Friday, March 16, 2007

Euteneuer Revisited

Following his appearance on Fox News, Father Euteneuer appears to be becoming an issue, as would be his apostolate, Human Life International. Bill Cork reads opportunism into the good Father's appearance, which is enough to bring John Mallon out of the woodwork.

Bill takes time out from renaming his blog, to make a passing reference to HLI's founder, Father Paul Marx. This is a different subject in and of itself, and a chapter of HLI's history in which Euteneuer was barely involved, if at all. So why does it matter here? Did ulterior motives (assuming there were any) have any effect on Euteneuer's performance?

In the end, what you have is a Catholic priest on television, who doesn't mind acting like one.

Anybody got a problem with that?

6 comments:

Dad29 said...

Since I have a problem with Cork in general terms, his "problem" with Fr. E. is not surprising.

John said...

Hi David,

John Mallon here. I am disappointed that Bill Cork declined to post my comment to his Blog. I took him to be a fairer man. I did post my comment to him on my Blog which you so graciously linked to.

But he replied to both of us by saying this: "Neither David nor the other blog he links to [ie mine]make any reference to what Euteneuer has written about this, nor to his unseemly (and erroneous) declaration that Hannity is a “heretic.”

Do you have any idea what this means? I don't. What Father E. wrote is well known. Do you and I need to repeat it all? Or does he mean other writings of Fr. Tom on contraception in general? Cork refused to answer my question of what his position on contraception is.

As we know there are some Catholics who view any defense of Humanae Vitae as a faux pas.

Strictly speaking Father E did not call Hannity a "heretic" on the broadcast what he did say was, "One is simply obliged not to be a heretic in public." Nor, as a quick scan of his Spirit and Life reveals did he do so in his columns.

What Fr. E did say was, "Just for the record, Sean Hannity really is a dissenting Catholic and a public scandal to the Faith. He should be rebuked by his pastor or bishop, not by me, but since that has not been forthcoming in his decade or so of public dissent on radio and TV, somebody in authority had to say something." —"Hannity the Liberal" on http://www.hli.org

Does Cork disagree with this?

David L Alexander said...

"Do you have any idea what this means?"

No, neither can I ascertain what in the hell our mutual colleague could possibly be thinking. I did in fact make reference to the good Father's statement on the HLI website, and said as much in a comment that did not pass muster. And are there still people beating a dead horse over Father Marx? Hasn't the old man been punished enough already?

I should think that once a dissent becomes public, claiming the moral high ground for private correction is pretty weak. Euteneur didn't make this public; Hannity did. That the priest would attempt to correct privately was gracious of him at the offset. This is typical talking-head horse-hockey to keep the ratings up.

I still think Stravinskas would have torn Hannity's head off. That would have been a treasured moment for youTube. HOO-rah.

Athanasius said...

What is absolutely stunning to me watching the Youtube clip is just how little grasp of the issue Hannity has. He continuously shifted the burden of proof and shifted the issue, one not so much of personal morality as one's adherence to right doctrine. Then he needs to point to the failure in the Church as regards the sex scandal to take attention away from him again. It is just mind boggling.
Fr. E is an awesome priest, and I give him a lot of credit (and a tip of the Athanasius coptic mitre) for his courageous and excellent public defense of the Church and her true teaching.

Dad29 said...

Mr. Cork's agenda is rooted in Dispensationalism, meaning that he cannot easily abide pure Catholic thought on most topics.

Were he to allow such things, it would make his Dispensationalism subject to serious and penetrating questions.

It's also useful to examine Cork's elision of the RC teaching on the "New" vs. "Old" covenants.

They are not the same--and the New replaces the Old; it is not just 'stuffing for the envelope' of the Old.

Dad29 said...

Umnnnh, I didn't make the connection.

Hannity is a slavish follower of GWB's Iraq policy, which is the current foreign policy of the Dispensationalists.

Thus, a degradation of Hannity's credibility is indirectly a derogation of the GWB/Dispensationalist policy.