Monday, June 25, 2007
THE "DEVOUT" CATHOLIC
Heh! Check out the challenge to the L. A. Times at NewsBusters:
What do you call a guy who leaves the priesthood, rejects fundamental doctrine of the Catholic Church, and propagates egregious falsehoods about Catholics? If you're the Los Angeles Times, you call him a "Devout Catholic" - in your headline. Un·be·liev·a·ble.
The subject in a fawning article in the Times is James Carroll. A new documentary film is based on his 2001 book, Constantine's Sword, an awful work that advances the premise that anti-Semitism is central to Catholicism and Christianity.
Who is James Carroll? Here's your first hint: He writes for the Boston Globe. But quite simply, "James Carroll is a professional anti-Catholic," as author/catechist Oswald Sobrino has aptly written. He is an "anti-Catholic Catholic." Even the Times acknowledges that he "rejects the very roots of [the Church's] doctrine." Yet this is the Times' idea of a "devout Catholic"?!?
And Carroll's premise that Catholicism is rooted in anti-Semitism has been roundly discredited. Carroll's terrible work was addressed over several pages in the excellent book by Philip Jenkins, The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice.
I guess the LA Times has taken up writing fiction. Who knew?
