Is Hillary Mantel deliberately ironic

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Lion_of_Narnia

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…or unconsciously so?

Hillary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies the sources for the BBC/PBS series Wolf Hall_emphasized text_, a program whose revisionist “history” in portraying Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s henchman, as a practical and moral man fighting Catholic Church corruption and (Saint) Thomas More as a bigoted heresy-hunter whose horrible to his family, has even offended the UK Secular Society and (Jewish) historian Simon Schama for Mantel’s flat-out contradiction of the historical record of both men and the times and events they lived in.

Mantel seems to state her initial motivation for the series was sparked by the Catholic Abuse Crisis and coverups, though her education in a convent school provided the deep background.

That’s the set-up, now the irony…

"Asked if she would call for a priest on her deathbed, Mantel replied: “No. I might very well call for a Church of England vicar, but I would not call for a Catholic priest.
“I’m one of nature’s Protestants. I should never have been brought up in the Catholic Church. I think that nowadays the Catholic Church is not an institution for respectable people.”


Now, in terms of “respectable people”, back in 1877:

"The Catholic Church is for saints and sinners alone – for respectable people, the Anglican Church will do.” --Oscar Wilde

Of course, Wilde was an 11th hour convert, quite literally on his deathbed in 1900. Now, does anyone know if Mantel is aware of the Wilde quote?
 
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Woe to those who call good evil and evil good.

She seems to be utterly lost and in need of much prayer.
 
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