Rush has lung cancer. Catholics owe him BIG TIME. Wherein Fr. Z rants. ACTION ITEM!

Rush Limbaugh has advanced lung cancer.  He made the sad announcement yesterday.

ACTION ITEM: Please pray for a complete, swift, durative miraculous cure for him, perhaps through the intercession of Ven. Augustus Tolton.

Every reader here, every committed conservative, faithful Catholic in these USA and elsewhere, owes Rush a huge debt.

Some of you are young and don’t remember what main stream media was like back in the day.  It was dominated by few, extraordinarily liberal outlets.

Then came Rush.

He busted the liberal hegemony.

I think he made it possible for the emergence of a new conservative movement in general and, therefore, in the Catholic sphere.

Talk radio changed everything.  And there really isn’t much of a lib talk radio.   The same goes in the Catholic blogosphere.

When ideas are truly exchanged, libs flee.

Rush was the trailblazer.  He developed a new genre in radio.

Last night I heard Mark Steyn, frequent sub for Rush, say that once when he was in Australia he was called up to fill in for Rush.  He told the PM there that he had to go back to these USA for Rush.  When Steyn remarked that Rush, then, had 25-30 million listeners, the PM said that that Rush had more listeners than there were Australians.

I once had a conversation with the late Card. George of Chicago.  He asked me how many readers I had.  When I told him, he was surprised.  He said, “You have more readers in a day than I have in a month.”

The same phenomenon, but in different settings.

It is unassailable that Rush has a galactic influence on the media.  He made it possible that more than one side of issues be aired.

Older folks might not have grasped completely what was going on back then.  Younger people did.   Libs are still bumfuzzled.

Those of us who were young when Rush started, are older now.  We remember what it was like to experience this shift in the media.  We know what Rush did and will continue to do for as long as he can.

Again, please pray for a complete, swift, durative miraculous cure for Rush Limbaugh through the intercession of Ven. Augustus Tolton.

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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

  1. Lusp says:

    Rush has spoken a few times on the air about his admiration and interest in Catholicism.

  2. tho says:

    Your saying that Rush had a galactic influence was spot on. You knew he was influential when even Bill Clinton disparaged him. He is surely in my prayers.
    Just for histories sake, and living here in the Northeast, there was a conservative talk radio guy name Bob Grant, who preceded Rush. In fact in his early days Rush readily acknowledged him, and his role as a trend setter. He has since passed away, but I just wanted to give him a shout out.

  3. introibo says:

    Rush stated that he has a close and growing relationship with God…I hope and pray that that relationship brings him closer to the Catholic faith.

  4. Kathleen10 says:

    There’s no doubt about it, Rush has made all the difference and is one of those “one of a kind” types, really a lot like Donald Trump in that way. You’re right, conservatives owe him everything.
    Liberals hate him because he’s smarter than they are and they can’t beat his arguments. Liberal talk radio stinks to high heaven and nobody listens to it. Boring!

    Rush raised 50 MILLION dollars for cancer research over 26 years, so he did a lot to help other people, people who suffered with cancer. He has faith in God. We’ll pray for you Rush, absolutely.

  5. OssaSola says:

    Right after we heard the news yesterday, we stopped and said an extra decade for him at our family rosary. And we’ll keep that going.

  6. Charivari Rob says:

    Well said, Tho.
    Bob Grant leapt to my mind, among other names.
    I suppose Rush was among the first most prominent nationally syndicated talk hosts.

  7. mamajen says:

    Rush has been a part of my life for most of my life. I started listening with my dad in elementary school. His intelligence, his sense of humor, his optimism all sliced through the hysteria the Drive-By Media was peddling, and he helped me learn to think for myself.

    When my oldest son was a toddler, he would hum the show’s theme song. At four, he told me something about Mitt Romney. “How did you know that?!” I asked. “I listen to the EIB network!” he declared. When my son started reading chapter books at a young age, I could count on Rush Revere for safe, educational, and fun reading. We still have the Rush Revere teddy bear that Rush’s company sent to us along with some other goodies after we shared a photo. I used to sport a Rush Baby On Board magnet on the family car.

    Memories of life Before Rush are fuzzy, but I can still see how conservative media has gained ground through the years and have heard him time and again build others up. One of those people you just wish could live forever.

    God bless you and thank you, Rush.

  8. Rush is the most listened-to talk radio host in history, not because he has hypnotized us all into falling in line with him, but because he is in line with us. He says what we are all thinking, and he acknowledges this. He understands that attacks on him are really attacks on his listeners, just as attacks on Trump are really attacks on Trump voters.

    I have had a picture of Ven. Augustine Tolton in my office for years. I will pray to him to obtain Rush’s cure.

  9. Rush is sitting next to Melania at the State of the Union Address. God bless him. I pray for a cure for him. Also asking my cousin, Charlene Marie Richard, the Little Cajun Saint for her prayers and intercession for Rush.

  10. moosix1974 says:

    It looks like the president was listening, Father. Got the Medal of Freedom tonight!

  11. KateD says:

    Prayed and will continue praying

  12. KateD says:

    And…..

    I pray God may grant him many more years to enjoy family and friends…..and wearing his new Presidential Medal of Freedom!

    I love that the libs has to sit there politely in attendance while he was honored!

  13. BostonEmigrant says:

    Yeah, to think he got a way bigger audience for his award than he would in C-Span during some weekday broadcast. It’s fitting for him.

    I know the news discussed that Trump planned on giving him the award “in a few months”— I’m glad the President was able to surprise us with that announcement.

  14. Fr_Sotelo says:

    No doubt, Rush has backed up Catholic Faith and core beliefs before the American public, more times than can be counted.

    As you say, Fr. Z, I remember listening to him as a newly ordained priest almost 30 years ago and could not believe how courageous he was to challenge the liberal stranglehold on radio. I will be praying hard and often for him.

  15. grateful says:

    Fr. Z, Thank you so much for this post in asking for prayers for such a great man.
    For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion,
    have Mercy on Rush and on the whole world. Amen
    I thank God for giving us such a clear voice for our times.

  16. bookworm says:

    I was listening to Rush’s show in 2005 when I heard the news of Pope Benedict’s election. His respect for the Catholic faith was always evident and I often wondered if he might just convert eventually (his multiple marriages perhaps being the main obstacle). I sincerely hope and pray he can recover, or if that is not God’s will for him, that he at least gets to see Trump reelected.

    Curious as to why you suggest Fr. Tolton as an intercessor. Is it because he and Rush are both natives of Missouri and Fr. Tolton needs a miracle to advance his cause any further (both good reasons)?

    There’s also this quote from Bishop Fulton Sheen that certainly applies to Rush: “I really think that (at their final judgement) those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there will be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world, but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world. They will plead for everyone who has ever been in this movement. They will say to God, “Spare him because he loved us.”

  17. JonPatrick says:

    I started to listed to Rush around the time of the Clinton impeachment. For a long time I had been a typical lib and an agnostic to boot. It was then I started to realize the mainstream media was not telling us the truth (yes I’m a slow learner). I have added him to my daily rosary.

  18. Ages says:

    As a “Rush baby”, I can’t imagine life without him, even though I don’t have occasion to listen very often. Just to know he’s out there, holding the line, is a comfort. We all had tears in our eyes last night when he was honored for his work.

    Save him, O Christ God!

  19. veritas vincit says:

    Over the years, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Rush. I was an avid listener during the Clinton years, but his showmanship and over-the-top style has gotten old on me.

    Nevertheless, Father Z is right. Rush blazed the trail for talk radio that many others have followed. As one of those other hosts (and Catholic), Hugh Hewitt, has said, “Rush built the mall that the rest of us live in.”

    Prayers for Rush Limbaugh, and congratulations on his receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom during last night’s State of the Union address!

  20. Semper Gumby says:

    Congratulations to Rush Limbaugh, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    Prayers for Rush, long may he serve at the Golden EIB microphone. Years ago Armed Forces Radio polled the troops on which programs should be aired. Rush won as a write-in.

    Dan’s Bake Sale.

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  22. Lepanto ! says:

    Pray for him, indeed. I’ve witnessed death from lung cancer up close and personal and it is nasty.
    .
    Pray for him also as he is on his *fourth* marriage and that can’t bode well for his eternity.

  23. chuckharold says:

    Yes, we should pray for him. His disease is a cruel one. At the same time, we should pray for those who have been sucked into his diatribes. Yes, the media before Rush was different. It was led by people trying to be as non-political as possible. [?!? You are living in a dream world.] Rush has done more to divide this nation than nearly anyone else. He spews hate and division at every opportunity. I’m a life long Republican (although the Republicans of my generations stood for a different America) but I lay the blame for our current national division at Rush’s feet along with a few others like Gingrich. The American experiment can’t succeed many more years if the people are divided and unwilling to compromise to move us forward. The divide is killing our dream and his is much to blame. [I suggest coffee and perhaps a bagel and schmear.]

  24. Sandy says:

    Prayed for him right away. I felt that I was hearing the news about a close friend; it brings tears to my eyes b/c we need voices such as his. May the Lord grant him a miracle, and praise God for the award Rush received last night at the SOTU.

  25. Lurker 59 says:

    The existence of near journalistic leftist hegemony pre Rush didn’t make for the US an undivided nation — just a nation in which journalism that suppressed alternative views. Rush isn’t actually a divider, just someone that has given voice to the voiceless and, as such, is, as a matter of fact, an uniter. Rush is the community organizer that liberals dream of — organizing and bringing together a community to bring about real social and political change.

    Rush is what they wish they had. And that is why they hate him — spite and envy.

    There are few people in this world who make the field that they are in better — moving the ball forward elevating and advancing their field. There are even fewer in this world who change the landscape of their field and make it something new. That is Rush. He has changed journalism, punditry, and politics and for him the USA is a better place. Not just those that agree with him, but also those that disagree and those that are opposed to him. He has made it so that they can be better than they were.

    There are millions of people in America (and worldwide) who are where they are — the careers that they have chosen, what they do with their lives, and how they think, because of Rush. That is no small thing and no mean thing. It is why he is a man for history.

  26. Ages says:

    chuckharold: Yes, society can be very peaceful if you have one ideology masquerading as two—Progressive Liberalism and Conservative Liberalism, with a gentlemen’s agreement to not rock the boat too much. That kind of society would be a pretty far cry from what the founders of our country had.

  27. Noelle says:

    At the death of William F. Buckley, the voice of conservatism for many of us, Rush recognized that a great responsibility had fallen on his shoulders. He has been a great comfort and source of wisdom for me for many years. I pray for him, especially with the day of Our Lady of Lourdes approaching.

  28. mo7 says:

    Bob Grant was pro-choice and very cynical. The thing I always love about Rush is that he speaks [like our potus did in the in the sotu] in positive and uplifting terms for our people and country.
    I will pray for Rush’s healing but most of all for his conversion.

  29. hwriggles4 says:

    Years ago my average work week was 70 hours. (That was “normal” for me for about 7 or 8 years). That involved working late and sometimes making long drives late at night. I began to tune in to talk radio, and Rush Limbaugh was on in several markets. He kept me awake and gave me something to think about. I also had a few things in my personal life that changed me too – I didn’t begin to embrace the pro life movement until about 20 years ago.

    Seriously I don’t think I could have made those drives on 4 hours sleep without listening to Rush Limbaugh.

  30. bartlep says:

    A prayer for a complete, swift, durative miraculous cure for Rush Limbaugh through the intercession of Ven. Augustus Tolton:

    O God, we give you thanks for your servant and priest, Father Augustus Tolton, who labored among us in times of contradiction, times that were both beautiful and paradoxical. His ministry helped lay the foundation for a truly Catholic gathering in faith in our time. We stand in the shadow of his ministry. May his life continue to inspire us and imbue us with that confidence and hope that will forge a new evangelization for the Church we love.
    Father in Heaven, Father Tolton’s suffering service sheds light upon our sorrows; we see them through the prism of your Son’s passion and death. If it be your Will, O God, glorify your servant, Father Tolton, by granting the favor I now request through his intercession (complete, swift, durative miraculous cure for Rush Limbaugh) so that all may know the goodness of this priest whose memory looms large in the Church he loved.
    Complete what you have begun in us that we might work for the fulfillment of your kingdom. Not to us the glory, but glory to you O God, through Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are our God, living and reigning forever and ever.
    Amen

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  31. KateD says:

    chuck harold,

    I disagree whole heartedly. I dont personally listen to talk radio….as a mater of fact it drives me up the wall….my husband has always got the radio on (in the middle of the country), my grandmother used to listen Rush daily as she drove all over Los Angeles and a boy I dated in college, his dad would sit up and listen to Rush in the middle of the night. When we’d go back East to visit, we’d go and sit with him. Those are three people I love and greatly respect….and while I agree with Rush, I’m just not a radio person.

    The point is, Rush has been on air for a looooong time but our nation didn’t become divided like it is now until the W’s administration. We had just come together as a nation after 9/11. We were united behind our president and our country. His approval ratings were through the roof! Unprecedented bipartisan approval, if I’m remembering correctly. And do you know how he valiantly chose to spend that hard earned political capital? On Terri Shiavo and Conner Peterson. For each defense of the sanctity of life he took a schlacking….but he stood firm. That’s when we started to hear “plant a Bush back in Texas” and more crass slogans. That’s when it first became impossible for liberals and conservatives to hold civil discourse.

    What has divided our nation is abortion.

    Rush has remained constant through the years. He is not the cause of the division, but he has been a strong voice for those who have none of their own.

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