Frs. Leonard Feeney, Charles Coughlin and Denis Fahey

[Sepharad]

The above were three notoriously controversial Catholic priests from the past. All three were very anti-semitic and were very prolific authors and/or radio personalities.

I know that Fr Leonard Feeney was excommunicated (later restored) for holding to the strict interpretation of Extra Ecclesia Nulla Salus (Outside the church there is no salvation), but what about the other two?

Were they ever excommunicated for holding bigoted views? Fr Coughlin’s famous expression (my parents used to hear him sometimes when he came on the radio in the 1930s and 1940s) was, “Ship the Jews back in leaky boats!”

 

[bbentrup]

Unfortunately, unless you want an extremely simplistic answer to your question, you’re going to have to expand it somewhat. You cannot be excommunicated for a mere ‘view’. There needs to be a definitive and public act as a precursor to most excommunications due to unorthodoxy.

 

[peary]

The above were three notoriously controversial Catholic priests from the past. All three were very anti-semitic and were very prolific authors and/or radio personalities.

I know that Fr Leonard Feeney was excommunicated (later restored) for holding to the strict interpretation of Extra Ecclesia Nulla Salus (Outside the church there is no salvation), but what about the other two?

Were they ever excommunicated for holding bigoted views? Fr Coughlin’s famous expression (my parents used to hear him sometimes when he came on the radio in the 1930s and 1940s) was, “Ship the Jews back in leaky boats!”

**The Catholic Church did not approve of Coughlin. The Vatican, the Apostolic Delegation in Washington, D.C., and the archbishop of Cincinnati all wanted him silenced. They recognized that only Coughlin’s superior, Detroit Bishop Michael Gallagher, had the canonical authority to curb him, but Gallagher supported the “Radio Priest.” Due to Gallagher’s autonomy and the prospect of Coughlin leading a schism, the Roman Catholic leadership did nothing.

The Roosevelt administration decided that although the First Amendment protected free speech, it did not necessarily apply to broadcasting, because the radio spectrum was a “limited national resource” and regulated as a publicly-owned commons. New regulations and restrictions were created to force Coughlin off the air. For the first time, operating permits were required of those who were regular radio broadcasters. When Coughlin’s permit was denied, he was temporarily silenced.

He was never excommunicated and continued to write until his death at the age of 88 in 1979.

Father Denis Fahey had a run-in with Bishop McQuade of Ireland regarding Fahey’s social group Maria Duce and restricted their movement in his diocese and throughout Ireland. But Fahey was never excommunicated or silenced.**