Over the course of the last week, all manner of media has placed a single Catholic high school under the microscope because a con artist named Nathan Phillips falsely accused students of Covington Catholic of threatening, mocking, and disrespecting him and his Indian heritage while chanting “Build that wall.” Hours of video evidence has proved every single accusation leveled by Phillips to be completely false.
Because of this charlatan, media outlets, celebrities, bishops, priests, and laity were very quick to rush to judge and condemn the boys based upon his testimony. To their credit, many have retracted their condemnations and made apologies, and more has been said about the problems with the snap judgments than could ever be read by a single person in an entire lifetime.
But one bishop is trying to change the narrative and double down on anathematizing the children at the heart of the controversy. Bishop John Stowe, the local ordinary of Lexington, Kentucky, wrote an Op-Ed for the Lexington Herald Leader blasting the students.
Bishop Stowe, despite the plethora of evidence to the contrary, wrote on January 23:
“I am ashamed that the actions of Kentucky Catholic high school students have become a contradiction of the very reverence for human life that the march is supposed to manifest.”
Given the recent 48 hour period that began yesterday for those who have publicly slandered these boys to rescind their slander and issue public apologies, Bp. Stowe’s chances of not being sued are rapidly dwindling. Attorney Robert Barnes, who is representing the students of Covington Catholic high school students, announced on FOX Wednesday morning:
“Everybody now is on 48-hour notice so by Friday, everybody needs to retract and correct any false statements they have issued about these kids. That includes any major member of the media. That includes any major celebrity. That includes anybody with a substantial social media platform.”
But in the middle of Bp. Stowe’s public excoriation of the Covington students is an amazingly ironic attack on their wearing of President’ Trump’s “Make America great Again” hats. Bp. Stowe said:
“We cannot uncritically ally ourselves with someone with whom we share the policy goal of ending abortion.”
Regardless of what anyone thinks of President Trump, the unmitigated gall and hypocrisy of Bp. Stowe to rail against students who support their president for his pro-life policies and goals is amplified by his own allegiance to agencies devoted to the destruction of the Catholic faith.
Bishop John Stowe is a member of the heretical organization called the Association of United States Catholic Priests (AUSCP). In July of 2016, Bp. Stowe concelebrated Mass with Cardinal Blasé Cupich for the AUSCP’s 5th Annual Assembly.
On the “Immigration” page of the AUSCP’s website, Bp. Stowe is identified as one of its members.
Basic membership in the AUSCP is $50, and supporting membership is $150.
We don’t know what level of membership Bp. Stowe has with the AUSCP, but the point is that he has so aligned himself with this organization that he is clearly providing them with funding … funding provided by members of his flock.
The problems with the AUSCP are legion. As we’ve reported before in great detail (even from on location at the AUSCP’s 2018 annual assembly), the AUSCP:
- Strongly advocates and allies itself with open sodomy
- Anticipates women’s priestly ordination through women’s ordination to the diaconate
- Is highly involved in the spread of heresy through disobedience
- Promotes heretical priests and a false notion of “priestly formation”
For Bp. Stowe to so strongly condemn the boys of Covington Catholic high school for the mere act of wearing hats bearing the president’s campaign slogan is nothing short of the epitome of hypocrisy. Bp. Stowe isn’t just wearing the hat or slogan of an heretical and dissident organization, he’s an active member!
But his hypocrisy doesn’t end with the AUSCP.
In 2017, Bp. Stowe participated in, spoke at, and led in prayer the eighth annual symposium of the New Ways Ministry, an organization condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
So, while condemning boys for wearing hats and charging them with “uncritically allying themselves” with President Trump for his work to fight abortion, Bp. Stowe has “uncritically” allied himself with at least two organizations that are waging a war against the moral and theological principles of the Catholic Church.
Click here to send an email to Bp. Stowe to respectfully ask him to retract his condemnation of the Covington boys and to examine his own alliances with the enemies of Christ.
