The brute dishonesty and ignorance with which the Los Angeles Times opines on issues related to the Catholic Church never ceases to astound. The latest shameful entry is an error-ridden and misleading editorial (Wed. 4/1/09) on the Obama-Notre Dame scandal. This follows an equally fallacious opinion piece from Tim Rutten just a few days ago.
The article begins by slamming those who oppose Obama's appearance at Notre Dame as "seem[ing] to believe they are more Catholic than the pope." It also besmirches the Cardinal Newman Society, a leading voice in opposition to Obama's appearance, as "a self-appointed guardian of orthodoxy."
What the Times doesn't tell its readership (whose number continues to dwindle) is that protesters of Obama's appearance simply want to uphold what the full body of United States Catholic bishops boldly declared in a statement five years ago:
The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.
If the Times is still unclear about what those "fundamental moral principles" include, the very same document states,
[T]he killing of an unborn child is always intrinsically evil and can never be justified ... The legal system as such can be said to cooperate in evil when it fails to protect the lives of those who have no protection except the law ... Those who formulate law therefore have an obligation in conscience to work toward correcting morally defective laws, lest they be guilty of cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good.
Bestowing an honorary degree to Obama - which Notre Dame plans to do - clearly is "honoring" the man. Therefore, Notre Dame is unquestionably in defiance of the United States bishops.
By not citing the bishops' important 2004 document, the Times dishonestly misleads its readers.
[Note: There's a lot more! In the interest of brevity, I have posted only a shortened, edited version here. To read the full version, go to TheMediaReport.com.]
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Clueless on Catholicism V: LAT Wrong on Papal Infallibility - Again
See also:
Anti-Catholicism at the Los Angeles Times - A Catalogue
—Dave Pierre is the creator of TheMediaReport.com and a contributor to NewsBusters.
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Comments Policy
Don't expect any liberal
April 2, 2009 - 21:48 ET by Clear thinkerDon't expect any liberal Newspaper to get it right. Besides, they don't want to be on the morally correct side of an issue because they would lose a lot of readers. Remember, we are talking about L.A.
A Letter From Granddad
Making Fun of AGW http://giovanniworld.wordpress.com/
The value of research
April 2, 2009 - 22:44 ET by KC MulvilleFrom the editorial:
Curiously, the same Cardinal George cited for "approving" Obama by sending a magnanimous congratulations letter ... came out strongly against the invitation.
Yeah they "missed" that part
April 3, 2009 - 00:22 ET by Kelly72I do know that it's considered polite to congratulate a duly elected leader of a country. ie. Acknowledge the position, etc. But it's not considered approval or endorsement.
SO WHAT?
April 2, 2009 - 22:51 ET by The7SticksPhil Hendrie said it best: President Obama doesn't have to take any crap from this because he's too busy with the real world. It wasn't his choice to be invited, it was the choice of the school's president. What should happen is that Obama should reject this invitation and call it an insult. The Catholic Church doesn't represent Obama's policies, and he doesn't represent theirs. If it comes down to one thing, the Church should have tried harder to support John McCain, but they didn't because they thought there was no difference between McCain and Obama.
Speaking of which, the Catholic League finally made a statement regarding this whole farce. Their president, Jabba the Donahue, is parroting the same nonsense that's being spouted about Obama's pro-abortion views, which I could care less in my own opinion since I'm an agnostic Jew. What is interesting is they haven't mentioned anything about boycotting his appearance (then again, I haven't gone to their website today, so we shall see.) It seems they're more worried about that new movie prequel to The Da Vinci Code then they are about this. Usually, the actions of the Catholic League are a major indicator if this whole farce about Obama being invited to Notre Dame is really a serious issue. After all, they are the ones who cry "Anti-Catholic" any time an episode of The Simpsons, South Park or Family Guy is on (Actually, it was South Park that made fun of Catholics that seem to think they are holier than the Pope. The Catholic League, in their case, was being holier than either Pope Benedict or Jesus in the episode "Fantastic Easter Special", the one where Jabba the Donahue takes control of the Pope's power, then gets bifurcated by Jesus via his holy shuriken ninja death star.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/show/display_episode.php?season=11&id1=1105&id2=162
That is the way I see it: So What? I don't like Obama's plans for taking more power from the people to the government, nor do I like his tax scams and drunken sailor spending that's going to be passed down to my generation. I was especially incensed at the idea the Obama administration was floating around about the privatization of military veterans' benefits. At least those are valid reasons to be angry at the Obama administration. Oh, and how about those bailouts, huh? This, however, seems like a full-blown farce that makes the other side look like it's not taking the administration seriously.
Cart before the horse
April 3, 2009 - 01:58 ET by KC MulvilleTo be clear: no one blames Obama for being invited. What happened is that some Catholics were upset that Notre Dame was giving a radical abortionist an honorary degree. It was basically Catholics criticizing fellow Catholics. However, because it involved Obama and abortion, it became a kerfuffle (h/t James Taranto of WSJ). The media scorned Catholics who didn't want to honor Obama.
And, to put it punly, now everyone's Irish is up.
I said before, I didn't think this was the end of the world, but I thought it was clumsy. It would have been better had Notre Dame never made the invitation in the first place. But Notre Dame preferred the "prestige" of having Obama on campus instead of respecting the feelings of fellow Catholics.
Make no mistake, though. The criticism here is against Notre Dame, not Obama.
Here is an article (old,
April 3, 2009 - 06:07 ET by motherbeltHere is an article (old, granted, but I doubt things have improved) regarding the actions of some other Catholic universities that don't uphold Catholic principles any longer. I had remembered hearing about them, but didn't mention them before because I lacked specifics.
CINO: Catholic in Name Only
The money quote (emphasis added):
The turning point for many of these schools came in the late
Sixties when many of their presidents signed onto a letter that
expressed their desire for more academic freedom from the Vatican. That
letter became known as the "Land O' Lakes statement", named after the
conference center at the University of Notre Dame where the principals
met.
"To perform its teaching and research functions effectively
the Catholic university must have a true autonomy and academic freedom
in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to
the academic community itself," the statement read. The Land O' Lakes
statement is officially entitled "The Nature of the Catholic University" (1967).
Hosting that meeting was Father Theodore Hesburgh, president for many years of Notre Dame.
Until I read that, I thought that Notre Dame was finally going the way of the CINO universities. Now it appears that ND was a founding member of the movement.
How sad.
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
What is with the Roman Catholic Obsession at NB?
April 3, 2009 - 02:24 ET by 1611LilacLadyWake up! The pope is sympathetic to the 'peaceful' islamists. You do know what true Globalism is right? One World Government, One World Economy and One World Religion!
Well guess what 'religion' will have the biggest part in the one world (ecumenical) religion? (Hint: initials are RCC) Not to mention those who follow in the footsteps of Billy Graham, all the 'united' churchs of (fill in the blank) as well as Hindu's etc.
Roman Catholicism is NOT God's 'church.' If you would read the Bible you would see that (1) saints are not dead people that you pray to for miracles; saints (Romans 8:27) are everyday people who have trusted in Jesus Christ (the true ROCK) as their Saviour and those as a whole are the true church (Acts 2:27); (2) Believer's celebrate daily that Jesus died on the Cross, was buried and arose again in three days call RESURRECTION . . which is the promise Believer's get when they trust in Jesus as their Saviour. Death of the body leads IMMEDIATELY to presence with Jesus Christ. No last rites, no intercession by prayers and candles needed . .
I wish NB's would get over this Roman obsession!
Isaiah 5:20a Woe unto them who call evil good, and good evil. . . KJV
Thank you lilaclady...your
April 3, 2009 - 05:56 ET by motherbeltThank you lilaclady...your opinion has been duly noted:
It is OK to be bigoted against the RCC, because it is not God's "church."
Gotcha. Thanks for enlightenment.
\sarc off
PS....Saints are both living and dead. What do you call saints after they die????
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
NOTRE DAME WILL WELCOME ANTI-CHRIST WITHOUT KNOWING IT!!!
April 3, 2009 - 03:03 ET by Rod PatrickWith this kind of logic, time will come when Notre Dame will welcome Anti-Christ to make a beautiful speech inside its premises and fool all its students.... WITHOUT KNOWING IT.
PS: I'm not saying that Obama is the AC. I'm just saying that Notre Dame's reasoning is illogical and can be a tool of the "Real" Anti-Christ in the future... or unless Notre Dame has already embraced that meme that the Anti-Christ thing is just figurative.
FTLA Times!!!
April 3, 2009 - 07:22 ET by flyingmonkeyThe LA Times is unabashedly anti-catholiic and always has been so I expect nothing more from them.
Notice however, that the Affimative Action Hero skipped the Grid Iron Club dinner where he could have been the subject of ridicule, but jumped at the chance to go to Notre Dame where his presence will irritate others.
We need some pro-lifers to occupy the first couple of rows and rise and turn their backs on the weasel when he takes the stage to speak.