Catholic flap on Fox
I came in on the argument right after it got underway last evening on Fox News, between Sean Hannity and Fr. Tom Euteneuer of Human Life International, and was really dismayed by the direction it took. It’s well covered at Amy Welborn’s blog, linked to Matt Abbott and Jimmy Akin, complete with readers weighing in under comments.
Fr. Euteneuer was a regular on my radio show and I know his unflinching advocacy for life and the teachings of the Church. Sean Hannity is a major media figure who is hugely popular for his unflinching advocacy of conservative values and the positions of the political right. He is also well-known to be Catholic.
So here they were in prime time arguing about the Catholic teaching on birth control. Hannity was provoking Fr. Euteneuer with a battery of challenging questions, not giving the priest the chance to answer, and then reaching low (and completely off topic) to hurl the priest sex abuse crisis at Fr. Euteneuer, demanding to know what he’s doing about that.
It was ugly and getting uglier when Alan Colmes interrupts saying “It’s time for the Jew to speak…”, just trying to bring this Catholic confrontation to an end and wrap up the segment. He had to try again, Hannity was so heated.
Where there’s heat, let’s look for light. Good Catholics can disagree on issues like capital punishment, the war…whether they prefer Latin over the vernacular…among other things. But not on Church teaching on matters of faith and morals. Abortion and contraception fall under those matters, and the best understanding of the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ the Church teaches can be found in both Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae, and John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.
