may be an Opus Dei member. The group, it said, had taught Barr to put away his scruples.

This is egregious nonsense. For starters, Barr isn t, in fact, a member, as the organization was forced to clarify in November, breaking its usual policy of not identifying members or non-members. More important, people who attend Opus Dei ­activities don t show up for ­ominous conspiracies.

via nypost.com

So I see Mr. Barr is not actually a member of Opus Dei. That’s too bad, I say, but he seems sound enough. Actually, OD isn’t “ultra-orthodox” by contemporary standards. They’re totally “Novus Ordo” Catholics, OK with the Mass in the vernacular rather than the more historically pure Latin. And also loyal to the Pope, which at the moment means loyal to Francis. Some folks definitely are not.