Just Me, Mouthing Off About Crux and America and Large Investment of U.S. Catholic Intellectual Elites in Upholding Heterosexual Male Entitlement

I'm just an old poofter and what I have to say doesn't matter to anyone at all, but Jesum Pete: 

More Kavanaugh Hearing Tweets: "Why Are All These Men So Angry?" & "If You Can't Imagine What Toxic, Fragile Masculinity Looks Like, Turn on Your Television"

Why are all these men so angry?

— Sarah Posner (@sarahposner) September 27, 2018

Twitter Comments on Grilling of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford: "One of the Ugliest and Most Shameful Things I've Ever Seen"

Right now, the @GOP is willingly injuring all sexual assault victims a second time.

May we remember this in November.

— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) September 27, 2018

Here is some real-time commentary as the crucifixion grilling of Dr. Ford takes place today — tweets that (for the most part: some have come into my feed today, but were tweeted earlier) are commenting in real time on what's happening, which I think are valuable to share:

Kavanaugh Hearing and Catholic Abuse: Overlapping Narratives — Same Catholics Who Support Viganò's Allegations Dismiss Kavanaugh's Accusers

Today I'm thinking of how many students, over the course of my teaching career, have recoiled, outraged at the thought that a woman's testimony had historically and biblically been deemed unreliable unless corroborated by a man's.

— Natalia Imperatori (@nimperatori) September 27, 2018

Again, My Apologies for My Relative Silence in Response to Comments Here — And I Don't Intend to Play Favorites in Responding to Select Comments

It occurs to me once again to leave a note here underscoring that I am not deliberately ignoring most comments left in threads here. They are all very welcome, and I am reading and benefiting from them all.

Crux on Cardinal McCarrick's "Sexually Deviant Behavior": U.S. Catholic Church Continues to Be Unsafe for LGBTQ People

I went to bed last night more than a little troubled by something Crux reporter Christopher White states in his report on a presentation John Carr has just given at Georgetown's Initiative for Catholic Social Thought and Public Life. The presentation is entitled "Confronting a Moral Catastrophe: Lay Leadership, Catholic Social Teaching, and the Sexual Abuse Crisis." In his lecture, Carr, who was previously Director of the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Department on Justice, Peace and Human Development, and who has been a friend of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, revealed that he had been sexually abused by priests as a minor seminarian. John Carr is a married Catholic layman with children.

More on the Jesuit Elite Boys' Club from Which Kavanaugh and Judge Emerged: Need to Rethink Jesuit Claims re: Inculcating Healthy Masculinity in Students?

1) There is a serious problem in American Catholic conversations that is glaringly obvious in the discussion of Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, and their "man for others" Jesuit education at Georgetown Prep.

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) September 25, 2018

Emily Witt on the (Jesuit Elite) Boys' Club That Protects Kavanaugh: Need to Rethink Jesuit Claims re: Inculcating Healthy Masculinity in Students?

Mark Judge's Page, Georgetown Prep Yearbook The Cupola, 1983

Read the following statement by Emily Witt side by side with my posting yesterday, which suggested that there may be something more than a little flawed about the magical-mystical approach to militaristic masculinity — "We're men for others, a band of brothers!" — fostered by all-male Jesuit prep schools, which have long been breeding grounds for elite males who will step from their educational years into prestigious jobs tailor-made for men like themselves by other men like themselves.

Father Kalchik and the Rainbow Flag Burning: When Evil Work Is Dressed Up in Holy Clothes

I spent a good bit of time this weekend reading hither and yon about the rainbow flag-burning priest in Chicago, Father Paul Kalchik, who has now been turned into a holy icon by the homophobic Catholic hard right (they're pushing the same narrative about him that they pushed a few weeks ago about Viganò: has had to go into hiding as a martyr because of the evil homosexuals). I have a few thoughts I'd like to share about his story.

Recent Discussion of Brett Kavanaugh's Jesuit Prep-School "Man for Others" Training: Ambiguity of Jesuit "Band of Brothers" Ethos

John Gehring, "Improper Formation? Kavanaugh & the Prep-School Culture": 

Chicago Priest Burns Rainbow Flag with Easter Fire: Dangerous Weaponization of Catholic Symbols to Attack Queer People

Lighting of Easter Fire by Benedictines in Morristown, NJ, in 2009 

The Catholic priest in Chicago who had announced his intent to burn a rainbow flag to "exorcise" his parish did carry through with his plans, as I think many of you will already know (and Chris Morley helpfully posted a report about this in a comment here several days ago). Though archdiocesan officials had told Father Paul Kalchik not to do so, he went ahead and burned the flag, with parishioners assisting him. Robert Shine reported about this for New Ways Ministry this past week.

Charles Marsh's Biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Strange Glory, on Bonhoeffer's (Highly Contested) Homosexuality

Here's another set of excerpts I'd like to share with you from Charles Marsh's excellent biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (NY: Knopf, 2014). Marsh ruffled feathers of conservative Christians (and the ruffling goes on and has become even more agitated with Diane Reynolds' 2016 Bonhoeffer biography The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Women, Sexuality, and Nazi Germany) by concluding that Bonhoeffer was a gay man deeply in love with fellow Lutheran pastor Eberhard Bethge.

Note of Apology That I Am Not Finding Time to Take Part in Conversations Here of Late

I am very much enjoying the discussions in threads here, and want you to know that. I also apologize that I have not been able to find time to participate in them very much in the past several days. Important news seems to be breaking right and left, and the time I take to try to read it and think about it is taking time away from my time to comment here. Please know that I value the thought-provoking conversation very much, even when I'm not taking part in it.

Right-Wing Christian Support for Kavanaugh & Dismissal of Male Violence Towards Women: Fight to Keep Patria Potestas as Foundation of "Christian" Culture

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

David Badash, "'Not Relevant': Franklin Graham Says Alleged Kavanaugh Assault Just Something 'He Did as a Teenager'":

What Do Discussions of the Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church Have to Do with the Kavanaugh Hearing? A Lot

Ellen interviews Shelly Fitzgerald, who is threatened with firing by Roncalli Catholic High in Indianapolis for her same-sex marriage.

As I said yesterday, how the abuse situation in the Catholic church is discussed — with an obsessive focus on homosexuality, with little attention at all to the overwhelmingly dominant social (and ecclesial) problem of male abuse of vulnerable women — is not in the least disconnected from the conversations now going on about Brett Kavanaugh as a potential Supreme. Here are some statements that, to my mind, need to be read side by side, if we're going to gain a glimpse of the bigger picture facing us in these discussions:

Charles Marsh, Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, on the Sordid History of German Church's Response to Hitler: We Forget at Our Peril

I've just finished reading Charles Marsh's Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (NY: Knopf, 2014), and would like to share some passages with you. These all have to do with the ease with which the Lutheran church in Germany capitulated to Hitler and his propagandists' claim that he was reviving a manly-man Christianity that would rehabilitate Germany's tarnished reputation. Marsh focuses on the Evangelical (i.e., Lutheran) (and Confessing) church and not the Catholic church because Bonhoeffer was situated within the Lutheran world. 

Questions to Be Asked About Discussion of Sexual Abuse: Why Is Abuse of Vulnerable Females by Adult Males Shrugged Off So Easily?

Speaking from the vantage point of a "but half-woke" straight male, David Roberts writes, 

Once Again: Catholic Journalists Pushing Back Vs. Viganò's False Claims Are Not Pushing Back Vs. His Homophobia — See Austen Ivereigh's Recent Tweet re: Mary Hunt

In my last posting, I shared a Twitter conversation I had several days ago with Catholic Democrats. It was about his claim that there had been "tremendous push back" against the ugly homophobia now surfacing all through Catholic conversation circles following the McCarrick revelations and Viganò's accusations about a "homosexual network" in the church that is responsible for the abuse crisis. 

My Twitter Conversation with Catholic Democrats about "Tremendous Push Back" Against Viganò Crowd's Homophobia: Where Is That Push Back Taking Place?

Here's an exchange I had on Twitter yesterday with Catholic Democrats:

Joelle Casteix's Clear, Informed Response to Viganò Crowd: Feeds Old Stereotypes, Silences Victims, Minimizes Abuse, Encourages Cover-Up

Joelle Casteix has written the clearest, most informed response I've yet seen regarding the allegations of Viganò and his followers about the sexual abuse horror show in the Catholic church. Her essay, "'It’s a Gay Problem,' and Other Myths From the Catholic Church's Sexual Abuse Crisis," is at Religion Dispatches this morning. An excerpt:

Important Statement from Catholic Women Speak re: "Letter to Pope Francis from Catholic Women": Who's Promoting It and Why

This is an important statement from Catholic Women Speak in response to the "Letter to Pope Francis from Catholic Women" being pushed by EWTN and other hard-right homophobic Catholic media outlets and websites:

At Moment of Increasing Homophobia in Catholicism, Remembering Fr. Mychal Judge

9/11: Franciscan Fr. Mychal Judge, chaplain to the firefighters, was an early casualty. The image of his fellow firemen carrying his body to a nearby church became an icon of the day--an image of loving service and sacrifice, a contrast to messages born of fanaticism and fear. pic.twitter.com/XBfaZZZgJ3

— Robert Ellsberg (@RobertEllsberg) September 11, 2018

On the "Light Handed" St. John Paul the Great and the "Mild" Benedict: Anti-Francis Catholic Right and "Dinesh DeSouza School of Church History"

Lessons from the 14th Amendment: Every society is built on foundation myths, affirming the righteousness of the National project. But the stories with real power to redeem the National project are told by people left out (or on the margins) of the country’s foundation narrative.

— aderson francois 🇭🇹 14A (@abfrancois) July 27, 2018

Paul Moses, "Tackling the Wrong Problem: Pope Benedict XVI’s Removal of Bishop William Morris":

The "Why I'm Leaving" and "Why I'm Staying" Statements After Pennsylvania Report: My Theological Take on Them

There was an interesting discussion thread here several days back about the spate of articles after the Pennsylvania grand jury report with titles like "Why I'm Leaving" and "Why I'm Staying." American Catholics are openly discussing why they're leaving the Catholic church or why they're committed to remaining in it.

Latest Viganò Commentary: "Vatican Receives a Letter in *November 2000* Detailing a Mess of Allegations Against McCarrick. Three Months Later, Instead of Sanctions, St. JPII Gives McCarrick a Red Hat"

The Viganistas have an obvious timing problem. The secret sanctions was the clever solution to bridging the gap, but it may have been too clever by half. pic.twitter.com/xlI9xAFY6T

— Polycarpio✝️🙏 (@SuperMartyrio) September 6, 2018

In case you haven't been following every last bit of news about the Viganò story, I've done you the service of gathering a selection of recent commentary that updates what we've already discussed here. The story continues to develop right up to the present, with the denial published yesterday by Napa Institute co-founder Timothy Busch that he was involved in drafting Viganò's statement — Napa Institute, which gave shelter to disgraced St. Paul-Minneapolis archbishop Nienstedt after Viganò sought to shut down investigation of allegations that Nienstedt had been involved in activities very much like those for which Viganò is now scoring McCarrick. Here's more commentary:

Wave of Queer Bashing in U.S. Catholicism and Cheap-Grace Christianity: Further Reflections on What's Going on with Viganò's Cabal

Shared by Chiara Giaccardi on Twitter

The letter written by Fordham theologians Patrick Hornbeck and Bryan Massingale to their colleagues — I posted about it yesterday evening — states, 

Fordham Theology Professors: "We Categorically Condemn the Vile Slander That the Crisis in the Catholic Church Is Due to the Presence of Gay Men"

Andy Staron, who is an assistant professor of theology at Wheeling Jesuit University, has shared a letter written by two members of Fordham University's theology department, Patrick Hornbeck and Fr. Bryan Massingale, to their colleagues. Since Andy Staron has shared this in his public feed, and I see it now being shared on Facebook, I am assuming it can be shared here, too — and that he shared the letter with the permission of the authors. 

My "Final" Take on the Viganò Narrative: I Am Frankly Not Sure That Catholicism Can Be Cleansed of Hatred of Queer People

One possible explanation of Pope Francis's silence on Viganò: to respond to the accusations would require him to directly critique the conduct of his immediate predecessors.
For the record, I think that should happen. But one can see why he would want to think carefully first.

— Brian Flanagan (@BrianPFlanagan) September 2, 2018

Plus, one has been canonized as a saint, which makes it...complicated.

— Brian Flanagan (@BrianPFlanagan) September 2, 2018

I don't know about you, but I'm worn out from trying to make heads nor tails of the Viganò story — and most of all, from the cynical post-truth, fake news games being played by him and his co-conspirators, and the ugly use being made of his narrative by some very nefarious groups of people. Here are a few late-breaking tidbits for you to chew over: 

NCR Editorializes: John Paul II "Provided the Model for the Hierarchy's Approach to the Growing Scandal"

The National Catholic Reporter has made an editorial statement on the current crisis in the Catholic church following the McCarrick revelations, the Pennsylvania report, and the Viganò attack. It's entitled "Editorial: It's time to choose the painful path of purification." Here are some excerpts: