News Backgrounds for Homily Preparation #3
Hugh Hewitt a prolific tweeter by the way on September 26 sang the praises of Walter Russell Mead’s The Ark of the Covenant. He explains that it contains a 25-page section explaining the rise of Trumpism. It is so intense, he adds that he had the man on his show on Monday September 26 and held him over from hour 2 to hour 3. I have not, as of this writing, read the section he mentions but I will.
You can hear the interview from the Hugh Hewitt Podcast
Mead explains that the Republican party is divided into three parts. Lodge Republicans, Jacksonian (as in Andrew Jackson) Republicans and Sun Belt Republicans which are also Reagan Republicans. Check out the podcast to hear how it all connects to Donald Trump. Hugh Hewitt by the way is the president of the Nixon Library Foundation. He is a constitutional lawyer and media pundit who writes for the Washington Post, has been a regular guest on CNN and MSNBC and now appears as one of the commentators on Special Report with Brett Baier on the Fox News Channel.
The Archbishop Says No to the Death Penalty
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone calls for an end to the Death Penalty in America Magazine.
Of course, you know he is the Archbishop of San Francisco who is most famous for publicly stating that Nancy Pelosi cannot receive communion in a Catholic Church in his archdiocese because of her stand on abortion. During this month when the pope called to pray for an end to the death penalty—particularly pertinent to the US—Archbishop Cordileone added his voice to end it.
Many of the most traditional Catholics who, for the most part, reject Pope Francis and claim to be pro-life are intensely for the death penalty. I never understood why. This is despite that Pope St. John Paul II was the first to call it obsolete. I remember a discussion pre-email and internet with the then editor of Seminarians for Life predecessor of Human Life International an organization against abortion whose members completely supported the death penalty in this country. He was vehemently pro-death penalty citing St. Thomas Aquinas' statement that it is salutary to the condemned to death. I never bought that argument. It makes no sense to me.
A fellow seminarian at the time at St. John’s in Boston who also was pro-death penalty and against abortion complained to me that from my position one must accept Cardinal Bernadin’s Seamless Garment doctrine to be pro-life. Bernadin was then and is today long after his death a prelate many pro-lifers absolutely despise.
My response was simple: “He is a Cardinal and we are not.”
Mark Shea, never one to hold his feelings that some pro-lifers politicize the movement, especially those he calls the MAGA cult did give props to the Archbishop for taking this position.
Wittenburg, Pittsburgh what’s the difference?
I learned from reading Where Peter Is’ Mike Lewis via Twitter there will be a conference in Pittsburgh calling for resistance to Pope Francis. The meeting will take place on October 1 according to online information.
This is a sad reality and it seems to reflect the growing movement in our country here in the United States even though some of the speakers are from outside of the country. One speaker is Bishop Athanasius Schneider. It is now becoming a part of a growing movement to deny the results of elections. In this case, it is more accurately resistance to the election results but is a similar movement. This of course growing movement which now includes the church will lead to the fall of democracy worldwide if it continues.
I wrote an article about Schneider in 2020. Of those who left comments, half loved the article and half hated it. This means I was right down the middle on my reporting which is where I wanted to be. The bishop claimed then he is not calling for the pope to resign. I do not know if his participation in this conference indicates a change in his position.
Obviously, I have absolutely zero support for such a conference and I am disappointed in some of the people involved. Others, I am not surprised and others I am surprised that they are NOT there.
I will also note that they used a poor choice of words for their battle cry: Unite the Clans. In writing, one can see the spelling but in audio, obviously, the words clans and klans are identical. The former basically means family ties, which is apparently the way they meant it. Of course, in an audio setting if they do radio commercials and use the slogan many will hear the other word. I don’t know who came up with that slogan but it was a great mistake. Of course, the whole conference is a great mistake.
The Bible makes it clear God wants one thing of all of us—unity. Such call to division is disturbing.
The pope wants us to have a reverent Vatican II liturgy and I am working on that at St. Anthony. I am going to introduce chant at Advent in my parish to do this.
Until next week:
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