The View From The Fascist Fainting Couch

fainting couch 02Over at the Fishwrap (aka National Sodomitic Reporter – organ of record for the promotion of heresy and same-sex impurity for liberal catholics) MS Winters has had still another case of the vapors.

From his view athwart the NSR fainting couch, Winters penned a long, mostly dull, yet nasty screed against, among others, his favorite bête noire, Acton Institute.  HERE

Notice what Winters does.  First, he indulges in a simply nasty ad hominem attack (which I don’t cite here) on Fr. Robert Sirico, head of Acton Institute. Later, he suggests that Pope Francis – yes, the Pope – should censor Acton… why?

Pope Francis said on the plane back from Latin America that before he comes to the U.S. in September he will read some of the criticisms of his words. Here are two candidates for his reading. Gregg and his colleagues at Acton are ideologues, pure and simple, and the pope need not address their arguments, only their influence. Well funded, they try to spread their laissez faire Gospel throughout the ecclesial world, flying in bishops from developing nations to their seminars and lectures. Anything the pope could do to clip their wings would be welcome.

Get that?

Scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds.

Winters wants his enemy to be repressed by papal authority.

It is marvelously ironic that anyone at the Fishwrap wants an intervention of papal authority.  When has the Fishwrap respected ecclesial authority?

Moreover, the claim that Acton pushes “laissez faire” capitalism is a lie, but the Wile. E. Coyote of contemporary liberal catholicism is willing to tell it boldly and repeatedly. HERE

What else might lie behind MsW’s fascist approach to Acton?

Think about what is at stake for Fishwrap and its writers.

Who will hold the line on the Church’s moral teaching at the Synod of Bishops?  Bishops from “developing countries” (read: Africa).

Bishops in developing countries are willing to listen to Acton because what Acton promotes (not laissez-faire capitalism) helps to lift real people from poverty.

Finally, what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

To the Catholic Bishops of these United States:

Please require that the Fishwrap remove the word “Catholic” from their title.

Require them – finally – to stop pretending.  Require them to follow the ruling of the bishop of the place where they have their offices, Kansas City.

national-schismatic-reporter-color_cropped

“Hey… does that look like a snake to you?”
“Yah… it does kinda!”
“No, it’s a viper.”
“Yah, a viper. You know.. it’s a kind of snake. Poisonous. With venom.”
“But… it’s still a snake… right?”
“You know the old Persian proverb….”

“Okay, I’ll bite. What Per….”
“He has eaten so many snakes that he has become a viper.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I thought we were talking about the Fishwrap.”
“We ARE talking about…”
“Shut up and watch the movie!”

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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16 Comments

  1. wmeyer says:

    I choose not to inflict MSW on myself. That said, of course censorship is needed. After all, a proper understanding of economics makes painfully obvious the entire framework of liberal deceptions. So naturally, MSW and the NSR are feeling threatened.

    It has been my view for years that ignorance of economics among the electorate is the key to Democrat success. Sadly, most seem to think it is a tedious and boring subject. I try to get people to read Thomas Sowell, who always makes the subject painless.

    The liberals, in the wake of the Obergefell decision, seem to think they are now unstoppable. Or perhaps they think it’s temporary, and are playing a desperate game to achieve destruction before Barry is out of office. All I know for certain is that the vitriol is brimming over in many venues.

  2. john_6_fan says:

    “Gregg and his colleagues at Acton are ideologues, pure and simple…”

    I think Jesus likes when people are zealous, uncompromising adherents (ie. idealogues) for His Gospel.

  3. benedetta says:

    Hard to figure out what he is exactly talking about or his point, and I haven’t the time to attempt to sort it out. On its face though it appears to be a big distractifying to do meant to throw us pew sitting dogs off the scent of pro communist Western media imperialism funded by the 1%. No one is pretending that these various countries haven’t serious issues, nor that their poor is still not treated with dignity, but it is the apologia for Marxism even still after all the world has witnessed and suffered through these regimes in the last centuries that is appalling from these places, and this is surely not the first time it attempts to advance that banner along by hiding behind a shrubbery of omission or ad hominem attacks on their favorite clerics to hate on. Of course the communist regimes that we are familiar with in reality across the world are for the most part terrible to artists and the arts, indeed anyone who is a tad idiosyncratic or independent, broad, or open minded. I suppose for these media hope springs eternal in some yet unrealized utopia of communism or Marxism, “if only” myriad things in terms of how they would do it if elected imperial emperor of the continents.

    When I consider the foisting of certain ideology upon others when couched in the virtue of religion this comes to mind: Quis autem ex vobis patrem petit panem, numquid lapidem dabit illi? aut piscem, numquid pro pisce serpentem dabit illi? aut si petierit ovum, numquid porriget illi scorpionem?

    Of course that is vastly decontextualized; however, as that seems to fit the general approach of publications such as this to not only world history but scripture and tradition besides, I suppose that hardly matters and perhaps even leans towards being apt.

  4. Benedict Joseph says:

    Now I am really not finger pointing, BUT, because Fr. Z. will on occasion point to an outrage at the NCReporter I’ll go over there and witness the lunacy. Given to being a bit of a “hard-core” Catholic the compulsion to contribute my two cents in the comments is sometimes overwhelming. Given my perspective on our current reality my comments would be expected to generate objection. But what is of import is the adolescent vindictiveness characterizing the comments at the site. There is a real abandonment of adult comportment and a complete neglect of any referencing to the content of the faith. It is as if one were exchanging with individuals totally alienated from Roman Catholicism – on every level. A recent exchange included the denial of the veracity of Holy Scripture, the promise of eternal life, and by inference the divinity of Christ, the Most Holy Trinity, and malicious mischaracterization of Pope Benedict’s thought. The idea that any member of the hierarchy would give credence the NCReporter is saddening. But why do I believe it is subscribed to by every diocese in the country? Somebody disabuse me of this notion. It thrives because there is an appetite for it, and it ain’t the guys down at the loading dock keeping it afloat.

  5. Tiber Swimmer 2012 says:

    I believe Fr. has made an error (hear Jumanji drums in the background). Is he referencing Wile E. Coyote of liberalism?

  6. Athelstan says:

    It is as if one were exchanging with individuals totally alienated from Roman Catholicism – on every level.

    It’s the embodiment of a brand of Catholicism that is chiefly adept at creating ex-Catholics – ex-Catholics with a deep loathing for the Church.

  7. Jackie L says:

    It’s silly to think that Winters or anyone at the NcR is concerned about dissent, as the publication is based on dissent. This is simply an attempt by Winters to falsely smear others in order to claim some sort of equivalence for abortion, same-sex marriage, female ordination, etc.

  8. Martlet says:

    It’s the embodiment of a brand of Catholicism that is chiefly adept at creating ex-Catholics – ex-Catholics with a deep loathing for the Church.

    If only they had the courage to call themselves ex-Catholics. That, I can at least respect, but this “fifth column” deludes even itself. Breaks my heart.

  9. Benedict Joseph said:

    There is a real abandonment of adult comportment and a complete neglect of any referencing to the content of the faith. It is as if one were exchanging with individuals totally alienated from Roman Catholicism – on every level.

    That describes a substantial portion of the N”C”R commentariat: “totally alienated from Roman Catholicism…” There are a number of folks there who imagine themselves to be Catholic, but they have reduced Catholic identity down to the bare minimum: being baptized, or adhering in some fashion to the Beatitudes; and those are the best Catholics of the N”C”R set. It’s noteworthy that the site attracts quite a lot of folks who truly hate and reject Catholicism; and even more noteworthy that this fact — evident to anyone who reads the comments — seems to bother neither the still-trying-to-be-Catholic readership, nor the editors.

    The idea that any member of the hierarchy would give credence the NCReporter is saddening. But why do I believe it is subscribed to by every diocese in the country? Somebody disabuse me of this notion. It thrives because there is an appetite for it, and it ain’t the guys down at the loading dock keeping it afloat.

    There was a day when the N”C”R had a wider readership among bishops, chancery offices and priests, but that has surely waned. I don’t know what it’s printed subscription is, but I imagine it isn’t very big. The N”C”R is sustained by financial gifts from whoever it may be who wants to keep it going. I don’t know who that is, but it’s not surprising that they can find people to fund them.

  10. robtbrown says:

    john_6_fan says:

    “Gregg and his colleagues at Acton are ideologues, pure and simple…”

    I think Jesus likes when people are zealous, uncompromising adherents (ie. idealogues) for His Gospel.

    By definition, ideology refers to ideas, which may be (and often are) merely subjective and not oriented toward Truth.

  11. zrhaskell says:

    I agree. If Michael Voris couldn’t keep the name “Catholic,” why should NCR? (or any catholic news center for that matter….)

  12. Sonshine135 says:

    It is a shame when you get better and morally correct news from Eye of the Tiber than you do from a major newspaper that alleges to be Catholic

  13. benedetta says:

    You know, I really do wish MSW and his ilk well — I don’t assume that his role is easy these days, and I know that he has dipped his toe into circles of friendship in the Church which I have benefited from and I know that many others benefit immensely from especially in these days. Perhaps for that reason I feel all the more that I can be candid here and say that the totalitarian leaning left that American liberalism has strangely devolved to is not one that people like him or Fishwrap or others would be able to exist in, indefinitely, much less flourish. I don’t say what I say here simply to mock or attempt the upper hand which has long been foreclosed to someone such as myself, and I certainly couldn’t care less about American partisan politics. At the same time, the way in which things are steered do fundamentally affect not only myself and mine but a great many and I don’t think being Catholic requires me to leave the heavy lifting to the big boys ad infinitum. But the simple fact is that I do not think that MSW or any of the Fishwrappers or their satellite mouthpieces could walk even a half a mile in my moccasins let alone the full length of the journey. There really is not one operating communist state right now which is friendly to liberal thought, and the boiled in the wool socialist ones are not necessarily that much better when one looks at it with objective measures, measures of basic human rights and dignity. I challenge anyone who wants to pretend that a totalitarian state and society is not the result of the dictatorship of relativism to experience what I have experienced for a few days or so and then check back and see whether they have a different notion of what basic civil liberties are all about and whether even the dread other party they set up attacks as their raison d’etre might have a point or two about how we are to go about ordering our lives with one another. I’ve looked down that tunnel, seen the future that comes from what contemporary American liberalism is supposedly all about and it does not mean well for you and for me regardless of how you identify or what way you have sometimes or always voted or what belief system you profess etc etc etc. One has to ask these publications at some point, is that what you want? Even if they care not about that for certain of us and deem that some “have it coming” (and what that’s about God only knows) what about for themselves and theirs? Do they really believe it is all that rational as to exempt some or most? What is the basis for that belief? I have seen it up close and there is no rational there. There is no dialogue, no reason, no tolerance. Why do they believe they will have the benefit of it ultimately? There is simply no rational basis for that belief.

  14. Matt Robare says:

    “Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving our world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the areas in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good.” — Pope Francis, Laudato Si.

    And bishops have been trying to get NCR to drop the “Catholic” from its name since 1968: http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00Cofv

  15. Suudy says:

    “Winters wants his enemy to be repressed by papal authority.

    It is marvelously ironic that anyone at the Fishwrap wants an intervention of papal authority. When has the Fishwrap respected ecclesial authority?”

    Because, MSW and Fishwrap know that Acton and others loyal to the Church and her teachings would acquiesce to that authority. If he somehow convinced Papa Francis to silence Acton, he knows Acton would go silent. Of course he denies any such authority applies to him and his cohorts. But he knows it applies to Acton and its allies.

  16. benedetta says:

    What does it say that the agenda advanced by some “in the Church” longstanding simply cannot survive absent strong arm tactics, silencing others, bullying, shaming? When you come right down to it, it’s just another reason why the younger generations of Catholics are more drawn to orthodoxy which is in reality far more tolerant, kind, patient, and engaging in respectful dialogue than those who advertise this to be what they are about. When open and robust debate with a process of reasoning is present, the truth always wins out. When strong arm tactics intended to force others into nonexistence are employed, the truth wins out then too, of course, eventually, just via a less predictable process.

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