There is a Yiddish witticism, Der Mensch tracht, un Gott lacht (“Man plans, and God laughs”), and recent events suggest the divine has a particularly puckish sense of humor. No sooner had his political lobbyists begun to gain traction with their proposals for the formation of a postliberal Catholic order than their plans were hit by an almighty twofer. First up was Donald Trump’s vulgar dismissal of Pope Leo XIV’s pronouncements on the morality of war. Then there was the sweeping electoral defeat of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, bringing to an end the pinup regime of nominally Christian postliberalism.
