Posted on 05/19/2007 2:57:54 PM PDT by presidio9
IN A RECENT STORY, the Washington Post recognized there is revitalization and renewal within the Catholic Church after years of scandal and turmoil. Amid this renewal, however, is a disturbing trend among some of the most influential Catholics in the media - I like to call them the "three blind mice." By name, they are FOX news channel's Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, and MSNBC's Chris Matthews. In each of their cases, Catholic teaching has taken a beating and factual reporting on Catholic matters is a joke. I first exposed these maverick Catholics in my new book, "Saving Those Damned Catholics."
Recently, Sean Hannity invited a priest, someone he should revere as a representative of Christ on earth, but condescendingly treated him as he does a left-winger.
Father Tom Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, criticized Mr. Hannity for his "cafeteria Catholicism," picking and choosing which doctrines he prefers as you pick broccoli over beets at the salad bar.
These men have no idea how much damage they are doing by denying Catholic truth, nor do many of the Catholic bishops. Catholic bishops have an obligation to set the record straight when dealing with public figures who persist in supporting moral evils while claiming to be Catholic.
Each of these "three blind mice" should be instructed by his bishop to either stop misrepresenting church teaching or stop calling themselves Catholic.
Their audiences will not realize there is error coming out of their mouths unless they understand basic Church teaching; which cannot be contradicted. In the absence of such clear teaching, which must emanate from the bishops and their priests, there exists a vacuum into which Hannity, Matthews and O'Reilly are spewing garbage. It's a sort of Catholic spin zone.
Hannity has no problem with contraception. He extols the virtues of pro-abortion Catholics such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rudy Giuliani.
Although, he claims he is against abortion. One has to wonder when and what circumstance is his partisan alliance more important than Catholic teaching?
Matthews makes no such duplicitous claim. He is soundly in the pro-abortion camp and never apologizes for being there. He derides his Catholic education and went so far to rant about what he thought was brainwashing when learning about the saints and martyrs of the Church as a kid!
And Mr. "O"? Well, there's a guy who constantly warns his viewers that he will do the bloviating. O'Reilly is "looking out for you," or so he says, while at the same time dealing in half truth and innuendo when it comes to matters Catholic. He insists that nobody really knows when human life begins, and has suggested that a fetus is a "potential" human being rather than a human being with potential.
Their power in the media should demand a higher level of accountability and responsibility. If there truly were a "no spin zone," one would expect that a public figure who claims to be Catholic would avoid spinning Catholic teaching, even for the sake of personal ego.
Just as surely as those mice who chased the farmer's wife lost part of their bodily structure, Catholic public figures who misrepresent basic moral principles by denying their immutability are very likely to lose something as well; but in their cases, it is not a simple body part at risk but rather their immortal souls. *
Editor's note: To contact Judie Brown or learn more about the American Life League visit their Web site at www.ALL.org.
Each Saturday the Daily News offers men and women of faith the opportunity to share their words of life and comfort with our readers.
I saw that show - the priest was a left winger. And priest are not Christ's representative when it comes to politics, which foods are better, what's the best city to live in or the best tie to wear with a blue suit. Nope. This sentence is a lie.
Would the writer accept a conservative priest as a political representative of Chirst on earth and "revere" his right-wing words? What a crock.
>>I saw that show - the priest was a left winger. And priest are not Christ’s representative when it comes to politics, which foods are better, what’s the best city to live in or the best tie to wear with a blue suit. Nope. This sentence is a lie.
Would the writer accept a conservative priest as a political representative of Chirst on earth and “revere” his right-wing words? What a crock.<<
I think you have the wrong interview.
This is the one. Better Sean have ignored the priest than to look ignorant.
Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTsWCic3Y1U
Well, I just lost all respect for Hannity.
It seems quite remarkable and significant to me that a person who is otherwise conservative nonetheless **argues**like** a leftist when arguing a leftist position.
I would have thought that if a conservative held the same position as the left on an issue, he would argue that position like a conservative...that is, honestly, rationally, and reasonably.
However, this never seems to be the case. Whether it is legalization of drugs, divorce, adultery, sodomy, contraception, or any of the other bellwether issues of the left, when a conservative defends one of these positions he adopts the modus operandi argumentum of the left.
Here we see Hannity talking over the priest, shouting him down, using the tired old “you don’t know anything about me” whine of the adolescent, and most telling, employing the false dichotomy (Contraception or abortion, which one is it, Fadda? Come one, which one?)
Isn’t it interesting that the mode of argumentation seems less dependent on the people involved than on the positions they are defending?
I agree.
The whole screaming about corruption is a tired argument too.
Where was “FR.” Eutenaur over the last 20 to 30 years of the Horrific Holocaust of the Catholic Church’s Priest sex abuse, I have never heard his name before.
I wrote and asked him a Question and never received an answer, instead he sent put me on his auto mail nonsense.
The “Hierarchy” of the Catholic Church should be the target of your Scorn.
If people are not kicked out by the Church, they consider themselves Catholic. Politicians pick and choose life, death penalty, war, poverty, etc for divisive political issues to gather votes. That is even more debasing to Catholics than a particular issue.
I don't know why the Church doesn't kick people out for whatever reason. Pundits, posters or politicians are in no better position to decide.
“The whole screaming about corruption is a tired argument too.”
It’s a classic leftist tactic: change the subject and attack.
The issue is Hannity’s endorsement of contraception, and sodomy among the priesthood bears on that in no way.
“Where was “FR.” Eutenaur over the last 20 to 30 years of the Horrific Holocaust of the Catholic Church’s Priest sex abuse.”
Dear Sir:
I recommend you check your facts. Most of the abuse occurred decades ago. It has been on the wane for some time now. Further, it is no more “horrific” a holocaust than the “holocaust” of sexual abuse by public school teachers and protestant ministers.
It only seems that Catholic Priests committed more sexual abuse than public school teachers and protestant ministers because the liarstream media deliberately created that impression.
Of course, no level of abuse is acceptable, but there is no more excuse for exaggeration than there is for whitewashing.
I enjoyed reading your post but why do we always blame Catholics students if they were taught badly in school? I went to Catholic School in the ‘50s & ‘60s and according to many members of the faith, I don’t have my facts right about a lot of it. But I only mouth what I was taught by bad-tempered nuns circa 1962! Let’s face it, it’s not an easy religion to understand!
The Bible refers to the unborn as people on multiple occasions, and we know what He has to say about murder.
I’m not sure what your point is in posting the “catechism” on capital punishment. Your original position seemed to be that pro-life Catholics who supported capital punishment were disregarding the Vatican. The Vatican’s actual stance, as you managed to Google, is that capital punishment is sometimes acceptable, but abortion never is. Is this something of a struggle for you?
Right, Augustus also ordered a census to be taken, which was quite a pain in the ass for Joseph and Mary. From now on, there is to be no more counting people.
There is a lot of validity to what Fr. Eutenaur says. The Catholic Church has been the target of a determined defamation effort by the left, for being the most pro-life, pro-family, pro-private schools, pro-private charity, and anti-gay organization on the planet. If you are a Catholic, and there isn't anything you like about your clergy, I suggest you switch parishes. You may be suprised.
The Vatican's actual stance is that capital punishment is acceptable if it's necessary to protect the innocent; but in a modern society where imprisonment is an option, such cases "are very rare, if not practically non-existent." Many catholic politicians hold a position that is not consistent with that.
Is this something of a struggle for you?
No struggle. I'm not Catholic, nor a politician. Whether the Church withholds communion from politicians is just a matter of idle curiosity for me.
Let me make this very simple for you: In the end, the Church recognizes that criminal punishment is usually a judgement call, and does not get itself involved. Which is why it abhors individual executions, but it does not actively lobby Catholic lawmakers to help ban the practice.
On the other hand, the Catholic Church's stance on abortion is very black and white. According to the Catholic Church, abortion is always murder. Politicians who vote pro-choice are facilitating murder, and thus have willfully taken themselves out of Communion with Christ.
And, in any case there are a few dozen executions performed in this country a year, versus two million abortions.
In other words, you'd have to be pretty stupid or just trolling to waste people's time to suggest that the two were in any way comparable.
“I suggest you switch parishes.”
Some diocese have no acceptible parishes. Rot starts at the top.
But this is the first I've heard about Bill O’Reilly and the beginning of life. He just did an expose on Planned Parenthood this week. He’s exposed Tiller the Killer several times.
I agree with you if you think that the airwaves are better for having him on, and I consider myself a fan. However, in the theology department he is pretty lacking. On the air, I once heard him say that salvation is based on just living a good enough life, and then you're in. Right then, he admitted to being a full Pelagian. From what I have learned about Catholicism on FR, that is a formal heresy.
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