On Friday, my friend Ashley E. McGuire defended the Holy See Friday before a United Nations committee on torture on behalf of Catholic Voices USA (a group I help found). In an interview for National Review Online, we talk a bit about what’s going on here.
KJL: What was it like testifying on behalf of the Holy See?
MCGUIRE: I would use the same word that I used in my opening remarks to the committee: “surreal.” It is always an honor to stand up and defend the Church, but it was surreal to have to pack my bag and leave my world behind to fly thousands of miles to sit in a small room and tell a panel of men and women that no, the Church is not a house of torture. That should be obvious, but groups that hate the Church and everything that she stands for are trying to use this committee, just as they did the Committee on the Rights of the Child, to bully the Holy See.
KJL: Why bother defending the Holy See? Can’t it take care of itself? Isn’t God supposed to be on its side? Isn’t Pope Francis a superhero?