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Bill Donohue: Notre Dame giving Obama an honorary degree "would be like Howard University giving David Duke a degree in racial politics"

May 08, 2009 11:34 am ET

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    • Author by nerzog (May 08, 2009 11:36 am ET)
      8 1
      If I were a Catholic, this guy would embarrass me.
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      • Author by NiceguyEddie (May 08, 2009 12:12 pm ET)
        4 1
        I was, and he still does.

        The one saving grace here is that the Catholic Church, being very hierachtical in its structure, chooses it own spokespeople (namley the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, Priets, Deacons and Nuns; along with the occasioanl lay-person) and does not recognize this clown or his focus group in any official capacity. They don't go so far as to condemn them - thay are preaching the same "values" after all - but they go out of their way to make it clear that the man (and his group) has no official authority, and does not speak for the mother church.
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        • Author by mkevinf (May 08, 2009 1:19 pm ET)
          1 1
          Recovering Catholic here, and, yes, Donahue is a huge emabarrassment. It's not his defense of orthodoxy that is embarrassing; it's his verbal screeds like this that restores the stereotype of the thoroughly out of touch, insensitive, know it all Irish Catholic, with all due respect to my Irish Catholic brothers and sisters. (We are ALL recovering in some way!)

          Does Donahue ever talk about the slaughter of the innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan?
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          • Author by budrykzp9226 (May 08, 2009 1:52 pm ET)
               
            Ugh. I'm Irish Catholic meself, and I know exactly what you mean. It really makes me look bad when a guy claiming to speak for me both ethnically and theologically is like someone brought a Thomas Nast cartoon to life.
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            • Author by MissDee (May 08, 2009 1:58 pm ET)
              1 9
              Do you all mean like when Nancy Pelosi says "how it is" in what the Catholic church's stand on abortion? I dont seem to recall too many democratic hacks, Catholic or not, cringing a what she professed last year that so many bishops and eventhe pope tookher to the woodshed over. But of course none of you even would acknowledge how much of an embarassment she is when she opens her hypocritical mouth on something she's totally ill qualified to speak to.
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              • Author by budrykzp9226 (May 08, 2009 2:02 pm ET)
                5  
                I ARE CONCERN TROLL. CONCERN TROLL ARE CONCERNED.
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              • Author by solon (May 08, 2009 2:15 pm ET)
                4 1
                QUICK look over there or over there or ANYWHERE BUT THE TOPIC. Lets talk about some Democrat somewhere sometime who did something I think is bad. I dont know why except it says to do this on page three of the troll handbook
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            • Author by Conchobhar (May 08, 2009 2:13 pm ET)
                 
              Second the motion.
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              • Author by Conchobhar (May 08, 2009 2:15 pm ET)
                   
                That was meant to follow budryksp. Funny, that looks more Polish than Gaelic.
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          • Author by franky (May 09, 2009 6:59 pm ET)
               
            mkevinf,

            "...restores the stereotype of the thoroughly out of touch, insensitive, know it all Irish Catholic..."

            I've never those stereotypes. I've heard the opposites though. Can we both? In the mind of an anti-Irish bigot maybe.
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            • Author by franky (May 09, 2009 7:08 pm ET)
                 
              Revised:
              I've never heard those stereotypes. I've heard the opposites though. Can we be both? In the mind of an anti-Irish bigot maybe.
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    • Author by pete592 (May 08, 2009 11:38 am ET)
      4  
      Few have spoken so eloquently and truthfully on the importance of a president's religion better than Lewis Black.
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      • Author by nerzog (May 08, 2009 11:43 am ET)
        3  
        I LOVE that guy!
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      • Author by NiceguyEddie (May 08, 2009 12:13 pm ET)
        3  
        Yep. He, George Carlin and Bill Maher are like an aeithiest's comedic holy trinity. Throw in Dawkins, Hitchens and Thomas Payne and you've got yourself an aetheist pantheon!
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        • Author by nerzog (May 08, 2009 12:35 pm ET)
          2  
          My Heroes!

          George Carlin did one of the funniest rants on religion that I've ever heard. I can't remember exactly which performance it was, but I saw it on HBO years ago, and I think he was standing in front of a set that looked like an urban neighborhood at night. Other than that, I don't know.

          It is brilliant, however, if you can ever find it.
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          • Author by NiceguyEddie (May 08, 2009 12:58 pm ET)
               
            Is THIS it?
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            • Author by nerzog (May 08, 2009 1:14 pm ET)
                 
              That could be it; thanks for the link.

              Just before he died, he published a DVD collection called "All My Stuff". When the recession's over and I can scrounge up $180, I'm going to stimulate the economy and buy a copy.
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              • Author by NiceguyEddie (May 08, 2009 3:41 pm ET)
                   
                Yeah, I saw that. I have the same plan, or maybe for birtday / xmas.
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    • Author by snoopy (May 08, 2009 11:42 am ET)
      2  
      What were Bush's honorary degree for?
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      • Author by Easy to refute wingnuts (May 08, 2009 12:41 pm ET)
          1
        I was going to say basketweaving, but even that requires skill beyond the reach of W.
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      • Author by neon desert (May 08, 2009 1:25 pm ET)
          1
        Reaching a brain temperature below absolute 0.
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        • Author by neon desert (May 08, 2009 1:30 pm ET)
          1 1
          I should add that the degree is not purely honorary because Farenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin covered known physics only until 2000, making a degrees Bush scale necessary.
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      • Author by mjh (May 08, 2009 4:00 pm ET)
           
        Bresh clearin'.
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    • Author by shaggles (May 08, 2009 11:47 am ET)
      1 1
      Donohue is a nut. Fits right in on Fox I guess.
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    • Author by budrykzp9226 (May 08, 2009 12:08 pm ET)
      2  
      Or, or, it would be like a guy who unapologetically says "Jews control Hollywood" thinking he had any right to spout off about what was and wasn't offensive to people of faith!
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    • Author by dsdnburg112 (May 08, 2009 1:15 pm ET)
        1
      From a Deist

      Mr. Donohue's comments are bogus just because he believes President Obama is pro-choice on women's reproductive rights. Where were the rights of the molested altar boys in the Catholic Church who were sexually attacked by the soldiers (priests) of the Vatican? Where was the help for the gay priests who contracted HIV/AIDs in their mission for the church. The Catholic Church, that lives in a giant glass house, has no call for speaking out on President Obama's trip to racist Notre Dame. God help you on judgment day!

      deist.truth@yahoo.com
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      • Author by jjamele2880 (May 08, 2009 1:43 pm ET)
        3  
        Can we please stop returning to the altar boy molestation issue whenever one of these idiots pops up on TV? It's already been established that Donohue does not speak in any official capacity for the Catholic Church- so why are you asking the church to apologize on his behalf? The Catholic Church IS NOT SPEAKING OUT ON OBABA'S NOTRE DAME SPEECH, DONOHUE IS!!

        This has nothing to do with the Catholic church. Let's try to remember that.
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        • Author by NiceguyEddie (May 08, 2009 3:42 pm ET)
          1  
          Nope. It's just Donohue using the Catholic Church's name in vein.
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        • Author by tapley (May 08, 2009 3:45 pm ET)
          1  
          Apparently you haven't heard what Archbishop Burke had to say. And he DOES speak for the Catholic Church.

          http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/08/archbishop-raymond-burke-_n_200273.html

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          • Author by edenscape246494 (May 08, 2009 6:19 pm ET)
            1 3
            oh man, you beat me to it

            I used to identify as Catholic as I found their message a little less Old Testament. But every election season when some bishop pops up to spout off about denying Democrats the Eucharist my blood boils and I find it impossible not to reflect that the Church seems fine and dandy allowing the pedophiles, war mongers and death penalty supporters to take Eucharist.

            Hypocrites. I cannot wait until Jesus returns and whips you salesmen and charlatans out of his Father's house
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          • Author by christopher howard (May 08, 2009 6:35 pm ET)
            1 2
            Not to mention that in 2004, the current pope, then Cardinal Ratzinger, told American bishops to deny communion to politicians who supported abortion rights. This was aimed primarily at John Kerry and was at the time loudly cheered by those on the American right. Donohue may not be a spokesperson for the Catholic Church, but their official representatives (like the afore mentioned Archbishop Burke) are frequently cut from the same cloth. Of course, while going after pro-choice legislators (or even in some cases those who support "illicit" stem-cell research and gay rights), I've never heard of any bishops denying communion to politicians who are pro-war, pro death penalty or who defend torture.
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