A friend e-mails this striking account of a meeting Deal Hudson had with the Rev. John Hagee to discuss the latter's views of the Roman Catholic church. It was very eye-opening, and I highly recommend reading it for clarification. This part really got to me:
He told me several personal stories, as well, about his relationship with Catholics over the years. This one, in particular, provides a starting point for seeing another side of the man who has now become a symbol of anti-Catholicism:
The Ursuline Sisters founded the Ursuline Academy in San Antonio in 1851 -- it was the first girls' school in the city, originally located on the San Antonio River before moving to the northwest part of the city in 1965. By the early 1990s there were too few sisters, and those too old to run the Academy. The eight remaining sisters ranged in age from 63 to 94.
Consequently, they put their 40 acres of prime real estate and 90,000 square feet of buildings up for sale. The sisters tried to make a deal with the archdiocese, but it fell through several times. Having heard that Hagee was looking for property to build a school, the sisters called him. Hagee went to see the school and was met by a sister who had come from the Vatican to oversee the sale. "It was in perfect condition, there wasn't a hairline crack," he told me.
"I was shocked when I was told the price and asked why it was so low." Hagee was then told that the delay in selling the property had meant the sisters had to draw on their retirement accounts to live. Hagee then said, "I want to buy this school by the close of business tomorrow."Hagee, the sisters, and their attorneys met the next morning. The Ursulines' attorney said, "Shall we tell Reverend Hagee the real problem?" At that point Hagee thought the whole deal would go down the drain because of some monstrous problem he hadn't been informed of.
The attorney for the sisters explained that the archdiocese had expected them to move out of the convent immediately after it was sold and asked what Hagee wanted the sisters to do.
"My plan would be to give them a five year lease to the convent, and I will charge them ten dollars a year. We will pay all utilities and up-keep." Hagee then took a 50-dollar bill from his pocket and paid the lease himself. One sister looked at the attorney and said, "Let's get this thing done."
The following Sunday, Hagee sent his church bus to the Ursuline convent, picked up the sisters, brought them to his church, and seated them in the front row for both services (5,000 attend each service). "I thanked them publicly for their lives of sacrifice and devotion to Jesus Christ. The congregation gave them standing ovations because the campus we bought was the fruit of their labor, a testimonial of their commitment to Christ."
The Ursuline sisters stayed in the convent for twelve years, free of any cost. "We were glad to bear the cost to express our appreciation for what they had done for the Kingdom of God." During that time, those sisters who were able walked around the campus and through the halls of Cornerstone Christian School.
"Our children hugged them; they would reach out and grab them by the hands. They were very precious to us for what they had done with their whole lives which had been invested in building this wonderful school. We were glad to honor them as long as they walked on this earth."
It's important to remember that rejecting a particularly church's ecclesiology and/or doctrine is not the same as being "anti" that church and its people. This story helps bring that point out, I think.
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What about the other accusations leveled by staff members of "Crisis"? I've read that he was accused of as many as five other instances of sexual harassment or inappropriate sexual contact with female staff members there. Have those been resolved, withdrawn, or paid off?
Why do you suppose John McCain is involving himself with folks who have a past like this? Does he not check out those who he invites into his inner circle? What kind of judgment does his show?
Have those been resolved, withdrawn, or paid off?
I was unaware of the Fordham incident until y'all brought it up, so naturally, what happened at the magazine unknown to me.
But Hudson's interview hasn't influenced my opinion of Hagee, if that matters.
Per Rod, May 6: "Honestly, Cleveland, do you even think before you post? (or as REP would have it: ???) I'm not saying Hagee is or is not anti-Catholic. I'm saying that rejecting another religion does not imply "hatred" of that other religion or its adherents. Rejecting Catholicism does not necessarily imply anti-Catholic bigotry...."
Do you think I would be debating the obvious truth "that rejecting another religion does not imply 'hatred' of that other religion or its adherents"? I, too, have stayed away here from saying Hagee is or is not anti-Catholic--it's not relevant to the narrow point I was making here.
Absent your pre-conceived notion that I believe rejecting Catholicism implies anti-Catholic bigotry, you would have been able to see my point, which is only this: It seems illogical to equate "Dominus Jesus" and the humble, love-filled discourse of B XVI, on the one hand, with the trademark "the Papacy is the whore of Babylon"-type bigoted rants of Hagee on the other hand, for the purpose of arguing that neither can be called anti-the other. But that is exactly what you did in the second paragraph of your May 5, 2008 10:03 PM reply to me. The first paragraph of that reply was on point and relevant to your post.
If this doesn't give sufficient evidence of Hagee's anti-Catholicism then I give up:
“Anti-Semitism in Christianity began with the statements of the early church fathers, including Eusebius, Cyril, Chrysostom, Augustine, Origen, Justin, and Jerome .... This poisonous stream of venom came from the mouths of spiritual leaders to virtually illiterate congregants, sitting benignly in their pews, listening to their pastors. They labeled the Jews as 'the Christ killers, plague carriers, demons, children of the devil, bloodthirsty pagans who look for an innocent child during the Easter week to drink his blood, money hungry Shylocks, who are deceitful as Judas was relentless.'"
· "The Roman Catholic Church, which was supposed to carry the light of the gospel, plunged the world into the Dark Ages.... The Crusaders were a motley mob of thieves, rapists, robbers, and murderers whose sins had been forgiven by the pope in advance of the Crusade ....The brutal truth is that the Crusades were military campaigns of the Roman Catholic Church to gain control of Jerusalem from the Muslims and to punish the Jews as the alleged Christ killers on the road to and from Jerusalem."
· "The Spanish Inquisition was perhaps the most cynical plot in the black history of Catholicism, aimed at expropriating the property of wealthy Jews and converts in Spain for the benefit of the royal court and the Roman Catholic Church."
· "Adolf Hitler attended a Catholic school as a child and heard all the fiery anti-Semitic rantings from Chrysostom to Martin Luther. When Hitler became a global demonic monster, the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XII never, ever slightly criticized him. Pope Pius XII, called by historians 'Hitler's Pope,' joined Hitler in the infamous Concordat of Collaboration, which turned the youth of Germany over to Nazism, and the churches became the stage background for the bloodthirsty cry, 'Pereat Judea'.... In all of his [Hitler's] years of absolute brutality, he was never denounced or even scolded by Pope Pius XII or any Catholic leader in the world. To those Christians who believe that Jewish hearts will be warmed by the sight of the cross, please be informed—to them it's an electric chair."
http://www.catholicleague.org/catalyst.php?year=2007&month=June&read=2264
Me: "WOW!!! I had forgotten that McCain is a known, self-confesssed adulterer. Shouldn't that fact alone negate ANY claim to office he may have had in the eyes of the religious 'right'???"
Rod: "You know, I sometimes try to climb inside that headspace of yours, just to see how the world looks from the point of view of someone who lives life with multiple punctuation marks. And I always end up shrugging my shoulders and going to drink Bailey's from a shoe."
Way to avoid answering the question, Rod. Just comment on punctuation.
Nothing new there tho. Henceforth, I shall be on the lookout for your usage of interesting punctuation, as if it negates the content of the post.
Blesings as usual, and good luck with the Bailey's/shoe thing.
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