Two prominent lay Catholics recently made headlines for their statements on sexual morality: Fox network celebrity and radio talk show host Sean Hannity and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Marine Corps General Peter Pace. One is a cafeteria Catholic who publicly dissents from Church teaching, the other a recipient of the prestigious John Carroll Award for service and commitment to the Catholic faith.
Hannity, who endorses contraception as well as exceptions for abortion, tangled with Fr. Thomas Euteneurer of Human Life International on March 9th after the priest wrote a column criticizing Hannity’s radio “apology” for accidentally eating two bites of a chicken salad sandwich on a Lenten Friday. “That's not a sin,” Father wrote. “If apologies are the order of the day, then the repentance I would like to hear out of Sean Hannity's mouth is for his shameless—even scandalous—promotion of birth control.”
Father Euteneurer’s column earned him an invitation to the Hannity and Colmes television program where Hannity engaged in a tirade of logical fallacies and non sequiturs including a below-the-belt attack for the sex abuse scandals. Fr. Euteneuer, who remained calm throughout, attempted to articulate Church teaching when he could get a word in edgewise. Hannity was clearly shocked at the end of the interview when he asked Father, “Wait. Would you deny me Communion?” and Father calmly responded, “I would.”
In the ensuing days, the battle continued with an open letter from Fox commentator Fr. Jonathan Morris admonishing his brother priest, an open letter response from Fr. Euteneuer at Human Life International, and writers and bloggers entering the fray on one side or the other.
Fr. Euteneuer wrote two more columns on “Hannity the Liberal” and “The Church will not be Hannitized” defending Church teaching and pointing out the “fantasy” of those who “see no incompatibility between contraception and Communion.”
Front and center in the controversy is the scandal of Catholics who publicly agitate against Church teachings while insisting they can continue to approach the altar for Communion. Liberal Catholics, Fr. Euteneuer points out, are on both sides of the political aisle.
The flap over General Peter Pace’s comments illustrates much the same thing. In a March 12 interview with the Chicago Tribune, General Pace responded to questions about the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuality including his personal opinion that there are “certain types of conduct that are immoral…that we should not tolerate.”
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only, not of Spero News.
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