Friday, May 8, 2015

From The Francis-Effect Department: John Gehring Carries On At NCR

"NCR" in my title stands for Not-At-All Catholic Reporter.  In his latest plop in the online edition of that rag, John Gehring had the hypocritical gall to call a pro-life governor a "cafeteria Catholic".  There are so many errors here one scarcely knows where to begin - but I'll give it my heroic effort.

Before I begin, have you ever noticed something odd about Gehring and other progressive "katholyc" authors?  They often chide Catholics who champion pro-life causes for not adhering to the (discredited) seamless-garment ideology.  Never have I ever read of them rebuking pro-abortion politicians for anything, let alone their shilling for baby-murder.  I find that to be rather telling regarding their own convictions about the lives of the unborn.  And get a load of Gehring's Twitter page!  But I digress!

The backdrop for Gehring's dribble is the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.  Right in the second paragraph is one whopper.  He claims that capital punishment, war and "other moral issues" clash with traditional Catholic teaching.  No, they don't.  There are conditions that must be met before capital punishment or war are engaged, but they are not the intrinsic evils that abortion and contraception are.  I'll link now to a very pertinent article written by Father C. John McCloskey, showing the place capital punishment has in the realm of Catholic moral theology.  And there is this, from the Catechism of Pope St Pius X: "It is lawful to kill when fighting in a just war; when carrying out by order of the Supreme Authority a sentence of death in punishment of a crime; and, finally, in cases of necessary and lawful defense of one’s own life against an unjust aggressor.”

Further down Gehring whines, "But when a national Catholic event that attracts leading Republican politicians and Catholic bishops consistently sends a message that being pro-life or pro-family can be reduced to a narrow agenda that aligns with one political party, that is a problem."  If he believes that is a "problem", did he bother to ask how that "problem" came into being?  Which of the two main political parties has abortion rights and "gay" rights ensconced within its official party platform?  It's simply fact that the pro-life position is more closely aligned with the GOP platform - but that's only because the Democrats formally reject all things having to do with protecting innocent babies in their wombs!  Why does Gehring ignore that?  I believe there is a deliberated reason for that!

At the bottom of the article we read that Gehring is Catholic Program Director at Faith in Public Life.  My Catholic Media Coalition colleage Stephanie Block did several exposes of FPL (see here and here) several years ago, exposing its rather squalid alliances with dissident organizations such as Dignity and Call to Action and their own nefarious activities.

Three years ago The Blaze ran an article that revealed the funding that FPL received from George Soros.  It also detailed a "behind the scenes" media campaign that Gehring undertook to undermine the bishops' efforts to combat the Obamacare contraception mandate.  A prior position Gehring held was Communications Director for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.  I've written about them and their undermining of Catholic teaching and the funding they've received from (guess!) George Soros!  Are we sensing a pattern here?

At the Not-At-All Catholic Reporter, John Gehring is quite at home, for many (if not most) there, when it comes to matters Catholic, don't know apple butter from cow pie.

2 comments:

  1. Too much explanation about what NCR means... It's really called The fishwrap ;-)

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    Replies
    1. I choose to call it that to hearken to the fact that the previous two bishops in which the thing is headquartered have ordered the publication to cease calling itself Catholic, owing to the dissidents and heretics found within its ranks. Of course they disobey the two bishops with impugnity.

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