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Fr. Euteneuer: “Hannity the Liberal”

March 13th, 2007 by Tim

From Fr. Euteneuer’s blog Spirit and Life:

Many Spirit and Life readers may know that after last Friday’s column (“Sean Hannity’s Gospel”) I was invited to defend my position on the Hannity and Colmes show that very night. It’s nice to know that my emails are being read in the hallowed halls of Fox News! I suspected, however, that Hannity wanted to defend his “devout Catholic” credentials, and I was not disabused of this notion when I went on the show. What the show did, above all, was to show not that Church was wrong or incoherent, but that Hannity, like so many other cultural Catholics, is really a liberal when it comes to certain aspects of sexual morality.

The first point I have to straighten out is for those who were concerned that this was not handled first in private. Well, in fact, I did attempt to handle this matter in private with Mr. Hannity in 2004, but I never received a response to my letter asking him for a meeting. [See side bar item, “Fr. Euteneuer asks to meet with Hannity about birth control.”] As far as I am concerned, I did my due diligence before I went public with my complaint about his hypocrisy; but even if I had not, it was Mr. Hannity’s schedulers who called me to make an issue of it, not I who demanded to appear on his show! In this age of culpable clerical silence on many serious issues affecting people’s souls, do we now want a priest to keep silent about something so important? We can’t have it both ways.

Second, concerning the actual debate, what some are calling Sean’s “disrespect” for me as a member of the clergy was not of concern to me. In that sense, Sean is typical of his generation that has been taught that nobody has any special consecration (even if they technically do) and that everyone has to prove his mettle in the realm of public debate. No problem. I am a holder of this office, and I did not feel that his callous disregard for the priesthood did anything to diminish the sanctity of it, but I can see how it was an extra element of scandal for those who value the priestly office highly. Nor did I really care that he cut me off time and time again in the debate; he’s a known quantity—did you expect anything else from Hannity?

Just for the record, Sean Hannity really is a dissenting Catholic and a public scandal to the Faith.

[Full Posting from Spirit and Life]

Leave a comment on Father Euteneuer’s Blog to show your support! God Bless.

Comments: 3

Comments

Comment from H Medford Lakes NJ
Time: March 14, 2007, 9:38 am

My letter to Father Jonathan at Fox News…

Father Jonathan – Prior to your “open letter,” I had never heard of Father Euteneuer. So I went to the video at the Fox website. Sean’s level of discourse was embarrassingly sophomoric. I normally enjoy H&C but I was shocked in this instance to see Sean eagerly playing the victim rather than delving into the more interesting question of whether Catholics who are public figures should tote an orthodox Catholic line or keep their mouths shut. How many times has Sean Hannity attacked Ted Kennedy (in a much less civilized fashion) for exactly what Father Euteneuer pointed out regarding Sean? As a Catholic and a conservative, I was embarrassed with the “indignant act” and the taunting sophomoric fallback to “judge not lest ye be judged.” Our use of personal judgment in matters of orthodoxy is a completely different thing than judging who is bound for heaven and who is not. The former is the Church’s earthly domain, the latter is God’s. It was obvious to me that Father Euteneuer knows the difference. Father Euteneuer was a perfect gentleman and only answered Sean’s hostile and argumentative questions honestly when cornered into doing so – that is Sean’s professional specialty that he usually saves for his liberal enemies. I got the impression, from Father Euteneuer’s gentle demeanor, that he would have kept his personal judgments regarding to himself - and stuck to the question of whether Catholic public figures have a higher responsibility to not flaunt Church law - had he not been goaded.

Like you, Father Euteneuer is only human, a good priest in the public eye trying to do his best. If you couldn’t have been loyal to a brother of the roman collar by respecting his orthodoxy, at least you could have refrained from “passing judgment” and publicly taking sides against him in a very difficult spot.

Sincerely,

H.

Comment from Tony Rey
Time: March 17, 2007, 6:04 pm

Father, our prayers are with you for defending our values. I live in Miami, in our Spanish Catholic Radio Paz our values are being attacked by a commentator that makes Hannity look like a Saint, The commentator Julio Estorino, has made the folliwing statemnets: ” I respect Santeria [ Latin witchcraft], “Senator Edward Kennedy is an institution in the Senate”, that was when Mr.Kennedy was attacking Justice Alito’s pro life views; “Muslims are smart and must be respected” on the anniversary of Sept.11.and many more.He attacked Senator Santorum, and never mentioned how Mr.Santorum defends the unborn; when our dear Pope Jonh Paul II died, he stated the power strugle among the Cardinals to become Pope. I have spoken twice to Father Alberto [ Radio Paz’s director} and he asked me to call Mr.Estorino, I left 3 phone messages and 3 Emails with no rsponse.
Several Emmaus brothers and sisters are as concern as I am over the messages expressed by our Catholic radio in Miami. I pray you could help us bring light to this. I feel Jesus message is being destroyed by our Catholic Radio. I like to add the sation manager stated on the air: If Georgr Bush had a soul he would feel remorse for sending our young men to die in Iraq; he forgot to metion Mr. Bush banned partial birth abortion and is not affraid to admitt he prays to the all mighty.
I pray you can help us in Miami. I will keep praying for you.
May God Bless you,
Tony Rey

Comment from ED Perkins
Time: September 12, 2008, 4:52 pm

As a returned listener to Conservatice Talk Radio & Tv Shows, I really don’t know if I can listen to Sean Hannity’s radio show. Listening to it for the passed few weeks and liking what I heard then disocvering this incident he had with you, I’m really at a loss as to weither or not to tune in. I believe in forgiving and forgetting by letting this slide, but conerned if it will be held against me if I continue to listen to his show as long as he has this Liberal Catholic view.
I guess praying and hoping that time will change his mind. For some reason shortly after I started to listen to Conservative Talk Radio Shows again, a thought told me to be alert as to who to listen to. I guess this was the Lord’s way of warning me about this. Guess Laura Ingraham is our only answer. God help Sean Hannity. May God forgive him.

ED P.

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