7/22/03
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND U.S. PUBLIC SPEECH
By J. Parnell McCarter
As previously reported at Puritan News Weekly, Dr.
Stephen Mumford has written an insightful book on the tactics of the Roman
Catholic Church with regards to public speech.
While we should disagree with Mumford’s humanist viewpoints regarding
population control and other issues, we can nevertheless benefit from its
realistic assessment of the Roman Catholic Church’s power over public speech
and public press in America. The book
is available on-line at http://www.population-security.org/index.html
. Here is a sample quote from the book:
“The Catholic League was founded in 1973 by Jesuit priest Virgil Blum. William Donohue assumed leadership in July 1993.260pp1 Since then, the membership has grown from 27,000 to 200,000.260pp2 According to Donohue, the League has "won the support of all of the U.S. Cardinals and many of the Bishops as well...We are here to defend the Church from the scurrilous assaults that have been mounted against it, and we definitely need the support of the hierarchy if we are to get the job done."260pp3 Thus it can be considered an arm of the Church. It supplements or replaces priest-controlled organizations of the past described by Blanshard and Seldes. The League apparently has a single mission: suppression of all mainstream criticism of the Roman Catholic Church.
According to Donohue, it is fortunate that, "the Catholic Church is there to provide a heady antidote to today's mindless ideas of freedom."260pp4 He is a strong advocate of the Church's positions on restriction of the freedoms guaranteed by the American Constitution and condemned by popes for nearly two centuries, especially those regarding the press and speech. He informs us that: "the Catholic League is there to defend the Church against its adversaries."260pp4
There are many recognizable principles governing the behavior of the League. One is revealed in a vicious 1994 attack against the New London newspaper, The Day, for an editorial critical of the Catholic Church: "What is truly `beyond understanding' is not the Catholic Church's position, it is the fact that a secular newspaper has the audacity to stick it's nose in where it doesn't belong. It is nobody's business what the Catholic Church does."260pp5
A second basic premise is the League's commitment to canon 1369 of the Code of Canon Law: "A person is to be punished with a just penalty, who, at a public event or assembly, or in a published writing, or by otherwise using the means of social communication, utters blasphemy, or gravely harms public morals, or rails at or excites hatred of or contempt for religion or the Church."260pp6 Canon law is the law of the Catholic Church. All criticism of the pope or the Church is in violation of this law in one way or another. This chapter will make clear that the League follows this canon to the letter and demands that all others conform -- or pay the price for their violation.
Another principle is aggressive action. Says Donohue, "I defy anyone to name a single organization that has more rabid members than the Catholic League. Our members are generous, loyal and extremely active. When we ask them to sign petitions, write to offending parties and the like, they respond with a vigor that is unparalleled...We aim to win. Obviously, we don't win them all, but our record of victories is impressive."260pp7 To justify this stance, he identifies with Patrick Buchanan's resistance to the "Culture War" against the Catholic Church: "We didn't start this culture war against the Catholic Church, we simply want to stop it."260pp8
Donohue also justifies the League's aggressive behavior by claiming that it is culturally unacceptable for nonCatholics to criticize the Catholic Church. "Perhaps the most cogent remark of the day," he asserts, "came from the former Mayor of New York, Ed Koch, who politely remarked that his mother always advised him not to speak ill of other religions. It is a lesson that apparently few have learned....Non-Catholics would do well to follow the advice of Ed Koch's mom and just give it a rest. Their crankiness is wearing thin."260pp9 This cultural norm is widely accepted in America, to the enormous benefit of the Vatican. What role, one wonders, did the Catholic Church play in its adoption?”