2015 Fishwrap of the Year

Good Christians, fear, for sinners here…except at NcR, apparently.  Sin and sinners fell off their radar a long time ago.

Well, vacation is over. We’re still enjoying the last of Christmas, but it’s back to work. I’m always hoping for a good old-fashioned Christmas miracle, but on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, I sadly saw that National catholic Reporter is still operating in its “anything but Catholic” way. This little piece caught my eye a few days back, but it’s as nauseating as ever:

 

https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/editorial-our-persons-year-2015

Editorial: Our persons of the year for 2015

As we live through them, it is often difficult to recognize truly important, history-changing events, events that will touch future generations intimately and profoundly. Very likely, though, the U.S. Supreme Court decision of June 26, 2015, in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, which found same-sex marriage a constitutional right, is one of those events.

“The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spirituality. This is true for all persons, whatever their sexual orientation,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the 5-4 majority.

Catholic moral theologian Lisa Fullam was struck by “how strongly” the four principles and traditions the court cited as the foundation for its decision “echo Catholic doctrine on marriage.”

As the church formulates a response to this new reality, she suggested, “a good first step for Church leaders would be to applaud the Court’s decision in light of its overlap with Catholic values … and take note of the powerful spirit of love and commitment vivifying lesbian and gay marriages as well as straight marriages.”

Bahahahaha! It’s not surprising they found some “moral theologian” who agreed with their position under a Jesuit rock at Santa Clara. She, of course, is not unknown in these parts. The bats have not been totally cleared from the belfry around here. Not only is she a little sketchy on the “Catholic doctrine on marriage,” she’s also a little sketchy on history. It’s hardly a “new reality”. It’s older than Sodom and Gomorrah. The only difference now is that some “inside” the Church are now suggesting we embrace a court decision as some sort of mission for Catholics, because there might be an “and”, “but”, or an “or” that it has in common with a Church document.  Yeah, the court ruling and Church doctrine are twinsies.

I do give Ms. Fullam kudos for using “vivifying”, though. Fun word. Must be that Jesuit edjamacation. That said, sin doesn’t animate or bring alive anything. It does just the opposite. We don’t live in a Tim Burton world where the evil and the distorted are life-giving. We really need to start reading the classics again, people. Playing God and creating Frankenstein’s monster is contrary to life and beauty, and it never ends well. We need to stop trying to put a shiny new coat of paint on an old sin and calling it “new and wonderful,” and now, “just.” And, who in the heck is Ms. Fullam to tell the Church who She should applaud, anyway? I’m sure she’d have the Church applaud Nancy Pelosi for all her fine, Catholic missionary work!

The divided court, though, reflects divides in the nation. The day of the decision, NCR reported that the political and religious response ran the gamut from despair and anger to jubilation.

“Today, love prevailed and our nation became a more perfect union,” wrote Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the gay and lesbian anti-defamation group GLAAD. “#LoveWins,” President Barack Obama tweeted.

Well, silly me! If Barack Obama tweeted… Sigh! Clearly, the National catholic Reporter haven’t grasped that popularity is irrelevant to Truth. It hardly represents the mind of the Church, nor does it vivify God. That’s really what the NcR ilk hope to achieve, though, in their own distorted way. They hope to animate God and the Church like their very own personal puppet. I hate to tell you, but salvation doesn’t work that way.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., called the decision “a tragic error.” Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, N.Y., declared himself “bitterly disappointed.”

The court’s decision did not surprise Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, he said. “The surprise will come,” Chaput continued, “as ordinary people begin to experience, firsthand and painfully, the impact of today’s action on everything they thought they knew about marriage, family life, our laws and our social institutions.

These are the gentlemen who hold to the mind of the Church. They speak the timeless Truth on marriage, unafraid of the consequences of doing so. Instead, they worry about the consequences of NOT speaking out. They’re the ones who really, truly care about all of the souls in their care and seeing each and every one of them gain heaven.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, on the other hand, celebrated “the increase in justice that this ruling ushers in” and noted that Catholics were at the forefront of the marriage equality movement. “Our commitment to the values of love, inclusion, family, and justice have inspired millions of Catholics — both straight and LGBT. … It is wonderful to see the true values of our faith and our country affirmed today.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa!  Wrong on both counts Marianne.  Our Faith did not affirm “gay marriage,” nor did our country.  Five Supreme Court justices blew that one.  And justice? Let’s talk a bit about this. It’s clear that people like Duddy-Burke and the crew at NcR can’t really tell the difference from what the Church says about things and what their own crazy little world says. Let’s take a gander at what the Church actually says about justice:

http://www.newadvent.com/cathen/08571c.htm:

Justice is here taken in its ordinary and proper sense to signify the most important of the cardinal virtues. It is a moral quality or habit which perfects the will and inclines it to render to each and to all what belongs to them. Of the other cardinal virtues, prudence perfects the intellect and inclines the prudent man to act in all things according to right reason. Fortitude controls the irascible passions; and temperance moderates the appetites according as reason dictates. While fortitude and temperance are self-regarding virtues, justice has reference to others. Together with charity it regulates man’s intercourse with his fellow men. But charity leads us to help our neighbour in his need out of our own stores, while justice teaches us to give to another what belongs to him.

What belongs to us and why, you may ask?

Because man is a person, a free and intelligent being, created in the image of God, he has a dignity and a worth vastly superior to the material and animal world by which he is surrounded. Man can know, love, and worship his Creator; he was made for that end, which he can only attain perfectly in the future, immortal, and never-ending life to which he is destined. God gave him his faculties and his liberty in order that he might freely work for the accomplishment of his destiny. He is in duty bound to strive to fulfil the designs of his Creator, he must exercise his faculties and conduct his life according to the intentions of his Lord and Master. Because he is under these obligations he is consequently invested with rights, God-given and primordial, antecedent to the State and independent of it. Such are man’s natural rights, granted to him by nature herself, sacred, as is their origin, and inviolable. Beside these he may have other rights given him by Church or State, or acquired by his own industry and exertion. All these rights, whatever be their source, are the object of the virtue of justice. Justice requires that all persons should be left in the free enjoyment of all their rights.

The end of justice is not to simply have our desires met. Justice is supposed to help us reach our destiny of everlasting life. Everlasting life is something most often forgotten by Fullam and buddies.

<snipping most of the rest of this typical NcR article>

The question remains whether these days will be painful as Chaput suggests or, as Arthur Fitzmaurice, resource director for the Catholic Association for Lesbian and Gay Ministry, told NCR June 26, “a chance for us to step away from the charged political debate to a pastoral dialogue on what it means to be LGBT and Catholic.”

I’m reasonably sure the pastoral dialogue began a long time ago, Mr. Fitzmaurice. It might be a bit helpful if you took your fingers out of your ears and stopped stomping your feet long enough to hear your pastors. Heck, how about your fellow Catholics do the same? Here is someone else you’ve failed to minister to: http://www.cuf.org/2011/01/i-am-not-gay-i-am-david/   All should read, read, READ this one!  Please, show me something David Prosen says that doesn’t resemble justice in the eyes of the Church, then compare him with the “persons of the year.” How does their cause resemble justice?

<snipping a ton more>

NCR is already on record advocating for church personnel policies that ensure that employees can enter into legal, civil marriages without fear of losing their jobs.

NcR is kind of on record telling the Church to get over Herself and just let people jump on the expressway straight to spiritual death, but whatever.

Today, we address a more fundamental issue: How will we as a church live with our gay, lesbian and transgender brothers and sisters? We are past the time of “love the sinner” platitudes.

Sin, it’s so passe’.

<snipping the Cupich suck up and shaming of anyone who does not believe “gay marriage” to be a civil right and who refuse to jump on that bandwagon>

Bourke and DeLeon are emblematic of this major challenge facing the church today, because they force us to ask not how will we live out a hypothetical situation, but how will we live with Greg and Michael. They give flesh to an abstraction.

And here’s the usual “faithful Catholics don’t know a single soul who lives with a homosexual inclination” tripe. Yawn. I have to wonder where they think we live? Do they think we live in our houses with our curtains drawn and crocodiles in the moat surrounding it?

How will we live with Greg and Michael?  The same way we live with our friends, family, co-workers, etc.  We LOVE them.  We love them so much that their everlasting life is our priority.

The answers the church is giving now are confused, uneven and often cruel. Greg and Michael — and countless gay, lesbian and transgender Catholics — deserve better.

Oh, my! It’s rare, but I totally and utterly agree with this comment. Of course, for confusion and cruelty to cease, NcR’s superstar seamless garment crew would need to shut the heck up, and we all know that’s not likely to happen anytime soon. So, instead of wishing on those stars, I will wish that the Kurtzes, Cordileones, Paprockis, Chaputs, etc., start speaking even more loudly and lovingly, develop many different programs to reach those individuals and families who are suffering, and continue to love them!

For their historic roles as plaintiffs in Obergefell v. Hodges and for their faithful public witness as gay Catholics, we name Greg Bourke and Michael DeLeon NCR’s persons of the year for 2015.

And this, my friends, is why the National catholic Reporter will probably continue to earn the Fishwrap of the Year award in perpetuity.

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