Another one bites the dust...

Another person that I have admired and have watched and listened to for a few years bites the dust - Sean Hannity. Several months ago, my husband and I had a great opportunity to meet the Fox News show host from the Hannity and Colmes show and sit on the stage while he did a live taping of their show here in Dallas at SMU. It was amazing!

Imagine my great disappointment when I saw the news headline yesterday that said, "Pro-life Priest Clashes with Fox News Host" and started looking into the matter only to find that Hannity, who is very public about the fact that he is Catholic, has several times publicly said that he doesn't think there is anything wrong with using artificial birth control. The Pro Life priest is Fr. Euteneuer from Human Life International -check out the front page picture with Hannity's face in front of a cafeteria and a fork. It has been cracking me up all afternoon! It's all very confusing to sort out but Fr. Euteneuer, who is duty bound as a priest as are all Catholics, to "admonish the sinner" - it's a Spiritual Work of Mercy (I'm plenty guilty of forgetting about this one personally and don't hear much about them these days) tried to speak privately with Hannity in 2004. When he recently started publicly calling him out, Hannity invited him on the show where he treated him very disrespectfully. Catholic Pillow Fight was unfortunate enough to see the show and has a clip of it. I did not see it and I do not want to see the clip either. I'm disgusted enough at reading about it. This is a snippet of what Fr. Euteneuer said to him in his 2004 letter.

What you effectively did in that short segment was to solidify in the minds of Catholics and all other listeners a moral relativism about a sacred teaching. You also unfairly denigrated your own Church and confused listeners when you said that your pastor considers this issue “baloney,” a term that can be applied to many political opinions on the airwaves nowadays. However, on this issue you did not and do not apply your normal standard of intellectual rigor, and because of that you used your position in the media irresponsibly. You gave scandal. This is of greatest concern to me as a priest and ought to be of concern to you as a Catholic who professes to follow the teaching of Christ.

Thank God that Fr. Euteneuer has the guts to stand up to this man who condemned John Kerry for receiving communion while being pro abortion. Yesterdays Gospel reading from Matthew says:

Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.

I am saddened at the beliefs of Sean Hannity and ashamed of his behavior towards a godly man. I do not judge him - as he accused Fr. Euteneuer of doing to him - but I am going to pray that the wise counsel and admonition given to him by Fr. Euteneuer will sink in very soon. Otherwise, I fear that Hannity, who is great in many ways by earthly measures (fame, wealth) will end up least in the Kingdom of heaven...or worse.