Posted on 03/12/2007 8:14:39 PM PDT by Pyro7480
Hannity the Liberal
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth.” (2 Tim 4:3-4)
Many Spirit and Life readers may know that after last Friday’s column (“Sean Hannity’s Gospel”) I was invited to defend my position on the Hannity and Colmes show that very night. It’s nice to know that my emails are being read in the hallowed halls of Fox News! I suspected, however, that Hannity wanted to defend his “devout Catholic” credentials, and I was not disabused of this notion when I went on the show. What the show did, above all, was to show not that the Church was wrong or incoherent, but that Hannity, like so many other cultural Catholics, is really a liberal when it comes to certain aspects of sexual morality.
The first point I have to straighten out is for those who were concerned that this was not handled first in private. Well, in fact, I did attempt to handle this matter in private with Mr. Hannity in 2004, but I never received a response to my letter asking him for a meeting. [See side bar item, “Fr. Euteneuer asks to meet with Hannity about birth control.”] As far as I am concerned, I did my due diligence before I went public with my complaint about his hypocrisy; but even if I had not, it was Mr. Hannity’s schedulers who called me to make an issue of it, not I who demanded to appear on his show! In this age of culpable clerical silence on many serious issues affecting people’s souls, do we now want a priest to keep silent about something so important? We can’t have it both ways.
Second, concerning the actual debate, what some are calling Sean’s “disrespect” for me as a member of the clergy was not of concern to me. In that sense, Sean is typical of his generation that has been taught that nobody has any special consecration (even if they technically do) and that everyone has to prove his mettle in the realm of public debate. No problem. I am a holder of this office, and I did not feel that his callous disregard for the priesthood did anything to diminish the sanctity of it, but I can see how it was an extra element of scandal for those who value the priestly office highly. Nor did I really care that he cut me off time and time again in the debate; he’s a known quantity—did you expect anything else from Hannity?
Just for the record, Sean Hannity really is a dissenting Catholic and a public scandal to the Faith. He should be rebuked by his pastor or bishop, not by me, but since that has not been forthcoming in his decade or so of public dissent on radio and TV, somebody in authority had to say something. Hannity, as we know, is shameless on birth control, and judging from the interview, he hasn’t even the vocabulary to rationally defend his position in the face of his Church’s clear teaching. Hannity is also clearly pro-choice on abortion in cases of rape, incest and life of the mother, and he is really cozy with the likes of Rudy Giuliani whose love for abortion and everything gay is hardly a secret. It has even been revealed that Hannity’s website, Hannity.com has a gay dating service that Sean knows about and apparently “has no problem with;” no different from his attitude in regard to birth control. So much for the “devout Catholic” Hannity. If that is devout, then Hugh Heffner is reverent.
The interview on Friday night was enlightening in many senses but mostly because it showed Hannity’s true liberal side. The “Judge not lest ye be judged” comment I have heard only and exclusively in debates with liberals and others with guilty consciences. It is the whine of the person who is doing something that he knows in his heart is wrong but can’t stand anyone pointing out. Hannity’s “judge not” rant can be summarized in one phrase which, if it were put this way, would have been much more identifiable as liberal claptrap: “How dare you question my choice!” Face it: Hannity is a liberal when it comes to sex. In his position next to Colmes, Hannity wears the conservative mantle, but when he comes face to face with the truth of his Church, which I as a priest am obliged to uphold faithfully, he is no more than a liberal relativist.
And in that matter, how different is his position on birth control from that of Planned Parenthood? They have “no problem” with birth control either. In fact it’s much more than a personal matter for them. It fuels their business. Yes, about 60% of women going into abortion clinics are doing it because of failed birth control and no amount of feigned pragmatism about stopping abortions with birth control is going to change the fact that birth control teaches people to be selfish and leads them down the garden path to the killing centers of this nation—or any nation for that matter. And by the way, for those who wanted me to object to both abortion and birth control as a solution to any problem, please go back and listen carefully to the clip—I did object to both! The Catholic Church’s teaching on sexual morality is the only coherent dissenting viewpoint from PP’s gospel of free sex and baby killing, and sadly, Hannity, the “devout Catholic,” just aids and abets those criminals.
Most surprising of all, however, was Hannity’s use of what I call the “argument from pedophilia;” namely, the tendency to fall back on the Church sex abuse scandal when you’re losing an argument with a priest and have to grab for something. I have had people do this to me in front of abortion clinics, at Da Vinci Code protests and in private conversations about Catholicism for the past several years. Let’s just say I didn’t expect it from Hannity! Was it me or did Sean just disconnect from reality at that moment? Where in the world did that come from? Well, it’s because Hannity’s really a closet liberal when pushed to the wall. True colors come out in the wash, and the birth control issue just has a greater tendency to touch the sensitive areas of people’s philosophies of life.
Hannity’s worldview is full of holes. He may have gone to seminary but, if that is the case, his seminary background and knowledge of Latin (!) gives him a greater responsibility to get it right when he wants to spout off about Church teaching in the public forum.
For your reading interest you can click on the side bar items to see some of the incredible feedback that we got on both sides of the debate. Of particular interest is the recent statement of Cardinal Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, who has said that “dissident Catholics are more worrying than atheists.” Whew—words of warning for Hannity and O’Reilly and company. In the end, we all have to undergo our own “Judgment Day,” and it is the Church’s job to let people know ahead of time that God is not a moral relativist on the issue of birth control.
Clerical Contraception (Important Read! By Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer)
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| Couple say Natural Family Planning strengthens marriage |
Very interesting. It sort of puts Hannity's support for Rudyette in a whole new light. Ah well. I wonder how long it's going to take these talking heads to realize that what the audience giveth, the audience taketh away?
Nobody is forcing Sean Hannity to join the Catholic Church, but when a public figure claims to be a member and then publicly misrepresents or opposes the Church's teachings, it is appropriate for a representative of the Church to reply.
Why do you find that threatening?
just read it via email
Thanks, Campion and Jeff, for saying it for me and saying it so well. I couldn't improve on it.
Glad you guys are there.
"...and who you are".
Is this an ad hominem?
Pro-Life bump
If Sean Hannity does not want to accept the Church's teachings, he ought not to call himself Catholic.
This is what Father Euteneuer SHOULD have said on Friday but couldn't 'cos of Sean's shouting down.
I just read Fr Jonathan Morris' (FoxNews Catholic analyst) open letter to Hannity and was surprised by his chastising of Fr Euteneuer's approach, saying he was "shockingly" disappointed with the way Fr Euteneuer handled the situation. I always thought highly of Fr Morris but I can't take him as seriously anymore after reading his hit-piece on Fr Euteneuer.
The freedom with which you label us "cultists" puts you squarely in the company of Janet Reno and other enemies of religious and personal liberty. In fact your post reads like an outtake from the Jane Reno playbook.
The real question is that now that you have revealed yourself to be the enemy of every Catholic can we as citizens regard you as anything but an enemy of the Bill of Rights and a sleeper cell of that most perfidious enemy who would deny the public square to people of religious faith?
sarasmom says:+But if Sean Hannity's patriotism and conservatism are under question by the Catholic Church, then perhaps I should reevaluate my thoughts on the position of Catholicism in our society.
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The priest did not "cause scandal" -- Hannity had already done that by presenting himself as "Mr. Catholic" and holding positions that are antithetical to being Catholic. Sean Hannity is the same as that woman who runs "Catholics for Free Choice" when it comes to being a Catholic.
I'm not a fan of Hannity. Good for Father Euteneuer. It's about time the Church spoke out.
Whoa! That's a hard-hitting comment, but appropriate to the one that provoked it. When attempting to hold a self-proclaimed Catholic to the standards of Catholicism is considered a threat to "peaceful coexistence," then we have a problem.
Just watched the video and lost the last bit of respect I had for Hannity. He used every liberal dodge and table turn in the liberal playbook.
Hey Sean, your wrong. Pick up a catechism and read it.
You owe the priest and your faith an apology, it's lent, good time to repent.
I can't believe you called yourself a 'devout catholic' after that attack on the priest. Obviously he hit a nerve, a nerve of truth because you changed the subject.
The only way I will watch you again, or listen to your radio show is if you are man enough to apologize. I hope you do.
Sean is a good man, but flawed and misguided in this case. I hope that his priest is able to counsel him on this.
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