Syte Reitz

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world…….

Browsing Posts in Don’t Diss My Church

Astonishingly Perceptive Wisconsin State Journal Article Portrays Bishop Morlino in 2004

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Treasures in My Basement
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Not being much of a newspaper clipper, nor information hoarder, I was surprised to unearth several treasures in my basement, including notes I took at a Future Society meeting addressed by Bishop Morlino and a Wisconsin State Journal article which introduced Bishop Morlino to Madison almost exactly fifteen years ago, on February 15th, 2004, about six months after his arrival in Madison.

The front page Sunday article was remarkably positive, surprisingly perceptive, and provides one very elegant bookend to Bishop Morlino’s life here with us in Madison for the past 15 years, so I had to share.

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The Wisconsin State Journal article began with several striking headlines:

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MORLINO: CONFRONTING SECULARISM IN MADISON

DIOCESE HAS NEVER HAD A BISHOP LIKE MORLINO

HE WADES INTO CONTROVERSY, BUT HE IS TOLERANT OF THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH HIM.

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Bishop Morlino’s address to the World Future Society was one of his early encounters with secular Madison and was entitled “The Future of Religion.” It was presented at Fluno Hall on the University of Wisconsin Madison campus.  Bishop Morlino pointed out during that address that Democracy maximizes individual freedom and minimizes restraint by the government.  Thus it requires free self-restraint, which makes sense only in a religious framework.  Government ought to favor authentic religion– when self-restraint under God is promoted, the government has less restraining to do.  Religion, therefore, must have a future if democracy is to have a future.
In hindsight now in 2019 with Antifa type disorder rampant, this prediction by Bishop Morlino made 15 years ago (in 2003) comes across particularly inspired.

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Hoping to share the nostalgic Wisconsin State Journal article with fellow Catholics who are mourning our loss of Bishop Morlino on November 24, 2018, I rushed to Wisconsin State Journal archives to find the link to this old article  — only to find that in order to see anything more detailed than the fuzzy 2×2 inch image of the whole front page, readers had to subscribe to the Wisconsin State Journal($19.99/month).

This inspired me to photograph, transcribe, and share excerpts of my newspaper clipping with my family and friends here below, with some occasional commentary.

The Wisconsin State Journal front page Sunday article from February 15, 2004:

MORLINO: CONFRONTING SECULARISM IN MADISON

DIOCESE HAS NEVER HAD A BISHOP LIKE MORLINO

HE WADES INTO CONTROVERSY, BUT HE IS TOLERANT OF THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH HIM.

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By William R. Wineke
Wisconsin State Journal

Six months after becoming spiritual leader of 265,000 Roman Catholics in southern Wisconsin, Robert Morlino is proving to be a bishop far different from any the Madison Catholic Diocese has seen before.

He is at once more self-assured and, paradoxically, more humble than any of his predecessors, more willing to engage in public controversy on behalf of his church and more tolerant of those who disagree, a man who seems at ease with himself, his values and his abilities.

He also begins his leadership of the diocese at a time when trends in the church that have been occurring for years are reaching crisis proportions. His priests are getting older and there are a few replacements in the pipeline. The result is that each pastor serves an increasing number of parishioners each year, parishes are being merged and ongoing scandals in the church at large are testing the faith of Catholics locally.

Perhaps his biggest challenge, however, is confronting what Morlino sees as a pervasive secularism in Madison.

Morlino said his first six months here have convinced him of the necessity for dialogue with the outside culture.

“Madison has to face all the challenges of secularism,“ he said. “I think the challenge in Madison is to enter into dialogue with the culture that is secular. To strengthen people’s faith requires some flexibility and versatility.“

He says he is somewhat surprised by the extent of the secular culture here and by what he perceives as a split between the culture of Madison and of the rest of the 11-county diocese.

“I knew it theoretically before I came here, but I didn’t realize how strong that culture is,” he said.

He does much of his teaching through his column in the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Herald.

In a recent column dealing with the referendum on expanding gambling at Madison’s DeJope  bingo hall, Morlino put the whole issue into the reference of the cities alleged secularism. He said it is hard to argue against gambling in the city that welcomes abortion and the production of anti-Catholic plays, such as “Corpus Christi,“ a play that portrays Jesus and his disciples as gay. A national organization, America needs Fatima, has organized a protest against its performance, which is scheduled for March 5-27 at the Bartell  Theater.

“The kind of community we are seems to indicate a high comfort level with virtually no public morality,“ he said.

But, he asked, “is that really the kind of community we want to be in the Diocese of Madison and in the state of Wisconsin looking into the future?“

His column reported in the front page story in the Wisconsin State Journal, elicited responses of both support and outrage.

Both the State Journal’s and the Capital Times’ editorial pages criticized Morlino‘s position, and Capital Times columnist (Aside from Syte: calumnist?😂) Doug Moe wrote a piece on the newspaper’s front page taking the Bishop to task. The common thread in the editorial response was that Morlino hasn’t lived here long enough to pass judgment.

Those who argue with him tend to do so from the perspective that in a pluralistic society, secular values of open-mindedness should prevail.

The State Journal’s editorial page, for example, has been barraged with letters supporting and opposing Morlino. Philip Keillor, a Madison activist with a history of working with the poor, noted the city’s hard work in providing shelter for the homeless and suggested “moral minimums in our community seem to be developed on issues when there is enough agreement to ‘make it happen’ and those who remain uninvolved either accept or don’t strongly oppose controversial activities.

And the Rev. E. Ellwood Carey, retired pastor of Parkside Presbyterian Church, suggested there is “nothing in Christian scriptures that reveals Jesus’ sexuality, so a word of caution regarding assumptions is appropriate.“

Many Catholic readers, on the other hand, argue that a Bishop’s letter to the people of his diocese should not be read as an allegation of immorality on the part of non-believers.

Mary Weisensel, Sun Prairie, a Catholic laywoman  long active in church causes, noted that “a closer examination of the bishops column in our diocesan newspaper reveals that he cast no stones, he only sought to help us think through a moral issue. That’s what bishops are supposed to do…”

What the flap demonstrates more than anything is that Morlino does not duck controversy. His recurring theme is that there is an “objective public morality, a moral truth.“

In Thursday’s column, for example, he said “our freedom is accountable to the moral truth and, as I have written so many times, the fact that something is done freely does not make it morally right, that should be obvious.“

He use the column to criticize the Super Bowl performance, in which the singer Janet Jackson’s bodice was ripped off to reveal one of her breasts during the nation’s most watched television event. He also commented on reducing love to its “sensual dimensions,“ adding that the “ongoing effort to assert into the civic life of our country and our culture the right to redefine marriage“ is “certainly not among the inalienable rights conferred upon each human person according to the mind of our nation’s architects from the beginning.“

Morlino, 57, who succeeded Bishop William Bullock last August, is the fourth Bishop to serve the 11-county Madison Catholic Diocese.

He is a native of Pennsylvania, the only child of a Scranton couple. His mother died when he was a teenager.

Morlino was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1974. He holds a bachelors degree in philosophy from Fordham University, a masters degree in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and a doctorate in moral theology from the Gregorian University in Rome.

He is a large enthusiastic man who appears to enjoy company, love sports and doesn’t like being bound by rigid schedules. He doesn’t talk “down“ to people – which means, also, that he expects people to be able to hold their own when they speak with him.

He had a diocese that was formed in 1946 and was led, successively, by bishops William O’Connor, who served from 1946 to 1967, Cletus O’Donnell, who served from 1967 to 1992 and Bullock, who served until 2003.

If their tenures could be described by a single word – none would wish to be so described — O’Connor was a builder; O’Donnell was a national leader, Bullock was an administrator and Morlino is a teacher.

Audio for many of Bishop Morlino’s homilies is available at the Cathedral Parish Media Archive – click above text for link and search “Morlino.”

He seems perfectly willing to challenge a society he thinks is too secular and seems to have no questions about his ability to do so. However Morlino also insists on respect for those who disagree. He says that, in dialogue with the secular world, he is convinced that “the truth wins out by its own gentle power.“

Morlino writes long pastoral letters each Thursday in the Catholic Herald, on subjects ranging from support for the controversial orders of LaCrosse Bishop Raymond Burke (now Archbishop of St. Louis) on giving Communion to legislators who support abortion, to analysis of the best-selling novel “The DaVinci Code,“ to Marian devotions.

Lorraine Endres of Waunakee, a Catholic laywoman who says she hopes to be considered a good Catholic but who is not known as an activist, says most of what she knows about her new Bishop comes from his pastoral letters.

“I haven’t met him personally, but I think he’s going to be good for the diocese,“ she said. “He’s pro-life and he lets people know it. I read his column in the Herald every week and it’s easy to understand where he’s coming from. He’s down to earth and he lets people know what he thinks.“

Morlino confronted his Priests with a tightly reasoned multi-page letter on changes in Catholic worship having to do with confession and First Communion and, when asked by some priests for a simpler version they could share with their parishioners, he replied that cutting it down to five pages was as far as he could justifiably go.

If Morlino expects his priests to bone up on their theology, however, he has also scored points with those same priests by announcing he won’t even read unsigned letters complaining about them.

“I think he brings a great deal of renewed optimism to the diocese,“ said the Rev. Felix Oehrlein, pastor of Saint Cecilia Catholic Church in Wisconsin Dells. “He’s been very affirming. At our recent gathering of priests, he had a town-hall meeting, sat down with us for a couple of hours and just anyone who had something to say to stand up and say it. He wasn’t defensive about anything.”

At the same time, Morlino has spent comparatively little time on administering the diocese, something Bullock prided himself as doing.

During his first six months as Madison‘s bishop, he travel to other states for days and weeks at a time, sometimes to for fill commitments he made before arriving here, sometimes to take a few days off.

In an interview with the state journal, Morlino said it’s all a matter of emphasizing a bishop’s talents.

“There are bishops who hover with their investment officers and develop financial strategies,“ he said. “No one would be more useless at that than me. There are lay people with far more financial skills than I have and I think we ought to let them use those skills for the good of the church.“

Much of the work of actually administering the diocese has fallen to his vicar general, or second in command, Monsignor Paul Swain (Aside from Syte: now Bishop of  Sioux Falls) who, nevertheless, says Morlino has brought a sense of zest to the office.

Morlino may have best explained his concepts of personal strengths in a talk to diocesan young people recently in Wisconsin Dells.

Comparing life to jigsaw puzzle, Morlino said, “I can’t go anywhere I want. Every piece is fitted to occupy a certain spot. I know I have strengths and weaknesses and if I don’t like my strengths and weaknesses, if I don’t accept them, there is no joy.”

Morlino stunned his staff at the Bishop O’Connor Pastoral Center by giving each person two weeks off over the Christmas season. Those who had to work to keep the facility running were told to take extra vacation time later in the year.

Telling his staff to take more time off also has its pastoral side, Morlino suggested.

“Our culture really does need to slow down,“ he said. “What drives it is the materialism of our age. If you’re never satisfied with what you have, there’s only one way to get more and that is to work longer hours and that has its effect on all sorts of other values.“

As for himself, Morlino confessed, “I know I don’t make my best decisions when I’m overtired.“

Morlino raised some eyebrows locally when, shortly after being installed as Bishop, he joined a group of abortion opponents in a march to an abortion clinic, where he recited the rosary.

People weren’t surprised that he opposes abortion – all Catholic bishops do – but his predecessors hadn’t been involved in public marches.

Perhaps more telling than Morlino‘s participation, however, was his admonition to his fellow marchers to love their opponents.

“When someone is promoting error, that error has to be corrected, of course,“ Morlino said then. “But the person promoting the error never loses that dignity and sacredness of the human person.“

Morlino said that’s just basic Catholic teaching.

He applied the same judgment to politicians who may not conform to church teachings.

“I can’t judge the heart of an individual, but, objectively, those who hold public office and are in public positions have to be challenged, not only for the good of their souls and the state of their own faith,“ he said, adding that if politicians “publicly promote things we can’t abide by, that becomes sinful for them and scandalous for the Catholic community.“

The issue, Morlino continued, isn’t that politicians must take orders from the church, but they must live up to their own vocations.

Morlino’s strong stance on social and moral issues seems to be popular with his fellow Catholics, many of whom are writing to the newspapers in support of him.
Within his church, Morlino has been most controversial in Baraboo, where the pastor of Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church, the Reverend Gerald Vosen, was accused of sexual improprieties and was removed from office last September.

The man Vosen is accused of abusing denies the allegations (they were made by the man’s sister), but Morlino and the diocesan body charged with investigating sexual abuse charges have neither confirmed the charges nor returned Vosen to his pulpit. Morlino suggested, obliquely, that other allegations may have been made.

At any rate, Saint Joseph parishioners– and even pastors of Protestant congregations in Baraboo – have protested and marched against what they perceive to be Morlino’s inaction.

Morlino scoffs at the one-word descriptions of Bishop’s records cited above.

“I don’t think of myself as coming to leave a mark,“ he said. “I think the bishop should do what the church wants him to do and that is to try to create an environment in which every person, every day, is invited to meet Christ, risen from the dead, in a gentle and kind the way.“ He added: “I am not the Messiah and things may go awry. But, the gifts I have, I will use. If it turns out later that I have left a mark so be it.“

“I am not the Messiah and things may go awry. But, the gifts I have, I will use. If it turns out later that I have left a mark so be it.“ – Bishop Morlino

Bishop Morlino has certainly made a very positive and very remarkable mark in Madison, and his mark includes:

40 new priests
30 seminarians
Perpetual Adoration Chapel in Madison (well know by Faithful Catholics to generate priestly vocations)
New St. Paul’s Campus Catholic Center at UW Madison (preserving the faith of our youth and generating numerous vocations)
Opening discussion of relativism and the importance of moral truth
Courageous defense of life and marriage
Opposition to embryonic stem cell research
Clarification of Church teaching on controversial issues like immigration
Willingness to take strong stands on protecting victims of clerical sexual abuse, both in his own Diocese, and all the way up to supporting Archbishop Vigano’s calls for Papal transparency.

For more of Bishop Morlino’s accomplishments, see Bishop Morlino was Truly a Churchman of His Time 

See also:

Madison Catholic Herald on Bishop Morlino

Madison’s Bishop Celebrates 15 Years!

Rest in Peace, Bishop Morlino

Madison’s Brilliant Bishop

What on Earth is Going on with the Catholic Church? or The Flip Side of Mercy

 What on Earth is Going on with the Catholic Church?

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The Flip Side of Mercy

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Scandals and Sinners are Not New

Scandals and sinners in the Catholic Church are not new.
Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus Christ was a pretty big deal, and he was chosen personally by Jesus Christ to be among the first 12 Bishops of His Church.
So it is not surprising that members of the Church hierarchy can commit sins.
Nobody denies that.
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The Current Pedophilia and Coverup Scandals

Recent news headlines in 2018 show that there continue to be horrific evil sins and crimes being committed by some clergy in the Catholic Church.
Enemies of the Catholic Church, who resent the Church’s moral authority, who do not want to follow Judeo-Christian commandments, and who have been attacking the Church for 2000 years, are very quick to point out sins committed by members of the Church.
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And the mud really sticks.
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The National Review correctly points out that such depraved sacrilegious acts by even ONE priest damage the moral authority and credibility of the Catholic Church:

“This is why, when sex scandals within the Church come to light, observations that the “vast majority” of clergy did nothing wrong strike many as unmoving. If, as Catholics maintain, the Church’s hierarchy derives its legitimacy from a transmission of spiritual authority passed down from the Apostles, then even isolated instances of malfeasance within that hierarchy can shake people’s faith in this claim.”

This is also why so many good Catholic Clergy, including Archbishop Vigano and Madison’s Bishop Morlino,  are calling for complete transparency and accountability throughout the Church, all the way up to our Pope.

Being Balanced and Fair to the Catholic Clergy

Those of us Catholics who love our Church do not enjoy watching the vast innocent remainder of our beloved  holy priests demonized and attacked publicly by hate-filled progressive media.  The media misrepresent our Catholic clergy in most unfair terms.

We realize that saying “but your Honor, the other guy over there committed many more crimes than I did” is never a good defense.

But we also realize that truth is valuable, honor must be defended, and institutions and principles stand, even when some officials betray them.
The Presidency of the the United States was not abandoned when one man got caught desecrating the Oval Office with his sexual sins and depravity.
And all the members of one race are not condemned when one member of that race commits a crime.
Bigotry and prejudice are bigotry and prejudice, even when they are directed at the Catholic clergy, as opposed to a (temporarily) more politically popular group.

In that spirit, we digress to put the magnitude of the problem into perspective, before we continue to discuss the latest Catholic Church sex abuse problem, it’s shocking implications, and possible solutions.

Magnitude of the Catholic Church Problem

Regarding the current pedophilia accusations, because of the progressive media’s dislike for the conservative Catholic Church, few people find out that Catholic priests are actually the least probable to abuse children, less probable to abuse than any other group of people in the world.   Celibacy has also been shown to be irrelevant — pedophilia occurs most commonly among married men who are not in the clergy.   Sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests is less probable than by other men, 100 times less probable than teachers at school, and at least twenty times less probable than the child’s own parents.

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), our nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, reports that of the annual 63,000 sexual abuse cases substantiated by Child Protective Services, the perpetrator was most often the parent (80%).  Other relatives were responsible for 6%, 4% were unmarried partners of a parent, and 5% were “other,” (from siblings to strangers, and this category would include all clergy religious of all denominations).

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Since the first major reports starting in 1985, the church has actually studied, analyzed, worked on, and dramatically reduced the incidence of these problems (see John Jay Report Figure 1.1).  The John Jay Report is well worth reading for anybody who is interested in the scandals.
The findings of the John Jay report are Facts are backed up by independent sources like Psychology Today, Newsweek, National Review and insurance companies who calculate risk (and charge litigation insurance premiums accordingly) for religious and other institutions.  Catholic institutions are not charged any larger insurance premiums than any other group.
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Despite the dramatic reduction in Church scandals shown in the above graph, and despite the fact that the above graph represents only a very small fraction of the total sexual abuse of children in the United States, those in the media who resent the traditional Judeo-Christian teachings which the Catholic Church has maintained for 2000 years, continue to dredge up and attack the church for crimes and sins which occurred between 1950 and 2000.

Magnitude of Our Whole Society’s Problem

The message we should take from the above statistics is not that abuse in the Catholic Church is not too bad, but that there is a SHOCKING level of sexual abuse of children throughout all of our society, including abuse by teachers, and ABUSE BY PARENTS, that has been off the radar all this time.  Most of us don’t know about it, and the media has not told us. The numbers are sometimes sketchy and can vary from study to study, but the general picture that emerges is very worrisome and shocking.  The National Center for Victims of Crime tells us that 28% of US kids are sexually victimized during their formative years.

Yes, 28% of US kids are sexually victimized during their formative years.

Back to the Catholic Church

Despite the fact that the Catholic clergy actually have the lowest frequency of child abuse of any group on earth, despite the fact that Catholic Church abuse has now been dramatically reduced, and despite the fact that the Catholic Church has formulated model abuse prevention programs whose implementation should be considered by all other institutions in our society,  the Catholic Church is still making headlines recently regarding sex abuse scandals.

And this time, we cannot just blame the media, which likes to pick on the Catholic Church.
Most recently, some new facts have emerged which challenge even the most faithful members of the Catholic Church.

The Unexpected and Shocking Developments

The new facts to surface regarding the old Catholic Church scandals do not involve frequency of incidence, which seems to have been dramatically reduced, but they involve two aspects of the old coverups which cannot be ignored:

  • The Church is now being accused of coverup, as high up as Pope Francis.

  • The detailed nature of the sexual abuse has been identified — and it is almost exclusively homosexual.

The picture now emerging is one not of pedophilia, but of homosexual abuse of older male children and seminarians by homosexual priests.
These developments create a clash of values in our modern culture that will have no easy resolution.

Clash of Values
First, the Events of Summer 2018

Pope Francis greets Archbishop McCarrick

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Three major new events have brought us to this point of scandal in the Catholic Church this summer.

  • Cardinal McCarrick, one of Pope Francis’ closest advisors, resigned from the College of Cardinals following allegations of sexual abuse of a teenage boy 40 years ago in New York City, as well as sexual misconduct with seminarians over an extended more recent period of time.
  • Separately, a Pennsylvania Grand Jury issued a report summarizing that from 1950 to 2000, 300 priests in Pennsylvania sexually abused over 1,000 children. 90% of the abuse reported by the Pennsylvania Grand Jury was of older male children by homosexual priests.
  • Then, Archbishop Vigano, former apostolic nuncio to the United States, issued an 11 page letter implicating Pope Francis and several senior prelates in covering up Archbishop Theodore McCarrick’s alleged sexual abuse of a youth and of seminarians. He claimed that Pope Francis knew about strict canonical sanctions imposed on McCarrick by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 but chose to repeal them. He accused Pope Francis of not only ignoring Pope Benedict’s sanctions, but also of promoting Cardinal McCarrick to be the Pope’s trusted counselor.  Archbishop Vigano claimed that he personally spoke with Pope Francis about the gravity of McCarrick’s abuses soon after the Pope’s election in 2013.  These allegations have not yet been verified.

Pope Francis, caught by Archbishop Vigano’s accusations during his trip to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families, told media that he is “not going to say a word” about the McCarrick coverup accusations from Archbishop Vigano.

Two weeks later, the Pope’s advisors have stated that the Holy See is preparing an answer to the current debates, presumably referring to Archbishop Vigano’s accusations.
On September 11, the Council of Cardinals expressed full solidarity with the Pope’s handling of the abuse crisis.  No timeline yet on the promised clarification.
On September 12, Pope Francis called the world’s Bishops to a meeting on sexual abuse of children to occur in February 2019.
On September 13, some US Bishop leaders are meeting with Pope Francis to discuss the McCarrick abuses. Pope Francis is receiving Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. conference of Bishops, along with Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, the Vice President; Monsignor Brian Bransfield, the conference’s secretary; and Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Is the Catholic Church Abuse Homosexual in Nature?

There is now much debate on whether the abuse occurring in the Catholic Church is homosexual in nature.
And there are many claims on both sides.
This blogger believes that the statistics speak for themselves, but below is some of the evidence pro and con.

The vast majority of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, 80% of past abuse in the Catholic Church and 90% of the abuse reported by the Pennsylvania Grand Jury, has been of older male children by homosexual priests.

Although the majority of abuses involve older youth, our society is more shocked by cases involving young children.   This issue is complicated by the fact that in the past the term “pedophilia” was used broadly and included activity with teenagers.
For example, sexual activity with 16 year old children is not actually categorized as pedophilia, but as ephebophilia — which is not categorized as a mental disorder, nor is it illegal in many places such as Washington D.C., where the age of consent for sexual activity is 16.  

 

This information, the fact that the bulk of what has been called child sex abuse in the Church turns out to be homosexual ephebophilia, has implications both on possible solutions to the Church’s “pedophilia” problems, and on the clear fact that there are, albeit against Church regulations, homosexual priests in the Catholic Church.
Not only are there homosexual priests, a fact which was not unknown, but those homosexual priests seem to have an elevated tendency to engage in sexual activity, and to engage in sexual activity with youth.

An NIH (National Institutes of Health) NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) PubMed.gov Resources J. Sex Marital Therapy article finds that the “proportion of true pedophiles among persons with a homosexual erotic development is greater than that in persons who develop heterosexually.”

Santa Cruz University psychologist Dr. Thomas Plante’s argues that homosexuality is NOT associated with pedophilia.  Dr. Plante says that clerical offenders tend to be “generalists” who do not necessarily prefer boys, but who turn to boys because they have trust with and access to boys, which they do not have with girls.  Arguments such as this one are not intuitive to most of us, particularly given the statistics and the observations made by people who live in proximity to the gay culture, like the author of Madison’s Capital Times guest column, Can Madison tolerate Catholics?   Dr.Plante does acknowledge that most abusive priests are not pedophiles, since pedophiles are attracted to young, prepubescent children, generally under the age of 11. He does not discuss specifically whether homosexuals could be inclined toward ephebophilia.

Catholic Bishops, who have been studying and trying to solve the problem since 1985, also know something about this issue. Numerous Bishops have labeled this a homosexual problem in the priesthood, including Pope Benedict’s number two man Cardinal BertoneCardinal Burke, Swiss Bishop Eleganti, and Bishop Morlino of Madison, among others.  It has always been Catholic Church policy not to ordain men with deep seated homosexual tendencies.  

Explosive Implications

This association between homosexuality in the priesthood and forbidden sexual activity with teenagers (previously labeled pedophilia, but more correctly called ephebophilia) is the explosive information the Church has been faced with since the publication of the John Jay report around 2010.  This is information that, in the present global gay rights and gay marriage atmosphere, is not something anybody knows how to present to the world.   The political incorrectness of this information, and the potential for backlash following its acknowledgment, does not need much elaboration.

If these two issues are actually linked, that is, if homosexual priests are more inclined towards pedophilia (or, more accurately, ephobophilia, attraction to post-pubescent young men) than are heterosexual priests, then the solution to the pedophilia problem would have to involve a renewed effort to exclude homosexuals from the priesthood, and involve better enforcement of Church policy not to ordain homosexual men.

Nobody needs this blogger to tell them how politically unpopular trying to eliminate any homosexual sub-culture from the Church would be today in 2018.  Since that action is needed to eliminate the 80-90% of  sexual activity which is frequently called “pedophilia,” but which is actually ephebophilia, we need clergy of great courage to speak the truth and to name the problem.

Our Bishop Does Not Disappoint

True to his previous courageous leadership of the Diocese of Madison, our Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin, Robert C. Morlino, was among the first to name this problem and to call for it’s investigation after ex-Nuncio Vigaro sacrificially laid his head on the block and started the process of forced accountability all the way up to our Pope.

Bishop Morlino’s efforts to protect children and seminarians made the national news, and elicited a number of not surprising, naive and misinformed accusations from  liberal Madison’s press, including denial of the facts from Madison’s ex-Mayor- turned-journalist at progressive rag Isthmus Dave Cieslewicz, and a call for apology to the LGBTQ community published in Madison’s Capital Times.

Surprisingly, there was also a thought-provoking and supportive guest column entitiled Can Madison tolerate Catholics? in the Capital Times by non-Christian, non-Catholic Arabist-Islamologist scholar Kevin Barrett, which pointed out his first hand experience observing the association of homosexuality and ephebophilia in California.

Our Bishop Morlino, who has suffered enough at the hands of Madison’s LGBT activists, has yet again very courageously stepped up to defend Truth and to show us the way.

What’s a Liberal to Do?

Liberal Catholics, and our liberal Pope, who are inclined to relax Catholic rules on divorce and remarriage, are faced with a serious inconsistency.

If indeed, homosexuality is linked with ephebophilia, as all the Catholic abuse statistics indicate (science is real) then supporting homosexuals in the priesthood becomes incompatible with elimination of 80-90% of the sexual activity which has been called “pedophilia” in the Church today.

If the Pope was trying to show tolerance, mercy and compassion to the “Lavender Mafia” (gay priests who defy Church teaching on homosexual activity), that has now become unintentionally synonymous with coverup of the old child abuse scandals.

Now liberals in the Church who want to “modernize” the Church have come up against a wall — do you support the homosexual agenda with mercy and compassion, or do you side compassionately with justice for the victims of sexual abuse.

The Flip Side of Mercy

And so we now face the fact that there is a balance between mercy and justice, between compassion for the sinner and compassion for the victim, and there are times when we cannot be on both sides of the fence.

Despite our poor human lack of understanding of why justice must be enforced and sins must be atoned for, that balance does exist, and is as sure as the laws of physics and gravity.

As Catholics, both Catholics in the pews and clergy, many of us have trapped ourselves unwittingly, as we tried so hard to accommodate the cultural values around us, and to understand and excuse the behavior the sexual revolution of the 1960’s has spawned. We have tried to normalize, accept, and sometimes even welcome the homosexual culture into the Catholic Church.  This has been a source of much conflict within the Catholic Church.

Now it turns out that welcoming and tolerating homosexuality, particularly into the priesthhod, brings with it some painful baggage that none of us ever expected– heart-rending injury to our youth.

We cannot rage for justice from our leadership, condemning them for coverups, while we are also the ones who raged for normalization of homosexuality.  Liberal Catholics are now caught between a rock and a hard place.  They cannot be on both sides of the fence.  There is often an unrealized cost to mercy, a cost that nobody knew would have to be paid.

Mercy only allows us to offer ourselves as compensation for wrongs which have been done.  We cannot submit other people to suffering, especially children, in the name of mercy. 

In the most recent scandal, Pope Francis is trapped between his open and welcoming attitude towards gay priests like McCarrick, and the shocking realization that these homosexual priests, often referred to as the “lavender mafia”, live a culture often associated with promiscuity, ephebophilia, and cover up.

The pope and the Church are damned by our society if they don’t welcome and condone homosexual behavior, and they are damned in more ways than one if they do.
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Where Do We Go From Here?

Now that this link between homosexual priests and promiscuous homosexual activity has been established (science is real!), everyone in the church, from each one of us, to our clergy, to our bishops, all the way to the pope, is being forced to choose between the victim and the perpetrator, between justice and mercy, between abused teenage boys and homosexual priests.

So, we better stop pointing fingers, blaming and demanding, and we better remind ourselves that our clergy is 16 times less likely to abuse children than all of the rest of us.  We better start putting our heads together to search for what will likely be uncomfortable and painful solutions. These solutions that will probably involve going back to the age-old church policy, which excludes homosexuals from ordination to the priesthood. Much as we recognize the value of all human beings, we must also recognize that not all of us are suited for every occupation on earth.

American progressives, who include some American Catholics, have pressured the Church to remove any stigma from homosexuality, and even to approve gay marriage.  But when homosexuality becomes associated with sexual abuse of teenagers, or with an increased predilection towards pedophilia, how can we simultaneously pressure the Church to welcome homosexuals, yet eliminate ephebophilia at the same time?

Most people are afraid of even voicing these questions, lest their local ANTIFA throws bricks through their living room windows.
And our Pope, who seems to want to be a nice guy to everyone, is trapped by this dilemma, too.
It takes tremendous courage to step into the middle of this controversy, to take sides with abused children rather than with the hurt feelings of homosexuals, to seek investigation and documentation of the truth, regardless of what unpopular results we might face.

The Most Difficult Question

The last logical, yet very difficult and politically incorrect question to be asked will be the following– if indeed it is demonstrated that the homosexual subculture in the Church is associated with sexual abuse of teenagers, how does this apply to every other institution in our society where adults are in authority over teenagers — the schools, the scouts, sports coaches, and adoption institutions?

The Bigger Picture

One thing so often forgotten in all of these discussions is the bigger picture of sexual sin.
It is always easier to point fingers at another group than to acknowledge our own group’s sins.

Our society demands a certain degree of self restraint in a number of areas.  These include eating, studying, working, refraining from stealing, refraining from “hate speech,” and many more.
Yet our modern society has pretty much abandoned the notion of sexual self restraint.

We are quite capable of such restraint.   In fact, it would really improve our lives and would eliminate much misery, from the pain of divorce, to broken hearts, to STDs, to the culture of abortion, which kills about 1 million children every year in the United States. It would also reduce the shocking 28% of youth being sexually abused today.

When we as a society accept the degree of promiscuity that we now tolerate, how can we blame homosexuals for their lack of self-restraint?
If we followed (Judeo-Christian) Catholic teaching on the responsible use of our sexuality, and we educated and modeled modesty and sexual self control to our youth instead of using Planned Parenthood pamphlets to teach middle schoolers to be “Happy, Healthy and Hot,” the general atmosphere of civilized sexual behavior would reduce all scandals, which surfaced following the 1960’s “sexual revolution.”

Pope Paul VI predicted the misery the sexual revolution would lead to in his 1968 encyclical Humane Vitae (On Human Life).  It’s only 15 pages long.  Read it.

No Witch Hunt, Please!

Homosexuals are not the only ones who need to exercise some self-restraint.
We all do.
We need to remove the log from our own eyes before we criticize the splinter in theirs.

We cannot go after homosexuals in a witch hunt, nor after Catholic priests in a witch hunt.

We should develop a bit more respect for the Catholic Church and her moral teachings, and return to Judeo-Christian values instead.

Next Time You See a Catholic Priest

Next time you see a Catholic priest, say to yourself-
“My children are over 20 times safer with him than they are with me and my spouse.  Maybe I should be grateful to him for devoting his life to preserving the Wisdom passed down to us from Jesus Christ through the Catholic Church.”

Instead of bigoted attacks on the least offenders, remind yourself that anywhere you leave your child– school, daycare, sports, scouts, Olympics — there is always potential for sexual abuse.  MORE potential than in the Catholic Church.

 

The Numbers- Abusers on the Loose

Instead of worrying about the 300 priests in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report (half of whom are dead), worry about the 21,219 registered sex offenders running around free in Pennsylvania today.

There are 747,408 registered sex offenders in the US today, and 747 registered sex offenders in my town of Madison, Wisconsin .

We cannot evaporate these people, we cannot keep them in jail for life, we cannot transport them to a fictional location like on Star Trek, and we have to deal with the existence of these people among us.

The Catholic Church is no different than the City of Madison, the State of Pennsylvania, or the United States.
Moreover, the Catholic Church does not operate any prisons, has no police force, Department of Justice, FBI, army, or any other mechanism to deal with offending priests other than reprimanding them or demoting them.

If we don’t attack the Mayor of Madison, the Governor of Pennsylvania, or the President of the United States for the 28% of our youth who are sexually abused, why is everyone so obsessed with going after the Catholic leadership?
The Church MUST be open and transparent, must prevent future abuse.
But the rest of society has to do the same, because this is a problem that requires action.

 

Most Important of All

Whatever you do, PRAY, and do NOT teach  your child to be “Happy, Healthy and Hot”nor allow the schools to do it.

In the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, join us in fasting and prayer called for by Bishop Morlino:

Masses of reparation are being held throughout the Diocese on September 14, the Feast of the Holy Cross. Bishop Morlino has also invited people to observe the Autumn Ember Days (September 19, 21, 22) “as days of fasting and abstinence in reparation for the sins and outrages committed by members of the clergy and episcopacy.

CLICK HERE for Madison’s Catholic Herald Report on the Mass of Reparation for Sexual Sins

 

 

 

 

Platteville Journal Editor Dismayed at Being Lumped with Liberal Media

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Apparently my article on the progressive media’s coverage of Bishop Morlino last week stung the conscience of the editor of the Platteville Journal, Steve Prestegard.

I got the following 2 messages from him on facebook:

You know, before you lump me in with all the other liberal media, maybe you should find exactly who I am. Try out www.steveprestegard.com for starters.

and

And I wrote this: www.swnews4u.com/section/1/article/24863/

 

My reply to Steve Prestegard:

Steve-

(First, an aside-You also wrote THE BISHOP AND ME.)

The hyper-sensitivity you demonstrate to my criticism suggests an emotional involvement in this issue that is not characteristic of most journalists.

This professional conflict was apparently already obvious to you, judging from your published comments admitting that you are “someone in the media being a participant in the story.”   

Your decision to cover the story at all reflected a lack of perspective and a willingness to give exaggerated coverage to dissidents in the Catholic Church- the same accusation I leveled at Chris Rickert of the WiSJ.

Forgive me for pointing out that you seem to be a dissident who may even have left the Catholic Church, too?  Do you have an axe to grind here?
Slide1

So it was not professional of you to follow the Bishop, to use your status as a journalist to give a platform to several dissidents who clearly attended the Bishop’s talk with intent to disrupt it, carrying signs and humming, who were clearly not there to listen to what the Bishop had to say.

When the media make bad judgments that fail to represent my Church justly, I call them out on it.
You may have noticed one of the headings on my blog- “Don’t diss my Church.”

I was surprised to see your displeasure with my post, in which I primarily called out Chris Rickert.  I made only oblique reference to your involvement, and did not use your name.

Considering your coverage of the event in the Platteville Journal, you actually deserve the same calling out that Chris Rickert received.  But in that post I was addressing a recurring problem the WiSJ exhibits in their imbalanced coverage of the Catholic Church.
Platteville-Journal-April-21-2010-cover

Your coverage was not balanced either, and you over-analyzed what you thought the  Bishop should or should not have done in the face of a confrontational audience.  You came across as a disgruntled Catholic trying to use his job to spread rancor.

If you think that my calling you out is inconsistent with who you are, ask yourself whether your actions in this particular matter were consistent with who you claim to be (journalist/libertarian–conservative/Christian husband, father, Eagle Scout and aficionado of obscure rock music, according to your website.) . You did not behave toward Bishop Morlino as I would expect a Christian or an Eagle Scout to behave.  Judging from the facebook message you sent me, your conscience does seem to be smarting.

Slide2I suggest you read my blog post on the Platteville issue   for a more balanced perspective on who is actually responsible for the closing of the Platteville school that you apparently value– it is not the Bishop of Madison who is responsible for closing that school.

Your disgruntled attitude toward the old Platteville issues, your willingness to participate in the news event you were covering, the emotional nature of your reporting, and your volunteering of your Catholic background in the Platteville Journal article all indicate that you are a disgruntled Catholic or ex-Catholic.  In either case, you have no business airing your gripes publicly and mis-using your position as editor of a Wisconsin paper.

You tried to resurrect an old defunct issue, you did not do your homework on both sides of the question, you got involved personally in the event you were covering, and you dissed my Church.
So when you behave just like the progressive media, don’t be surprised when people associate you with the progressive media.

If you ask me, you owe the Bishop of Madison an apology for the sloppy hatchet job you tried to do on him.

The next time 7 or 8 supportive Catholics decide to attend a talk by Bishop Morlino, doubt whether you will come running, camera in hand, to cover the event, as you did for 7 or 8 obnoxious and rude dissidents.

Please try reporting on some real Catholic news.
And in Platteville, try reporting on the majority of Catholics, who support the wonderful priests who have been assigned there, instead of criticising their sacrificial service to the parish.

 

Progressive Media Pontificates on Right to Free Speech While Trampling It

and

WiSJ Disses the Catholic Church, Yet Again

 

Wisconsin State Journal Publishes a Call to Prayer?

Slide1The fact that Wisconsin’s State Journal would more appropriately be named the Wisconsin Progressive Journal is not news to many.

But a recent headline in the Wisconsin State Journal calling for prayer, for first amendment rights and for Jesus, is truly worth noticing. Chris Rickert provided us last week with such an invocation with this headline:

Praying that Bishop has a First Amendment Come-to-Jesus Moment

The Irony

Yes, it’s pretty clear that this call to prayer by Chris Rickert is not genuine and represents an attempt at sarcasm. The headline also represents a number of ironies worth mentioning:
Slide1

  • Disrespectful use of the name of Jesus constitutes blasphemy, insulting not only the God who is a bit more powerful than Chris Rickert, but also the 80% of Americans and Wisconsinites who believe in Him.  Nice job, WiSJ, alienate your  audience from the outset!
  • The headline calls for the protection of First Amendment rights, of free speech.  Coming from progressives, who aggressively silence all who disagree with them with name-calling and accusations of hate speech, and who try to ban the mention of Christianity from any public forum, this is amusing.
  • The timing of the headline is also highly ironic.  Chris Rickert calls for freedom of speech immediately after  the Wisconsin State Journal withheld freedom of speech from this conservative Catholic, by blocking me from discussion forums in which I was pointing out the slanted reporting of the WiSJ on the Catholic Church.

Nice Job, Chris Rickert- diss Jesus, diss Christians, diss the Catholic Church and Madison’s Bishop, while pontificating on free speech and simultaneously denying free speech in WiSJ discussion forums to those who are not progressives.

Blind Eye Towards Real Catholic News

Why was this Catholic blocked from discussion in the WiSJ?
I cannot speak to what motivated the WiSJ to block me last week.
I can only describe the discussion in which I participated, and leave you to draw your own conclusions.

blindeyeDuring November so far, the Wi SJ, was again, somewhat clumsily, mis-portraying the Catholic Church. WiSJ failed to report the news on Nov 17 that Pope Francis reiterated the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman-

“Children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child’s development and emotional maturity. That is why I stressed in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium that the contribution of marriage to society is ‘indispensable’; that it ‘transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple’ (n. 66). And that is why I am grateful to you for your Colloquium’s emphasis on the benefits that marriage can provide to children, the spouses themselves, and to society.”

He continues, “May this colloquium be an inspiration to all who seek to support and strengthen the union of man and woman in marriage as a unique, natural, fundamental and beautiful good for persons, families, communities, and whole societies.”

In the present media-generated atmosphere of questioning Pope Francis’ “real” position on various Church teachings, this support of traditional marriage was an important story. Unfortunately Pope Francis’ statements did not fall in with the media’s storyline, which tries to portray the new Pope as supportive of  the progressive agenda, despite his repeated assurances that he is a faithful son of the Church.

So this important statement of the Pope’s position on marriage, which would represent real news on religion, of interest to the majority of Wisconsin, was ignored by the WiSJ.

Publishing Dissident Ripples Instead

Yet the Wisconsin State Journal found the time and the space in the last few weeks for FIVE articles on Catholicism, all of which provided a platform and lent credibility to minority dissidents who oppose Catholic teaching:
Slide1

  • In Letter to Pope, Progressive Catholics List Grievances with Madison Diocese – Nov 10, by Doug Erickson- the WiSJ featured 96 LGBT and Call to Action members (96 out of diocese of 270,000, or 0.03 of 1% of Catholics in the Diocese of Madison) because they wrote a dissident letter to the Pope. It should be noted that numerous faithful  Catholic groups and individuals who support of Catholic teaching routinely write letters to the Pope, letters which are never featured in the WiSJ.
  • Stubborn Bishop Morlino Causes Divisiveness– Nov 13, by John Murphy – WiSJ published a letter in which one man calls out Bishop Morlino for being stubborn and divisive (for Bishop’s failure to promote John Murphy’s vision of Catholicism and for the Bishop’s adherence to Church teaching).
  • Catholic Church is big Enough for All of Us – Nov 14, by Jeanne Burger, WiSJ published a letter in which one dissident, member of the heretical Call to Action and supporter of (non-Catholic) Holy Wisdom Monastery, challenged the Church to include her heretical doctrines because the Church should be “big enough” (to include error?).
  • Bishop Robert Morlino Halts Speech, Changes Venue after Tangle with Reporter – Nov 21, by Doug Erickson, in which the WiSJ covered the handful of  non-students who came to stir up controversy during Bishop Morlino’s invited talk to UW Platteville Catholic students. The dissidents brought a media photographer, signs, and hummed their favorite controversial hymn, clearly trying to stir up controversy, which the Bishop avoided by moving the talk to a privately owned location. The WiSJ colluded with the Platteville Journal by publicizing this and giving a Wisconsin-wide platform to 7 or 8 Catholic dissidents.  Meanwhile, these publications routinely fail to report on pro-life activities in Madison which are attended by hundreds and even thousands of Catholics and Christians.
  • Praying that Bishop Has a First Amendment Come-to-Jesus Moment – Nov 23, by Chris Rickert, in which WiSJ’s Chris Rickert calls out Bishop Morlino for not having welcomed the Platteville dissidents with their Platteville media supporter in the UW Platteville confrontation that Bishop Morlino managed to defuse and avoid.  Rickert’s headline, claiming to pray that the Catholic Bishop of Madison would have a “Come -to-Jesus Moment” and demanding that the Bishop welcome those who came to disrupt his talk because of the First Amendment, speaks for itself as far as maturity is concerned.

warning-doesntunderstand-500x2721As described above, the WiSJ omitted a major story on Pope Francis and marriage, but focused 5 news items on individuals and minority dissidents who want to change the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Either WiSJ’s journalists do not understand the subject they are writing about, or they are misrepresenting the Catholic Church in the WiSJ intentionally. Neither alternative is very flattering.

I was in the process of pointing these things out in discussion forums at the WiSJ when my posts were suddenly blocked.

Professionalism (and any notion of free speech or of tolerance) had completely been abandoned by the Wisconsin State Journal.

Invoking the First Amendment While Trashing It

Thus the invocation of the First Amendment by WiSJ’s Chris Rickert in his Nov 23rd  article was particularly ironic in the light of WiSJ’s own blocking of my freedom of speech last week.

Progressives seem to advocate freedom of speech selectively- freedom of speech for progressives only- for dissidents, for minorities, and for rabble-rousing local media who seek to stir up controversy, as they tried to do at the Platteville talk.

However, progressives deny First Amendment rights to Bishop Morlino, actively hindering his ability  to speak to his flock.  They also deny faithful Catholics like me, who support Catholic teaching, the right to be heard.

Slide1Wi SJ seems to operate via the progressive motto: Freedom of speech for me, but not for you!
Hate speech labels for all who disagree with the progressive agenda.

Now I’m Unblocked…

Now, several days later, my participation in WiSJ discussion has been unblocked- due to what reason, I am not certain.

Perhaps the WiSJ suddenly had, to borrow Chris Rickert’s phrase, a “Let’s Respect the First Amendment Moment.”

More likely, they realized that word could get out if they manipulate their discussion forums.

Publishing Truth

When will the Wisconsin State Journal start publishing the truth about my Church, the Catholic Church?

Unfortunately, progressives don’t seem to speak or publish truth.
Their Alinsky tactics encourage “lack of transparency” (i.e. lies) to fool the “stupid people” of America into voting for the progressive left.
holding-my-breathThey specialize in attacking those who oppose them, those who represent reason and morality, with lies and misrepresentations.

Their opponents include, among other good people, the Catholic Church.

I’m not holding my breath to see the WiSJ publish the truth about the Catholic Church.

 

Related Articles:

  1. Setting the Record Straight I
  2. Setting the Record Straight II
  3. Wisconsin State Journal Reports on Bishop Morlino’s Ten Year Anniversary in Madison
  4. Catholic Belief Now Defined by Media and Sociologists?
  5. Grading Wisconsin State Journal Report on Bishop Morlino’s 10 Year Anniversary in Madison
  6. Doug Erickson and the Wisconsin State Journal Are Up to Their Old Tricks or Catholic Bashing in Wisconsin
  7. Diocese of Madison Prohibits Field Trips to Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery – or – Progressive Guide to Attacking Catholics

Setting the Record Straight II-
CNN Criticizes ‘Lavish’ Archbishop Residences

or

CNN Versus the Catholic Church

-dedicated to Saint John Paul II, whose first feast day as a Catholic Saint is celebrated today!

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Sociology 101

Slide1

Status Symbols

Like it or not, status and the symbols associated with status play crucial roles in society.

  • Wealth in the form of cars, houses and fine clothing  elicits respect in a commercial society.
  • Battle scars, medals and rank elicit respect in a military society.
  • Publications in erudite journals reflect status in an academic society.

Status and symbols of status stand for our achievements and testify to the credentials we have acquired.  They are often earned and are often very meaningful.

Symbols of Respect

Symbols of status are not only earned, but are also given as signs of respect to those whom we revere and to whom we are grateful.

  • A gold watch might be given to a faithful employee upon retirement.
  • A bouquet of roses is be given to a sweetheart or to a mother.

    19Pope06-533

    Pope Benedict celebrated Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City

  • Magnificent buildings are constructed for societal institutions–
    the World Trade Center was a symbol of America’s flourishing economy,
    the monuments of Washington, D.C. reflect our respect for government,
    European Cathedrals testify to Christian Europe’s devotion to God and to Faith,
    and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City reflects the reverence New York Catholics had for their Faith in 1858 when it was built.

So in effect, lavish symbols do not reflect decadence in the person holding the symbol, but often reflect the respect that society has awarded to the authority represented, or to the person representing that authority.

CNN Attacks Catholic Symbols of Respect

Archbishop's Residence adjacent to St. Patrick's Cathedral Think Pope Benedict stayed here?

Archbishop’s Residence adjacent to St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Could Pope Benedict have stayed here?

This brings us to a recent CNN article which upbraided several Catholic Archbishops for the lavishness of their residences, implying that the Archbishops were decadent individuals because of where they lived.

First on the list to be criticized by CNN was the residence of the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Dolan, the previous President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)– the top authority of the Catholic Church in the United States.  This is the man who represented the Catholic Church in America as he challenged President Obama over the Contraceptive and Abortion Mandate that was added to ObamaCare in 2012.

Apparently CNN would like to see this Archbishop/Cardinal/President of the USCCB demoted to less impressive living quarters. CNN complains that Cardinal Dolan shares the rectory pictured above with 3 other priests.  This is the rectory that housed Archbishop Fulton Sheen in the 1950’s, New York’s Archishop who’s sermons routinely drew 6,000 people to St. Patrick’s and whose television appearances competed with Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra.  On Good Friday, his sermons were broadcast outdoors to the thousands standing outside St. Patrick’s.  Cardinal Dolan today has comparable national and international visibility, meets routinely with political figures and celebrities, and has to plan the visits of religious leaders, including Pope Francis.

CNN would like Cardinal Dolan to run these operations from residence humbler than the rectory pictured above.

Cardinal Dolan’s Living Quarters

Slide3

CNN would like Cardinal Dolan demoted to less impressive living quarters

If we listened to CNN and tried to demote Cardinal Dolan from his residence adjacent to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, what should be done with that residence, which was built by Catholics for the Archbishop in 1858, and is now a national historic landmark?

Shall we demolish it and put up a tent?
That won’t work, the value of Manhattan real estate is so high that the value of the lone tent could be criticized as lavish!

Shall we make the Cardinal live in the suburbs in Queens, schlepping through the subways to get to his Cathedral each morning?
CNN might like that; less time for the Archbishop to celebrate Mass, teach morality and train/ordain priests!

If we did banish the Cardinal’s living quarters to humbler suburbs, what is to be done with the land that had housed his demolished rectory residence?
Open a soup kitchen? That won’t work- not many homeless on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, across the street from Rockefeller Center.

Perhaps we should adopt the ex-mayor of Madison, Wisconsin’s suggestion, who proposed replacing Madison’s Catholic Cathedral with a shopping mall and parking ramp when it was destroyed by arson.
A Saks Fifth Avenue branch might be the New York City equivalent?
CNN might like that!

Why is CNN Attacking the Catholic Church, Anyway?

Slide1Why is CNN attacking the Church?

Because Ted Turner is the founder and owner of CNN.
Ted Turner hates the Catholic Church, openly opposes the Ten Commandments (he makes particular mention of the commanment relating to adultery), makes a habit of mocking religious people, and has openly mocked Pope John Paul II, who is now a saint. Today, October 22, 2014,  the Catholic Church celebrates the first feast day of Saint John Paul II.

The following passage is from CNN’s tribute to Turner which was published on the occasion of his 75th birthday:

“He revised the Ten Commandments, which he considered outdated, coming up instead with his Eleven Voluntary Initiatives, which he printed on cards small enough to carry in a wallet. He tossed out the commandments that struck him as outdated — a host of the “thou shalt nots,” particularly the one banning adultery. “People have had a lot of fun breaking that one. I know I did.”

(Ted Turner is)… a man who has been married and divorced three times and keeps four girlfriends in a “loose” weekly rotation,  believes people are meant to find a lifetime soul mate. He thinks he still has time to find his.”

Aside from being passionately anti-Catholic, Ted Turner is also one of the world’s richest men, and one of the most overtly anti-Catholic promoters of eugenic population control.

So it comes as little surprise that Ted Turner likes to attack the Catholic Church.

So Where Does Ted Turner Live?

One might think, based on CNN’s criticism ofArchbishops’ residences, and based on Ted Turner’s self-description as “environmentalist and pioneer in sustainability,” that Ted Turner might occupy modest living quarters.
But no, he does not.Slide1

The man who attacks the residences of Catholic Archbishops as being “lavish” has more than 20 “major” residences himself. His residences are routinely featured in architectural magazines.

Ted Turner is the second largest individual landholder in North America, and brags on his website that he owns over 2 million acres of personal and ranch land.
Ted Turner is a billionaire worth more than 2 billion dollars.

Ted Turner is about as lavish as a human being can get.  Mr. Lavish personified, in fact.

Why Would Mr. Lavish Criticize Archbishops’ Residences Which Are So Much Humbler Than His Own?Slide1

So when it comes to CNN criticism of Archbishops and their residences, it becomes pretty clear that CNN is just making feeble attempts to demote the Catholic Church and to reduce the moral sway the Church holds in the world.

Despite the efforts of CNN and the liberal media, the Catholic Church and the Ten Commandments continue to command respect and are widely acknowledged for the moral authority they rightfully represent.

No matter how many plush residences Ted Turner  builds for himself, no matter how many millions of acres and billions of dollars he owns, and no matter how many times he suggest that Catholic Archbishops should move into hovels or tents, Ted Turner will never command the respect, nor be acknowledged as the moral authority that he so clearly envies in the Archbishops of the Catholic Church.

Ted Turner’s Revision of the Ten Commandments

Slide1Richard Branson, business magnate and friend of Ted Turner, describes Ted Turner’s philosophy like this:

“I wrote recently about staying with Ted Turner for a few days at his stunning estate in Florida. Was struck by his incredible wit and passion for life, and we got talking about his philosophy for living life to the full.

“The rules/commandments we live by were written some two thousand years ago. Rules shouldn’t be written in stone. They should be updated with time. Here are Ted Turners 11 voluntary initiatives:”

Ted Turner’s Voluntary Initiatives (Syte’s) Translation of Initiative
1. I promise to care for planet earth and all living things thereon, especially my fellow human beings. 1. My definition of “caring” will include eliminating all unwanted human beings by abortion or by euthanasia.
2. I promise to treat all persons everywhere with dignity, respect and friendliness. 2. I am SO naive that I even plan to treat ISIS with friendliness.  I am sure that my friendliness will dissuade them from  beheading my fellow Americans and journalists.
3. I promise to have no more than one or two children. 3. I will kill all the rest of my children, eitner as embryos with contraception, or as fetuses with abortion.  But actually, no! Too late for me.  I already have five children.  These rules are actually only for other people, not for me.
4. I promise to use my best efforts to help save what is left of our natural world in its undisturbed state and to restore degraded areas. 4. As the second largest landowner in the nation, I will keep most of those undisturbed areas for myself.
5. I promise to use as little of our non-renewable resources as possible. 5. Please don’t ask me how operating more than 20 principal residences for one person fits into using as few resources as possible.
6. I promise to minimize my use of toxic chemicals, pesticides and other poisons and to encourage others to do the same. 6. Fortunately, surrounded by millions of acres, nobody will see what I am doing to get rid of the scorpions and other pests on my numerous ranches which are featured in Architectural Digest.
7. I promise to contribute to those less fortunate, to help them become self-sufficient and enjoy the benefits of a decent life including clean air, and water, adequate food, health care, housing, education and individual rights. 7. My biggest charity is the United Nations Foundation, to which I gave $1Billion.  As Chairman of the Board of this Foundation, I am donating to something I head and control myself.  In essence, I am my own favorite charity. My UN foundation furthers “empowering women and girls,” a buzz phrase for global abortion. I don’t give a hoot about the rights of unborn human beings.
8. I reject the use of force, in particular military force, and I support United Nations arbitration of international disputes. 8. I will repel ISIS with my niceness and my friendliness in place of force.  And the whole world will have to listen to the United Nations Foundation, in which I am conveniently at the helm.  In essence, international disputes should be solved by rich and powerful people like me.
9. I support doing everything we can to reduce the dangers from nuclear biological or chemical weapons and ultimately the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction. 9. By disarming America I will let the bad guys of the world be the only ones with weapons of mass destruction. Isn’t that a brilliant idea?  Then I will ask ISIS nicely not to use their weapons of mass destruction on me.  Islamic ISIS is really likely to approve of me and my promiscuous lifestyle.
10. I support the United Nations and its efforts to improve the conditions of the planet. 10. As chairman of the board of the United Nations Foundation, I will get to define what is an improvement for the planet and what is not. I’m not power-hungry; I just want to rule the planet!
11. I support clean renewable energy, and a rapid move to eliminate carbon emissions. 11. Since carbon emissions are directly proportional to degree of civilization, this means I advocate reducing prosperity and power in today’s leading nations.  And who should have power instead? Why me, of course, through the United Nations.

Ted Turner Talks Summarizing Why CNN Criticizes the Residences of Catholic Archbishops

  • Ted Turmer, founder and owner of CNN, hates the 10 Commandments and hates the Catholic Church.
  • Ted Turner has even suggested replacing the 10 Commandments with 11 Initiatives of his own.
  • Ted Turner clearly resents the teachings and the moral authority of the Catholic Church and of her Archbishops, and would like to replace religious authorities with the United Nations, where he himself has status.
  • This is why Ted Turner routinely attacks the symbols of respect which the world awards to the Catholic Church.
  • Ted would like to be less biased in his bellicose attacks toward religion, but Catholicism is his favorite target due to the size of it’s membership, high degree of organization ( hence attacking Archbishops) and global influence.ROSARY IS 'FAVORITE PRAYER' OF POPE JOHN PAUL II

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Saint John Paul II, Pray for us!

 

The Rosary, Saint John Paul’s favorite prayer:

Free downloadable mobile PDF – How to Pray the Rosary.

 

 

 

Setting The Record Straight

PART I

or

Is Doug Erickson a George Soros Henchman?

Slide1It seems that the liberal media takes every opportunity to misrepresent and malign Catholicism. A person can grow weary trying to keep up with setting the record straight, but here we go again…

Don’t Diss My Church!

Below is another recent misrepresentation/false accusation leveled by media at my Church.

Madison’s Wisconsin State Journal, Gays and Baptism

Not too unexpectedly, Madison’s Wisconsin State Journal has again been trying to make an issue out of standard Catholic Church teaching and policy. The latest issue raised by reporter Doug Erickson is infant baptism for same-sex couples.

IMG_1095The Catholic Church Postion

For all infant baptisms, the Catholic Church requires that parents and godparents promise to raise the child in conformity with the Catholic faith. That’s why godparents cannot be atheists, for example.

Not a very shocking suggestion, considering the pointlessness of initiating a person into an organization whose principles that person does not plan to uphold. In the case of the infant, the adult sponsors are making the promise and following up on that promise for the child.

GLN_Holy_Name_protest_2011

Gay Protests at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago

Same-Sex Parents and Godparents

It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that a same-sex couple might not be inclined to follow up on such baptismal promises to stay faithful to the Catholic Church, considering the fact that Catholic Church teaching does not permit gay marriage, nor acknowledge the sexually active gay lifestyle as a morally or medically healthy one.

It follows that the Catholic Church would have some guidelines on how to handle requests for baptism from same-sex couples– to determine whether these are bona fide requests for sacramental baptism, or progressive in-your-face challenges similar to those frequently exhibited by the gay community toward the Catholic Church.

Gay Attitude Towards the Catholic Church

Here is a three minute example of how Madison, Wisconsin’s gay community has mistreated the Catholic Bishop of Madison in the past:

Given the treatment the Catholic Church gets from the gay community of Madison (above video), it comes as no surprise that the Diocese of Madison has to plan on how to follow age-old baptism requirements, to confirm the good intentions of gay couples who present a child for baptism.  The Church wishes to ensure that the parents and godparents intend to fulfill their promises to raise the child in conformity with the Catholic faith, and that they are not simply interested in using the Catholic Church for free media coverage, as has been done in the past.

Wisconsin State Journal is Surprised

Slide1

Typical Wisconsin State Journal article trashing Catholicism

No surprise to most of us that the Church follows Catholic teaching, but apparently a surprise to Doug Erickson and the Wisconsin State Journal, and an opportunity for Catholic-bashing for their “progressive” readers who tolerate only their own views.

The Wisconsin State Journal (WiSJ) has long exhibited a bias against conservatism and religion, by publishing numerous negative articles about Catholicism, by omitting positive coverage of mainstream religious events, and by favoring the small fringe radical groups who oppose mainstream religion.

In  the WiSJ, petitions against the Catholic Church are publicized, arrests of Lutheran Bishops are featured prominently, biased articles are published to inflame parish conflicts, but no mention is ever made of hundreds of people joining in Corpus Christi processions around Madison’s Capitol, of thousands of people gathering in support of Pro-Life causes, of over a thousand signatures in support of Madison’s Bishop following WiSJ’s advertising the signatures of 24 dissidents, and no mention of a global rosary campaign originating in Madison through which almost 50,000 rosaries have been prayed for Bishop Morlino so far, and through which 325,000 rosaries have been prayed for bishops worldwide.

Wisconsin State Journal Promotes Fringe Radicals

In contrast, fringe radicals get plenty of press from the Wisconsin State Journal.  Announcements are made of Atheist Churches in the Planning, free promotion is given to two ex-Catholic nuns who successfully hijacked land, and are attempting to hijack congregations as well from the Catholic Church, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, (FFRF) which represents only one per thousand atheists, is promoted regularly, almost religiously. Slide1

The contrast between lives lived according to Christian belief and the intolerant destructive activities of groups such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation is striking, and was previously discussed in The Contrast.

Yet the Wisconsin State Journal favors and promotes the Freedom From Religion Foundation regularly.  Somehow, Doug Erickson even managed to promote the FFRF CHRISTMAS sign this week, in the middle of August. Despite the fact that FFRF claims to be against public expressions of religion, they do advocate paganism themselves – publicly, at the Wisconsin State Capitol, including pagan references on their Christmas plaque.

And Doug Erickson of the Wisconsin State Journal wants to help.

Grasping At Straws

So what makeshift excuse did the Wisconsin State Journal use this time for sensationalizing Catholic Church policy on infant baptism for same-sex couples?

Doug Erickson of the Wisconsin State Journal reported the collection of 20,000 signatures from people upset to hear the Diocese of Madison’s policies on infant baptism.
Signatures demanding an explanation of the baptism policy which has already been thoroughly explained.

20,000 Signatures

Were the 20,000 signatures from Madison?Slide1
No.
Were 20,000 signatures from Catholics?
No.
Where were the 20,000 signatures from?
The 20,000 signatures came from a small fringe Christian organization, Faithful America, which is not Catholic, is not faithful to mainstream Christianity,  is not large (310,000 national membership), and which specializes in opposing what they call the “Christian Right.”

Faithful America is a gay advocacy group funded by George Soros, which was responsible for trying to block comedian Bob Newhart from speaking at a Catholic summit because the 84-year-old actor supports traditional marriage.

Slide3

Doug Erickson
George Soros Henchman or Wisconsin State Journal Religion Reporter?

Funded by WHOM?

Yes, “Faithful” America is funded by George Soros, who was also behind the Nuns-on-the-Bus campaign, another pathetic attempt to discredit the Catholic Church by publicizing and exaggerating the rebellion of two elderly nuns.

So now, Faithful America – George Soros’ progressive henchmen –  are trying to challenge the Diocese of Madison’s not-very-surprising plan to protect the sacrament of Baptism from political manipulation in Madison.

And Doug Erickson wants to help.

Faithful America succeeded collecting the signatures of less than 7% of their own group, which in itself represents only 0.1 of 1% of American Christians.

Yet the Wisconsin State Journal gives them visibility.

Destructive Versus Constructive GroupsSlide1

Faithful America seems to be taking a page from the Freedom From Religion Foundation operations manual,  critically prying into the business of far-away communities and attacking the beliefs of others, rather than orienting their efforts into constructive service to the community instead, as the groups they attack, such as the Catholic Church, do.

And the Wisconsin State Journal joins them, reporting on fringe disgruntled dissidents in preference to reporting on the good that the Churches of Madison, Wisconsin do.
Doug Erickson seems to devote himself to giving credibility to many fringe progressive groups in the Wisconsin Sate Journal, while failing to report on the power of my 2,000 year old religion, Catholicism, and what it accomplishes in Madison, in Wisconsin, and in the United States. The disproportionate and unprofessional nature of his reporting betrays his agenda- that of promoting fringe progressive thought.

George Soros

More than one of the groups promoted by Doug Erickson receive funds from George Soros, a billionaire with the stated goal of transforming the world.

Slide1

Soros Biography by Dr. Joy Tiz

George Soros is an atheist who, in his own words, “grew up in a Jewish, anti-semitic home.” George Soros, as a teenager, helped to cart off the stolen possessions Jews after they were rounded up and transported to death camps. He claims that he has no personal regrets about his actions.

In one interview, George Soros portrayed himself as someone who shared numerous attributes with “God in the Old Testament”― “You know, like invisible. I was pretty invisible. Benevolent. I was pretty benevolent. All-seeing. I tried to be all-seeing.”

So the self-proclaimed invisible, benevolent and all-seeing George Soros, reputed to be a psychopath, goes about waging war on the Catholic Church, trying very hard to be subtle about it.

And Doug Erickson wants to help.

Doug Erickson and the Wisconsin State Journal

Whether Doug Erickson is familiar with these facts about George Soros, with Soros’ connection to  Faithful America,  or Soros’ connection to the other fringe groups Doug Erickson favors in his reporting, is not clear.  It is also not clear whether he or the Wisconsin State Journal benefit in any additional, more direct way from their biased reporting, or from George Soros.  But a good reporter would figure these things out before taking on this agenda.

We can say for sure that Erickson’s and the Wisconsin State Journal’s attacks on mainstream religion and on mainstream morality, no matter how clandestine or clever they think they are being, are quite transparent. The results of these attacks on Wisconsin’s values are reflected in the newspaper’s dwindling circulation.

 

The Holy Season of Lent: Time for Bashing Catholics in Madison Wisconsin

0r

The Wisconsin State Journal Defiles Itself Again

Common Knowledge

rapunzel-warriors-attack-cartoon-miscellanea-686632-1024x640It is common knowledge among people of faith that “enlightened” irreligious progressives who do not engage in customary Lenten spiritual sacrifice/self-improvement, frequently spend Lent attacking Christians and attacking the Catholic Church in the media and elsewhere.

Why? Anybody’s guess.  Too much free time?  Subconscious guilt?  Satan preying on undisciplined minds and spirits?  Conscious exercise of Alinsky Tactics by progressives who want to damage the reputation of the Church?|

After all, the Catholic Church is the largest, most organized and most effective opponent of the radical agenda in the world today, and Madison, home of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the place where embryonic stem cell research was developed and patented, is not a welcoming place for Catholics or for their philosophy.

Predictable Lenten Attacks

So, in predictable fashion, Lenten attacks against Catholics have been escalating in progressive Progressive tactics

Madison in recent weeks, led by the Wisconsin State Journal (WiSJ), which seems bent on self-destruction, like it’s partner publication the Cap Times, which is no longer available in print.

The Wisconsin State Journal just published an interview with Madison’s Bishop Morlino about Pope Francis’ teachings.  Although not biased in itself, the interview spawned vicious online discussion attacks on the Bishop, with “enlightened,” highly educated and “tolerant” Madisonians dredging up old false myths and accusations against the Catholic Church, denigrating Madison’s Bishop, and even ridiculing Catholic liturgical vestments.

Unbiased, or Set Up to Spike?

This Wisconsin State Journal’s “unbiased” interview actually only looked unbiased to those uninitiated to Madison and it’s WiSJ. The interview article was actually a set up, like a volleyball play set up by one player for another to spike the ball.  Once the interview was placed by 0420-1007-3011-4011_man_spiking_a_volleyball_over_the_net_oreporter A (Doug Erickson, who incidentally tried just last month to associate the Bishop of Madison falsely with child abuse allegations elsewhere in the US), attackers followed.  The attackers included a second WiSJ reporter B (Chris Rickert), who ridiculed the Bishop’s interview and questioned his motivations in a second article, in which Rickert presumed to know the mind of God.  The Editor John Smalley participated by publishing three letters from angry readers ( 1,  2,  3 ) who attacked the Bishop and the Diocese.  And finally, attackers included the “regulars;” anonymous Madisonians who attack the Catholic Church, the Diocese, and the Bishop routinely in the discussion forums after each WiSJ article published about Catholics.  These “regulars” include Madison’s biggest bullies hiding their true identities behind screen names, lacking the courage to spread their hateful slander undisguised.

Obama Sets Up and Spikes

This set-up-and-spike tactic is not uncommon among progressives; it was the very tactic used by President Obama to attack the Catholic Church in the early planning stages of ObamaCare.  President Obama invited Cardinal Dolan, President of the United States Conference of Catholic dolan-obamaBishops to the White House, assured him that ObamaCare will respect the religious rights of Catholic institutions, invited Cardinal Dolan to relay the message to the other bishops to put the Catholic Church at ease, unprepared for what was coming next.  The axe fell a few months later, when President Obama issued the Contraception Mandate, to which many other groups were exempt, but to which the Catholic Church received no exemption, thus requiring Catholic institutions to violate their religious beliefs or be punished financially and cripplingly by law.

At present, President Obama is fighting 91 Religious Liberty lawsuits, and the Vatican’s Chief Justice, Cardinal Burke, has declared that Obama’s policies are “Progressively More Hostile Toward Christian Civilization.”

Slide1Intolerant Progressive Dogmatist Attacks

So these set-up-and-spike tactics are not new to progressive politics.  Not too surprising, for a group that advocates free birth control and promiscuity, followed by abortion which perpetrates eugenics, lack of fiscal accountability either in government or in citizenry, and numerous other unethical policies which violate the Ten Commandments and the Constitution of the United States.   The WiSJ simply appeared to be mimicking President Obama in it’s use of tactics against the Catholic Church.

Second Round of Attack – Who Ridicules Victims of Arson?
Stations of the Cross?

The above series of attacks stemming from the interview with Bishop Morlino about the Pope was then followed by reporter B’s (Chris Rickert’s) publishing a very disrespectful piece about the Diocese of Madison’s burnt down Cathedral site in Madison, which now houses a temporary outdoor Stations of the Cross until the economy permits the rebuilding of a Cathedral

Chris Rickert

Who ridicules? Chris Rickert does

downtown.   In this second round of attacks, Rickert failed to even mention that the plot of land had housed a Cathedral burned down by arson, he showed no sympathy for his fellow Christians (he actually claimed to be a Christian in the piece!) for the tragic loss of their Cathedral, and made wise-cracks about the tax-ability of the land, suggested its use for public bathrooms, lamented that the land was not used for soup kitchens, Girl Scout and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and suggested it would be more useful for tossing a football or for “smooching under the stars.”

If Rickert is truly a Christian, he could look into some Lenten spiritual self-improvement rather than ridiculing the Stations of the Cross during Lent.

Professional Journalism, or Professional Suicide?

a9780a28cc69ed355daac0804dc7b679ab81beac_fullThe level of misinformation and disrespect delivered by Rickert’s piece was pretty remarkable for someone who claims to be a journalist and claims to have a “laser-like perspective.”  More remarkable is the fact that his editor, John Smalley, allowed it to be published. Finally, most remarkable of all, is the fact that the second largest newspaper in Wisconsin publishes such literary offal.  Offal which insults the 25% Catholic population of Madison, of Wisconsin and of the United States.  All the while claiming to be a mecca of tolerance, intellectualism and enlightenment.

The Wisconsin State Journal is likely to go the way of other progressive organizations that have imploded from their own boomeranging tactics.  That would include the Capital Times of Madison which abandoned print editions in 2008, and the plunging ratings of MSNBC, CNN, and even of President Obama himself, whose lies and misrepresentations are coming home to roost, both at home and abroad.

More Disgruntled Progressives During Lent

Wisconsin State Journal is not alone in their nefarious activities this Lent.  Apparently, the Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison also got a bee in it’s bonnet over religion recently.  They were incensed to hear that (Christian) Governer Scott Walker tweeted a scripture reference recently  (Philipians 4:13), and demanded removal of the tweet.  The scripture verse reads “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”Slide1

Why would the Freedom From Religion Foundation be in such a quandary over the tweeting of a scripture reference?  Because the scripture reference summarizes the Power of Religion and alerts people to the fundamental reason why Freedom From Religion wants eradication of religion from public life—the fact religion advocates an inviolable moral code, which places limits on the actions in which all, including the powerful, can engage. The Freedom of Religion Foundation is terrified of nice men who are powerful; for politicians, these men are dangerous.  Such men include Pope Francis and Scott Walker.  In actual fact, the Freedom From Religion Foundation represents only 1 out of thousand atheists, and only one out of 10,000 Americans, so they do not represent a serious threat to the rest of 80% Christian America, unless we allow ourselves to be bullied into submission by a pathetic and angry minority.  Most atheists (999 out of 1,000) are quite happy to coexist with Christians without demanding to control their tweets.

Have a Good Productive Lent, Everyone

holy-redeemer-churchSo, as the disgruntled media and progressives continue their customary attacks on Christians in Madison this Lent, let’s remember that Religion is Power, and including God in the plan helps us to win the war.  Our opponents can attack and sputter as much as they want during Lent, but as Governor Walker reminds us, in Christ, we can do all things.  Lent is our training camp, the Way of the Cross is our salvation, and the Resurrection and Easter are not just symbolic; they are very, very real.Slide18-e1376614703643-300x190

No wonder the Enemy is sputtering at the approach of Lent and Easter each year!

Have a good and spiritually productive Lent, everyone!

.
Praise be to God!

 

 

Want to Complain?

COMPLAIN TO:

Want to Pray for Our Bishops?Slide1

Check out the cool global map  at Rosary for the Bishop, a website organized in 2005 to help support Bishop Morlino against the attacks he was suffering in Madison, and which now coordinates 1580 members from 258 dioceses and from 996 parishes, who have prayed 278,300 rosaries for 456 bishops globally since then.

Join the effort by signing up to pray as little as one rosary per month for the bishop of your choice. Note: Pope Francis is also a bishop, and you can sign up to pray for him.

Against odds like this, Chris Rickert, Doug Erickson and the Wisconsin State Journal have little chance.

Slide2

See what happened the last time we took to global prayer: Making Sense of Syria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doug Erickson and theWisconsin State Journal Are Up to Their Old Tricks

Smear Journalism in Madison

b6d7090a321aeca0f529ab265a288b1b_XLDespite Madison, Wisconsin’s claim to be very “progressive” and very tolerant, the Wisconsin State Journal (WiSJ) and reporter Doug Erickson have slanted their reporting on the Catholic Church and the Church’s Bishop in Madison in the past.
One of the prime reasons for my establishing this blog was to defend my faith against such “progressives” in Madison who apparently feel the need to malign the Catholic Church.
Many of my articles, including this one, fall under the blog category “Don’t Diss My Church.”

To be fair, there was a time last year when Doug Erickson and the WiSJ appeared to have reformed their reporting on Catholic Madison.  The article written on Bishop Morlino’s tenth anniversary as Bishop of Madison was balanced and reasonable.
Just two days after the balanced article, the WiSJ was back to their old tricks, publishing a misrepresentation cartoon of Bishop Morlino.
To their credit, Doug Ericson and the WiSJ seemed to behave better during the last few months, focusing on promoting their own liberal agenda, rather than focusing on maligning the Catholic Church directly.
But this week Doug Erickson and the WiSJ are clearly back to their old tricks.

Slide1-e1374802950772

This week an article was published  in the WiSJ with a headline linking Bishop Morlino to a Diocese which is going bankrupt due to sexual child abuse allegations.

  • Never mind that the alleged heinous acts did not occur on Bishop Morlino’s watch.
  • Never mind that some of the alleged heinous acts occurred before Bishop Morlino was born.
  • Never mind that the lawsuits in question were filed up to 71 years after abuse was alleged to have occurred.
  • Never mind that the allegations were only made in 2011, almost a decade after Bishop Morlino was no longer at that diocese.
  • Never mind that Catholic Priests abuse children at a rate far lower than that of other males in the general population and that the priests have been politically and unfairly targeted by critics of the Catholic Church (previously reported by this blogger and acknowledged by Newsweek and by USA Today).

The simple fact that Bishop Morlino worked at that diocese in the past was enough for Madison’s leading newspaper to find an opportunity to link this good Bishop’s name with child abuse scandals which did not happen, nor did they surface, on Bishop Morlino’s watch.

What’s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander

I say to Doug Erickson and to the Wisconsin State Journal:

Have either the University you attended or an employer you worked for previously ever been the subjects of sexual abuse litigation?
Was a teacher/staff member from your middle school ever accused of child abuse (9.6% of public school students are targets of educator sexual misconduct)?

Have you ever rooted for Penn State, whose football coach Jerry Sandusky is a convicted serial child molester? 

Are you a fan of Woody Allen movies, whose sexual molestation of his family has been in the news in recently? 
Have you ever vacationed in Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Korea, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, or Uruguay, all countries reputed to be involved with Child Sex Tourism?

Slide1If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” then we better write an article about YOU, similar to the one you wrote about Bishop Morlino, announcing that this place you were associated with in the past has been accused of heinous acts:

 

Wisconsin State Journal Reporter’s Previous Employer
Filing For Bankruptcy Due to Child Abuse Allegations
or
Doug Erickson’s Previous Employer
Filing For Bankruptcy Due to Child Abuse Allegations

We can pretend that we did not smear your reputation with our suggestive article by publishing a quote from you on how you were unaware, or not involved, or only there in a different decade.

Bishop Morlino wasn’t even born at the time as some of the allegations you write about were said to occur, and the problems did not occur on his watch, yet you include his name in your sensational title. 

Doug Erickson and the Wisconsin State JournalOnce a suggestion is made, whether directly or indirectly by association, it cannot be taken back. 
A journalist should have the integrity not to engage in such smear tactics.
Shame on you.
How unprofessional!

It’s Not About Catholic Priests

The media’s smearing of the Catholic Church is  not about Catholic priests.  It’s about smearing the Catholic Church, smearing a moral authority which encourages citizens to hold government accountable to the laws of God .

Progressives have an agenda.
They want to live their lives centered on pleasure, and want to destroy anyone who suggests that they hurt others with their selfish agenda.
They want promiscuity celebrated, they want the resulting babies aborted, and they want their new morality to be praised and to be taught in the schools.
Media is their weapon.

Wisconsin State JournalWhether it is conscious or not, this is the agenda the Wisconsin State Journal and Doug Erickson are promoting.
Catholics get the most flack because they are the most numerous and organized of Christian groups,  and thus have the most power.
Catholic Bishops are particularly frightening to progressives, and are under particular attack.

Want to Complain?

COMPLAIN TO:

Want to Pray for Our Bishops?Slide1

Check out the cool global map  at Rosary for the Bishop, a website organized in 2005 to help support Bishop Morlino against the attacks he was suffering in Madison, and which now coordinates 1580 members from 258 dioceses and from 996 parishes, who have prayed 278,300 rosaries for 456 bishops globally since then.

Join the effort by signing up to pray as little as one rosary per month for the bishop of your choice. Note: Pope Francis is also a bishop, and you can sign up to pray for him.

Against odds like this, Doug Erickson and the Wisconsin State Journal have little chance.

Slide2

 See what happened the last time we took to global prayer: Making Sense of Syria.

Diocese of Madison Prohibits Field Trips to Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery
or
Progressive Guide to Attacking Catholics

Wisconsin State Journal Reports

WI_Inst_Disc_Ext_NEDoug Erickson of the Wisconsin State Journal has published another reasonably balanced article on the Catholic Church in Madison (click here for 1st reasonably balanced article), and the Diocese position in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery’s embryonic stem cell research.  Appropriate, since the Catholic Church represents the largest religious denomination in Madison and in the United States, and 25% of Madisonians and Wisconsinites are Catholic.  The article raises an important question on the morality of embryonic stem cell research, which should be evaluated and discussed by our intellectual university town of Madison.

Intolerant Progressive Dogmatists Attack

Yet the online discussion forums following this article are completely dominated by Madison’s intolerant progressive dogmatists, who have shifted the meaning of tolerance away from accepting the right of others to hold dissenting views, to demanding that all agree with progressive dogmatists, under pain of uncivilized attack and ridicule.

rapunzel-warriors-attack-cartoon-miscellanea-686632

Discussion Diverted

The 36 comments so far include no intellectual discussion whatsoever of the morality of stem cell research, but instead try to divert true discussion with the standard barrage of unrelated and bigoted false accusations routinely used by progressive opponents of the Catholic Church in Madison – accusations of ignoring war and poverty, ignoring the teachings of Jesus, supporting Republicans, rejecting evolution, supporting child abuse, supporting the School of the Americas, and misrepresentations of the Catholic position on contraception, of tax exemption of religious institutions, and of the old Galileo question.
Translation: when you can’t win the argument, change the subject.  Attack, even if you have to do it with lies.

How Undignified

Slide1.

This diversion of discussion to unrelated topics also includes the usual unintellectual name-calling aimed at Catholics- including bastions of ignorance, thugs, religious nuts, antichoicers, misogynists, anitgays, bubyull (?) thumping idiots, narrow beliefs, hypocrites, “choice” to be ignorant, “imaginary people they claim to be concerned about,” fevered minds, Imam Morlino, Catholic idiots, Vatican has done more to damage the human race, incapable of free thought, anti-intelligence, and book of fiction (the Bible).
This, coming from tolerant, intellectual Madison, and published without question by one of Wisconsin’s leading newspapers, the Wisconsin State Journal.

Translation: When you have nothing in your arsenal during a debate, use name-calling and lies.  You just might snow and distract the audience.

.

King of the Mountain

This barrage of comments represents an attempt to eradicate the intellectual assessment and discussion of truth, and it forbids rational dialogue.  It resembles more an adult version of the playground game “King of the Mountain,” in which pushing and shoving are the only tactics that prevail.

Slide1

The Progressive Image

The idea that Madison’s intolerant progressive dogmatists view their boorish tactics as advancing debate about science, progress, or representing the high moral ground, is ironic, and very counterproductive.

Primitive name-calling and the blind misinformed ridicule of people’s religious beliefs do not lend any credibility to Madison’s progressives, but only make them appear juvenile and foolish.
Intelligent people should realize when they are shooting themselves in the foot.

The Catholic Response

Catholics and conservatives need only sit back, pray, and watch Circus Madison.
Progressive Alinsky Tactics eventually come home to roost.
Obama’s recently unraveling reputation illustrates the principle.
Join Catholics in prayer.

Related Articles:

Urban Myths About Catholics

If You’re Looking For Child Abuse, the Catholic Church is the Last Place to Look

Update on Catholic Child Abuse Scandals

Wisconsin State Journal Flunks Journalism Again! 0r What’s Wrong With Gay Marriage?

The Contrast

On Alinsky Tactics –

Clashes between Liberals and Conservatives – Washington, United Nations, Madison – Common denominator?

 

Wisconsin State Journal Flunks Journalism Again!
or
What’s Wrong With Gay Marriage?

Two days after getting some praise for their balanced article on Bishop Morlino, the Wisconsin State Journal was back to its old games, misrepresenting the Bishop yet again.
They managed to shoot themselves in the foot quite handsomely this time.

Here’s a cartoon they published, quoting both Pope Francis and Bishop Morlino out of context, in an attempt to make it seem that Bishop Morlino is in disagreement with the Pope:

51faaa1547249.preview-620

How Does This Cartoon Shoot WSJ in the Foot?

How does WSJ shoot itself in the foot with this cartoon?Slide1
Let me count the ways:

  1. It’s unprofessional to nest your references so deep that the original source being quoted can hardly be found.
  2. It’s unprofessional to compare apples and oranges.
  3. It’s unprofessional to quote your sources out of context.
  4. It’s unprofessional to ignore the Bigger Story
  5. It’s unprofessional to contradict yourself.
  6. It’s unprofessional for a journalist to spin the news.  (And it’s triply embarrassing when you spin it badly and get caught.)

This unprofessional behavior would be more suited to the grapevine whispering game, in which messages become unrecognizably altered as they are whispered from person to person in a chain, than to a professional journalist.

 

  •  It’s unprofessional to nest your references so deep that nobody can find the original source being quoted.

So, in his efforts to malign and misrepresent Bishop Morlino, Phil Hands had to dig far and deep, and ended up quoting out of context from a homily given by Bishop Morlino in 2006.
In fact, Phil Hands quoted Doug Erickson’s artilce, who quoted a 2006 Bill Wineke article, who quoted Bishop Morlino’s homily from the 2006 Madison Catholic Herald, out of context.

  • It’s unprofessional to compare apples and oranges.

apple-vs-orangePhil Hands was comparing Pope Francis’ comments about a Catholic homosexual who is following Church teaching on chastity, with Bishop Morlino’s comments on the the legal repercussions of governmental redefinition of marriage.  Those repercussions have already violated the religious freedom rights of Catholics and have already closed Catholic adoption agencies.  More on the legal details in the Appendix below.  But suffice it to say that comparing discussion of chaste Catholic homosexuals with discussion of the legal implications of redefining marriage is not a very professional move on the part of Phil Hands.

  • It’s unprofessional to quote your sources out of context.

Pope Francis’ statement in context:

In these situations, it’s important to distinguish between a gay person and a gay lobby, because having a lobby is never good. If a gay person is a person of good will who seeks God, who am I to judge? The Catechism of the Church explains this very beautifully. It outlines that gays should not be marginalized. The problem is not having this [homosexual] orientation. No, we must be brothers and sisters. The problem is lobbying for this orientation, or lobbies of greed, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the most serious problem for me. And thank you so much for this question. Thank you very much!

Slide1Bishop Morlino’s statment in context:

I’m spending time on this today because we’ve got a battle. We’ve got a battle at the federal level in June and we’ve got a battle at the state level in November. And I’m serious about it, I can’t imagine what happens if marriage goes down the tubes. If marriage goes down the tubes, life will become one big custody suit. And who will decide who raises children and how they get raised? The State, more and more and more. Marriage goes down the tubes, the State will be deciding who gets custody and how the kids get taught. And when the State does that, rather than the natural parents, that’s the end of democracy.

In context, both Pope Francis’ comments and Bishop Morlino’s comments mean something quite different than what Phil Hands tried to imply in his cartoon.

  • It’s unprofessional to ignore the Bigger Story

800px-Madison,_WI,_Masonic_Temple

Madison, WI Masonic Temple

Anybody who reads the Pope’s comment above will notice that the Pope made some pretty newsworthy statements.
The Pope’s claim that his most serious problems come from lobbies of greed, political lobbies and Masonic lobbies should raise a few eyebrows.
Apparently Cybercast News Service (CNS) found the Pope’s Freemasonry comment worth reporting. And exploring the reasons for such a comment.
Madison, with it’s giant Masonic Temple one block from the Wisconsin State Capitol building, might be more interested in hearing why Freemasonry might pose a threat to Pope Francis, than hearing old 2006 quotes from Bishop Morlino being compared out of context with the Popes’ comments.
Misquoting Bishop Morlino’s 2006 homily is not news.

 

  • It’s unprofessional to contradict yourself

Jack Russell Terrier SnarlingSloppy reporting has a way of coming back to bite the journalist.
Ironically, the very homily that Phil Hands was  misquoting from, that Bill Wineke misquoted from and Doug ERickson misreported on, that very homily is one in which Bishop Morlino actually does the opposite of what WSJ claims.  In that homily, Bishop Morlino spends two paragraphs emphacising how Catholics must treat the gays with whom we disagree with love and respect, and undescores how Catholics must avoid association with gay-bashing in any shape or form.

  • It’s unprofessional for a journalist to spin the news.  (And it’s triply embarrassing when you do it badly and get caught.)

So there we have it.
Phil Hands’ best effort to spin the comments of Pope Francis and Bishop Morliino, a painful stretch, involving  a 100% reversal of what Bishop Morlino actually said in the homily from which Phil Hands is quoting.
Meager attempt to malign Madison’s Bishop Morlino, and to make him look heartless.

Spin.
Bad spin.
Caught, and (hopefully) embarrassed.
Although with progressives these days, you never know.  Some of them are very proud of their Alinsky (crooked) tactics.

 Slide1

Grading the Wisconsin State Journal on this one:  F-

In fact, WSJ’s journalism license should  be suspended for this one.

 

Appendix– Why Bishop Morlino is Right in His End of Democracy Comment
or
The Legal Repercussions of Government Redefining Marriage

 

What Changing the Definition of Marriage Does

For millennia, marriage has been defined by religion, and government has rarely tried to challenge that definition.
The biggest challenge to date by government was by Henry VIII, who introduced divorce, and how has that worked for our society?
Women and children are no longer guaranteed stability, most women must work, and most children are virtually raised by the State (by the Obama Administration).

The redefinition of marriage  by government to include marriages between persons of the same sex would have, in addition to numerous moral repercussions (on which people disagree), a large number of legal repercussions, which have nothing to do with opinion, but stem from law and from fact, and are inevitable.

Legal Details for Lawyers

For the lawyers among us who want this from the legal “horse’s mouth,” (unlike the WSJ, we make the original sources available), the legal impact of the redefinition of marriage is described at:

 

Layman’s Summary

For the rest of us, I will attempt a layman’s summary of the logic involved:

Legal Definition of Marriage Alters Impacts Many Areas of the Law

The legal definition of marriage does not exist in isolation; changing it alters many areas of the law.
The definition of marriage plays an important role in the laws of :

  • adoption
  • Education
  • Employee benefits
  • Employment discrimination
  • Government contracts and subsidies
  • Taxation
  • Tort law
  • Trusts and estates.

These laws, in turn, impact the ongoing daily operations of religious organizations of all kinds, including:Slide1

  • Parishes
  • Schools
  • Temples
  • Hospitals
  • Orphanages
  • Retreat centers
  • Soup kitchens
  • Universities

Complex Intertwining of State, Federal, and Religious Definitions of Marriage

Current law, particularly law on child custody, provides little room for non-uniform definitions of marriage within a state and across states.

As a result, changes in marriage law impact religious institutions disproportionately because their role is so deeply intertwined with the institution of marriage.
Religious institutions have been regulating marriage since time immemorial, and law has adopted and accommodated religious conventions.

As a result, if the legal definition of marriage is changed to differ dramatically from the religious definition of marriage, all the religious institutions mentioned above will be negatively impacted.

Can Government Compel Religious Institutions to Act Against Their Conscience-  Accomplished

Changing the legal definition of marriage will likely  result in government compulsion of religious institutions to accommodate same-sex couples, something contrary to their beliefs, and public benefits will likely be withdrawn from religious institutions which provide preferential treatment to traditionally married couples.

Already, failure to participate in the HHS “Contraceptive” Mandate, which requires religious employers to provide contraception and abortifacients to employees against the employer’s conscience, is likely to subject all religious individuals to legal penalties for failure to provide HHS Mandated services.

Threats to religious liberty can come both directly and indirectly.  They include court ordered injunctions or fines in retaliation for following one’s religious beliefs, particularly for violating anti-discrimination laws in employment, housing,public accommodations, as well as labeling the statement of religious beliefs as hate speech.

How Christians Become Excluded From Many Professions – Accomplished

It quickly becomes clear how a Christian can no longer become an employer or a pharmacist because they will not dispense abortifacient pills, how a Christian cannot become a doctor because they will not offer abortion services, a Christian cannot rent out half of their duplex because they don’t want the gay lifestyle in close proximity to their family home, a Christian cannot become a public school teacher because they are required to teach acceptance of the gay lifestyle, and so on.

Financial Crippling of Christian Institutions – Accomplished

And the lawsuits, injunctions, penalties and legal bills required to fight these battles are likely to cripple Christians financially, and are likely to bankrupt religious service institutions.  The Catholic Church has already been forced to abandon adoption and foster services in Boston, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Illinois as a result of their policy to make sure children are placed with a mom and a dad who are married.

When You Force Christians Out of Service in an 80% Christian Country, Who Takes Over Providing Services?

When service institutions have traditionally been operated by volunteer religious institutions, and now religious institutions are forced out of these ministries, there is only one option– for government to take over providing these services.
The history of government performance, in the absence of financial pressure and accountability, in providing essential services has had a very bad track record, both in the United States and abroad.  The U.S. Postal Service, Medicare, and UK Medicine are all examples of services that fail abysmally when operated by government.
The control of everything by government is the definition of totalitarianism.Slide1

Totalitariansim: Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed.

Bottom Line

  • Religious people (90% of US) can be forced against their conscience
  • Christian (80%) excluded form many professsions
  • Financial crippling of Christian Intitutions
  • Totalitarian control of everything by government

= End of Democracy

And the good Bishop was right.
Wisconsin State Journal, grow up and do your homework!

 

 

Addendum: WSJ Editor Responds to Our Criticism:  Stands His Ground

(For anybody interested in contacting this editor about the Bishop Morlino Cartoon he published:  JSmalley@madison.com)

From: Syte Reitz
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2013 1:53 PM
To: John Smalley
Subject: Defamatory Cartoon in WSJDear Editor Smalley-Phil Hands’ cartoon published in the WSJ August 1st was a gross misrepresentation of Bishop Morlino.
There was no option provided for discussion or comments, so my comments can be found in a blog article which outlines the reasons why publication of that cartoon was such a poor choice on  your part.

Many Catholics had become hopeful of getting fair treatment in the WSJ following your publication of Doug Erickson’s article on Bishop Morlino’s 10 year anniversary in Madison.
As a Catholic blogger who was first motivated to blog by seeing media misrepresentation of Catholicism, I’m very sorry to see you returning to WSJ misrepresentation of Catholics so soon.

Please share my comments with the cartoonist, Phil Hands.

Syte Reitz
SyteReitz.com

syte

Syte Reitz
Madison Catholic Blogger

From: John Smalley
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2013 14:45:30 -0500
To: Syte Reitz
Subject: RE: Defamatory Cartoon in WSJSyte,

Thanks for your note, and your comments on the recent cartoon by Phil Hands.

We will have to agree to disagree on this topic, in that I don’t think we’ve misrepresented Catholics in the past, or that we’re doing so now. I’m sure you understand that editorial cartoons are meant by their nature to exaggerate to the extreme. We publish many cartoons on the page that I would personally disagree with, but we think it’s important to represent a full spectrum of thoughts and opinions on the page. In fact, we always give preference to letter writers who disagree with our editorials.

It sounds like you thought Doug’s anniversary story on the Bishop was a worthy effort. I certainly felt that way.

Thanks again for your feedback.

Best wishes,

John Smalley
Editor
Wisconsin State Journal

John Smalley

John Smalley
WSJ Editor

From: Syte Reitz
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 13:54:57 -0500
To: John Smalley
Cc: Reitz Rolf
Subject: Re: Defamatory Cartoon in WSJ

John-

You gave me no substance in your response.
If you “agree to disagree” without supporting your position, you come across as a low-information thinker, something I hope the editor of Wisconsin’s second largest newspaper is not.

You are in a unique position to moderate a serious and important cultural debate, and you should not be pandering to pressure from Madison’s progressives.
A newspaper professional should not show bias.
Your newspaper would benefit by hosting lively cultural debates, and your newspaper only suffers when you diss the leaders of Madison’s and Wisconsin’s leading religion without substance.

Honestly, that was a blatant misrepresentation of Bishop Morlino that you published, and you should retract or apologize for it.
You could also consider publishing arguments from the blog critique of the cartoon, which illustrate why the cartoon was such a bad misrepresentation.

The Wisconsin State Journal purports to serve the entire population of Wisconsin, and Madison claims to champion tolerance, so who better to show some respect for Catholicism and it’s leaders than the State Journal?

God bless,
Syte

syte

Syte Reitz
Madison Catholic Blogger

From: Romulus
Date: Friday, August 09, 2013 9:57 AM
To: John Smalley
Subject: Bishop Morlino Cartoon

Dear Mr. Smalley:   The Phil Hands smear of Bishop Morlino is in no sense an exaggeration.  It is a lie.  If you lack the sense or else the integrity to grasp this distinction, you belong in a different line of work.  Since your heart seems to be in the field of dishonest advocacy, public relations for a really sleazy organization might suit your talents.

Or you could man up and apologize.  Your call.

Romulus

Romulus

Romulus

 

 

 

 

 

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