The news of February 11 that Pope Benedict XVI was resigning hit everyone by surprise. Many were shocked, and with good reason: we live in a world of self-absorbed, ego-driven public figures, thus making the Holy Father’s decision seemingly incomprehensible. Pope Benedict’s legacy is secure. His encyclicals showed not only his brilliance, they demonstrated his ability [...]
Revised Health and Human Services (HHS) rules were released on February 1. In two separate statements, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and its president, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, made plain their interest in pursuing the ongoing conversation with Obama administration officials on the HHS mandate. Their goal, as expressed by Cardinal Dolan, is to [...]
William A. Donohue Jonathan V. Last is a senior writer at the Weekly Standard, the prominent conservative magazine that features Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes. He is also a gifted writer, a strong pro-life advocate, and a man not afraid to challenge the conventional wisdom. His new book, What to Expect When No One’s Expecting: America’s [...]
Garry Wills [ex-seminarian]: “What we really need are no priests.” James Carroll [ex-priest]: The pope “has seen only a solemn obligation to defend the church.” [Italic added.] Richard Sipe [ex-priest]: “Certainly, he did a lot, but it was all reactionary.” [Italic added.] Daniel Maguire [ex-priest]: The “scandal of the papacy [is] one of the last absolute [...]
Following the announcement that the pope was resigning, Christopher Hitchens was resurrected by Slate and Andrew Sullivan, but it didn’t do them any good. They republished a hit piece by the atheist from 2010 that was vintage Hitchens: he was a great polemicist but a third-class scholar. Facts never mattered to him. Hitchens said the scandal [...]
After Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation, the following persons and media outlets erroneously said that he “joined” the Hitler Youth, without ever noting that it was compulsory: U.S.: AP Planner; Huffington Post; John Patrick Shanley, New York Times blog; Philadelphia Daily News; Regional News Network (it said his “defenders” argue he was drafted, implying that [...]
Following the announcement that the pope was resigning, bashers came out of the woodwork. But the hit piece that aired on “Entertainment Tonight” (ET) was clearly one of the worst. The segment began with correspondent Brian Ross complaining that many years ago he was slapped on the wrist by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The occasion for this [...]
The weekend following Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement, notorious Catholic-basher Bill Maher took another shot at the Catholic Church on his HBO show. The following night, “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) crossed the line in going after Jesus. It was quite a weekend for the haters. Speaking of the pope, Maher said, “Benedict told them he was going [...]
Twice within the three days following the pope’s resignation, David Letterman got a little too cute for us. When spliced together, it suggested a disturbing pattern. The first night, Letterman let loose saying, “He’s [the pope] got a chronic neck problem and apparently the chronic neck problem is for looking the other way so many times.” [...]
Recently the New York Times ran an article by Frank Bruni that was a clear demonstration of his hypocrisy; the week before, he said he doesn’t hate priests, just the Catholic Church and its “appointed caretakers” (a.k.a. the bishops). In the article, the angry ex-Catholic homosexual ripped about a lot of things Catholic, one of which [...]
