{"id":560,"date":"2009-06-12T16:29:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-12T16:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/06\/mutiny.html"},"modified":"2009-06-12T16:29:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-12T16:29:00","slug":"mutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/06\/mutiny.html","title":{"rendered":"Mutiny?"},"content":{"rendered":"

That’s the word writer Louie Verrechio uses to characterize some of what’s happening over at the Catholic News Service (CNS)<\/a>, the operation owned and managed by the USCCB. Verrechio takes aim, and fires with both barrels. <\/p>\n

An excerpt<\/a>:<\/p>\n

<\/a>Catholic News Service has long been viewed with a suspicious eye by \u201cconservative\u201d Catholic groups, but any perception that this wariness was confined to some traditionalist fringe, however, was officially put to rest earlier this year.<\/p>\n

By January 2009, CNS\u2019 failure to consistently apply reliably Catholic editorial standards had become so problematic that Archbishop Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura at the Vatican, was moved to take the extraordinarily bold step of criticizing CNS from Rome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bishops need to look at our Catholic News Service; they need to review their coverage of [the Church\u2019s moral and social teachings] and give some new direction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The problems at CNS, which has been under the directorship of Editor-in-Chief Tony Spence since 2004, are well illustrated by considering the case of Pepperdine law professor Douglas Kmiec.<\/p>\n

In the months leading up to the recent U.S. Presidential election, Kmiec \u2014 a Catholic \u2014 not only campaigned for Barack Obama, he became the self-appointed spokesperson for moral relativists everywhere by publically insisting that Obama\u2019s pro-abortion agenda fits comfortably within authentic Catholic social doctrine.<\/p>\n

Naturally, Kmiec\u2019s views drew the criticism of a number of American bishops, including Archbishop Charles Chaput who said that Kmiec had \u201cdone a disservice to the Church, confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, and provided an excuse for some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kmiec has since established himself as the Obama Administration\u2019s chief Catholic apologist, rankling the pro-life community by applauding the nomination of pro-abortion Catholic Kathleen Sebelius to head the Department of Health and Human Services and offering praise for the President\u2019s decision to overturn the \u201cMexico City Policy\u201d thereby forcing American taxpayers to fund overseas abortions.<\/p>\n

Based on this brief snapshot alone it is painfully obvious that Kmiec\u2019s agenda is the antithesis of the Council\u2019s vision for a media intent on \u201cadvancing public opinion in accord with Catholic teaching and precepts\u201d (IM 14).<\/p>\n

How then can anyone explain why Catholic News Service \u2014 an organ of the USCCB \u2014 would grant Kmiec\u2019s opinions a de facto Imprimatur by syndicating his columns for distribution to Catholic publications all over the world?<\/p>\n

To be fair, everyone makes mistakes in judgment. Goodwill or the lack thereof, however, is easily discernable by examining the way in which one amends their ways, or does not, after being called to account, as in the case of Archbishop Burke\u2019s stunning rebuke of CNS. <\/p>\n

In April 2009, Tony Spence left little room for doubt in the matter when he decided to publish a Kmiec column that hailed the National Institutes of Health\u2019s newly proposed guidelines for Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research as \u201cethically sensitive\u201d and a move \u201cin a noticeably more Catholic-friendly direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

This latest CNS-sanctioned apologia on the Obama Administration\u2019s assault on human life was so out of bounds that Cardinal Justin Rigali, who chairs the USCCB\u2019s Pro-Life Committee, was moved to refute Kmiec\u2019s falsehoods point-by-point in a column of his own, ultimately evaluating Kmiec\u2019s CNS piece by saying, \u201cThe truth is opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is bizarre theater indeed when an American Cardinal must directly refute the errant opinions that were syndicated, published and propagated by the news service owned by the Bishops\u2019 Conference to which he belongs, and this just months after the leadership of said news service was put on notice by a powerful Vatican prelate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out the rest<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s the word writer Louie Verrechio uses to characterize some of what’s happening over at the Catholic News Service (CNS), the operation owned and managed by the USCCB. Verrechio takes aim, and fires with both barrels. 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