In playing to conservative Catholics , Fox has claimed that President Obama hates Catholics. So it's no surprise that they would use material in illegally leaked Clinton e-mails to claim that Hillary Clinton staffers hate Catholicism and Catholics. And who better to promote this narrative than Fox's very own propaganda priest, Fr. Jonathan Morris.
The e-mails were not directed at Catholics writ large but merely the opinion of the writers (in 2011) that conservative Catholics, like Fox's big daddy Rupert Murdoch, embrace conservative Catholicism for political reasons - and on Fox, nobody throws shade on Murdoch and gets away with it! On Wednesday's America's Newsroom, Fox's one true priest, Fr. Jonathan Morris, pushed the narrative that the Clinton folks hate the Catholic Church and lo and behold, he used his Sunday Fox & Friends pulpit to continue to pimp the same message.
Clayton Morris began by quoting from an e-mail, received by John Podesta, in which the writer expressed the hope for a "Catholic Spring in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a Middle Ages dictatorship and the beginnings of a little democracy and respect for gender equality..." - something that the liberal "nuns on the bus" might have said, but for Fox News, them's fighting words. The banner proclaimed the VERY IMPORTANT FOX MESSAGE - "Catholic Spring, E-mails Reveal Clinton Aids Mocking Catholics" - the theme of Morris' last Fox appearance.
Ed Henry noted that Podesta said that he approved of changes in the Church when he should have been saying "no, no, no." In responding, Fr. Morris worked in the requisite Fox slam on George Soros when he mentioned that Podesta works for an organization which is funded by Soros. Fr. Morris added that Podesta cited the role of Democrats in creating liberal Catholic groups which, according to Morris, aren't really Catholic - a criticism expressed by the uber conservative Catholic bishop Charles Chaput. On a network that is obviously pandering to conservative Catholics (and which bashes Muslims with impunity), Fr. Morris claimed that the Democrats want to line up the Democratic platform with heretical Catholic teaching. The banner: "Clinton vs. Catholics."
After Clayton Morris read the quote about "bastardization" of the Catholic Church, Ed Henry explained that it was in context of a discussion about "our own chairman Rupert Murdoch raising his young children as Catholics, unbelievable." (Henry didn't mention that these kids are living with their mother, Wendy Deng, who is divorced from the newlywed Murdoch) The quote was shown on a screen headed by the words "trashing the church." (No, trashing Murdoch) The banner: "Criticizing Catholics, Trump: Clinton Aides Must Resign for Comments." (Right, the guy who wants a Muslim ban!)
Fr. Morris claimed that he has been "very critical" of Trump - BUT - "this is a moment where we have to be very, very straightforward about the type of people has chosen to put around her" who are "anti-Catholic."
Peter Weber of The Week writes that "trying to make a scandal of this internal Catholic spitballing has a high stench of serving a political agenda." But Fr. Morris serves only God, so he would never serve a political agenda - or would he?
Well, at least it is forward. They got the direction right.
He might also want to figure out how to reconcile all the years during which time he was working for a man and working alongside other men who were gleefully breaking the 6th Commandment (7th for Protestants and Jews) with his deep Catholic convictions. Let’s not forget that, in Jesus’s own words, a married man who even LOOKED at another woman with lust in his heart had committed adultery. (That was the thing that actually helped Carter win over evangelicals in 1976—his “confession” at violating the words of Jesus.) And Lord knows (pun intended), most of the big names at FoxNoise were breaking the 6th Commandment (7th for Ps and Js) many times. Was Fr Johnny just looking the other way? I don’t believe, under Catholic doctrine, that just any priest can offer forgiveness for sins outside the confessional (except in extremis—such as the deathbed).