Nine priests “courageously” make an appeal for Hillary in a Letter to the editor of the Louisville (KY) Courier Journal:
As this election season unfolds, it’s quite clear that discontent abounds out in the realm. So many people feel left out, abandoned, disenfranchised by the side of the road, unaided by any “Good Samaritans” in the political establishment.
This well of feelings has been poisoned for a long time by various media outlets and their commentators, along with some politicians.
It’s understandable that many are looking for some kind of a “savior” to rescue them and make everything right. Thus, when a candidate sings the song of the abandoned and disenfranchised, some take hope.
Still, no candidate should spew out xenophobia, racism, nativism and misogyny, fanning the flames of blame on immigrants, especially Mexicans and Muslims, for evils that have arisen from our own shores and lives.
Some fundamentalist religious leaders seem to endorse this kind of candidate and his song all too readily.
Thankfully other religious leaders have not. For example, New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a strong voice for U.S. Catholics, noted in July that immigrants are “a gift to our nation … that the only citizens whose ancestors were not immigrants are the Native Americans … (A)ll of us here are descendants of newcomers” (7/29/16 – Catholic News Service).
Cardinal Dolan, among others, may well be the “Confessing Church” we so desperately need today. Back in the ‘30s and ‘40s a small but brave “Confessing Church” rose up to speak boldly against the nazification of Germany and the German Church.
Surely our better angels will reject forcefully any candidate for any political office who fans the flames of bigotry and hatred. May sensible voices rise up lest future generations wonder where their leaders were and why they lacked the courage to speak out when the times demanded it.
This letter, submitted by nine Catholic Priests, evokes an immediate two word response. First word: Bull.
Out of one side of their collective mouth they decry the “well of feelings [that] has been poisoned for a long time by various media outlets and their commentators . . . “ while out of the other side they recite the poison of “xenophobia, racism, nativism, and misogyny”
They criticize the only political or ecclesiastical leader who’s even hinted that we ought to put a gate on Muslim immigrants because they are getting the blame for “evils that have arisen from our own shores and lives.” It’s not like every attack within our borders has been perpetrated by muslims. Oh. Wait. Nevermind.
They invoke Dolan as some sort of leader of the “Confessing Church.” You know, Dolan, the one who chews thoughtfully on his eyeglasses while he presides over a “gay mass” at St. Xavier’s. The one who says “Bravo” to an athlete who celebrates his sodomitical misadventures. And because “sin” has been stricken from the ecclesiastical lexicon, we are left to our “better angels” to help us “reject forcefully any candidate for any political office who fans the flames of bigotry and hatred.” What the heck is a “better angel” and where do I get one? Is that like “Conscience Lite: It does what we used to do without all the guilt.”
And while these brave hirelings warn us of the dangers that a President Trump would bring, not a word about the fascist-lesbo-baby-killer who is the only alternative. And why, pray tell me, can we not “reject forcefully any candidate for any political office who fans the flames” of genocide and murder against unborn children? At least Donald Trump promises to defund the largest provider of abortions on the planet: Planned Parenthood. Hillary only promises . . . well . . . to continue being a fascist-lesbo-baby-killer. Not sure, but I think that’s the only truth she’s ever told. But even a blind pig can find an acorn every now and then.
And if the American Public is looking for “some kind of a ‘savior’ to rescue them and make everything right,” it is only because these pretenders to a holy office have failed for more than a generation to preach the True Savior who will make everything right.
Other than all that, I don’t have an opinion.