| Obama Catholics Reach a New Low |
| by Deal W. Hudson |
| 7/11/09 |
 A leading Obama Catholic has finally come out and said it: President Obama is more Catholic than the pope! An op-ed for Newsweek, written by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lt. Gov. of Maryland, bears the title: "Why Barack Obama represents American Catholics better than the pope does."I very rarely use the word "offensive," because it is thrown around so casually by the Left all the time. In this case, however, I have to say Townsend's column offends me for both its arrogance and its ignorance of the "American Catholics" she presumes to know so well. This paragraph gives a good flavor of both her attitude and her argument:
"They know Obama's on their side," as if the president was a kind of guardian angel protecting them from the evil, divisive strictures of the big, bad Catholic Church. Townsend, naturally, throws in the liberal misreading of the recent encyclical, "Charity in Truth": "The document gives moral credence to Obama's message and to progressive politics writ large." It's funny how Townsend cites the authority of Benedict XVI to confirm the message of Obama, when she has just argued Obama is the better Catholic. This is just another example of why you should never expect coherent arguments from Leftwing ideologues -- they throw out so many soundbites and hope one will eventually stick. If you are not yet sharing my sense of offense, try this:
This comes from a member of the Catholic family who has done more to promote abortion among American Catholics than any other. Yes, the profession is "honorable," but her claim to represent the Catholic Church in the political arena is bogus and embarrassing in its disregard for the truth as taught by the Church. Townsend and other Obama Catholics have tended to disregard the "Veritas" side of the "Charity in Truth" encyclical. Given the trajectory of Townsend's argument, it is not surprising she then makes a list of her other objections to Catholic teaching: women's equality, justice for gays, the exclusively male priesthood, and contraception. Townsend supports her claim that Obama represents American Catholics better than Benedict XVI by polling:
Even if her polling arguments were true (they aren't), they would not support her claim "that American Catholics do not want to be told by the Vatican how to think." That claim is the equivalent of saying "American Catholics don't want to be Catholic, i.e., they don't want to believe the faith as taught by the Church." Telling Catholics "how to think" is precisely what the Church is doing when it teaches and proclaims its faith. But let's grant Townsend one point: There are certain issues (abortion not being one of them) which many American Catholics disregard -- contraception being the best example. Townsend's argument is this: Obama promotes contraception, therefore his "agenda is closer to their views than even the pope's." OK, fair enough, but the answer to Townsend is "so what?" Does this mean that the Church and its Holy Father should henceforth change its teaching on contraception and embrace Obama as an agent of "change" within the Church? No, it means the opposite: The Church should do a better job of teaching and evangelization so that the pervasive dissent on issues like contraception and gay marriage is effectively addressed. Church leadership needs to wake up and realize the impact of the Obama presidency on the parish, the chancery, and even the Vatican. This game of "footsy" Catholic leaders are playing with Obama is empowering Catholic dissenters like Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
Readers have left 17 comments. It's not a popular thing to say, but just like the Beatles' "We're bigger than Jesus" statement, she's right. A decisive majority of Catholics in the USA voted for Obama, and still defend his decisions now. Compare that to how many agree with the papacy, and orthodox teaching, and you'd find Obama has a bigger following. I'm not saying it's a good thing; it's simply true. Written by Andy I read her statement, "against all scientific evidence and protestations from clergy on the ground, the pope claims that condoms aggravate the spread of AIDS," and I'm confused. My wife and I developed a fairly close relationship with the priest who married us and assisted us with marriage prep. He spent much of his career in different parts of the world. We loved to ask questions about his time in Cuba and Africa. He worked for a time on a daily basis doing outreach in Africa. He told us how in his experience and the experience of others he worked alongside in Africa, condoms were virtually worthless over there. They would hand out condoms to men and watch them open them, blow them up, and snap them at each other as they walked away, ultimately leaving the condoms lying on the ground. When pressed, the men displayed a disdain for condoms and admitted they'd never use them. There's a nuance in the Pope's stance on condom distribution in Africa that the main stream media's disdain for Catholicism won't allow them to see. Oh, and I wish people would start putting quotes around the word Catholic when discussing American "Catholics," it just seems more honest. Anyone who comes to my Star Trek fan club meetings and disparages Star Trek can expect to be shown the door, phasers on kill. Stop calling yourself Catholic and a lot of the confusion will resolve itself. Written by James According to reports, Obama delivered a letter to the Holy Father from Kathleen's uncle, Ted Kennedy. Teddy, who may have only months to live, may be trying to reconcile himself with the teaching authority of the Church -- one can only hope and pray! More probably, he is endorsing Obama's anti-life agenda and thinks that be weighing in he will somehow persuade the Holy Father to see the light. God save us from any more Kennedys in public office. Written by Gary This is quite offensive. There are some who believe the Church ought to be a democracy - clearly this woman thinks that truth is formed by consensus or even a narrow majority. The Papacy has never had lock-step support for its decrees, has always had to tolerate a majority of the 'faithful' doing what they damned well please, whether it was imperialism and slavery in the New World, the slaughter of Jews in the Middle ages, the embrace of disturbing heretical doctrines, the dispossession of the poor by rapacious bourgeois aristocrats, the confiscation of Church property, the list goes on. It has never been the Papacy's role to accommodate what is popular but to teach what is true, whether it was Jew killing then or gay marriage now - and truth cannot be the result of a consensus, let alone a 54% majority. Written by Joe H James' comment, here, represents the opening of a whole can of worms: Oh, and I wish people would start putting quotes around the word Catholic when discussing American "Catholics," it just seems more honest....Stop calling yourself Catholic and a lot of the confusion will resolve itself. What is it, really, that causes persons who were raised Catholic to go on calling themselves Catholic long after they have formally and loudly adopted beliefs and practices which are contrary to what the Catholic Church preaches de fide? "Catholics" are 30%-ish of the U.S. population, but isn't it fair to estimate that actual Catholics, sans scare-quotes, amount to somewhere around 1% of the U.S. population? That would be a "one strike and you're out" definition; i.e., formally and knowingly rejecting even one teaching which the Church holds as de fide means you're out. We could broaden it, perhaps, to "three strikes and you're out," so that a person could hold both abortion and artificial contraception to be non-sinful, and have them still qualify in our definition. But if we did that, my guess is that our more-loosely-defined Catholics would still not represent 30% of the U.S. population, because of the large number of "Catholics" who, while holding a cultural attachment to their upbringing and the faith of their parents, don't believe in such things as Jesus' death on the cross as atonement for sins, the Real Presence, the ability of priests to absolve sins, and so on! What on earth causes those folk to call themselves "Catholic?" It's a mystery to me. Anyone want to enlighten me? Written by R.C. Like the Kennedys know anything.....Sheeeesh! Written by workingclass artist Apparently not, at least according to Obama,the Kennedy's,Fr. Jenkins,Fr. Reese,and,of course,Ambassador-nominee Kmiec.At the least, these offer a good catechetical lesson in the difference between "schismatic" and "heretic".  Written by vincent manning The Church should do a better job of teaching and evangelization so that the pervasive dissent on issues like contraception and gay marriage is effectively addressed. — DealEveryone acknowledges that American Catholics have dismissed the Church's teaching on contraception in overwhelming numbers and appear to be more or less evenly split on homosexuality. So: how often do we expect to hear a priest read a letter from his bishop one of these topics? Once a decade? Once a generation? Compare that with the bishops willingness to speak out on immigration or even health care and you begin to see the problem: if the bishops don't meaningfully distinguish between Church doctrine and prudential opinion no one should be surprised that their flock doesn't make that distinction either. Written by Ender As I've mentioned in other posts, we need to encourage our priests to talk in their homilies about what the church teaches and why. They are human too and they don't want people mad at them, so often they avoid hot topic issues. However, this is exactly what Catholics need to hear. There are few things more disappointing about a church than going and hearing the same "God loves you" homily every week. I've known priests who take any Bible passage and turn it into this homily. What do people learn? They learn that even the parts of mass that are supposed to vary every week don't and they are bored out of their skulls! Why should they go to a church to hear the same thing all the time? There is only one reason to follow a leader and that is if he is leading you. If he provides you no guidance, he is useless. Too many of our priests don't provide guidance, but let people guide themselves. When people won't use a guide (the Church) or a map (the Bible) they will get lost. And many don't even know they are lost. I know this is a heavy burden to lay on priests. However, we call them father and they need to be fathers. A father that provides no discipline, no rules, and no guidance, but only self-esteem and platitudes, is not a father. And his children will be spoiled brats, like most American "Catholics". Written by Joshua All I can say is I am very, very glad not to have Mrs. Townsend's nerve in my tooth. Offensive doesn't even begin to describe it. Kamilla Written by Kamilla If indeed so many Catholics are so opposed to the church policies and stances on things such as abortion and gays, the solution is simple, leave the Church. Why on earth would anyone join any organization and then gripe about the rules, no one is holding anyone hostage in the Catholic church. I would never be a member of an organization whose beliefs and doctrines I disagreed with. And I certainly would not join and then DEMAND that they change the rules for me. What the hell is wrong with people, if youre a filthy liberal protestant, then go to the protestant church, its not an option to try to force the Cathoic church to become protestant. As for obongo, he will prove to be the costliest mistake in the history of the US presidency, shame on that animal and his wife. Written by A Catholic NOT represented by ob The nauseating media love affair with the hideous Kennedy family never ends. This family's political and private life, with few exceptions, has never been anything but grotesque and self serving. Their public practice of and adherence to the Faith hasn't been evident since Rose Kennedy. This latest proclamation from the Kennedy compound is more evidence(as if one needed it) of the hubris and elitism that motivates these people. According to what I have read, the Kennedy's were active back in the '60's to find a way (with the help of dissident American priests)to make abortion acceptable to American Catholics...helpful politically for the democrates you know. One never knows what's up their sleeves and for what self-serving reason. No longer satisfied to meddle in every possible way in our private lives, these folks want to be our spiritual leaders too? Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend? Ugh! Written by Pammie John F. Kennedy was our first, and so far only Catholic President. The Kennedy family has been very prominent in politics with members of the family serving in the US Senate, House of Representatives and other offices. All that being said, the Kennedy family does not speak for the American Catholic Church, however, they seem to think that they do. The Kennedys can belive whatever they want to believe, but I wish they would stop all this "Catholic" business, as they are anything but. Written by Austin I agree that the Kennedys who have such dissident opinions re: the Catholic Church should just stop calling themselves Catholic as it seems to be "in name only", but then, they would not have all the pomp & circumstance w/Mass presided over by a cardinal, etc. for funerals, etc. (as will be the case for Ted Kenndedy). Just another scandal for the Church!!! Written by Kara In his book, Windswept House, Father Malachi Martin, predicted much of this, (i.e. secularization of the Bishops, attacking the dogma of the Church, challenging the authority of the Pope, and alignment with the process of establishing a "one world government". All this immorality, insanity with the press and government, and also the cult like following of Obama seems to me as if a supremely malevolent force is at work. Written by KFB I agree that "Catholics" need to drop the name or switch out. Read my blog for an in-depth look at my take on the issue. http://joshuawillis89.blogspot.com/ Written by Joshua Willis What the hell is wrong with people, if youre a filthy liberal protestant, then go to the protestant church, its not an option to try to force the Cathoic church to become protestant. As for obongo, he will prove to be the costliest mistake in the history of the US presidency, shame on that animal and his wife. — A Catholic NOT represented by obI, too, have no patience whatsoever with Townsend's nonsense. However, the type of hate-filled diatribe I have quoted above has no place in any Catholic discussion. "Filthy?" "Animal??" For heaven's sake, where is the Moderator? Mike Harrison Written by Mike Harrison |
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