Last week, I posted a piece here at Daily Kos where I detailed how the teachings of Opus Dei’s founder may explain how Attorney General William Barr’s apparent willingness to “put away his scruples” – as evidenced during his recent appearance before the House Judiciary Committee.
In response, Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued one of his characteristic broadsides defending Barr and claiming my critique constituted an “attack on the Catholicism of U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr.”
I believe I hit a nerve.
In a May 6th 2019 press release, Bill Donohue critiqued my reporting on the Attorney General; his relationship with Opus Dei; and the disturbing public statements he has made that are consistent with the teachings of the organization’s founder, Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer.
In fairness, Donohue found some typos and pointed out that in 1992, he was not yet president of the Catholic League. Beyond that, he is right that my use of the term “links” was imprecise. Instead, I should left the explanations of the discussed relationships speak for themselves – something that the piece did accomplish (he was, however, incorrect in claiming I emphasized my statement, “To describe its [Opus Dei’s] many wealthy and powerful leaders as economic royalists would be an understatement”; actually, the bold orange lettering was a hyper-link).
And it should be no surprise that Donohue should lash out at me. Several members of the Catholic League’s Board of Directors and Board of Advisors have relationships with Opus Dei. These include Raymond Arroyo; Hadley Arkes; Mary Ann Glendon; Lawrence Kudlow; and Thomas Monaghan It is therefore not unreasonable to conclude that Donohue was not only carrying water for Barr, but for prominent members of his own board who may also fear the sunshine.
But with that said, let’s get to the heart of the matter: Donohue was just blowing smoke, and never refuted my main points. That William Barr has used language that is abhorrent to American democracy; that he could not answer a simple yes or no question; that he lied to Congress; or that he is, in Opus Dei’s own classifications either an Opus Dei Supernumerary (married member) or, at least, a cooperator (sympathetic non-member). More importantly for our purposes, Donohue never even denied, that consistent with teachings of Opus Dei’s founder, the Attorney General disregarded both honesty and transparency when testifying before Congressional committees – in doing so, displaying an ends justifies the means mindset
Thomas Jefferson once stated, “The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.” By any objective measure, A.G. Barr’s continuing mischaracterizations of The Mueller Report fails to meet that standard. I stand by my assertion that Attorney General Barr is willing to destroy the norms of both justice and American democracy. Of which, Donohue sarcastically remarked of me, “Yeah, he did a great job of proving just that.”
Actually, the Attorney General did a great job of proving my assertion all by himself.
Donohue seems to think that it is no big deal whether or not the Attorney General is either an Opus Dei member or cooperator (“What does this have to do with Barr? Is he a member of Opus Dei? If so, who cares, aside from the kooks who write for the Daily Kos?”). Actually, it matters a great deal If it didn’t’ matter to anyone but kooks at Daily Kos, Donohue would not have made such a strenuous effort to distract us from the anti-democratic views of Opus Dei and those in its orbit. The problem is not limited to Barr. In fact, he is far from the only highly visible Opus Dei public figure to speak in terms of theocratic extremism.
Until a few years ago, the public face of Opus Dei in the United States was Father C. John McCloskey III. He too was known for using incendiary descriptions of non-Catholic institutions, calling public schools “pagan schools” and saying of more progressive Catholics, "The definition of a person who disagrees with what the Catholic Church's teaching is called a Protestant."
But that was far from his most inflammatory rhetoric. As I reported in 2014 McCloskey openly fantasized about a United States torn apart by civil war and secession and in its wake, a theocratic regime would ultimately replace our democratic system. McCloskey’s own words speak for themselves:
“The final short and relatively bloodless conflict produced our Regional States of North America. The outcome was by no means an ideal solution but it does allow Christians to live in states that recognize the natural law and divine Revelation, the right of free practice of religion, and laws on marriage, family, and life that reflect the primacy of our Faith.”
In that same article (2030: Looking Backwards; The writing is in the form of a January 1, 2030 letter to a young priest from a seventy-seven year-old priest named Fr. Charles.), McCloskey declared, "...and laws on marriage, family, and life that reflect the primacy of our Faith." Such a statement cannot be mistaken for anything but the views of a religious supremacist.
The Catholic League president may not be aware that McCloskey was in charge of the Catholic Information Center in Washington DC (where William Barr served as a Director from 2014-2017). And in fact CIC functions as Opus Dei’s de facto DC headquarters. But if g Donohue did know, he did not deny it
It is worth noting that in 2006, McCloskey mysteriously stepped down from the CIC and shuffled around to various Opus Dei outposts in Chicago and California. It was reported earlier this year that the reason for his transfer from the CIC was due to an incident of sexual harassment for which Opus Dei had to pay nearly a million dollars to settle.
Another highly visible Opus Dei cooperator in government has made similar troubling declarations. In 2002 then-U.S. Senator Santorum (R-PA) bemoaned JFK’s affirmation of the separation of church and state (saying of President Kennedy’s belief, “makes me want to throw up”). Santorum accompanied McCloskey to Rome for a ceremony honoring Opus Dei founder Escrivia.
As former members have reported, Opus Dei operates as a cult. It does so in the way that it recruits members on college campuses; how it controls just about every part of their life – including taking financial control of their income; and the extremist political agenda imagined by past leadership.
Opus Dei has a problem with the truth and is ultra secretive. In the words of one former member, “Rather than outright lying, Opus Dei is masterful in the art of deception, which is evident in what they do not reveal to outsiders.” Continuing directly, she pointed out that, “In The Way #643, the Founder [Escriva’] writes, “Be slow to reveal the intimate details of your apostolate. Don’t you see that the world in its selfishness will fail to understand?” Beyond that they engage in other cult like behavior with the practice of self-mortification and even having a list of banned books. Not exactly a model of freedom and transparency.
Bill Donohue is right about one thing. I do have a problem with Bill Barr’s politics. And no, it is not an attack on his being Catholic. I am a Catholic too! But I do question and am concerned by his peculiar interpretation of the faith we share. When I see a government official who claims to be religious and acts as if an “ends justifying the means” mentality allows him to lie and obfuscate – especially when treason involving an undemocratic regime in Moscow may be involved – yes, I am concerned. And this is especially so when the issue also becomes one of justice and religious supremacy.
But now that I have defended my earlier post, I must now defend myself.
In his press release, Donohue described Daily Kos readers as “crackpots” and said of me, “Time for this guy to check himself into the nearest asylum.” Perhaps he was trying to engage me in a demagogue’s auction, but I will not take his bait. I will note that divisive, inflammatory rhetoric is pretty standard for Donohue. But of course Trumpian name-calling does not make up for the weaknesses in his arguments.
I am reminded of how the nuns in Catholic school taught us that when you resort to name-calling, you either have nothing worthwhile to say -- or worse -- you’ve already lost the argument.
Along those lines, the Catholic League president also described me as “a left-wing nut.” Well, as a liberal in the tradition of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Robert F. Kennedy I think I am in good company. If those leaders are nuts, then left wing nut is truly a badge of honor, for which I thank him.
Liberalism has been influenced by an important archive of Catholic social thought. Monsignor John A. Ryan, whose work A Living Wage expresses solid Catholic Social Justice principles as originally outlined by Pope Leo XIII in the encyclical Rerum novarum.
In fact Monsignor Ryan was the principal author of The Bishop’s Plan For Social Reconstruction of 1919. That last work heavily influenced FDR’s economic policies; proposals for such things as Social Security and other ideas that made their way into the New Deal.
But more than Monsignor Ryan’s influence on my political beliefs (as well as those of Dorothy Day, Reinhold Niebuhr and Dietrich Bonhoeffer) there are the teachings Jesus Christ. I take seriously what I was taught in Catholic school and what I hear at Mass; especially what I learned of Christ’s compassion for those living on the margins of society and facing economic injustice.
My views are in line with those of Pope Francis-- about which Donohue scoffs and sneers. I am well within the social and economic justice traditions of my Church. Mr. Donohue, Mr. Barr and their friends in Opus Dei may want to check themselves.