By Darrick Taylor, Crisis Magazine - It may not be convenient, given the historical circumstances, but making dubious claims to save the Church from criticism does not make her failures go away, nor does it help her reputation. The assertion that the liturgical reform was the immediate work of the Holy Spirit and the belief that the Holy Spirit directly chooses popes are cut from the same cloth. Both are pious fictions meant to protect the Church’s image when she screws things up. Neither are true, and no one should be excommunicated—in either social or ecclesiastical terms—for respectfully pointing out that they are not.