Father Neuhaus used to refer, sarcastically, to the NYT as “our parish newsletter.” Here’s the lede from today’s column by Frank Bruni, the housebroken Catholic on the Times op-ed page:

“I have nothing against priests,” writes Garry Wills in his provocative new book, “Why Priests? A Failed Tradition,” and I’d like at the outset to say the same. During a career that has included no small number of formal interviews and informal conversations with them, I’ve met many I admire, men of genuine compassion and remarkable altruism, more dedicated to humanity than to any dogma or selective tradition.

Why, some of his best friends are priests, I bet.

A Catholic friend e-mails this link with the subject line, “I have nothing against rabbis.” Heh.

By the way, do please read today’s dynamite column about abortion, feminism, and culture by the NYT’s un-housebroken Catholic, Ross Douthat, who actually believes what the Church teaches and brings it to his analysis in a way that suggests he will win the Pulitzer Prize someday, though, alas, he will not be invited to the great parties his coreligionist colleague will be.