1. Is the FBI targeting traditional Catholics?, By Hugh Hewitt, The Washington Post, February 13, 2023, 1:14 PM, Opinion
“Anti-Catholic bigotry appears to be festering in the FBI, and the Bureau is treating Catholics as potential terrorists because of their beliefs.” This startling charge was leveled by 20 state attorneys general in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray on Feb. 10, after a memo from the FBI’s Richmond field office came to light.
The memo — withdrawn amid a storm of criticism last week — warned of extremists being drawn into “radical-traditionalist” Roman Catholic organizations known primarily for their love of the Latin Mass and the relatively few churches where it is celebrated. While I prefer my Masses in English and under 50 minutes (and indeed choose when possible the Mass without music), I know many “Rad Trads” and find the idea that they might be dangerous so laughable that at first I didn’t believe the report.
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My Rad Trad friends are — every one of them — kind, generous and devout folks who take very seriously their duties to seek out and serve “the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind” (Luke 14:21). But it seems the FBI is bent on hounding harmless people — if they are conservatives. The idea that traditional Catholics pose a threat joins the earlier suspicion of parents who protest actions of their local school boards. This needs to be cleaned up, fast.
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The FBI employs about 36,000 people, including about 14,000 special agents. It isn’t anti-Catholic, anti-parents or anti-anything except spies, terrorists and organized crime. But quality control has obviously slipped, and Wray must firmly and forcefully bring hammers down on those ideological outliers and political partisans operating inside the bureau. Congress should give Wray the power to toss them out without the endless process that surrounds even minor disciplining of civil-service-protected careerists.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/13/control-fbi-christopher-wray/
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2. San Diego Diocese may file for bankruptcy amid abuse claims, By Jonah McKeown, Catholic News Agency, February 14, 2023, 5:00 AM
Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego announced last week that the diocese is considering declaring bankruptcy due to the “staggering” legal costs of responding to 400 new lawsuits brought during a three-year statewide expansion of the statute of limitations for child abuse cases.
“Bankruptcy would provide a pathway for ensuring that the assets of the diocese will be used equitably to compensate all victims of sexual abuse while continuing the ministries of the Church for faith formation, pastoral life, and outreach to the poor and the marginalized,” McElroy wrote a Feb. 10 letter to parishioners in the diocese.
“The sexual abuse of minors by priests and the way it was handled in the life of the Church constitute the greatest sin of our Church in the last century. We must and will continue to protect minors with ever deeper vigor, provide healing resources to those who have been abused, and use our diocesan assets to compensate those who were victimized. And we will never forget the harm that we have done.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253630/san-diego-diocese-may-file-for-bankruptcy-amid-abuse-claims
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3. North Carolina AG won’t defend abortion pill restrictions, By Gary D. Robertson, Associated Press, February 13, 2023, 10:03 PM
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein won’t defend state restrictions on dispensing abortion pills that are being challenged in a lawsuit and instead will argue the restrictions are preempted by federal regulations protecting access to the pills, Stein’s office said Monday.
The decision by Stein, a Democrat, means Republican legislative leaders who want to keep the restrictions would have to seek to formally intervene in the federal lawsuit, which was filed by Amy Bryant, a physician who prescribes the drug mifepristone
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The lawsuit filed in January in U.S. District Court in Durham, and a separate lawsuit challenging limits on abortion pills in West Virginia, are considered the openings of legal battles over access to the medications. A Texas lawsuit poses a threat to the nationwide availability of medication abortion, which now accounts for the majority of abortions in the U.S. The case filed by abortion opponents seeks to reverse FDA approval of mifepristone.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/north-carolina-ag-wont-defend-abortion-pill-restrictions/2023/02/13/d667cb54-abfc-11ed-b0ba-9f4244c6e5da_story.html
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4. 20 state AGs call for investigation into FBI’s ‘anti-Catholic’ memo, By Tyler Arnold, Catholic News Agency, February 13, 2023, 5:05 PM
The chief law enforcement officers from 20 states signed a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland condemning a since-retracted “anti-Catholic” leaked internal memorandum produced by the FBI’s Richmond field office.
Published Feb. 8 by the website UncoverDC, the memo discusses launching an investigation into “radical-traditionalist” Catholics because of possible ties to “the far-right white nationalist movement.”
The memo, titled “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities,” was dated Jan. 23 and was reportedly leaked by an FBI agent in the Richmond office. Its unnamed author singles out Catholics who are interested in the Traditional Latin Mass and are members of certain social media groups as presenting “new opportunities for threat mitigation.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253631/20-state-ags-call-for-investigation-into-fbis-anti-catholic-memo
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5. Archbishop Naumann responds to Bishop McElroy: ‘Radical inclusion’ can’t supersede Catholic doctrine, By Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, Catholic News Agency, February 14, 2023, 5:08 AM, Opinion
Editor’s note: Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, wrote the following commentary in response to recent statements by Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego and Church leaders in other parts of the world calling for changes in the Catholic Church’s approach to women’s ordination and sexual morality. This article originally appeared in The Leaven, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, and is reprinted her with Naumann’s permission.
I came of age in the 1960s. It was an era of civil unrest, race riots, anti-war protests and the sexual revolution. One of the popular bumper stickers at the time stated: Question Everything.
These societal events coincided with the sessions of the Second Vatican Council and its early implementation. The council brought beautiful and much needed renewal to many aspects of Catholic life. Sadly, there was also a serious misinterpretation of the council that fostered moral confusion. The poisonous ideas of the sexual revolution crept into the church.
A great cultural myth was propagated that one could not be happy or fulfilled unless you were sexually active. The rate of divorce rose dramatically within the society and the church. Traditional sexual morals were considered antiquated. The virtue of chastity was mocked. Influential voices within the church sought to use the “spirit of the council” to change Catholic sexual moral teaching and practice.
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I have been saddened that in the preparation for the Synod on Synodality, there has been a renewed effort by some in church leadership to resuscitate moral confusion on human sexuality. The German Synodal Way is a striking example. The leadership of the German bishops conference has rejected correction from Pope Francis.
Most troubling has been statements by Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, who asserts that church teaching related to homosexuality is false because he believes the sociological-scientific foundation of this teaching is no longer correct. Cardinal Hollerich’s statements are particularly concerning because of the leadership role that he has been assigned as relator general for the Synod on Synodality.
Most recently, Cardinal Robert McElroy’s article in the Jesuit journal America magazine has charged that the Catholic Church “contains structures and cultures of exclusion that alienate all too many from the church or make their journey in the Catholic faith tremendously burdensome.” Cardinal McElroy champions what he terms radical inclusion that embraces everyone into full communion with the church on their terms. The mandate of Jesus given to the apostles to make disciples of all nations is construed to mean to enlarge the tent of the church by accommodating behaviors contrary to Our Lord’s own teaching.
Cardinal McElroy appears to believe that the church for 2,000 years has exaggerated the importance of her sexual moral teaching, and that radical inclusion supersedes doctrinal fidelity, especially in the area of the church’s moral teaching regarding human sexuality.
In my opinion, this is a most serious and dangerous error. Our understanding of sexual morals significantly impacts marriage and family life. The importance of marriage and family to society, culture, the nation and the church cannot be overestimated.
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I pray that the Synod on Synodality will not unintentionally resurrect and breathe new life into moral confusion. If we truly listen to the Holy Spirit, I am confident that it will not lead us to abandon our moral teaching in order to embrace the toxic spirit of an age oppressed by the dictatorship of relativism.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253629/archbishop-naumann-response-to-cardinal-mcelroy-sexual-morality
__________________________________________________________TCA Media Monitoring provides a snapshot from national newspapers and major Catholic press outlets of coverage regarding significant Catholic Church news and current issues with which the Catholic Church is traditionally or prominently engaged. The opinions and views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Catholic Association. |
