Daytime destroyer
Shepard Smith of Fox News preaches that old-time anti-Catholic bigotry 665 words
The horrible reality of sexual assaults perpetrated by some Catholic Church officials and an alleged cover up whose ties, some say, reach the Vatican itself, must be thoroughly addressed. And appropriate criminal punishments must be swiftly meted out to all established as culpable.
The welfare of victims and proper redress for their grievances belong uppermost in our thoughts. That must include ousting from positions of church authority anyone implicated in either despicable predatory criminal behavior or the attempted cover up.
And yes, that would include Pope Francis, himself. For the Catholic Church to return to the general honor and respectability it once merited, complete top-down housecleaning is not only appropriate, but imperative.
Nothing less would be acceptable for any desiring to again place full trust in all hierarchical church levels.
Sadly, some prominent voices care not for victims. Instead, they exploit the tragic situation as a way to parade old bigotry in contemporary raiment.
Last month, Fox News Channel host Shepard Smith addressed the horrible reality. But his was a hateful, destructive ambition.
Smith has a history of slurs against the Catholic Church and its flock. In this latest foul instance, he told his viewers that "where I come from" corporations shielding executives from accountability for abuses of office are "sued out of existence." And he asked rhetorically why that should not also be the fate of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church itself "sued out of existence?" That was Smith's expressed desire.
Bigotry against Catholics has endured throughout American history. Not too many decades ago, the Ku Klux Klan propagandized against Catholics. Whenever a baby was born into an Irish Catholic family, once went the KKK line, a pistol was buried and a map to it drawn. That way, on the eventual day of the mythically intended, Vatican-led takeover of America, Irish Catholic kids could grab their maps, dig up their pistols, and join the revolution.
More recent illustrations of bigotry aimed at Catholics are the hysterical reactions to the presidential candidacies of Al Smith in 1928 and John F. Kennedy in 1960. And in a 2017 example, Judiciary Committee member Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein charged "the dogma lives loudly, within you" to Trump-supported Catholic nominee Judge Amy Barrett.
After wandering for decades, I last year returned to the Catholic Church into which I was baptized in 1959. As a rule, I don't think religious faith should be used as a cudgel against others. That isn't a legitimate application of it. Besides, I've got too many flaws of my own to attend to.
But as a loyal Roman Catholic, I certainly can defend my faith. And I can fiercely oppose bigots like Smith who would foolishly try to bury it.
I know the Catholic Church to be the one true and apostolic church, a manifestation of the Christian community Jesus established. Its earliest administration was accorded by Him to apostle Peter, as we are told by Matthew 16:18.
Only fools would believe a holy institution so mighty and favored by God could be diminished in 2018 by the uncovered crimes of mere mortals, even those of high position.
That which is all good endures everlastingly with indomitable force. It is invincible, hardly weakened by the sins of men. For believers, certainty of its universal integrity is not given pause by temporal trespass.
Just as the world's most learned scholar is no more than a speck beside God's wisdom and omniscience, so is earthly measuring insufficient for condemning the Catholic Church He instituted for our salvational benefit.
The late Bishop Fulton Sheen advised persons exploring churchly options to:
"Look for the Church which is accused of having a devil, as Our Lord was accused of being possessed by Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils. Look for the Church which, in seasons of bigotry, men say must be destroyed..."
Shepard Smith's "sued out of existence" is only a lawyerly way of calling for the destruction of the Catholic Church bigots have always sought.
Shepard Smith of Fox News preaches that old-time anti-Catholic bigotry 665 words
The horrible reality of sexual assaults perpetrated by some Catholic Church officials and an alleged cover up whose ties, some say, reach the Vatican itself, must be thoroughly addressed. And appropriate criminal punishments must be swiftly meted out to all established as culpable.
The welfare of victims and proper redress for their grievances belong uppermost in our thoughts. That must include ousting from positions of church authority anyone implicated in either despicable predatory criminal behavior or the attempted cover up.
And yes, that would include Pope Francis, himself. For the Catholic Church to return to the general honor and respectability it once merited, complete top-down housecleaning is not only appropriate, but imperative.
Nothing less would be acceptable for any desiring to again place full trust in all hierarchical church levels.
Sadly, some prominent voices care not for victims. Instead, they exploit the tragic situation as a way to parade old bigotry in contemporary raiment.
Last month, Fox News Channel host Shepard Smith addressed the horrible reality. But his was a hateful, destructive ambition.
Smith has a history of slurs against the Catholic Church and its flock. In this latest foul instance, he told his viewers that "where I come from" corporations shielding executives from accountability for abuses of office are "sued out of existence." And he asked rhetorically why that should not also be the fate of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church itself "sued out of existence?" That was Smith's expressed desire.
Bigotry against Catholics has endured throughout American history. Not too many decades ago, the Ku Klux Klan propagandized against Catholics. Whenever a baby was born into an Irish Catholic family, once went the KKK line, a pistol was buried and a map to it drawn. That way, on the eventual day of the mythically intended, Vatican-led takeover of America, Irish Catholic kids could grab their maps, dig up their pistols, and join the revolution.
More recent illustrations of bigotry aimed at Catholics are the hysterical reactions to the presidential candidacies of Al Smith in 1928 and John F. Kennedy in 1960. And in a 2017 example, Judiciary Committee member Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein charged "the dogma lives loudly, within you" to Trump-supported Catholic nominee Judge Amy Barrett.
After wandering for decades, I last year returned to the Catholic Church into which I was baptized in 1959. As a rule, I don't think religious faith should be used as a cudgel against others. That isn't a legitimate application of it. Besides, I've got too many flaws of my own to attend to.
But as a loyal Roman Catholic, I certainly can defend my faith. And I can fiercely oppose bigots like Smith who would foolishly try to bury it.
I know the Catholic Church to be the one true and apostolic church, a manifestation of the Christian community Jesus established. Its earliest administration was accorded by Him to apostle Peter, as we are told by Matthew 16:18.
Only fools would believe a holy institution so mighty and favored by God could be diminished in 2018 by the uncovered crimes of mere mortals, even those of high position.
That which is all good endures everlastingly with indomitable force. It is invincible, hardly weakened by the sins of men. For believers, certainty of its universal integrity is not given pause by temporal trespass.
Just as the world's most learned scholar is no more than a speck beside God's wisdom and omniscience, so is earthly measuring insufficient for condemning the Catholic Church He instituted for our salvational benefit.
The late Bishop Fulton Sheen advised persons exploring churchly options to:
"Look for the Church which is accused of having a devil, as Our Lord was accused of being possessed by Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils. Look for the Church which, in seasons of bigotry, men say must be destroyed..."
Shepard Smith's "sued out of existence" is only a lawyerly way of calling for the destruction of the Catholic Church bigots have always sought.
posted by DC Larson at
August 29, 2018
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