Fr. Richard McBrien named in ‘apparent plagiarism’ (Notre Dame's media darling exposed)

Catholic News Agency ^ | January 19, 2006 | CNA

[Notwithstanding]

University of Notre Dame officials have been alerted to a case of “apparent plagiarism” that involves one of its well-known staff members — Catholic author and former chairman of the university’s theology department Fr. Richard McBrien.

William Hobbib sent a letter to university officials stating that Fr. McBrien, who sits on Notre Dame's Academic Code of Honor Committee, copied some text from a Boston Globe article for a column he submitted for the Jan. 6 issue of The Tidings online.

[Notwithstanding]

He has plagiarised several paragraphs. I guess that is what happens when you are a liberal devoid of ideas. McBrien is an extremist liberal who has done a great deal of damage to the Church.

The two articles can be seen at: http://www.the-tidings.com/2006/0106/essays.htm http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/12/11/zealots_mask_real_struggles/

[Notwithstanding]

Orginal material:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/12/11/zealots_mask_real_struggles/


McBrien's plagiarised column (without attribution):
http://www.the-tidings.com/2006/0106/essays.htm ]

[Chunga]

If he gets fired he can run for Senator in Delaware.

[Notwithstanding]

Original column by Eileen McNamara, Bostom Globe columnist, December 11, 2005:

They are a tiny band of antiabortion zealots...These folks do not just miss the Latin Mass; they miss Cardinal Bernard Law...pining for the good old days when Law would allow Operation Rescue to use Catholic churches as staging areas for illegal blockades of abortion clinics.

McBrien's palgiarism in his January 6, 2006, essay in the Tidings:

These ultra-conservative activists, for whom abortion is the only moral and political issue that counts, not only miss the Latin Mass but also the former archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, who allowed Operation Rescue, a militant anti-abortion organization, to use Catholic churches as staging areas of illegal blockades of abortion clinics.

---

Original:

This is what [Carol McKinley] has to say on her website, Magisterial Fidelity, about Governor Mitt Romney's view that all hospitals are required to obey a new state law mandating that emergency contraception be offered to rape victims: ''Romney Now Says Catholic Hospitals Must Be Forced To Kill Children."

McBrien's plagiarism:

The foundress of Faithful Voice [Carol McKinley], a counterpart to Voice of the Faithful, has said on her Web site that the Republican governor of Massachusetts, by urging all hospitals to obey a new state law mandating that emergency contraception be offered to rape victims, was in effect saying that Catholic hospitals "must be forced to kill children."

---

Original:

This is what she has to say about the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, the president of Catholic Charities who refused to capitulate to demands from McKinley and her pals that Menino's honor be rescinded because the mayor supports a woman's constitutional right to abortion and a gay couple's civil right to marry: ''That man is pure unadulterated evil. He literally sends shivers up my spine. . . If he and his cronies think we're going to tolerate he and the Archbishop's material cooperation in abortions -- we'll chase them out of town faster than you can say Voice of the Faithful."

McBrien's plagiarism:

Regarding the president of Catholic Charities, Father J. Bryan Hehir, one of the most respected priests in the United States and a long-time staff member at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, she wrote: "That man is pure unadulterated evil. He literally sends shivers up my spine. If he and his cronies think we're going to tolerate he and the Archbishop's material cooperation in abortions --- we'll chase them out of town faster than you can say Voice of the Faithful."

[Notwithstanding]

please ping -

someone should examine his previous work for similar examples of plagiarism

[zip]

Fr. McBrien, who sits on Notre Dame's Academic Code of Honor Committee,

Can it get any worse? BTW, for those who are not aware of Fr. McBrien, he has attempted to overturn the teachings of the Church for years. The liberal "new" Catholics love him but most others wonder why he has not been excommunicated long ago.

[Cowboy Bob]

Hey, lay off the guy - he's just trying to emulate MLK! </sarcasm>

[browardchad]

Plagiarism? Why not? Modern liberals simply parrot the prevailing opinions of their closed circles. It's much more comfortable that way. Profess great sympathy for the poor and downtrodden -- all the while keeping the ragged people of the world at a safe distance from their smug and condescending fortress.

Label opposing views as "shrill protests," "threats," "barbs and insults," as McBrien does, and above all, never dare struggle with the personal bogeymen of logic, conscience or morality.

[SkyPilot]

From reading his plagarism examples, it is clear that much of the MSM perform exactly the same "Control C" and "Control V" strokes on their keyboards.

[6SJ7]

One might forgive McBrien at least plagiarized some classic text, but the Boston Globe?! Now that is low!

[jocon307]

Disregarding this man's views and focussing only on the examples give, I can agree only that the first one seems to be plaigerized. In the third example the only identical portion is the quote from Ms. McKinley that is not plaigerism.

[NYer]

Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[irish guard]

I se it the same way...that first example is a reach...the rest are evident. McBrien comes from an age segment of the Holy Cross fathers that are very liberal. Fr. "Monk" Malloy, who ran the University of Notre Dame for 18 years before being replaced by Fr. John Jenkins, took Notre Dame off into directions that embarrassed many alumni. Jenkins has taken a different approach to running the University.

As for McBrien's plagiarism, no one can or should condone it, but the media will, we have seen historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose exposed for plagiarism and history is rather easy on them. I think what happens (not making excuses here) is that these people read so much material and cut out snippets of information to use as background data for their own writings that they make poor judgements and forget to credit others for their work.

[jocon307]

"I think what happens (not making excuses here) is that these people read so much material and cut out snippets of information to use as background data for their own writings that they make poor judgements and forget to credit others for their work."

Yes, I agree. Esp. with a lot of these cases it is a few lines, maybe a paragraph, in a great long book. It's a little hard to believe that someone who can and does write a 500 page book "lifts" or "borrows" a few lines out of need, rather than error.

[undirish01]

I understand that Fr. McBrien is a Jesuit.

Is this incorrect?

[right-wingin_It]

...The liberal "new" Catholics love him but most others wonder why he has not been excommunicated long ago....

I guess it depends on your point of reference, but I would have said 'liberal "old" Catholics love him..'. I'm a "new" Catholic (age 30). There are more of us too:)

[irish guard]

I believe he is CSC...let me look. My son had him as a prof two years ago....

[irish guard]

I am wrong....he is a diocesan priest, neither Jesuit nor CSC.

[VOA]

bump

[School of Rational Thought]

Martin Luther King was a plagerizer and he has a holdiay.