Left-Wing National Catholic Reporter: ‘Catholic Apologists for Trump Have Blood on Their Hands’

The editorial staff of the left-wing National Catholic Reporter fussed and fumed that Catholic supporters of President Donald Trump “have blood on their hands” after the violent chaos that erupted at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday.

The editors wrote Thursday:

Clearly, the current resident of the White House who for months has repeatedly and deliberately lied about nonexistent election fraud, and who, even as Confederate-flag wielding thugs strolled throughout the Capitol, is guilty of inciting violence in his morning speech on the Ellipse. Later in the day, he would express “love” for what can only be described as domestic terrorists.

“Many Americans expressed shock as they watched the violent mob smash glass and scale the walls while members of Congress cowered under desks or rushed to secure bunkers,” the Reporter editors continued. “We were not surprised.”

The left-wing group then named names:

We’re talking to you CatholicVote.org, Attorney General William Barr and other Catholics in the Trump administration, Amy Coney Barrett, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, rogue prolifer Abby Johnson. Sadly, the list goes on.

And, as for the Catholics who actually voted for Trump, the Reporter editors chastised them for caring about such things as Supreme Court justices, Catholic school choice funding so low-income children can escape failing public schools, and lower taxes so American businesses can thrive and provide more jobs, and families can provide a home, food, and education for their children without relying on the government.

“It must stop,” the editors raged on, demanding Catholics sever their relationship with what they call “white Catholic nationalism.”

“And a pro-life movement that embraces white nationalism is not a true pro-life movement,” they pronounced. “Period.”

Catholic League President Bill Donohue, however, saw it differently and asked Friday who is actually “guilty of inciting riots?”

Donohue asserted:

In the wake of the storming of the Capitol, many are blaming President Trump for the violence. Of course, he never instructed anyone to engage in violence. Nevertheless, his critics argue that he stoked people’s passions, which he did, and can therefore be held accountable.

If this is the standard—inflammatory rhetoric—then Trump’s critics are at best ethically compromised.

Donohue then continued with many examples of left-wing inflammatory rhetoric, including:

• “I need you to get out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face.” Presidential candidate Barack Obama, 2008
• “When they go low, we kick ’em. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.” Former Attorney General Eric Holder, 2018
• “Please, get up in the face of some congresspeople.” Cory Booker, 2020
• “People will do what they do.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi commenting on violent protesters, 2020
• “You know, there needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there is unrest in our lives, and unfortunately there is plenty to go around.” Ayanna Pressley, 2020
• “They’re [left-wing protesters] not gonna stop before Election Day in November and they’re not gonna stop after Election Day. And that should be—everyone should take note of that on both levels, that this isn’t, they’re not gonna let up and they should not. And we should not.” Kamala Harris, 2020
• “And please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful.” CNN host Chris Cuomo, 2020

“Left-wing commentators and activists (pretty much the same these days) have no moral authority to lecture the rest of us about violence committed by right-wing protesters,” Donohue added. “They nurtured a climate of violence over the past year by giving Antifa and Black Lives Matter their blessings.”

In November, the Catholic League also condemned the Reporter for publishing an op-ed that called upon the U.S. Catholic bishops to “suppress the cult of St. John Paul II.”

Breitbart News reported Donohue rebuked the actions of dissident Catholics intent on redirecting blame from disgraced sexual predator Theodore McCarrick to St. John Paul II.

As a bishop and then pope, John Paul II continuously challenged Marxist ideology and taught definitively about issues such as abortion, marriage between one man and one woman, and human sexuality – facts that are detested by left-wing individuals who still call themselves “Catholic.”

From Breitbart News:

In its op-ed, the Reporter accuses John Paul II of “calamitous, callous decision-making” regarding former Cardinal McCarrick, insisting that he “willfully put at risk children and young adults in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and around the world” while setting “a deplorable example for bishops in ignoring the accounts of abuse victims.”

“In reading this editorial, one gets the sense that the true villain of the ‘McCarrick Report’ is not the predatory ex-cardinal, but rather Pope John Paul II,” Donohue said, adding:

It is ironic as it is perverse, that the Reporter, which is quick to judge others for the clergy sexual abuse scandal, denies its own role in contributing to it. To be specific, its relentless attacks on the Church’s teaching on sexuality enabled sick men to justify their homosexual assaults.

In July, the Reporter’s executive editor also declared abortion supporter Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to be “the future of the Catholic Church.”

Heidi Schlumpf wrote she heard a “stunning speech” by Ocasio-Cortez while on the House floor and “was struck by how often it referenced Catholic values.”

In addition to support for abortion on demand, Ocasio-Cortez is also demanding that American taxpayers, regardless of whether they morally oppose the procedure, pay for the abortions of others through a repeal of the longstanding Hyde Amendment.

Also in July, the New York congresswoman denounced the presence of a statue in the U.S. Capitol honoring Saint Father Damien, who ministered to lepers and died of the dreaded disease. Ocasio-Cortez decided to share with her followers on Instagram that Father Damien is a remnant of “white supremacist culture.”