Archives for 2016

You may be aware that the Little Sisters of the Poor have taken their case to the Supreme Court. They are opposed to cooperating with the evil of funding abortifacients and contraceptives in Obamacare and applied for an exemption as a religious organization. It was denied essentially because the Obama administration does not consider them religious enough to qualify.

These are habited, women religious living in community. They provide care to 13,000 elderly poor. They wish only to continue doing that in peace, without being forced into immoral acts. 20 judges have already sided with them in similar cases. Over 200 Members of Congress (bipartisan) and leaders of other religions have too. The Obama administration is intransigent, threatening to crush them under $70,000,000 in fines (every year) unless they cave on their Catholic morality.

While the Little Sisters are being put through a proverbial legal wringer, it is smooth sailing for friends of the administration. Exxon Mobil, Chevron, IBM, Visa, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Home Depot, Boeing, New York City and the entire US Military are all exempted. All together over 1,200 corporations and unions have exemptions. Also exempted are Barack Obama and his family, the entire US Congress and their families, the Justice Department and their families, the Supreme Court and their families, all federal judges and their families. In fact, 1/3 of all Americans have received exemptions from Obamacare — but not the Little Sisters of the poor.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is defending the sisters’ religious freedom.

Resources:

• The Little Sisters of the Poor website.
• Understand Who is Exempted from the mandate.
• The Becket Fund resources and links.

This is so over-the-top, so outrageous that I have to think it is a distraction to keep attention off of something else.

There is a special kind of political correctness applied to the sexual abuse scandal. The unwritten rules require speakers and writers to:

• Start by acknowledging how horrible it is. This is valid, it is horrible for the victims and the scandal has impacted the Great Commission given to his Church by Christ.
• Never mention the homosexual under­pinnings of the problem.
• Do not mention how effective reforms have been (if always imperfect).
• Do not dare mention how the problem is hugely worse in other religious and non-religious (especially public school) organizations.
• …and NEVER, EVER suggest innocent priests are forced to falsely confess or are in prison.

The point of the PC policy is to undermine and marginalize the Church and her teaching of the truth, especially on marriage, sexuality and life. It certainly has nothing to do with truth or justice. Prosecutors can build careers going after “pedophile priests” and the biased, unquestioning media will closely and widely follow every development. In many (probably most) cases those charged are guilty and should be punished. Unfortunately as I have noted before (see falsely accused and throw away the key), a significant number of good priests charged with horrible crimes are not guilty, are greatly harmed and often imprisoned (sometimes for decades) by this injustice.

Many faithful Catholics found the movie “Spotlight” to be fair, considering our very low expectations. Yet the movie is quite far from an accurate historical documentary. They took many “liberties” to slant history. A serious problem was exposed (good), but the Boston Globe ran with it to develop, then fan, a lynch mob mentality in the public. There is no justice in a lynch mob.

The last place I expected to find any fair commentary on this is in a solidly left-wing publication. I am therefore immensely encouraged by an article written by JoAnn Wypijewski and published by CounterPunch. Justice should be a non-partisan issue and justice has not been served. Wypijewski and CounterPunch are to be commended for their courage.

I don’t believe the claims of all who say they are victims – or who prefer the more tough-minded label ‘survivor’ – because ready belief is not part of a journalist’s mental kit, but also because what happened in 2002 makes it difficult to distinguish real claims from fraudulent or opportunistic ones without independent research. What editor Marty Baron and the Globe sparked with their 600 stories and their confidential tip line for grievances was not laudatory journalism but a moral panic, and unfortunately for those who are telling the truth, truth was its casualty.

By their nature, moral panics are hysterical. They jettison reason for emotion, transform accusation into proof, spur more accusation and create a climate that demands not deliberation or evidence or resistance to prejudice but mindless faith.

They are the enemy of skepticism, which those on the left and near-left, liberals, progressives, regard as the sword and shield of journalism when it’s convenient or ideologically appealing. The Globe did not so much practice journalism as it constructed a courtroom of panic, one that reversed the presumption of innocence and spilled over into real courtrooms where real defendants didn’t stand a chance.

In 2002 I investigated only one case, but it was a doozy: that of Father Paul Shanley, who figures in Spotlight and who was declared a “depraved priest” by the Globe‘s editorial page of April 9, 2002, the day after a PowerPoint show put on for the press by personal injury lawyer Eric MacLeish. Shanley is now imprisoned for crimes that are heinous in description and absolutely unsupported by evidence.

Since then I have followed the case of another priest: Father Gordon MacRae of New Hampshire, who does not figure in the film. He was accused, tried and convicted in 1994, a time when Spotlight would have you believe that every sexual accusation against a priest either fell on deaf ears or was handled in a hush-hush settlement, and every playground, church and rectory was a hunting ground for the great Whore of Babylon. MacRae remains imprisoned for crimes that are only slightly less heinous in description and absolutely unsupported by evidence.

Both men were called monsters. Both men were offered plea deals by their respective prosecutors that, had they actually committed the crimes, would be an affront to justice and proportion. Shanley was offered time served – the seven months he’d been jailed while awaiting trial – plus two and a half years” house arrest if only he’d say he was guilty of raping a child on Sunday mornings between Masses. MacRae was offered three years in prison, later reduced to two, if only he’d say he was guilty of cruelly molesting a teenager. Both men refused and went to their fates abandoned by church hierarchy.

“Can you imagine,” Shanley said to me after his conviction in 2005, “here I am, the worst monster, a danger to children everywhere, and they offer me time served? …   But for refusing to lie, I got twelve to fifteen years.”

The piece is big (this quote a small part of it), is good and does not mince words. Read the whole thing: Oscar Hangover Special: Why “Spotlight” Is a Terrible Film.

ISIS may have won, even if they are completely wiped-out of the countries which they occupy. That may seem illogical, but what if their intent was to purposely displace mostly Muslim people into the naive but welcoming arms of others? If so, then it is working splendly.

Also be wary of the false media and political narrative that these are mostly innocent families seeking only safety. You might think from the pictures that the immigrants are mostly women and children but in fact are mostly fighting-age young men. Note too that they are not immigrating to safe, nearby Muslim countries.

Finally, when you think of immigrants a (historically based) picture of people looking to integrate and work hard for a new life may spring to mind. That is not the case here. The new immigrants are extremely demanding (often threatening) and highly opposed to cultural integration.

Of course, we Catholics support immigration. That is, honest immigration as it has been historically understood. The reality this time is far different. Reasoned opposition is not based on lacking charity but on self-defense. Bill Kilpatrick writing for (always excellent) The Catholic World Report looks at what is happening:

In the worst case scenario, we must contemplate not only the departure of the pope, but also the end of Christianity in Europe. Judging by the ongoing persecution of Christians in the Middle East, Africa, and other parts of the Muslim world, one can’t afford to be too rosy about the outlook for European Christians. Indeed, Christian Europe faces the greatest threat to its existence since the armies of Sultan Mehmet IV converged on Vienna in 1683.

Except this time the advanced troops are already inside the gates. Moreover, the politically correct rules of engagement make self-defense a risky proposition — as in the case of the Danish teenager who was fined for using pepper spray to repel a man who sexually assaulted her. The situation is already far worse than anyone could have imagined a year ago. Muslim migrants in German asylum centers assault Christians and sexually abuse women and children. A ten year old boy is raped by a Muslim migrant in a public swimming pool in Vienna. Gangs of Muslim men wielding iron bars roam through small towns all over Europe seeking victims to beat up. A high school boy in Sweden is stabbed to death for defending a girl against a Muslim classmate’s sexual assault. Jews fear to wear yarmulkes. Single women fear to walk alone. Mothers fear to let their children visit playgrounds. The police themselves are often afraid and there are numerous instances of police retreating in the face of Muslim mobs. In parts of Northern England, police have been directed not to drive to work in uniform lest they be attacked.

What’s more, the situation is likely to get far worse with each successive wave of Muslim migrants. As Europeans begin to realize that police are incapable of defending them or unwilling to, they will take matters into their own hands. Numerous resistance movements have already formed all over Europe, along with local self-defense organizations and even vigilante groups. Rifles are selling out in places like Austria and Sweden. Courses in firearms training are oversubscribed. Clashes between locals and migrants have broken out in once peaceful towns. Many are predicting ethnic warfare on a mass scale with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of casualties.

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The trouble with the hierarchy’s pro-Muslim immigration stance is its almost total disregard for the facts. In reading episcopal statements on the subject, one gets the impression that all migrations are essentially benign: that, to use the pope’s words, all migrants seek the “dignity and equality of every person, love of neighbor…freedom of conscience and solidarity towards our fellow men and women.” Most Muslims, however, if they take their faith seriously, do not share that common vision. Islam dictates one set of rules for Muslims and another, much harsher code for non-Muslims. Moreover, Islamic theology contains what amounts to a doctrine of manifest destiny. The Koran, along with other scriptures, commands Muslims to fight unbelievers until all worship is for Allah alone. The bishop’s attitude toward Muslim immigration not only shows a disregard for Islamic theology, but also for 1400 years of history. During those fourteen centuries, Islamic aggression against non-Muslims has been a constant that spans cultures, geography, race, and language. As Raymond Ibrahim documents in Crucified Again the pattern of persecution takes exactly the same form whether in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, or Southeast Asia.

And then there’s current history. The bishops must know of the massive population shift that was already underway before 2015. In the Netherlands and Belgium 50 percent of all the newborns are Muslims. In the UK the most popular name for baby boys is “Mohammed.” In Vienna, Birmingham, and Marseilles there are more Muslim children than Christian children. In Southern France there are more mosques than Churches. The bishops must know of the epidemics of rape in England and Sweden. They must know of the numerous terrorist attacks across Europe. They must know that ISIS has stated its intention to infiltrate the refugee population. They must know by now that 70 to 75 percent of the 2015 refugees were young men, not women and children.

Read the who piece at: Immigration, Reason, and Responsibility.