"Now, thanks to Pope Benedict Sixteenth, are we ready for the Big Rat and Mole Hunt?"

How about Hans Urs von Balthasar ?

If the thesis behind Alyssa Lyra Pitsick's half of "Balthasar, Hell, and Heresy: An Exchange" -- with an American Catholic, Edward T. Oakes, S.J. writing his own defense of the would - be cardinal, is to be beleived, and I personally do, Balthasar not only blasphemed the Holy Spirit, he died for doing so.

Writing in First Things magazine, December 2006, Number 168, Pitsick tells us:

"Only his unexpected death, three days before the ceremony, prevented him from being made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II.

"By reputation , he is generally considered a conservative theologian.

"Hew wrote a book about how important it was to him to be Catholic.

"Of all people, one might reasonably expect Balthasar to qualify as an ecclesial theologian.

"But does he meet his own criteria?

"It is a question asked reluctantly; however, the doctrine in question is by no means marginal to Christian faith:

"The mystery of Holy Saturday stands with Good Friday and Easter Sunday at the center of Christ's redemptive work.

"What one believes of Christ's descent into hell necessarily affects what one believes about Christ and salvation through Him."

"The contrast between Balthasar's theology of Holy Saturday and the traditional Catholic doctrine confronts us with the grave but necessary question whether the work of a theologian so reputedly Catholic is in fact compatible with the Catholic faith."

My own knee - jerk blogger's opinion?

In a nutshell, it isn't "compatible."

Not even close!

And so, if we freely adapt some of the opinions expressed by Saint Robert Cardinal Bellarmine around 400 years ago, that even Roman Catholic (and hence not just American Catholic!) theologians are indeed vulnerable to Satanic seduction, and in Balthasar's case maybe 'way more than that, then mere seduction, we might say, in old - fashioned biblical terms: "he died in his sins."

Which would go far to explain why he was struck dead in so timely a manner: this wretchedly perverse and unhappy fellow just might have made a diabolical pact with Satan and was awarded accordingly in proportion to his offense of formal, published blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.