I am begging folks not to get too upset with Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. He’s been having a bit of a rough time with Catholics recently so one must understand his recent outburst against a dead and famous Catholic.

Williams has been overseeing the modern exodus of the Anglican Communion into the Catholic Church which has likely upset him a tad. He even said of them, “I can only say fine, God bless them. I don’t at the moment. “

Nice.

And now after recent scholarship has pointed to William Shakespeare being a Catholic, methinks (a little hoity toity Shakespeare talk for ya’) that Williams has had it up to here with Catholics.

So Williams threw a little bit of ‘tude at the Bard. He pretty much says, yeah Shakespeare was probably Catholic but he was a big fat rich jerky Catholic.
The Telegraph reports:

William Shakespeare was probably a Catholic, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury in an exploration of spirituality and secularism in the Bard’s plays.

Dr Rowan Williams discussed the themes with Simon Russell Beale, the great Shakespearean actor, in one of the most eagerly-anticipated talks of the festival.

Little is known of Shakespeare’s life and there is no direct evidence of his religious affiliation, but Dr Williams said he believed him to be a Catholic. “I don’t think it tells us a great deal, to settle whether he was a Catholic or a Protestant, but for what it’s worth I think he probably had a Catholic background and a lot of Catholic friends and associates.

“How much he believed in it, or what he did about it, I don’t quite know. He wasn’t a very nice man in many ways – it’s always very shocking, that. The late Shakespeare was hoarding grain and buying up property in Stratford – it was not terribly attractive.

“If he was a Christian, he wasn’t a saint.”

I beseech thee to have patience with Williams. But I wonder what other dead Catholics will be insulted next? GK Chesterton? Alec Guinness? Tolkien?