half of the lies they tell about us aren't true

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Feb 08, 2005

A spokesman for the Diocese of Dallas scored the Dallas Morning News for "major inaccuracies" in its coverage of recent clergy sex scandals. Well, Mr. Spokesman, could you name some of the major inaccuracies for your fellow Catholics? Could you even give us a hint, perhaps? Wrong priest? Wrong crime? Wrong diocese? As noted below, the official response is surprisingly bashful about correcting the DMN's errors. Instead, we get this kind of billiard shot:

Both [Rod] Dreher and [Wick] Allison are converts to Catholicism who have sharply criticized the Church, bishops and even the pope.

Love these guys. Bishop Grahmann dug himself in so deep to resist his Rome-appointed coadjutor that his current episcopal tenure amounts to a kind of squatter's claim -- "Move me who dares!" -- yet the innuendo is that Dreher and Allison, being converts, are shaky in the Faith and therefore unreliable as critics. We've seen this kind of stunt before, from the same pen, in regard to a group letter calling for Grahmann's resignation three years ago:

A copy of the group's letter was obtained by the Texas Catholic. Some of the signatories have been active in the church, some have not, the bishop's office said. Most are not known as major contributors to Catholic charities or the church.

See the move? You don't address your critics' arguments, you impugn your critics' right to an opinion -- not in terms of whether they're likely or unlikely to have knowledge of the relevant facts, but in terms of their willingness to pony up for one of the most ill-run operations in American ecclesiastical history. "Monsignor, there's a Rudy Kos for you on line 3..."