Culture War Notes has two very odd stories today.
First, there is the rumor that Barack Obama is trying to silence Archbishop Burke. Burke has apparently been far too outspoken on the abortion front to make our fine feathered community organizer comfortable. His operatives are communicating with Rome, trying to find a way to keep Burke from speaking on the subject.
This is made all the more difficult by the fact that Archbishop Burke is scheduled to be the speaker at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast on May 8, along with SCOTUS justice Antonin Scalia.
Now, we hear that Archbishop Burke is repudiating his very own videotaped words, a record he made specially for Randall Terry, one of the best-known abortion fighters in the nation.
Now, Archbishop Burke was not born yesterday. He knows full well who Randall Terry is, he knows how Mr. Terry operates, he knows that if he makes a video for Randall Terry, that video is going to be used and used widely, in every possible venue.
But now the archbishop is claiming he didn't know?
What could shut down a fearless man like Archbishop Burke?
I can think of only one other lion in the 20th century who voluntarily muzzled himself: Pope Pius XII.
What shut down Pope Pius XII?
I hope the comparison is wrong.
For us newbies, what did shut down Pope Pius XII? The Holocaust controversy stuff? I ask sincerely, I don't know what you're talking about (from my ignorance).
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Pope Pius XII was outspoken in his denunciation of the Nazi regime and its attacks on the Jews. At one point, the New York Times called him a "lone voice" on the continent of Europe.
ReplyDeleteHe was forced to stop his public denunciations when the Nazis responded by hunting down Jews with even greater ferocity. The Catholic and Jewish populations of Holland insisted that he quiet down, because the persecutions got worse instead of lightening.
He received the news as he was writing his next denunciation. Upon hearing the requests, he threw the speech in the fire.
He was forced to stop his public denunciations when the Nazis responded by hunting down Jews with even greater ferocity.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading not only about that, but also that some of the more outspoken bishops and priests from the Netherlands and also Belgium, if I'm not mistaken, were sent to concentration camps; and that Catholics who were already prisoners also used to suffer reprisal because of the Pope's stronger stances.
He received the news as he was writing his next denunciation. Upon hearing the requests, he threw the speech in the fire.
Chad, if you want to know more about the incident Steve mentions above, download/listen to this podcast episode.