Triumphalistic gloating

Fr. Thomas Euteneuer of HLI engages in triumphalistic gloating over his performance with Hannity. He’s doing his victory dance in the end zone, happy for having scored points. As if that is all that is important in the media.

HLI has always been an apostolate that has played to the media, and has loved the outrageous statement. The founder, Paul Marx, spoke of the “Jews” being in control of both the media and the abortion industry. Have groups like this actually hindered the pro-life cause?

This surely isn’t the approach that will persuade people. As Fr. Jonathan Morris said, “Regardless of the issue and arguments at hand, brandishing law without palpable love almost always repels.”

But Euteneuer isn’t trying to persuade the average Catholic, or even the non-Catholic. He knows his true audience, and they are loving his performance.

Anger in England and Wales

British paper, The Catholic Herald, lodges complaint with Vatican over refusal of bishops of England and Wales to comment on the recent papal exhortation on the Eucharist. See Amy, who links to column by Damian Thompson.

This was the week that the leadership of the Catholic Church in England and Wales disgraced itself. Pope Benedict XVI issued one of the most significant documents written by a pontiff for many years – and the English bishops’ “communications network” effectively killed the story.

Real anger is building up in the parishes over the bishops’ behaviour, which led to the document – Sacramentum Caritatis - a historic, 60-page statement on the Eucharist and the Liturgy – receiving minimal coverage in most secular newspapers.

The Pope’s pronouncement, an Apostolic Exhortation, was a huge story for my newspaper, The Catholic Herald, which will publish full coverage of the document this weekend.

I can’t tell you how infuriating – and downright weird – it was to discover that our bishops just weren’t interested in talking to us about its contents.

So, yesterday, we took an unusual step. The Catholic Herald lodged a formal complaint with the Vatican’s worldwide head of communications, Archbishop John Foley, Prefect of the Pontifical Commission for Social Communication.