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Bush Advisor on Catholics Resigns due to Upcoming Smear Job in "Catholic" Newspaper

WASHINGTON, August 19, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Deal Hudson, publisher of the acclaimed U.S. Catholic magazine Crisis and since 2000 the advisor to President George W. Bush on Catholics, has resigned his post as presidential advisor. The move came in anticipation of a smear campaign on Hudson in a just released article by the National Catholic Reporter (NCR), a weekly publication that features prominent dissidents in the Catholic Church in America.

In an article published in the National Review yesterday, Hudson revealed, without naming the publication, that the smear piece was in the offing and also told of his resignation from his esteemed position. He warned that attacks would center around his past, before his conversion to a faithful practice of Catholicism. "No one regrets my past mistakes more than I do," says Hudson. (http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/hudson200408181000.asp )

The NCR piece was issued today, with NCR editor Tom Roberts frustrated that National Review would allow Hudson a pre-emptive defense. LifeSiteNews.com contacted Roberts for comment on why his publication would do such a story; he refused comment directing those interested to an editorial accompanying the feature. Roberts writes that Hudson "is a public figure, seeking the spotlight and rubbing elbows regularly with the most powerful in the land . . . (who) regularly publicly denounce those whose personal behavior we think deficient (and has) the power to get someone fired for maintaining a political Web site because we disagree with its content."

The last comment about getting someone fired refers to Ono Ekeh, a former employee of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, who was relieved of his highly paid Catholic job after Hudson pointed out that he ran a Catholics for Kerry website in which he dissented from Church teaching on abortion.

The NCR smear piece is lurid, describing as would a porn-magazine's account, lurid details from the alleged affair Hudson had with a student while he was a professor at Fordham University. (http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn081904.htm )

NCR's frustration seems to be that while both Hudson and Ekeh were unfaithful to Catholic teaching, Hudson remains in the Catholic limelight while Ekeh has been released from his duties. The key point missing in the equation is the fact that Hudson has repented of and renounced his sins while Ekeh and NCR refuse even to consider their dissent sinful and requiring renouncement and repentance.

While NCR may have a healthy readership (due in large part to its Rome reporter John Allen), it is not regarded as trustworthy on Catholicism itself. Fr. Alphonse de Valk, editor of Canada's Catholic Insight magazine, has followed NCR for many years. "NCR is not reliable on Catholic theological issues, it dissents from much Church teaching and is generally hostile to those who are faithful to the Magisterium," de Valk told LifeSiteNews.com

Phil Lawler, editor of the American based Catholic World News, a competitor of Hudson's Crisis magazine, told LifeSiteNews.com with regard to the NCR piece that "it seems the reporter obviously had an axe to grind." The political motivation for the smear piece is evident. "It seems clearly also to be retaliation after that fellow from Catholics for Kerry," concluded Lawler.

The Catholic League in the U.S. disparaged the smear piece on Hudson. League President Bill Donohue called mockingly for a new policy for employees. "Effective today, the Catholic League has a new requirement for all future employees: all candidates must show proof of being immaculately conceived, that is, they must demonstrate that they were conceived without sin," said Donohue. "Unfortunately, we will not be able to make our new requisite retroactive, for to do so would mean the Catholic League would have to shut down. You see, unlike the puritans at the NCR, we at the Catholic League are sinners."

jhw

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