Commentary on the Discussion of Amy Coney Barrett's Religious Views and Their Pertinence to Her Supreme Court Nomination

Robert Ellsberg on Twitter, 27 September 2020 

Frank Cocozzelli, "A Catholic’s Case Against Amy Coney Barrett":

The issue with the Barrett nomination for me as a Catholic is quite simple: I choose to dissent from my Church on certain issues such as choice, birth control and embryonic stem cell research. Judge Barrett, on the other hand, follows a more orthodox approach to the Church. 

That is her right to do so. It is also the Church's right to set such doctrine. But what concerns me is that she may use the power of the federal government to impose her particular Catholicism, one that is clearly not in sync with most American Catholics, on me and those that share my faith who look to the government to shield me from the excesses of Church hardliners.

A number of my co-religionists, the ones who are anti-choice have a peculiar habit of looking at the issue of abortion only through the lens of orthodox Catholicism. What of a SCOTUS justice that sees abortion as "always immoral"? That sounds like someone that is primed and ready to substitute her Church's particular teaching on the matter as the only true religious position on the matter. 

Opus Dei Reveals It Paid Nearly $1 Million to Settle Suit vs. D.C. Superstar Priest John McCloskey: Questions We Should Ask

One of today's big stories: Opus Dei has revealed that it paid nearly $1 million in 2005 to settle a sexual misconduct lawsuit filed against the superstar Opus Dei priest John McCloskey. Michelle Boorstein broke this story in Washington Post last evening. As she reports, McCloskey has been well-known in religious and political circles due to his close association with such luminaries of the political right as Newt Gingrich, Sam Brownback, and Larry Kudlow, all of whom he ushered into the Catholic church.

Frank Cocozzelli Presents His Annual Coughie Award: And the Winners Are . . . Maureen Mullarkey and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone!

It's that time of year — Coughie time! I have come to look forward to Frank Cocozzelli's annual announcement of his Coughlin Award, given to the U.S. Catholic who has, well, here's Frank's explanation of what the Coughie is all about: 

Why the Pope's Meeting with Kim Davis Is the Last Straw for Me: With Commentary on Father James Martin's "Points to Keep in Mind" About the Meeting

Several days back, I received an email from America Magazine asking me to contribute financial support to America as a member of the America community. Something to that effect: I don't have the email any longer, and so can't quote it word for word.

And This Year's Coughie for Best Exemplifying an Exclusionary, Strident Interpretation of the Catholic Faith Goes To . . . .

As the year turns, I now look forward every year to Frank Cocozzelli's annual Coughie award. As Frank explains, 

Pope Francis in the News: Media Memes and Informed Commentary (There's a Difference)

Perhaps you haven't noticed, but Pope Francis has been in the news lately. A lot. Headlines yesterday about his scolding of the Vatican Curia ranged from "Francis Gives Roman Curia Officials Coal for Christmas" (Robert Mickens, National Catholic Reporter), to "In Curia: Merry Christmas, You Power-Hungry Hypocrites" (Josephine McKenna, Religion News Service), to "Pope Francis Says the Vatican Curia Is Sick with Power and Greed" (Philip Pullella, Reuters), to "Pope Francis Denounces the Vatican Elite's 'Spiritual Alzheimer's'" (Barbie Latza Nadeau, Daily Beast). I especially like Charles Pierce's wry summary of Francis's come-to-Jesus meeting with the Curia:

Pope Francis and Synod: Coercive Top-Down Model of Church, or Consensual Bottom-Up Lay-Dominated Model? Recent Analysis Worth Reading

The synod on the family opened in Rome yesterday, and as this gathering begins, journalist Robert Mickens states, in an interview with Ari Shapiro of NPR,

Frank Cocozzelli on Opus Dei Ties of Supreme Catholic Men: "I Am Concerned about the Strong Influence of an Ultra-Traditionalist Catholic Mindset on the U.S. Supreme Court"

In light of the recent Hobby Lobby ruling of the five Supreme Catholic men, Talk to Action has chosen to republish an outstanding series of articles Frank Cocozzelli posted at that site in 2007, about the close ties of most of these five Supreme Catholic men to the ultra-secretive, wealthy, and very influential right-wing Catholic movement Opus Dei. Here are some excerpts from each of the three articles in the series:

Jerry Slevin on Jennifer Haselberger's Affidavit: "Underscores That Francis' Calculated and Ineffective Approach to Facing the Catholic Church's Greatest Challenge in Centuries Will Likely Be a Failure"

In response to Brian Roewe's report today at National Catholic Reporter about Jennifer Haselberger's affidavit in the sexual abuse lawsuit involving the archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, Harvard-trained international lawyer Jerry Slevin writes, 

Frank Cocozzelli on Continuing Spectacle of Convicted Criminal Bishop Robert Finn: "He Has Become the Symbol of Ongoing Institutional Intransigence"

Frank Cocozzelli on the continuing spectacle of convicted criminal Bishop Robert Finn, who refuses to relinquish his bishop's seat in Kansas City despite calls of Catholics in many places, including his own diocese, for him to do the right thing and step down after his conviction on charges of endangering children by protecting a pedophile priest:

Frank Cocozzelli on Slaveholders' "Mudsill" Theory and Applications to Contemporary Political and Economic Debates

At Talk to Action, Frank Cocozzelli discusses the mudsill theory of economics that originates with an 1858 defense of slavery by South Carolina Senator James Henry Hammond. As Frank notes, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines "mudsill" as 

1. a supporting sill (as of a building or bridge) resting directly on a base and especially the earth; 2. a person of the lowest social level.

In the News: Little Sisters of Poor vs. Obama, Frank Cocozzelli's Coughie Award, Fred Clark's "Daily Blog of the Day," John Allen Leaving NCR

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Now a grab-bag of news items and articles that have caught my attention in recent days, and which I'd like to bring to the attention of readers here:

The Shutdown and the Dominance of the GOP by White Southerners: A Growing Meme

One of the important trends in analysis of the current situation of American democracy as the Republican party shuts down the federal government is to note how the strategy of resistance and destruction is rooted in the ideology of the old Confederacy. In an essay published yesterday in the Washington Post, Colbert King maintains that, via the tea party and its dominance in the GOP, a "new Confederacy" has picked up where the old one left off.

As Pope's Advisory Council of Eight Cardinals Meets, People of God Bombard Rome with Appeals for Reform

This is an important week for the Catholic church: as Fr. Thomas Reese explains in this recent National Catholic Reporter article, this week the eight cardinals Pope Francis has appointed to advise him about the needs of the church and reform of the Vatican will meet in Rome. As Reese also notes, it's not clear that the "gang of eight" will actually do anything beyond listening and talking. And this poses a danger, given the pope's advanced age, the urgent need for reform--the need, precisely, that something be done. Immediately.

Kiva, Strathmore University, and Opus Dei: The Rest of the Story (Up to the Present)

So here's an update about what has been happening in the discussion of the choice of Kiva, a charitable non-profit that claims to support gay rights, to partner with an Opus Dei university in Kenya, about which I've blogged recently (and here): as the first link states, Tony Adams and Beverly Woods have told this story to wide audiences beyond the discussion boards of several lending groups at Kiva itself, where it had already begun receiving much attention.*

Frank Cocozzelli's Critique of the Neo-Confederate Views of Thomas E. Woods: A New Installment in the Series

As a footnote to what I just posted about the seeming rise, in many places of the world, of overtly racist and homophobic movements that seem to hark back to political experiments many of us hoped the human community had put behind itself:

Frank Cocozzelli's Critique of Catholic Neo-Confederate Fantasies: The Pertinence of the Discussion

More indicators come out that libertarian darling and possible presidential contender Rand Paul is more than a little taken with neo-Confederate fantasies. A contestant on "Jeopardy" casually substitutes the Southern-coded term for the phrase which describes  what that war actually was, and gets away with the substitution. The Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Act. And a verdict in Florida, one of the former slave states of the old Confederacy, raises nationwide questions all over again about the never-resolved, usually-elided question of racial disparity in American society.

Recent Commentary on Nation-Dividing Tactics of GOP: Charles Blow, Robert Reich, Frank Cocozzelli

In his op-ed piece for the New York Times today, Charles Blow provides some strong reminders about why the self-defeating game of ideological purism that progressives play to sort "real" progressives from inauthentic ones is so dangerous at this moment in American history: the nation is coming apart at the seams. Literally so. It's not a moment in which we have the luxury of sorting ourselves into more- and less-pure ideological factions, if we expect to survive as a nation. 

A Personal Reflection on Neo-Confederate Clownery

A brief personal footnote about the neo-Confederate nonsense of the folks Frank Cocozzelli is studying (and I'm very glad Frank is keeping the spotlight on these folks): I was, of course, raised with much of that very same nonsense. With the exception of my one Irish great-grandmother, all of my great-grandparents were descendants of colonial Southern families that owned slaves at various points in their history, though some branches of these families also courageously pulled against slavery at some points in their history, due to religious reasons.

Frank Cocozzelli on Neo-Confederate Catholic Ideologues and the Fantasy of Nullification: Memorial Day Reflection

Early in May, I recommended an article by Frank Cocozzelli on the rising strand of neo-Confederate ideology in some sectors of the American Catholic right. Frank's article focuses on Catholic libertarian historian Thomas E. Woods.