Some Response to Catholic Bashin

Impeach the Pope (Rank Catholic Bashing at The Washington Post)

I find it quite sad that, in the midst of practically everyone in the media bashing Pope Benedict for his viewpoint on condom use in Africa, a report comes out that the incidences of HIV/AIDS has reached epidemic proportions in Washington D.C. Yet they have one of the most aggressive free condom programs in the United States! They handed out over a million condoms in 2008, at every venue you can imagine, and yet their HIV/AIDS rate skyrocketed. Isn't this living (& dying) proof that condoms simply are not the answer in curbing HIV/AIDS?

Andrea Will

Michigan City, IN

Editor, The Washington Post,

The publishing of such an anti-Catholic rant as that of Robert S McElvaine says more about the agenda of the Washington Post's editorial staff than the heretic in question. We Catholics are not blind to your misuse of freedom of speech as a weapon against the Church.

That you would permit this rambling moral dissenter column inches in your Paper shows that you, like him, have only disdain for the Catholic conscience and the person of the Supreme Pontiff of the Church. Fortunately, displays of such public hatred tend, historically, to have the opposite effect to that which was intended.

It is indeed a great pity that such zeal as yours and McElvaine's could not be redirected against the secularists of this world, who are the real danger to mankind. In other words, take that which is destructive in you and make it constructive.

In the meantime keep your bigotry to yourself in future. If you cannot publish objective articles, then go join some Fascist propaganda outlet.

Sincerely

Martin Blackshaw

Pope bashing at the WAPO, nothing new here. I stopped buying the Washington Post years ago. What will be interesting is to see if the sissy Archbishop of Washington DC, D. Wuerl has any gutsy response. I guess we already know the answer to that.

Bill Yates

Bethesda, Maryland

Dear Editor,

The more I hear such anti-Catholic bigotry from a rag that no longer deserves the honor of being called a “news”-paper, the more I am so grateful that I am a Catholic and for the dogmas, doctrines and teachings of the Church, and for our brave Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. I will pray for the Washington Post and its editorial staff because you all really do need supernatural help...perhaps even an exorcist.

Thomas J. Fortino

Roswell, GA

Dear Editor,

I don't expect much in the way of reply from the Archbishop of Washington, or from any other American bishop for that matter. Their concerns for their own so-called social action agenda leave little time for defending this particular Pontiff. Back in the 1950's when I was raised in Bethesda (St. Jane DeChantal), our Archbishop O'Boyle would have had them by the back of their necks, either through direct reply, the Evening Star, or his own Catholic Standard. I am afraid we have drifted too far in our desire to be liked, considered ecumenical, socially correct, and dare I say "Modernist".

David T. Penn

LtCol (Ret), U.S. Marines

I read this article and it is absolutely blasphemous and a sacrilege! Robert S McElvaine may claim to be a Catholic, but in reality he has excommunicated himself publicly. It is an absolute disgrace! What is also very disgusting is that he has the support of the editor and many others that posted comments to his blasphemous rant. McElvaine and his ilk will answer someday for these blasphemies. God will have the last word and neither He nor His Church will be mocked! Also, to Robert S McElvaine & his ilk: THE CHURCH WILL EVER REMAIN AND LONG LIVE THE CURRENT POPE AND ALL FUTURE POPES!!

R.N.

Illinois

Should it be a surprise that someone writing in a “newspaper” would show such contempt to the Chair of Peter? Should it be a surprise that he completely ignores the recent admission that DC’s AIDS epidemic is out of control? The only thing left to do is pray to the Blessed Mother and the Sacred Heart.

Chris Kershisnik

Adamstown, MD

Dear Editor, The Washington Post,

It is a doctrine of the Catholic Church that a member of the faithful must accept the supreme pontiff as being infallible when he speaks “ex-cathedra.” So, it appears your stooge, Robert S McElvaine, has publicly excommunicated himself. In light of the fact this man claims to be Catholic, yet doesn’t even know how to maintain that membership by adhering to (or even understanding) basic requirements of faith , can you imagine how utterly inept his silly book is? Next time leave the bigot in his cesspool of hate!

Joe Vasco

Immediately after reading Robert S. McElvaine's "Impeach the Pope", I informed the Catholic League of this smug and ignorant man's egregious anti-Catholic and Pope-hating rant. If the loathsome Marat's equally loathsome skin condition could be metamorphosed into words, the result would be McElvaine's "Impeach the Pope".

As a result of my report to the League (and I'm sure I wasn't the only one), Bill Donohue, president, issued a press release on this matter. Here is the link:

http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1583

Let's continue, as good and true Catholics, to fight the good fight together. With Saint Paul, we should all be able to say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (II Timothy iv: 7).

Clarence George
New York, NY

I read with a sense of shock and anger the recent article on the Holy Father in the Washington Post by Robert S McElvaine. It is simply word-trash and can only appeal to mind-set of a bigot.

To set the record straight, point-for-point, the Holy Father did not make the claim about Islam that was quoted, but the Holy Father Himself quoted this from another author. It would be the equivalent of me claiming that since McElvaine mentioned this quote in this article that he, himself endorsed it. For an academic he should be able to make such distinctions, unless he is intentionally trying to be malicious.

Next, Bishop Williamson is not a Holocaust denier. He is at most, an historical revisionist that was questioning one aspect of the Holocaust. He didn't say it didn't happen, what he said was that he didn't think that the historical revisionists believe that six million Jews died is gas chambers. Again, this inability to discern distinctions reveals that McElvaine is either a lazy journalist or an incredibly lazy academic?

And finally, his interpretation of what the Holy Father said regarding condom distribution is again seriously mangled. If one reads what the Holy Father really said:

“I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem."

This shows that the Holy Father, not only said something that is much more reasonable, but that it jibs very clearly with common sense intuitions. That if condoms are peddled as the solution, it leads to recklessness that leads to more HIV. Can McElvaine not understand this distinction either? And this written in spite of the empirical evidence that shows abstinence strategies are much more effective (e.g., Uganda) than condom strategies (e.g. Washington DC).

As is clear from these few observations, McElvaine not only shows himself to be a hack journalist (not to mention the implication for the editors at the Washington Post for printing this trash), but also a fantastically incompetent academic, and a shameless Catholic bigot.

The Washington Post should take a share in this shame as well. I hope readers don't sit by and let this go unanswered.

D'Arcy Drachenberg

The Pope is much more informed than these "ranters". Latex (the rubber used in condoms) does NOT prevent the transmission of HIV.

This a well known fact in medical and scientific circles. But the more black people that die from AIDS...... One should research an Executive Order signed by Richard Nixon that targeted Africa as a continent which would become an adversary of the US. I'll bet the Population Control folks are happy.

Sincerely

John

Saskatchewan

Only one comment - McElvaine is NOT Catholic!

Andy Piacente

Yonkers, NY

Yeah, Washington Post,

First, a Pope can become removed from the Seat of Peter, if all Cardinals vote to remove him -- either in Canon Law of 1917 or 1983. Check with George Weigel, he'll straighten your writer about what sort of Lockean philosophical do-over Vatican II's "spirit of the ConcilLIAR COUNCIL " details. Then, think the opposite, and you probably will have a correct quote. But, check with a primary source, just to become Relatively sure. If your desire lies with coming close to Sam Clemens' objective approach of the four "w's" plus a "how". and you want to avoid the 3 "P's": resorting for a quote from either a professor, press reporter, or a psychologist, might I suggest the objectivity of an eyewitness / knowledgeable informant. Actually, just hire a proof-reader. Editors aren't subsisting upon unnecessary and micro-managing office administration techniques, anyhow. Thanks,

Robert Beck

Chicago, Illinois

U.S.A.

Editor, The Washington Post,

Living in the Scottish city of Glasgow, where I was born, I really thought I had experienced anti-Catholic sectarianism at its worst. Not so. The article you published by Robert S McElvaine reaches a new low in terms of ignorant, bigoted anti-Catholic prejudice. Islam-a-phobia eat your heart out, for Catholic-phobia reigns supreme. Indeed, if McElvaine had written in the same vein about Muhammed, there would be blood on the streets of Washington – as well you know.

These rants against the Pope in the matter of condoms in Africa (or anywhere else, for that matter) reveals an ignorance of the subject that is almost unbelievable. Is McElvaine (and yourself) unaware that in every part of Africa where condoms are made freely and widely available, the HIV/AIDS statistics soar?

Are you both so ignorant that you don’t know that wherever there is a predominantly Catholic population in Africa, there are few HIV/AIDS victims and, conversely, where the Catholic population is in the minority, the numbers of sufferers is on the rise – and that despite the countries being awash with condoms? In Botswana, e.g. Catholics are a mere 5% of the population yet, with condoms all but growing on the trees, the rate of HIV infection there in recent years was an appalling 37.3% and rising.

But the real joke is this: everyone knows that increasingly secularised modern Catholics (not real, traditional Catholics) have disobeyed the Pope over matters of sexual morality, so the very idea that a man who is sexually promiscuous would obey the Pope if he instructed the faithful to use condoms, is a nonsense. Get a grip.

How dare you publish such an ignorant, biased piece of trashy writing about Pope Benedict. Frankly, I’m not interested in your views about my religion or my Pope, so back off. You make the anti-Catholic thugs who roam the street of Glasgow looking for Celtic supporters to knife, look positively tolerant.

Patricia McKeever,

Editor, Catholic Truth

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