Sean Hannity faces-off with Priest who calls him heretic

[Dee_Dee_King]

Well we have to consider, when a time that all priests and bishops condemned anyone that slightly disagreed a heretic and demanded they repent, the largest break away(protestant reformation) occurred.

i’ve never heard that as a reason for the reformation. can you provide some evidence that overly insensitive bishops and priests lead to the reformation?

i’m pretty sure it was more complex having to do with poor catechesis and corruption in the church and politics.

 

[Jayda]

Sean Hannity faced off with Fr. Euteneuer of Human Life International. Fr. Euteneuer called Sean a heretic for being openly pro-artifical contraception.

The text of the discussion as well as a link to the video can be found in the below link:

domusdei.org/2007/03/10/sean-hannity-the-heretic/:)

such an arrogant man! how could he treat a Father like this?!
Matthew 18:15-20:

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.

"But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.

"If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

"Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

"Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.

“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

the way he treated the Father… I wonder if he is excommunicated latae sententiae for heresy? he is so clearly impenitent…

even though it is hard these are the people we need to pray for the most…

 

[Kendy]

This is so true!!

And when Father told Sean that he would withhold Communion from him, Fr. was actually being merciful. One, he doesn’t want Sean to commit sacrilege and two, Fr. E. needs to protect the Eucharist as an Ordinary Minister of the Eucharist.

But it didn’t have to be done on national television!

 

[Spence06]

So what are you talking about Fr E’s intentions were good but the way he spread the truth was wrong?
What exactly did you want him to do? tell Hannity he was right, and he was doing a great job misrepresenting Church teaching? What you don’t seem to be getting here is that sooner or later this was bound to happen to Hannity it was just a matter of time. If not Fr.E some other couragest Priest would have come along and Hannity in all his bravado would have thrown down the gauntlet and challenged him to a duel which is what he did to Fr. E, but he lost.

Fr. E could have said no and asked again, directly to talk privately about the worthiness to receive communion and his positions. If a direct no was given, and no other way to reach Sean was on TV, then I would say TV is okay but you don’t say in your first few lines, that someone is a public heretic, just the word itself turns people off and puts them in self-defense mode, as we saw.

**(insert absurd sarcasm) Yes, I wanted Fr. E to congratulate Sean on the errors he is speaking and encourage disobedience to the Pontiff. I think Fr. E should have gone on and encourage more abortions and I think he should have addresses its about time to ordain women while he was there.(insert absurd sarcasm) **

I will not even address the way you asked your questions. But that is a way to turn people off, the way you ask things, the way things are worded. Absurd sarcasm as above, introduced to a discussion. All these things puts people in defense mode which throws out openness to reason on both sides in any dialog.

In my opinion, the loser here was the Church. People who are non-catholic may have got the same picture I did, we did not come away with a good image. Due to the combination of Sean and Fr. E and how the discussion was lead and responses given by both.

 

[Jayda]

But it didn’t have to be done on national television!

hola,

that is not true… this is heresy, which is different than other sins which can be handled privately. the Church has a responsibility to teach truth and guide us from untruth, so when a heresy is said it must publicly be disavowed… Sean Hannity is no different than Arius, except Arius did not have television to spout his evil opinions…

Sean is the wrongdoer, he should have listened to the Church and he should not have debated and insulted the Father otherwise he would not have publicly embarassed himself further.

Dios te bendiga

 

[Kendy]

I heard Sean Hannity make these comments about birth control a couple of years ago and was frankly shocked. At the time I was a Mormon looking into the Catholic Church. I have since been baptized Catholic. I wrote Hannity and told him he had been rude to Father Euteneuer. I’m less concerned about Hannity’s views on birth control than I am about his mistreatment of a priest who he had on his show. He didn’t give Father Euteneuer the chance to even make his point before Hannity launched into a diatribe about the priest scandal and judging him, etc. The Church’s position about birth control is correct, and Hannity should not be publicly opposing it. He also needs to learn how to dialogue with people instead of simply slamming them. I’m a Newt Gingrich Republican – Hannity really made conservatives look bad.

And the Gringrich extramarital affairs are better.

 

[Nordar]

I do not think that I am trying to convey a point that Father E should “compromise truth” or neglect proper value of teaching the faithful precepts and reasons why many things occur in the Church.

I think if Fr.E had gone on Hannity’s show and neglected to point out Hannity’s dissedent behavour he would have been compromising truth.

 

[Kendy]

Quite frankly I really think you are missing the whole point of this issue. You seem to want to make this about who is the nicer Priest, It is not about either Priest it is about first and foremost Sean Hannity’s Cafeteria Catholicism and his utter Disrepect for The Catholic Church. It is about how he continues to profess that disrepect and spread false teachings of The Church to thousands of Catholics.

There’s a huge difference between saying that it’s ok for non-catholics to use BC, and publically promoting birth control or uding it in one’s personal life. We don’t know what Sean does in his personal life, but we do know that he has not set up some organization that is promoting bc.

 

[setter]

As much as I don’t want to call any Bishop in union with the Pope “wimpy” as you speak of respect towards priests, it is a two way street, I agree that some Bishops and Priests, have gone astray in staying well grounded in Truth and “gave in” to societies pressures and their human nature prevailed in some cases.Which can be attributed to one of the reasons that lead to dissent and lost of the education among many Catholics.

I do not think that I am trying to convey a point that Father E should “compromise truth” or neglect proper value of teaching the faithful precepts and reasons why many things occur in the Church.

Bottom line the Church is called to be the herald of the truth, the lamp set on a hill to give light in the present darkness and credible witness to the Truth, the person of Jesus Christ. The Church and the faithful are in an all out bloody battle for the eternal destiny of souls. Given this reality check, how are the Church leaders to rally the troops to battle for the truth in their individual spheres of influence, if they themselves fail to clearly do so? Dissident, muted, compromising Church leaders that fail to engage the battle front with the secular world and “cultural” Catholics are failing their responsibility as shepherd of souls, IMHO.

 

[MrS]

I think if Fr.E had gone on Hannity’s show and neglected to point out Hannity’s dissedent behavour he would have been compromising truth.

and all the contracepting “Catholics” would have felt better in their sin.

 

[BeeSweet]

He had the right intention, he has the Truth but I did not grow in my respect him for how he went about spreading it. I do respect that he is spreading it and I agree priests remain silent and I am not promoting that, I am stating there must be a better way to evangelize and spread Truth while bringing Catholics that fall into error back into the fold.

Father Jonathan Morris is in a privileged position with Sean Hannity in that they already have a working relationship with each other. I would hope that at some time in the past, or now in light of recent events he himself approached Sean on the issue of his public support of ABC.

Sean begged for the response he received from Father Euteneuer. Sean made it public. Palpable love was lost from Sean, not from Father Euteneuer. Please understand I’m not advocating publicly beating and humiliating Sean. But if you’re going to speak of how Sean Hannity was treated by Father Euteneuer, you must consider the type of personality Sean Hannity is. Sean needed to be told this way. Sean is beyond bold himself, and unless confronted boldly as Father Euteneuer did, he would not correct himself. Father Eutueneuer tried in the past to contact Sean to speak with him on this issue. It was not until Sean felt offended by Father’s column that he asked to speak with Father Euteneuer.

Father Euteneuer received an invitation to speak with Sean because in his column he commented on Sean using his Catholicism as a novelty, as a form of entertainement (Sean’s reference to having eaten meat on Friday during Lent). This is the reason Father was brought on the show, to have a confrontation. Had Father Euteneuer only commented that Sean should not speak publicly in support of ABC, no mind would have been paid to him, just as no mind had been paid to him in the past.

Father Euteneuer’s purpose in coming on Sean’s show was to correct him. Sean’s purpose in inviting Father to the show was to humiliate him. Palpable love was lost on Sean’s side. Even when Father told Sean he would refuse him the Eucharist, Father was charitable. He answered Sean’s question honestly and directly, just as Sean needed to be answered. That’s the sort of character Sean is, and it was the best way Father could have helped him.

 

[Nordar]

Fr. E could have said no and asked again, directly to talk privately about the worthiness to receive communion and his positions. If a direct no was given, and no other way to reach Sean was on TV, then I would say TV is okay but you don’t say in your first few lines, that someone is a public heretic, just the word itself turns people off and puts them in self-defense mode, as we saw.

**(insert absurd sarcasm) Yes, I wanted Fr. E to congratulate Sean on the errors he is speaking and encourage disobedience to the Pontiff. I think Fr. E should have gone on and encourage more abortions and I think he should have addresses its about time to ordain women while he was there.(insert absurd sarcasm) **

I will not even address the way you asked your questions. But that is a way to turn people off, the way you ask things, the way things are worded. Absurd sarcasm as above, introduced to a discussion. All these things puts people in defense mode which throws out openness to reason on both sides in any dialog.

In my opinion, the loser here was the Church. People who are non-catholic may have got the same picture I did, we did not come away with a good image. Due to the combination of Sean and Fr. E and how the discussion was lead and responses given by both.

UH I was not being sarcastic I was asking you a serious question because I am totally confused as to were you are coming from.

 

[setter]

There’s a huge difference between saying that it’s ok for non-catholics to use BC, and publically promoting birth control or uding it in one’s personal life. We don’t know what Sean does in his personal life, but we do know that he has not set up some organization that is promoting bc.

Sean Hannity publicly endorses use of ABC while publicly self-proclaiming himself as a faithful Catholic – this is scandalous behavior in need of admonishment and repentance.

 

[Spence06]

i’ve never heard that as a reason for the reformation. can you provide some evidence that overly insensitive bishops and priests lead to the reformation?

i’m pretty sure it was more complex having to do with poor catechesis and corruption in the church and politics.

Martin Luther originally did not want to break away from the Church. The Church unwilling to really give a real dialog but only gave him a court date.

I am saying not because bishops were insensitive. Is that when things became heretical, books were burned, people tried and often times killed by on occasion direct orders of Church leaders.

Of course, that is a completely different culture but we are still the same human beings and some accusations are merely hollywood. But there are real cases of the abuses of power, the lack of dialog, although the Church did really attempt to dialog even inviting the reformers to Trent and that is what we need to continue, attempt in genuine dialog without watering down the Truth. Speak Truth with Love not an overly politically correct Bishop that is unwilling to proclaim dogmatic Truths.

 

[fix]

Well we have to consider, when a time that all priests and bishops condemned anyone that slightly disagreed a heretic and demanded they repent, the largest break away(protestant reformation) occurred. So because the Church lacked compassion, lacked dialog and many other reasons including abuses and sins of clerics, we had the largest dissent in the history of the Church.

So, it is the fault of the Church the rebellious ones left? No, the fault is we us who desire self love over God. Hannity was treated by Fr. E as he should have been treated. That is with true love, true respect, and the public was not led astray by error.

 

[Kendy]

1994… Sean Hannity is contacted by Priests and told that what he is saying about abortion and ABC on tv is wrong. Those are only the recorded ones that we kow of I would bet there have been more over the years.

2007…13yrs later, Count them 13yrs later Mr Hannity is STILL spreading the false teachings even though it has been brought to his attention years ago.

Fr.E tried to get Mr Hannity to discuss these issues OFF AIR but no Mr Hannity being the egotistical media hound that he is wanted it ON AIR. Are you getting this? Me Hannity wanted it ON AIR.

So what are you talking about Fr E’s intentions were good but the way he spread the truth was wrong?
What exactly did you want him to do? tell Hannity he was right, and he was doing a great job misrepresenting Church teaching? What you don’t seem to be getting here is that sooner or later this was bound to happen to Hannity it was just a matter of time. If not Fr.E some other couragest Priest would have come along and Hannity in all his bravado would have thrown down the gauntlet and challenged him to a duel which is what he did to Fr. E, but he lost.

If you really believe that anyone who is not catholic or a struggling catholic saw that episode, and thought ,“Wow, that’s really great. Now, I can finally embrace the church’s teaching on contraception,” then you are so well sealed in your supercatholic CAF bubble to be in touch with reality. The real problem with Father E going on that show is that it created a spectacle, without actually teaching anything. Father E may feel brave for standing up to him, but what did he really accomplish? How many people were converted by watching two catholics duke it out on national television? How many people were turned off? I know when I was considering joing the church, watching an incident like that would have been a real turn-off.

It was good of Father E to contact Sean in private about his statements. But when those attempts failed, he should have referred the matter to Sean’s priest and his bishop. He should have continued to pray for Sean.

Kendy

 

[Nordar]

Father Jonathan Morris is in a privileged position with Sean Hannity in that they already have a working relationship with each other. I would hope that at some time in the past, or now in light of recent events he himself approached Sean on the issue of his public support of ABC.

Sean begged for the response he received from Father Euteneuer. Sean made it public. Palpable love was lost from Sean, not from Father Euteneuer. Please understand I’m not advocating publicly beating and humiliating Sean. But if you’re going to speak of how Sean Hannity was treated by Father Euteneuer, you must consider the type of personality Sean Hannity is. Sean needed to be told this way. Sean is beyond bold himself, and unless confronted boldly as Father Euteneuer did, he would not correct himself. Father Eutueneuer tried in the past to contact Sean to speak with him on this issue. It was not until Sean felt offended by Father’s column that he asked to speak with Father Euteneuer.

Father Euteneuer received an invitation to speak with Sean because in his column he commented on Sean using his Catholicism as a novelty, as a form of entertainement (Sean’s reference to having eaten meat on Friday during Lent). This is the reason Father was brought on the show, to have a confrontation. Had Father Euteneuer only commented that Sean should not speak publicly in support of ABC, no mind would have been paid to him, just as no mind had been paid to him in the past.

Father Euteneuer’s purpose in coming on Sean’s show was to correct him. Sean’s purpose in inviting Father to the show was to humiliate him. Palpable love was lost on Sean’s side. Even when Father told Sean he would refuse him the Eucharist, Father was charitable. He answered Sean’s question honestly and directly, just as Sean needed to be answered. That’s the sort of character Sean is, and it was the best way Father could have helped him.

Thanks you put it better than I did, some are just not seeing who Sean really is. He thought by bringing Fr on the show he would get the better of him because after all he is Sean Hannity and this is his show and he can over talk anyone he brings on. Also because Fr did write that piece about the meat eating he could have asked him to discuss it 100 times off air would not have mattered. Hannity wanted it on air as you said to humiliate him.

 

[Michael_C]

Fr Pacwa on EWTN just scolded Sean Hannity and spoke in favor of Fr E. Hooray! I knew Fr Morris mistepped, now EWTN is getting involved.

But it was kool to hear Fr Pacwa scold Sean Hannity and reinforce my own views on this liberal parading as a conservative.

I saw this last night on “Threshold of Hope”. I have watched Fr.Pacwa for years and I trust him fully.

Fr.Morris has a conflict of interest on the matter. Is he really going to come out and blast one of the foundations of FOX. He has more to gain from the world in status by sticking up Sean Hannity.

 

[fix]

Father Jonathan Morris is in a privileged position with Sean Hannity in that they already have a working relationship with each other. I would hope that at some time in the past, or now in light of recent events he himself approached Sean on the issue of his public support of ABC.

Yes, and hopefully his pastor has been as well.

Sean begged for the response he received from Father Euteneuer. Sean made it public. Palpable love was lost from Sean, not from Father Euteneuer.

Right again.

Father Euteneuer’s purpose in coming on Sean’s show was to correct him. Sean’s purpose in inviting Father to the show was to humiliate him. Palpable love was lost on Sean’s side. Even when Father told Sean he would refuse him the Eucharist, Father was charitable. He answered Sean’s question honestly and directly, just as Sean needed to be answered. That’s the sort of character Sean is, and it was the best way Father could have helped him.

Exactly. I find it disingenuous when Hannity is defended as if he lives on a desert island with no knowledge of the faith.

 

[Spence06]

UH I was not being sarcastic I was asking you a serious question because I am totally confused as to were you are coming from.

It did appear you were and I am sorry.

My opinion and belief, is inline with the Church.

I would want Fr. E to take Sean aside or make contact with his bishop and pastor. I would want Fr. E, if on the show, not say he is a heretic and not be so fast to judge Sean’s worthiness to receive the Blessed Sacrament. It doesn’t matter if love was lost on Sean’s side first, Hannity feeds off that. There is a certain way to answer and enter into dialog with people that does not shut them down and turn them away from Truth. Starting off by, “Your a bad Catholic”, that is not going to get any person, especially like Mr. Hannity, to say, “Oh please, tell me more and how I can fix this…” That does not give any right to how Sean answered or responded to Fr. E in any stretch of the mind.

Again, I disagree with both. It was sad night all together.

That is with true love, true respect, and the public was not led astray by error.

Then we must settle to say we just simply disagree on what True love and respect is and how to reach out to those in error.