Notre Dame "Honors" Fr. Hesburgh on Facebook

Check out the photo that Notre Dame chose to highlight on its Facebook page to "honor" former Notre Dame president Fr. Theodore Hesburgh on his birthday:

Highlighting perhaps the most prominent pro-abortion politician on Capitol Hill. Could you imagine Notre Dame posting a picture of Fr. Hesburgh with a segregationist? For that matter, could you imagine Fr. Hesburgh appearing at an event - even one in his own honor - if a prominent segregationist were in attendance?

The thing is that Notre Dame had plenty of other photos to choose from (see here), and decided to use this one.

Shameful.

Sixth Anniversary of "Anderson's Law"

"As a debate involving the Catholic Church (either a discussion about the Church specifically, or a discussion in which the Church is taking a position) grows longer, the probability of someone mentioning the sex scandal approaches one." 

~ Anderson's Law

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:   
See Anderson's Law

Fr. Flakey in the News Again: Wants to "Snuff Out" K-Mart for Selling Easter Baskets with Nerf Guns

Ed Morrissey reports on Fr. Pfleger's latest left-wing, headline-seeking nonsense:

Remember Michael Pfleger, the radical priest in Chicago last heard from in the 2008 campaign, defending his friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright? The one who hung out with Barack Obama for decades, thinks that “America is the greatest sin against God,” and who wound up getting suspended by the Chicago diocese after making himself into a national spectacle? Well, Father Pfleger is back, baby, and he has a new eeeeeevil in his sights — guns. Or perhaps more accurately … gateway guns?

There was a time when kids wanting toy guns had limited media images of cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers to emulate. Today, not so.

So the Rev. Michael Pfleger said he is challenging the sale of the toys — in Easter baskets — to a generation plagued by more violent and rampant use of guns in their own neighborhoods.

“I am writing to express my concern and outrage that Kmart is selling Easter baskets, which are obviously for children, with toy guns in them,” Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church in Auburn-Gresham, wrote to officials at the big box retailer, in a Mar. 9 letter obtained by the Sun-Times.

“With the increasing gun violence in Chicago and across this country, I am amazed that you would choose to offer toy guns to our children to make them comfortable with playing with them. I am asking you to remove any baskets with toy guns in them from your store’s shelves immediately,” Pfleger wrote.

[...]

Pfleger then argues that Nerf is nothing more than a gateway to the harder stuff:

But equally important is that any psychiatrist will tell you a child who gets comfortable playing with toy guns and pointing them at people as a child becomes comfortable picking them up as an adult. In a nation that’s plagued with gun violence, neither Kmart nor any other store should be selling guns in Easter baskets to our kids.

[More]

My Comments:
Actually, Ed is mistaken in believing that guns are a "new evil" for Fr. Flakey (although targeting nerf guns seem to be a new twist in his opposition). In fact, it was a controversy over gun shops that first brought this pernicious priest to my attention:

On Saturday, as part of an Operation PUSH protest at Chuck's Gun Shop & Range, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina's Church, urged the crowd to "drag" shop owner John Riggio from his shop "like a rat" and "snuff" him, the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) said.

[...]

"I want the NRA [National Rifle Association] to understand - you have a lot of money, but money can't buy moral authority and it can't buy justice or freedom, and we will fight you, NRA," he says.

"We will fight you on every angle [sic], no matter how much money you've got, we will embarrass you, and we will embarrass every legislator that takes money from you. We will call them out by name, by district. We will expose you, legislators."

Pfleger then turns his attention to Riggio. "He's the owner of Chuck's. John Riggio. R-i-g-g-i-o. We're going to find you and snuff you out … you know you're going to hide like a rat. You're going to hide but like a rat we're going to catch you and pull you out. We are not going to allow you to continue to hide when we're here …"

[...]

The day before the anti-gun protest, the church hosted former Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who was making a rare public appearance. Pfleger was quoted as describing the controversial Muslim activist as "a gift from God to a sick, sick world."

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Catholic Priest Calls for "Snuffing" of Gun Shop Owner and Politicos Who Support 2nd Amendment [UPDATED]

Obama-Supporting Catholic Priest Thinks White People Should Give Up 401(k) Accounts to Make Amends for Slavery [UPDATED]

Cardinal George Removes Fr. Pfleger

He's Baaaaack!

Humor: Fr. Pfleger on Gov. Palin

As the Debate Over the HHS Mandate Heats Up ...

... just a reminder:

"As a debate involving the Catholic Church (either a discussion about the Church specifically, or a discussion in which the Church is taking a position) grows longer, the probability of someone mentioning the sex scandal approaches one."
~ Anderson's Law

As longtime reader and commenter Terry points out in the comments at another post, these days it generally only takes one or two comments for it to happen.

Is Fr. Jenkins a Liar?

Pat Archbold thinks so, and it's difficult to argue with his conclusion when one goes over to National Catholic Register to read William McGurn's piece on the latest shenanigans at Our Lady's University:

During the firestorm that followed the University of Notre Dame’s decision to honor President Barack Obama two commencements ago, the university’s president, Father John Jenkins, wrote a letter to the Class of 2009 explaining his position. He stated his sadness that the honors bestowed on Obama had been taken as “ambiguity in our position on matters of Catholic teaching.” Notre Dame, he asserted, “was unequivocally committed to the sanctity of human life and to its protection from conception to natural death.”

Remember those words: “unequivocally committed” with no “ambiguity in our position.” How are these words reconciled with the university’s announcement that Roxanne Martino has been elected to the board of trustees? For it turns out that Martino, an accomplished businesswoman and ND alumna, has given more than $25,000 over the years to Emily’s List.

Emily’s List is not just any group. The New York Times recently called it a “fundraising powerhouse.” Arguably, it is one of America’s best known and most prominent political organizations in the country. And it is dedicated to abortion rights.

What was Notre Dame’s response? The chairman of the university’s board of trustees, Richard Notebaert, sent out an email to fellow trustees, saying that Martino is “fully supportive of Church teaching on the sanctity of human life.”

Notebaert went on to say that Martino “has through the years contributed to organizations that provide a wide range of important services and support to women. She did not realize, however, that several of these organizations also take a pro-choice position.”

He’s not the only one putting that line out there. Now Father Jenkins has chimed in, sending some concerned alumni an email from “the Office of the President” that is almost word for word the same as Notebaert’s. One forwarded to me reads as follows:

“Ms. Martino (along with her husband, Rocco) is a Notre Dame graduate, and she is fully supportive of Church teaching on the sanctity of life.”

“She has through the years contributed to organizations that provide a wide range of important services and support to women. She did not realize, however, that several of these organizations also take a pro-choice position. This is not her personal position, and she will now review all of her contributions to ensure that she does not again inadvertently support these kinds of activities in the future.”

Father Jenkins has two big problems here. The first is his declaration that Martino was unaware that the organizations she donated thousands of dollars to “also” take a pro-choice view, in addition to providing a wide range of “important services and support to women.” When asked to provide backup for that statement — e.g., an example of a service that Emily’s List provides in addition to its agitation for abortion— Notre Dame’s communications office forwarded me an answer from Notebaert. In it, he reasserted that Martino supports Church policy, that she was “unaware of the specific objective of Emily’s List,” and that his and Father Jenkins’ statements about other “important services” for women applied to a group, and did not apply to Emily’s List. That admission, of course, suggests that his and Father Jenkins’ earlier notes were highly misleading — and deserving of a similar clarification.

For as Notebaert’s message confirms, Emily’s List exists for one reason and one reason only. Click the home page of its website, and it asks you in big capital letters — some in red — to “HELP US ELECT PRO-CHOICE DEMOCRATIC WOMEN.”

[Read the whole thing]

"Cristiada" Movie Trailer

(Hat tip: Creative Minority Report)

For more on this movie, go to the official website.

¡Viva Cristo Rey y la Virgen de Guadalupe!

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Vivan Los Cristeros!

Me Gusta Mucho!

Episcopal Smackdown

This is a thing of beauty.

God bless Bishop Morlino and the holy priests for whom he went to bat.

(Hat tip. Fr. Finigan)

Democrats Attack Church in Disgusting Ad

Matthew Archbold reports at National Catholic Register that the Democrat Party isn't even trying to hide its disdain for the Church anymore:


Matt's piece is mistaken about one thing: the Democrat Farm-Labor Party is not some "Democrat Party supporting independent non profit group"; the DFL is THE official Democrat Party in the state of Minnesota. This is the Democrat Party in Minnesota blatantly attacking the Church.

This is what you tacitly support when you vote for Democrats. That doesn't mean you should vote for Republicans (who aren't exactly paragons of Catholic virtue either), but when you vote for the Democrats, you're voting for an ideology inherently hostile to the Catholic faith.

And this is just the first step, believe me. As our old friend Regular Guy Paul has noted, "Liberalism Leads To Religious Persecution".


(Hat tip: Creative Minority Report)


UPDATE
I'm hearing that what appears on the other side of this mailer is aimed at a Protestant clergyman. Once I have confirmation of that, I will update this post with the information.


UPDATE #2
Here is Matt Archbold's response to the suggestion that this ad specifically targets a particular Protestant clergyman:

Nobody doubts that the piece hits Tim Pawlenty and Dan hall on the other side but there can’t be any doubt that it uses the image of a Catholic priest to deliver its messsage. The other side is about healthcare for the poor and who the Democrats blame for holding up Obamacare? The bishops. It’s that simple.

On the other hand, Commonweal provides the reverse side of the mailer in an effort to bolster the argument that it is not aimed at the Catholic Church.

But I'm not buying the argument. "Preacher Hall" doesn't wear a Roman collar. "Preacher Hall" is shown on the reverse side in a coat and tie. So why the Roman collar on the front? I agree with Matt that it is to represent a Catholic priest.

Matt is correct that the reverse side of the flyer is an attack on those who opposed ObamaCare, like Governor Tim Pawlenty. "Preacher Hall" is attacked in the ad for "remain[ing] silent" over alleged health care cuts and for endorsing someone else who "stands with Pawlenty in rejecting over $1 billion" in ObamaCare funds.

C'mon! This ad isn't about "Preacher Hall". This ad is about ObamaCare and the people of faith who don't support it. People like the USCCB. How stupid do you think we are? "Preacher Hall" is merely a stand in for all the people who oppose ObamaCare because of its abortion funding. Again, people like the USCCB.

Since "Preacher Hall" doesn't wear a Roman collar, and since the ad is a targeted attack on people of faith who oppose ObamaCare - "Don't pass this off on God" - I think it is quite appropriate to conclude that the image on the front of the mailer represents a Catholic priest and to see this ad as an attack on the Church for its opposition to ObamaCare.


UPDATE #3 (27 October)
Kathryn Lopez offers her take at The Corner:

... I think it’s safe to say it’s unholy politics. That’s a bipartisan problem for sure. But there is reason for bipartisan, ecumenical offense here. It’s an insult to suggest there isn’t some convenient anti-Catholicism here. But more so, it’s an insult to intelligent debate. Tim Pawlenty doesn’t “Ignore the Poor,” and I don’t know many men of the cloth who do either.

The Democratic party in Minnesota disagrees with cuts the governor made and this candidate won’t throw under the bus (to use the most overused phrase in politics). Democrats can easily make that point without the use and abuse of clerics.

UPDATE #4 (27 October)
Ed Morrissey, who lives in Minnesota, has more on the story:

If the Minnesota DFL intended to make a splash in an otherwise-obscure state Senate race, well, they succeeded. The party, which is the Minnesota version of the Democratic Party, sent out a mailer attacking Republican challenger and Christian minister Dan Hall by accusing him of ignoring the poor for opposing ObamaCare. However, the front of the postcard shows a headless man wearing the traditional shirt and collar worn by Roman Catholic priests, with a button that proclaims “Ignore the Poor” — which has a large number of Catholics in Minnesota angry over a perceived attack on their church. KSTP reported on the mailer and the DFL silence last night...

[...]

The flip side of the mailer is a classic case of a cheap-shot, last-minute attack campaign that both parties indulge in the final stretch of an election, but the front picture goes way beyond anything in recent memory in attacking a church of any kind in a political campaign. The full context in which this was issued makes it difficult to believe the archdiocese’s expressed hope that this was just a poor decision. A few weeks ago, the Catholic bishop issued DVDs with the Catholic Church’s arguments on same-sex marriage, which the DFL and its supporters decried as interference in the election. This looks suspiciously like payback...

[More]

Anderson's Law Meets the Ultimate Political Low

Missouri Democrat Russ Carnahan sponsors a website that tries to tie the priest scandal to his Catholic opponent:

... Today Russ Carnahan admitted to hiring Democratic operative investigator Michael Corwin to smear Republican Ed Martin.

Corwin put together a disgusting website that tried to link Republican Ed Martin to the Catholic Church priest scandal.

Sick.

Here is the press release from the Ed Martin campaign:

Corwin’s approach in service to Russ Carnahan is to imply that I was somehow involved with the criminal conduct of priests within the St. Louis Archdiocese. The proof? I worked there. Many people have served faithfully and to the best of their ability in churches all over St. Louis. Is it now the new standard that Catholics who serve their church are open to being slandered like this?

To speak directly to the implied accusation: I worked for the Catholic Church doing education and advocacy about charity and service to our community. I had zero involvement or authority on the adjudication or disposition of those accused of crimes or wrongdoing. The only scandal I was responding to was that the Human Rights Office was supporting goals and making contributions to organizations that reflected poorly on the Church and her mission.

The abuse scandals that has been rocking the church for years is a still-open wound. There is still much work to be done to heal and make whole those who were betrayed by the men and women of the Church. Much work is being done by men and women in the church who tirelessly pour their hearts into these victims. Dragging this scandal into the political world is a heartbreaking tactic. This is not being done to pursue justice, healing or reckoning. It is a vulgar attempt to maintain power by an unpopular politician.

Later today Russ Carnahan admitted to hiring Corwyn for the job.

[Read the whole thing]

(emphasis is Gateway Pundit's)


Hat tip: Creative Minority Report.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Bishop Takes a Stand and ... Well, You Know the Routine

If You Want to Experience Bishop Hatred from the Right That Rivals Anything You Might See on the Left ...

Newsweek Bigot: "When Bishops Play Politics"

Noted Loser Bob Shrum Crawls Out from Under Rock, Invokes Anderson's Law

President Goes to War Against Marriage and the Catholic Church: How Will the Bishops Respond?

A Personal Message from Bishop Blair

Vaguely Familiar

TIME: "Is Liberal Catholicism Dead?" [UPDATED]

"Godwin's Law" for Sex Scandal Revisited

A Version of Godwin's Law for the Sex Scandals

Catholic Priest Urges European Christians to Fight Off Islam by Having Babies

"A prominent Catholic priest wants European Christians to fight off Islam with a unique weapon: babies."

A New Play About the Founder of the Knights of Columbus

From the blog of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph:

The Knights of Columbus recently asked Father Peter John Cameron O.P., to direct a play about their founder, Father Michael J. McGivney. The Catholic Transcript interviews Father Cameron about his own vocation.

"Author, editor, journalist, playwright, theatrical artistic director, professor of homiletics, preacher, retreat master - the list of Father Cameron's titles, interests and vocational activities is extensive. The common thread is his vocation. "My priesthood and my evangelizing ... my preaching is first," he said in an interview with The Catholic Transcript. "I'm a priest so that others can meet Jesus Christ," he said. "I met him and I realized that life doesn't make sense without him. Every need and longing of our heart has an answer, and he's the answer. When Christ gazes at you, your life changes. His gaze is on everyone, just waiting for our answer.""

Read the full article here.

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Father Michael J. McGivney: A Saint for America

Decree on Heroic Virtues of Fr. Michael McGivney, Founder of Knights of Columbus

What if Roman Polanski Were a Catholic Priest?

Al Kresta notes an interesting bit of hypocrisy in the left's (and that includes the media) attitudes toward two events involving sexual misconduct with children - the priest sex-abuse scandal and Roman Polanski's drugging and then forcibly sodomizing a 13-year-old girl:

Here’s a maxim for Left-wing luvvies: let’s treat the Pope like a rapist, and treat a rapist like the Pope.

[...]

But in the eyes of Lefty luvvies from Hollywood to Hampstead, the only real difference between the Pope and Polanski is that the latter is an artist. That, you see, erases a multitude of sins – yes, even the rape of a 13-year-old girl. The same people who are viciously denouncing Benedict even though he has not been convicted of any crime defend Polanski despite his conviction because he’s “one of us”. In their eyes, directing The Pianist and Rosemary’s Baby has somehow cleansed the stain of shame from this repulsive little man.

Here is the bad news: the luvvies have won. Their man has been let off – to cries of relief from the arty set, the Swiss authorities have refused the America its request for extradition. The Pope, meanwhile, continues to be publicly reviled by bohemians who think he should be arrested for crimes he neither committed nor concealed. And they dare attack the Church for hypocrisy!

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Movie Producer Weinstein: "Hollywood Has the Best Moral Compass"

"Age and ability in the arts or anything else, in my opinion, does not excuse a crime"

Reminder: Roman Polanski Raped a Child [UPDATED]

New Prior Provincial for the Dominican Province of Saint Joseph

The Very Rev. Brian Martin Mulcahy, O.P. - a fellow alumnus of the University of Virginia, a friend, and the priest who brought Sarah and me into the Catholic Church exactly 6 years ago today - is the new Prior Provincial of the Dominican Province of Saint Joseph.

A big Pro Ecclesia congratulations to Father Mulcahy. My best wishes and prayers for God's blessings on his new endeavors.

Exactly 6 years ago today - 13 June 2004,
Father Brian Mulcahy, O.P., conferred the sacraments of
Baptism, Confirmation, and First Holy Communion to Sarah,
and the sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Communion to me,
at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Charlottesville, VA.

Bishop Takes a Stand and ... Well, You Know the Routine

"As a debate involving the Catholic Church (either a discussion about the Church specifically, or a discussion in which the Church is taking a position) grows longer, the probability of someone mentioning the sex scandal approaches one."
~ Anderson's Law

Readers of this blog know that I have an oft-discussed rhetorical pet peave regarding invocations of the priest sex-abuse scandal in an ad hominem effort to shut down debate and call into question the moral authority of the Church whenever the Church or one of her Bishops takes a stand on an issue.

Matthew Archbold provides a recent example of the phenomenon in this post about a priest going on NPR to attack Bishop Thomas Olmsted after the Bishop confirmed that Sister Margaret McBride of Phoenix's Saint Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center had automatically excommunicated herself, latae sententiae, after approving an abortion:

The Church's sexual abuse scandal is the "blame Bush" of Catholicism. Anything that goes wrong anywhere that has even the remotest connection to Catholicism can be explained by or blamed on the sex abuse scandal.

It's reflexive now. Liberal Catholics can't say anything about the Church without bringing up the sex abuse scandal. Whether it's a conversation about altar rails, mass times, abortion, vestments, or gay marriage liberal Catholics will instinctively raise the specter of the abuse scandal as if the very existence of sin in the Church is evidence that they're right.

A priest who's made quite a name for himself by attacking the Church every chance he gets is now attacking the Church for the excommunication of Sister Margaret McBride who approved of an abortion being performed on a woman whose life was in danger. The media is, of course, making this the most famous excommunication since Theodosius'. The Rev. Thomas Doyle is joining in the bashfest on National Public Radio by calling out Bishop Thomas Olmsted.

He said Sister McBride shouldn't be excommunicated because of...(wait for it) the sex abuse scandal...

[More]

Of course, we know that it's not just leftists opposed to the Church's teachings that engage in this line of attack. Bring up the Bishops' views on immigration reform, and you're just as likely to see Catholics on the right dragging up the scandal in an effort to diminish the teaching voice of the Bishops.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
If You Want to Experience Bishop Hatred from the Right That Rivals Anything You Might See on the Left ...

Newsweek Bigot: "When Bishops Play Politics"

Noted Loser Bob Shrum Crawls Out from Under Rock, Invokes Anderson's Law

President Goes to War Against Marriage and the Catholic Church: How Will the Bishops Respond?

A Personal Message from Bishop Blair

Vaguely Familiar

TIME: "Is Liberal Catholicism Dead?" [UPDATED]

"Godwin's Law" for Sex Scandal Revisited

A Version of Godwin's Law for the Sex Scandals

For Washed-Up Celebrities, "Anti-Catholicism is the New Vegas"

Matthew Archbold writes at National Catholic Register:

In the life of nearly every celebrity there’s a moment after the white hot fame cools and the spotlights are averted when a decision needs to be made. Does the celebrity begin a new life in obscurity or do they break out the white spangled jumpsuits and take the first flight out to Las Vegas to milk the last of their fame for every last embarassing moment of notoriety?

But recent years have shown that while Vegas still remains a tantalizing option, many former celebrities are establishing nice second careers as Catholic bashers. The prerequisites are minimal. You don’t actually need to know anything about the faith. Just dust off some old Pope insults, scream about priestly celibacy and homosexual rights and you’ll be a star again in no time.

[More]

(Hat tip: Creative Minority Report)

Sycamore Trust Reports More Troubling News from Our Lady's University [UPDATED]

Sycamore Trust - a group of Notre Dame alumni working to preserve the university's Catholic identity - reports that America's flagship Catholic university is working overtime to undermine those efforts:

SOUTH BEND, IN - Notre Dame absolves pro-gay and anti-military trespassers but supports prosecution of pro-life demonstrators; Father Hesburgh accedes to Speaker Pelosi’s request to call key Congressman about health care bill.

We have learned that a few years ago the University dropped trespass charges against pro-gay and anti-military demonstrators. This contrasts sharply with the University’s ongoing support of the trespass prosecutions of the pro-life Commencement Day demonstrators (“the ND88”).

[...]

The name of Father Hesburgh suddenly surfaced in the accounts of Speaker Pelosi’s successful management of the health care bill. A McClatchy report, which mirrored other accounts and spread rapidly, led off with this:

In the tense hours Sunday leading up to the House vote on a historic health care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took time to call the former president of Notre Dame, the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh....What she wanted was Hesburgh to help lock up the vote of Rep. Joe Donnelly, a Democrat from South Bend, Ind., who was wavering over the abortion issue. Donnelly ultimately pressed the yes button late Sunday night.

Representative Donnelly’s press secretary then confirmed that Father Hesburgh had in fact made the call. She added that he “did not tell Donnelly how to vote” – as if anyone would think otherwise – but rather advised, “Vote your conscience.”

Father Hesburgh made the call at Pelosi’s request. Clearly, the call was made within the context of the strong opposition of the nation’s bishops to the bill. The call has been characterized in the media as designed “to convince [Donnelly]t o vote for the final bill at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s request.”

[Read the whole thing]

(Hat tip: PewSitter.com)


UPDATED (22 June)
I received a very nice note in the comments from Mr. Bill Dempsey, President of Sycamore Trust:

We appreciate your reproducing our bulletin because we believe that information touching upon the Catholic character of Notre Dame should be of general concern. And while we would not use terms like "perfidy," we have no standing to object to your characterization of the facts we report. However, your statement that "Sycamore Trust . . . reports that [Notre Dame] is working overtime to earn the moniker 'Notre Shame'" might be read to mean that we used the phrase "Notre Shame." I realize you did not mean to imply that we did, but I want to make perfectly clear to readers that we did not and would not. While there is much to criticize about Notre Dame, there is also much to praise. Our hope is that accurate and respectful criticism will assist in arresting and then reversing the secularization that has been for decades eroding Notre Dame's Catholic identity. Again, we thank you for your coverage of matters important to Catholics and to the Church.

Bill Dempsey, President, Sycamore Trust

In light of his comments, I have updated this post to change the terms that might be deemed objectionable.

The Secular Inquisition

This piece somehow escaped my notice when it came out a week ago. Writing at Spiked, Brendan O'Neill rips the Dawkins-Hitchens cabal a new one:

The New Atheist campaign to have Pope Benedict XVI arrested when he visits Britain later this year exposes the deeply disturbing, authoritarian and even Inquisitorial side to today’s campaigning secularism. There is nothing remotely positive in the demand that British cops lock up the pope and then drag him to some international court on charges of ‘crimes against humanity’. Instead it springs from an increasingly desperate and discombobulated secularism, one which, unable to assert itself positively through Enlightening society and celebrating the achievements of mankind, asserts itself negatively, even repressively, through ridiculing the religious.

[...]

It’s worth asking why otherwise fairly intelligent thinkers get so dementedly exercised over the pope and the Catholic Church. What exactly is their beef? What are they objecting to? Very few (if any) of the pope-hunters were raised Catholic, so this isn’t about personal vengeance for some perceived slight by a priest or nun. And despite their current lowdown, historically illiterate attempt to equate a priest fondling a child with a state’s attempt to obliterate an entire people – under the collective tag ‘crime against humanity’ – the truth is that some of these pope-hunters don’t really think child abuse is the worst crime in the world. In 2006, Dawkins criticised ‘hysteria about paedophilia’ and said that, even though he was the victim of sexual abuse at boarding school, he would defend his abusive former teachers if ‘50 years on they had been hounded by vigilantes or lawyers as no better than child murderers’. Yet now he wants to put abusive priests on a par with genocidaires.

[...]

Yet despite the lack of any obvious, sensible reason why they break out in boils at the mention of the words ‘Benedict’, ‘priest’ or ‘Catholic’, the pope-hunters’ campaign has acquired a powerfully pathological, obsessive and deafeningly shrill character. It is screeching and emotional. It talks about ‘systematic evil’ and discusses the pope as a ‘leering old villain in a frock’. It uses up almost all the intellectual and physical energies of men and women who consider themselves to be serious thinkers. What is going on here?

The reason this crusade is so hysterical is because it is not really about the pope at all – it is about the New Atheists themselves. The contemporary pope-hunting springs from a secularist movement which feels incapable of asserting a sense of purpose or meaning in any positive, human-centred way – as the great atheists of old such as Marx or Darwin might have done – and which instead can only assert itself negatively, in contrast to the ‘evil’ of religion, by posturing against the alleged wickedness of institutionalised faith. It is the inner emptiness, directionless and soullessness of contemporary secularism – in contrast to earlier, Enlightened and more positive secular movements – which has given birth to the bizarre clamour for the pope’s head.

[Read the whole thing]

My Comments:
A devastating indictment of the intellectual lameness of the modern-day secularists and the "new atheists".

(Hat tip: Eric Scheske)

Are Calls for Collective Penance for the Sex Abuse Scandal an Exercise in Blame Shifting?

Writing at National Catholic Register, Mark Shea provides an answer:

... The notion of doing penance for others is a tricky one, particularly when those others are fellow Catholics who have wronged us by their sin and especially when those others are, in fact, the very priests who have been entrusted with the Tradition that bids us to do penance for others. It’s incredibly easy for the guilty parties to use such things as penance as a sort of tool for dissolving their actual guilt for actual sins in a sort of collective pool of “Well, we’re all sinners” or even “Hey! You are to blame for letting me sin!” or some other blame-shifting nonsense. One of the common themes to emerge from the scandal has been that monsters like Fr. Maciel would indeed abuse their victims and then lay the guilt for the abuse on the victim. And depending on how psychologically strong the victim was, that burden of guilt would often be accepted. It is not the least of that man’s crimes and may God have mercy on his soul for it.

So it’s not too surprising that calls for Catholics to do penance for these sins often get interpreted as blame-shifting. However, I would submit that this is not, properly understood, how we who bear no personal responsibility for the Scandal should understand the call to penance. Penance does not mean “take the fall and bear the blame so that guilty people can skate or dissolve their sense of responsibility for the crimes in the Collective”. Penance is, in the Christian tradition, our participation in the innocent suffering of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world. Our tradition tells us that Christ who knew no sin, became sin for our sake so that we might become the righteousness of God. He bore the sins of the world, but he did not commit the sins of the world. He was blameless, and opened not his mouth, says Isaiah. Similarly, in Christ, Paul declares that he fills up in his flesh what is lacking with respect to the suffering of Christ for the sake of His Body, the Church (Colossians 1:24). That doesn’t mean “Jesus didn’t do enough so I have to make up for his well-meaning but inadequate effort on the Cross.” Rather, it means that as Christians, we bear the cross with Jesus and offer our innocent sufferings in union with His for the good of others—including others who are sinners as guilty as hell...

[More]

(Hat tip: Darwin at The American Catholic)

Out of the Mouths of Babes ...

A couple of things my 2nd-grade son shared with my wife, Sarah, tonight while doing his religion homework:

"I love going to Mass. It's good training for when I become a priest."

"When I'm a priest, I'm going to say all my Masses in Latin."

(The boy has never been to a Latin Mass in his life, but he loves Lent because that's when he gets to sing Agnus Dei - his "favorite song"; he wonders why we only do that during Lent. For that matter, so do I.)

Notre Dame's Frs. Hesburgh, Jenkins, and Scully urge Democrats not to kill school choice

Prof. Rick Garnett reports at Mirror of Justice:

Dear Senator Durbin and Secretary Duncan,

... We write today because we are all deeply disappointed by the turn of events that has led to the imminent demise of the Washington DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), and we are gravely concerned about the effects that the unprecedented gestures that have jeopardized this program will have on some of the most at-risk children in our nation’s capital.

[...]

Three decades of research tell us that Catholic schools are often the best providers of educational opportunity to poor and minority children. Students who attend Catholic schools are 42 percent more likely to graduate from high school and are two and a half times more likely to graduate from college than their peers in public schools. Recent scholarship on high school graduation rates in Milwaukee confirms that programs like the OSP can, over time, create remarkable opportunities for at-risk children. And after only three years, the research commissioned by the Department of Education is clear and strong with regard to the success of the OSP, as you both well know. This program empowers parents to become more involved in their children’s education. Parents of OSP students argue that their children are doing better in school, and they report that these scholarships have given their families an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty. If this program ends, these parents will be forced to send their children back to a school system that is ranked among the worst in the nation, into schools they fought desperately to leave just a few years ago.

At Notre Dame, we have recently witnessed the painful but logical outcomes of your failure to save the OSP. For the past three years, the University of Notre Dame has worked in close partnership with Holy Redeemer School, a preK-8 Catholic school community located just a few blocks from Senator Durbin’s office on the Hill. In fact, Senator Durbin visited the school and expressed his deeply favorable impression. We too have witnessed the transformative capacity of Holy Redeemer, a place where parents report feeling a sincere sense of ownership in their children’s education for the first time in their lives. Indeed, over the past three years strong leadership, excellent academics, low teacher turnover, and committed parents have all contributed to truly outstanding gains in student achievement. The children at Holy Redeemer were, unlike so many of their peers, on the path to college.

So we were deeply saddened to learn that the impending termination of the OSP has put the school in an untenable situation, leading the pastor to conclude that the school must be closed. Families are presently being notified that their children will have to find a new school next year. The end of the OSP represents more than the demise of a relatively small federal program; it spells the end of more than a half-century of quality Catholic education for some of the most at-risk African American children in the District. That this program is being allowed to end is both unnecessary and unjust...

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Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
"A Deep Resonance With Catholic Social Teaching"?

Yet Another "Non-Negotiable" Item ...

Obama Continues to Act Like a Typical Left-Liberal Democrat Politician Re: Education