Right Wing Catholics and Pedophile Priests

.
By Kay Ebeling

Paul Ryan, Catholic

It was his Catholic conscience that caused Sargent Shriver* to create the Peace Corps, Job Corps, and Head Start in the 1960s.  In 2011 it was his Catholic conscience that moved Paul Ryan** to oppose Social Security and claim a passion for Ayn Rand’s Objectivist theories.  Republican Newt Gingrich converted to Catholicism so he could marry his third wife and run for president as someone who is prayerful. 

When it comes to pedophile priests, on the right the Catholic League defends the “high number of falsely accused priests,” along with David Pierre whose website and books criticize SNAP for its “left wing” politics, as if it's a given that left-wing means something bad.  

What happened to the socially conscious Catholics, the politically compassionate such as the Kennedys?  This century Catholics are part of the most extreme elements of the Republican Party in the USA, and somehow siding with the priests in the pedophile crisis got tagged onto this right wing Catholic phenomenon.    

A Self-Perpetuated Authority

The pedophile priest apologists end up running each other’s talking points on each other’s websites. They self-publish books, and review each other's self-published books, and give the appearance that Catholics are Republicans who think pedophile priests have gotten a bad rap.  A kind of legitimacy results from the redundancy. 

Last summer during the Philadelphia priest abuse trial, NPR interviewed pedophile priest defender Pierre.  

***************

The reporter who interviewed him, NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty, is part of this new Catholic right wing herself.  So much for Left Wing Bias in the news, especially at NPR: 

More troubling still is [Hagerty’s] association with Howard Ahmanson's Fieldstead and Co. and Fieldstead Foundation. Ahmanson is a California millionaire who uses his trust fund to finance right-wing Christian, anti-gay, anti-evolution groups and politicians. He was previously associated with Christian Reconstructionism, which advocates a Biblically-based governement for the U.S. (Neither Ahmanson nor his philanthropic endeavors have their own websites. Make of that what you will.) 
Hagerty has spoken twice at the Summer Institute of Journalism, a program run by the Council for Christian Colleges and University and funded by the Fieldstead Foundation. Student reactions to her talks are here.
 Hagerty has spoken twice at the Summer Institute of Journalism, a program run by the Council for Christian Colleges and University and funded by the Fieldstead Foundation. Student reactions to her talks are here. 
Hagerty's keynote address to the 2003 National Student Media Conventionwas also sponsored by Fieldstead and Co. In 2003 she also spoke at theBaptist Press Student Journalism Conference, along with Terry Mattingly, a Scripps-Howard reporter who is also a Fieldstead grant recipient.  ( per http://betterangels.blogspot.com/2004/05/ballad-of-barbara-bradley-hagerty.html )

*****************

Some in the new right in the U.S. show a religious reverence in their political ideals.  Republican candidate for President Mitt Romney and his running mate Ryan’s belief in the individual above the village seems to be as significant to them as accepting Jesus Christ as your lord and savior.    

************************************

New Right Catholics Entering a Vacuum 

A lot of level headed persons are leaving the Catholic Church in the shadow of its cover up of a pedophile priest crime spree in the U.S.  Still actual membership numbers are for the most part staying stable in the Catholic Church nationwide and in some geographic areas, such as Los Angeles, parish membership numbers are even rising. 

Who are these wandering souls entering the vacuum of the emptying Catholic Church?  Who wants to come in while so many others are leaving?  And why are so many of the defenders of pedophile priests also part of the extreme ring wing of politics? 

As one of the pedophile priest victims, I see these new right wing Catholics as slick opportunists.  A guy like Gingrich can write checks to a parish and soon be leading his own version of Bible study.

What really scares me about this embrace of the Catholic Church by the right is to me, with my moderate knowledge of history, the movement resembles Germany in the post World War II era when Hitler was rising to power.  Like this from Wikipedia: 

Raised by a skeptic Catholic father and a devout Catholic mother, Adolf Hitler ceased to participate in the sacraments after childhood. In his book Mein Kampf and in public speeches he often made statements that affirmed a belief in Christianity.^[1][2] Prior to World War II Hitler had promoted "positive Christianity", a movement which purged Christianity of its Jewish elements and instilled it with Nazi philosophy.^[3] 

Today’s new right Catholics seem determined to rid the Church of liberal and progressive thinkers, which apparently includes anyone who defends the victims of pedophile priests instead of the priests.  The new right wing Catholics seem to refer to progressives and pedophile priest victims with the same disdain the Nazis had for Jews. 

* ABOUT SARGENT SHRIVER: 

A devout Catholic, Sargent Shriver attended daily Mass and always carried a rosary of well-worn wooden beads.^[11]  During [John F ]  Kennedy's presidential term, Shriver founded and served as the first director of the Peace Corps.^[4]    Shriver then served as Special Assistant to President Lyndon Johnson where he created the Office of Economic Opportunity.  Shriver is known as the "architect" of the Johnson administration's "War on Poverty".^[4]  Shriver founded numerous social programs and organizations, including Head Start,^[14] VISTA, Job Corps, Community Action, Upward Bound, Foster Grandparents, Legal Services, the National Clearinghouse for Legal Services (now the Shriver Center), Indian and Migrant Opportunities and Neighborhood Health Services, in addition to directing the Peace Corps. He was active inSpecial Olympics, founded by his wife Eunice.  (Per Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargent_Shriver ) 

** RE PAUL RYAN:  

Catholicism grounds his thinking about politics and the basic relationship between the individual and the state. He has invoked a principle called "subsidiarity" in justifying his view that people are more apt to flourish under government that is limited in its size and reach.  ( Per Wall Street Journal August 17 2012  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444233104577595400789196454.html ) 

***

Plus it figures The Vatican’s new PR guy is a former Fox News correspondent.  The extreme right neo-fascists are certainly finding a welcome home inside the emptying Catholic Church, kinda scary actually.  

1.     Greg Burke Joins Vatican Communications Staff

mediabistro.com‎ - 14 hours ago

Greg Burke has left Fox News Channel, where he's been a ... It was just last month that TVNewser interviewed Burke in Italy, where he ...

1.     St. Louisan is named Vatican communications adviser

STLtoday.com‎ - 9 hours ago

2.     Vatican hires Fox News reporter to help improve image

Morning Sentinel‎ - 20 minutes ago

Greg Burke, a native St. Louisan who had been working for Fox News, will become the senior communications adviser at the Vatican, officials said Saturday.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/st-louisan-is-named-vatican-communications-adviser/article_42a00d63-8dd1-52c1-ae26-b6c4c42d91bc.html#ixzz1yiskF9w0

  

More on the NPR Reporter: 

Hagerty has spoken twice at the Summer Institute of Journalism, a program run by the Council for Christian Colleges and University and funded by the Fieldstead Foundation. Student reactions to her talks are here. 

Hagerty's keynote address to the 2003 National Student Media Conventionwas also sponsored by Fieldstead and Co. In 2003 she also spoke at theBaptist Press Student Journalism Conference, along with Terry Mattingly, a Scripps-Howard reporter who is also a Fieldstead grant recipient. 

DELETED PARAGRAPHS:

Funny thing is I get it. 

I get what Ryan and Gingrich are going through.

As a pedophile priest victim, part of my own personal PTSD was a misdirected passion for politics that was almost sexual in nature, much like today’s neo-right-wing religious devotees in the U.S. seem to be experiencing. 

In late 1970s Texas, at the height of my acting out as a pedophile priest crime victim, a lot of Texans broke from the Democrats to become Libertarians and Republicans.   I somehow became part of that movement and there was sexual excitement mixed in with my foray into right wing politics.

It was revolutionary, it broke new ground, it was part of my compulsion, it was breakthrough it was, it was-

For example, I embraced Ayn Rand and her philosophy too.  I voted for Ron Paul when he first ran for Congress in Houston.  I know there was a similarity in my short-lived romance with the right wing, to Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead where Howard Roark blows up his construction project rather than allow any left-leaning sympathies in its design. 

The confused mess in my brain was connected to the mish mash placed in there in 1953 by Father Horny, when he diddled me between the legs when I was five years old.  That sexual excitement entered and confused everything I did in my life.  So my safari into right wing politics in the late 1970s had an element of sick sexual perplexity attached to it. 

I just wonder what sick demented thing happened to right wingers like Paul Ryan and Newt Gingrich that made them so passionate about their political theories as they connect to their Catholic religion.

ONE MORE DELETED PARAGRAPH:

As a damaged former Catholic, watching in the last twenty years the legal maneuverings of attorneys for the church in courts, and their manipulation of the news media, I don't see how anyone can consider Catholicism a legitimate religion anymore. 

-Posted By Kay Ebeling, producer, City of Angels Network

.

The City of Angels is Everywhere

.

More STuff:

1. Paul Ryan's Catholic Roots Reach Deep - WSJ.com 

   online.wsj.com/.../SB1000087239639044423310457759540078919...

   Aug 17, 2012 – Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan is a practicingCatholic who attends church regularly. He also grounds his support for limited ...
2. Paul Ryan's Catholic Problem - The Daily Beast 

   www.thedailybeast.com/articles/.../paul-ryan-s-catholic-problem.html

   Aug 13, 2012 – His budget plan has drawn fire from some Catholic bishops for cutting programs that help the poor. Conservative leader Deal W. Hudson on ...
3. Daniel C. Maguire: Paul Ryan's Catholic Problem 

   www.huffingtonpost.com/.../paul-ryan-catholic-problem_b_1817883...

   Aug 21, 2012 – Call your knavish, mean-spirited budget plan what you will. But do not call it Catholic. Stop defaming and insulting the stirring compassion and ...
4. Why Obama Supporters Question Paul Ryan's Catholicism - Peter ... 

   www.usnews.com › Opinion › Peter Roff

   Aug 20, 2012 – The VP candidate's bishop said Ryan's controversial budget doesn't violate Catholic social teaching.
5. Paul Ryan's Catholic Faith Comes Under Scrutiny 

   www.christianpost.com/.../paul-ryans-catholic-faith-comes-under-scr...

   Aug 18, 2012 – Since Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced last week that Rep. Paul Ryan is his running mate, the media spotlight has ...
6. Paul Ryan Can Be a Catholic and Still Worship Ayn Rand - Bloomberg 

   www.bloomberg.com/.../paul-ryan-can-be-a-catholic-and-still-worshi...

   Aug 22, 2012 – U.S. Representative Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's running mate on the Republican presidential ticket, has said that Ayn Rand, the author of “The ...
7. 5 Reasons why choosing Paul Ryan was a great ... - CatholicVote.org 

   www.catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=34452

   As CatholicVote noted yesterday, Paul Ryan has denounced the mandate: “This is much, much bigger than about contraception. This is about religious freedom, ...
8. Paul Ryan's Catholicism—UPDATED 

   www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2012/.../paul-ryans-catholicis...

   Aug 11, 2012 – Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate promises to cast a spotlight on American Catholicism in an election year when the tradition has ...