The Rise of the Catholic Right: How right-wing billionaires are attempting a hostile takeover of the U.S. Catholic Church

[Feanor2]

This is absolutely true and we see this sentiment and exposed on CAF as well.

 

[goout]

gracepoole:
Politics fighting politics with politics.
So tiring.

Why don’t we just admit that human beings express themselves, and human beings all have biases, and human beings are politically active? And debate the positions on their merits instead of decrying their political associations?
The piece is a politically charged hack job, which hey it’s that author’s right to write what he wants, but it’s short on substance and long on political rhetoric.

 

[gracepoole]

Why don’t we just admit that human beings express themselves, and human beings all have biases, and human beings are politically active? And debate the positions on their merits instead of decrying their political associations?

That’s what the article is doing:

Newer groups—including the Napa Institute, Legatus (launched by Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan), and the Acton Institute—use the nonprofit designation to push an extreme libertarian economic agenda. Their devotion to individualism, unrestricted capitalism, and diminishment of government services, especially to the poor and marginalized, runs counter to the central tenets of Catholic social teaching.

You’re free to dismiss these claims as simply coming from “political associations.” But that doesn’t respond to the notion that the approach of these organizations runs counter to Catholic teaching.

 

[goout]

goout:

Why don’t we just admit that human beings express themselves, and human beings all have biases, and human beings are politically active? And debate the positions on their merits instead of decrying their political associations?

That’s what the article is doing:

Newer groups—including the Napa Institute, Legatus (launched by Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan), and the Acton Institute—use the nonprofit designation to push an extreme libertarian economic agenda. Their devotion to individualism, unrestricted capitalism, and diminishment of government services, especially to the poor and marginalized, runs counter to the central tenets of Catholic social teaching.

You’re free to dismiss these claims as simply coming from “political associations.” But that doesn’t respond to the notion that the approach of these organizations runs counter to Catholic teaching.

People should make well reasoned rebuttals. This author is politically hacking these people.
He would catch my attention if he left out the stupid details about parties and cigars and wines.
It’s just envious and inflammatory.

 

[goout]

Athrunzala:

See! This is just another thread attacking the conservatives in the Catholic Church. So please no more Fake News media!

Exactly which statements in the article can you prove are false?

Who wants to prove irrelevancies false? Who cares?
People gathering at parties and cakes in the shape of cardinal’s hats and cigars. OOOOOHHHH that is scary stuff…

 

[gracepoole]

You still haven’t explained why their “devotion to individualism, unrestricted capitalism, and diminishment of government services, especially to the poor and marginalized, [doesn’t run] counter to the central tenets of Catholic social teaching.”

 

[goout]

You still haven’t explained why their “devotion to individualism, unrestricted capitalism, and diminishment of government services, especially to the poor and marginalized, [doesn’t run] counter to the central tenets of Catholic social teaching.”

Oh, was that in there?

 

[gracepoole]

gracepoole:

You still haven’t explained why their “devotion to individualism, unrestricted capitalism, and diminishment of government services, especially to the poor and marginalized, [doesn’t run] counter to the central tenets of Catholic social teaching.”

Oh, was that in there?

Not only that, it was in the quote I included to start this thread.

 

[goout]

Not only that, it was in the quote I included to start this thread.

Sadly I opened the article, since you referenced it. And these are the first three paragraphs. It’s embarrassing.

TIMOTHY BUSCH IS A WEALTHY MAN with big ambitions (OOOHHHH TIM BUSCH IS WEALTHY!!). His version of the prosperity gospel, Catholic in content and on steroids, is a hybrid of traditionalist pieties wrapped in American-style excess and positioned most conspicuously in service of free market capitalism.

Busch’s organization, the Napa Institute, and its corresponding foundation are among the most prominent of a growing number of right-wing Catholic nonprofits with political motivations. Such groups, some more extreme than others and all on the right to far-right side of the political and ecclesial spectrum, have in recent years muscled in on territory that previously was the largely unchallenged domain of the nation’s powerful Catholic bishops.

What Busch calls “in-your-face Catholicism” is often expressed amid multicourse meals followed by wine and cigar receptions, private cocktail parties for the especially privileged, traditional Catholic devotionals, Mass said in Latin for those so inclined, “patriotic rosary” sessions that include readings from George Washington and Robert E. Lee, and the

This is political hacksmanship designed for readers who don’t want to think too hard about those they criticise.

 

[gracepoole]

So you didn’t read the article. Got it.

 

[ConcernedConvert]

It could also be because he has been extremely ambiguous at best and potentially heritical at worst. People, may Have very legitimate reasons to dislike the pope. And people have a duty to hold firm to the teachings of the church and hold our leadership to those teachings Just a thought.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

He’s not ambiguous to me and many others. There’s a handful of people who publicly oppose him because they feel like their bread and butter are being threatened. It’s a common tactic in life, to attack a person from different fronts, and see what sticks. Republicans did it to Obama, Democrats are doing it to Trump, and conservatives in the Church are doing it to Pope Francis.

 

[goout]

So you didn’t read the article. Got it.

Yes, more knee jerk assumptions are called for.
You can see how many times the piece is read. You can see the little number by the link that you posted.
Here’s another passage: The writer is a political hack.

Last summer, the Napa Institute sponsored a birthday soiree at the Rome residence of Cardinal James Harvey, a far-right American cleric. There, Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, a German philanthropist-turned-conservative Catholic, rubbed shoulders with American arch-traditionalist Cardinal Raymond Burke, who, according to The New York Times , “ate birthday cake in the shape of a red cardinal’s hat, held champagne in one glass and blessed seminarians with the other, and watched fireworks light up the sky in his honor.”

Princess Gloria also introduced German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, fired by Pope Francis from his position as the church’s doctrinal watchdog, to Steve Bannon. Bannon subsequently invited Müller to Bannon’s Washington headquarters, better known as the “Breitbart Embassy,” according to The Times . All done under the watchful eye of Timothy Busch.

Money, politics, and religion​

Paralleling the ascendancy of the Religious Right out of 1980s evangelicalism, today’s Catholic Right is rising and well-financed. While pendulum swings are common bet ween conservative and progressive tendencies in Catholicism, the 35-year traditionalist reign of popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI allowed the Far Right to flourish. In the United States, Catholics constitute the largest and most organized Christian denomination and include Catholic parishes, schools and universities, and hospitals.

The man insults three cardinals and two Popes.
You should take the article down.

 

[gracepoole]

Or maybe you could deal with its central claims. Or stop responding to it if it upsets you.

 

[goout]

Or maybe you could deal with its central claims. Or stop responding to it if it upsets you.

It is upsetting. When someone from a magazine with an inimical bias to Catholicism starts an attack on other Catholics on vague petty grounds, mentioning what they eat and how much money they have, characterizing their Catholicism with political smears,
And
insulting three Cardinals and two popes

That should be upsetting. It should upset you.
One of those popes is considered a once in a lifetime world class philosopher. That ought to generate some respect even from those who don’t like him.

 

[gracepoole]

It’s clear that you dislike this publication and find it upsetting. I’m interested in the article’s central claims, which you still haven’t addressed. I find those claims far more worrisome than any attacks made on Church hierarchy.

 

[ConcernedConvert]

What you say is a handful is much more than you realize, and what you say is (their bread and butter) is the integrity, teachings and Tradition of the Catholic Church.

 

[Victoria33]

I could not find a clear dot a to dot b conspiracy in all of this, the article meanders, this “Acton Institute” doesn’t even appear outright Catholic.

This NAPA institute http://napa-institute.org/ likewise, I’m pondering over.

Catholic organizations, it be Legion of Mary or whatever, I"ve always welcomed in general. I may not view eye to eye some organizations’ goals. The article seems vague, “these right wing organizations”, I don’t know about this at all and I certainly don’t believe they would halt any food for the poor. If they do think the government doesn’t do a good job with welfare programs, maybe at times, they don’t and I’m not even saying they say this.

 

[Victoria33]

It is upsetting. When someone from a magazine with an inimical bias to Catholicism starts an attack on other Catholics on vague petty grounds, mentioning what they eat and how much money they have, characterizing their Catholicism with political smears,
And
insulting three Cardinals and two popes

That should be upsetting. It should upset you .
One of those popes is considered a once in a lifetime world class philosopher. That ought to generate some respect even from those who don’t like him.

Exactly, the article is a maze to get through and I don’t think there is much substance to their assertions. It’s like writing something that might be summarized, if they have anything, into 3 paragraphs but they decided, they needed to make the article, 2 pages long.

I mean, if the article has some real meat to it, I’d gladly look at the allegations and what is wrong, not that one of the Koch brothers gave $15 million to Catholic U and now has a part of the university named after him. That happens a lot in colleges, a millionaire gives to the school and it takes his name.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

What you say is a handful is much more than you realize, and what you say is (their bread and butter) is the integrity, teachings and Tradition of the Catholic Church.

I don’t think it’s very many. And I’m not referring to the “integrity” of any teachings, or of the Church. Although, I realize there are some clergy and laity who are concerned that Pope Francis isn’t a conservative pope, like the last two popes. I find their pearl clutching to be an overreaction. It’s just…business as usual.