LifeSite News, Church Militant and The Lepanto Institute are arguably on the front lines of the debate about homosexuality in the priesthood. Apparently, NBC News and the USCCB have had enough of it. NBC News has gone on the assault, implying that groups like Church Militant are prone to violence or otherwise inspire violence. The USCCB tells NBC News that such groups participate in “digital stoning.” Digital stoning? Really?
What this ultimately means is that groups like LifeSite, Church Militant and the Lepanto Institute are not “polite.”
Websites like Church Militant, LifeSite News and the Lepanto Institute are ratcheting up the rhetoric while replacing polite and prayerful discourse with personal attacks on supporters of gay Catholics, they say.
Corky Siemaszko, NBC News
Somehow, they go from characterizing these groups as “impolite”(which they are) to being responsible for personal, physical attacks on opponents.
Perhaps one of the most extreme examples of harassment was endured by Aaron Bianco, a gay man married to another man who told the New Ways ministry that he resigned from his job at a San Diego parish as a pastoral minister after more than a year of abuse. He said he received death threats, had his tires slashed, got hundreds of harassing letters, phone calls and emails, and was physically attacked after a Mass.
Corky Siemaszko, NBC News
The USCCB is even getting in on the act:
In response to repeated requests for comment from NBC News, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released the following response from their spokesman Bishop Christopher Coyne of Burlington, Vermont:
“The promotion and defense of the faith should invite an encounter with the merciful love of Christ and contribute to a more civil and peaceful dialogue in our church and society,” he said. “I urge my brothers and sisters to exercise extreme caution before giving credence to anyone who instigates shameful, digital stoning as a way to defend the Church. Catholic participation in the public square should be marked by both fidelity to the Gospel and to charity toward all our fellow citizens.”
Corky Siemaszko, NBC News
For the life of me, I cannot understand how passionate defense of the Catholic Faith can possibly be classified as “shameful, digital stoning” by the USCCB. It’s understandable to get this kind of criticism from NBC News, but the USCCB? Thankfully, some bishops aren’t buying it.
“Some bishops promote sites like LifeSite,” [Fr. James Martin] said. “I know some people read them in Rome. …
Corky Siemaszko, NBC News
Jesus had a prescription for the problems of discord and disunity. He founded one Church which professes a unified teaching on the topic. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Church Militant, LifeSite and The Lepanto Insitute, though “impolite,” are simply defending faith in Jesus Christ and His Gospel.
Don’t forget that Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” He also overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple, showing that it is sometimes important to do house-cleaning in the Church.
Though I sometimes cannot bear to listen to Michael Voris, et al, with their “impolite” language in defense of the Church, I have to acknowledge that the bottom line is that they are defending the Church. They are not defending violence. They are defending the truth of the Gospel. For that, I am only grateful.
