“It’s surprising to hear any pope be so publicly and personally sensitive to perceived ill will from a few commentators at a modest network (by secular standards) based on another continent,” the retired Archbishop of Philadelphia said in an article in which he critiqued Austen Ivereigh, Massimo Faggioli, and Father Antonio Spadaro. “Conflict, a lot of it, both within and beyond the Church, comes with the job of every bishop. The bishop of Rome is not excused from that unhappy burden.”

“And EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo, whom Ivereigh seems to regard as a special tool of the diabolos, does not pose quite the same fearsome threat to the Church as, say, China’s Xi Jinping,” Archbishop Chaput added. “Or significant figures in America’s current leadership.”