WTH?

This is an acronym for "what the heck", if anyone is interested. Last week there was a kerfuffle after Prof Jordan of the dormant Rochester group sent out an e-mail that had been written by one Peter Jesserer Smith. I wasn't familiar with the name, and I simply assumed Mr Smith was a lay member of the Rochester group who'd written the piece. But today someone sent me a link to an interview at the National Catholic Register with Bp Lopes that was conducted by none other than Peter Jesserer Smith, who is identified as a Register staff reporter.

On November 28, Prof Jordan sent me the following e-mail:

Hello Mr. Bruce,

My attention was drawn to your blog posts about our group's email update. Generally, these news items are meant to inform the group and our friends and supporters of our progress. They are not meant to be for public debate or speculation. It could be possible that your posts may further hinder our progress.

I would appreciate it if you would remove the posts.

thanks,
Andrew Jordan

Excuse me? A professional writer for the NCR drafts your press release (which is what it could only have been), and you claim it's "not meant to be for public debate or speculation"? I don't get it. Mr Jesserer Smith, as I understand these things, is not defining a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church. Even the most devout Catholics, it seems to me, are entitled to debate and speculate over his utterances. And maybe, as a full professor, Prof Jordan has mistaken me for a cringing graduate assistant. I fear at age 69 I don't need his influence to get me any new academic job.

I assume Prof Jordan was told to send this e-mail by Houston -- though if I were Houston, I'd be on Jesserer Smith's case, as well as Jordan's, for not running things by Bp Matano. Otherwise, if Matano in fact approved it, I'm not sure what the problem is.

Smith's interview with Bp Lopes, by the way, is nothing special.