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January 22, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Over the weekend, pro-lifers and Catholics were stunned with news reports alleging that a group of teenage boys from Covington Catholic high school in Kentucky had mocked and disrespected an elderly Native American. A hue and cry instigated by left-wing media outlets led to demands for apologies for the insults that were said to have been committed.
Spurred on by liberal voice-boxes like pro-LGBT Jesuit Fr. James Martin and fearing a serious backlash against the pro-life movement, well-intentioned pro-lifers and Catholics were quick to denounce the boys for the alleged behavior. Even the Diocese of Covington quickly issued a condemnatory statement.
After the March was over and everyone headed home, Nathan Phillips, an activist and actor, went to the cameras twice and cried as he leveled false charges against the students.
In this first video, wherein Phillips is crying, he claims to have heard the students saying, “build that wall, build that wall.”
In an interview with NBC later that evening, conducted in front of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for effect, Phillips again starts to cry as he claims that he was afraid of the students.
In an interview with the Denver Post, Phillips claimed that the students started taunting members of his Indigenous People’s March saying:
“It was getting ugly, and I was thinking: ‘I’ve got to find myself an exit out of this situation and finish my song at the Lincoln Memorial. I started going that way, and that guy in the hat stood in my way and we were at an impasse. He just blocked my way and wouldn’t allow me to retreat.”
The problem is that every single allegation was a lie … and without blinking, the leftists like Fr. James Martin and Fr. Daniel Horan jumped on it in order to smear the March for Life.
On Saturday morning, James Martin said on Twitter, “Catholic school students at the #MarchforLife attempt to shame and disrespect a man at the #IndigenousPeoplesMarch. These actions are not Catholic, not Christian and not acceptable. Would that these students fully understood the dignity of all human life–including this man's.”
Ten minutes later, Fr. Martin tweeted again saying, “I am as disgusted by the contemptuous laughter of the mass of students as I am moved by the quiet dignity of the solitary man who continues to chant. Those students could learn much from this elder, if they had chosen to. Or if they choose to.”
One of Fr. Martin’s allies, Fr. Daniel Horan, published a similar tweet at around the same time:
I'm so deeply appalled and disgusted by the racist, shameful, disrespectful behavior of the Catholic high school students wearing MAGA hats and harassing a Native American elder and Vietnam Vet. I'm so angry and yet not at all surprised at pervasive white supremacy exhibited. Just one of many reasons I find the so-called “march for life” often repulsive and futile: It's basically a gathering for many right-wing anti-abortion hardliners (not consistent ethic of life, i.e. true pro-lifers) and teens to get a free trip to goof off (at best) in DC.
Of course, the Fr. Martins and Fr. Horans of the world, who are so quick to demand that others not “judge lest ye be judged” hold no such reservation for those they deemed their political enemies. Because of the rhetoric employed by Fr. Martin, Fr. Horan and others, Nick Sandmann and his family have been receiving death threats. In a published statement responding to allegations regarding the incident, Sandmann said:
I have received physical and death threats via social media, as well as hateful insults. One person threatened to harm me at school, and one person claims to live in my neighborhood. My parents are receiving death and professional threats because of the social media mob that has formed over this issue.
That’s on Fr. Martin, Fr. Horan and every other heavy-handed media guru who rushed to judge this young man and his companions … including the Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School itself.
In a joint statement that was issued without ever contacting the students or their parents, the diocese and the high school condemned the students and apologized to Mr. Phillips and then indicated that it would launch an investigation. Of course, an investigation in the United States is supposed to presume the innocence of the accused and reserve judgment for after its conclusion. But apparently, the diocese doesn’t agree with this policy. The joint statement said:
We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and Native Americans in general, Jan. 18, after the March for Life, in Washington, D.C. We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips. This behavior is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person.
The matter is being investigated and we will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.
We know this incident also has tainted the entire witness of the March for Life and express our most sincere apologies to all those who attended the March and all those who support the pro-life movement.
The Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School
The bottom line is that Nathaniel Phillips is a liar, and liberal media outlets and leftist activists like Fr. Martin and Fr. Horan wanted desperately to believe his lies just to cast aspersions on the March for Life and the pro-lifers who participate in it.
After video evidence surfaced that destroyed mainstream media's narrative on the event and exonerated the boys of any wrongdoing, Fr. Martin issued what basically amounted to a non-apology, saying that he has “regret” for “wading into the #Covingtoncontroversy.”
“For it seems that we may never know what was going on inside the hearts of the students. So I would like to apologize to them for my judgment of them,” he said in a Jan. 21 Tweet, adding in a subsequent tweet: “Finally, I don’t agree with the 'No one should weigh in until all the facts are in' argument. Because all the facts will never be in. At some point, people are justified in offering reasonable opinions. My mistake was offering a condemnation, and for that I again apologize.”
Fr. Martin's apology was undermined by him taking issue with the boys wearing pro-Trump hats (this comes despite the fact that Fr. Martin seems to have no problem with promoting homosexuality with its rainbow flags within the Catholic Church despite the Church's explicit condemnation of it). “Third, why were so many students sporting MAGA hats?” the priest tweeted. “It’s a free country for sure, but they were at the March for Life, a religious event, under the care of their Catholic high school administrators and, one hopes, chaperones, not a political rally,” he added.
Fr. Martin needs to issue a sincere apology to these boys, with no caveats. He needs to apologize for refusing to practice what he preaches, for refusing to offer the boys “toleration,” for refusing to “build a bridge” to them, for refusing to offer them “understanding” and “compassion,” for using them to attack the March for Life, and for judging them.
Mr. Phillips' lies
There are three primary lies regarding Mr. Phillips that must be exposed.
Lie #1 – He claimed that the boys from Covington Catholic High School blocked him on his way to the Lincoln Memorial and refused to allow him to retreat, causing him to be afraid.
However, further video proves that Phillips and his group walked up to the boys and made no attempt to get around them. It’s also clear that there was plenty of room for Mr. Phillips to walk away if he felt uncomfortable in any way.
But, Mr. Phillips clearly didn’t feel uncomfortable as he beat a drum just inches away from the face of Nick Sandmann. His claim to having been surrounded and blocked by the teens is completely false.
Lie #2 – Phillips claimed that the boys were chanting “build the wall.”
Not only is this claim completely false, but what actually happened was a verbal, profanity-laden tirade from Mr. Phillips’ adult companions upon those teenaged boys.
From the 0:32 mark of this video to the 1:35 mark, Phillips is clearly attempting to intimidate Sandmann by beating the drum right by his head. At 1:39, Phillips’ companion asks a student, “Why don’t you go back to Europe where you came from?” At 2:15, Phillips’ companion continues to berate a student who is trying to actually have an intelligent discussion with him, but then Sandmann wisely motions for the student to disengage and stop talking to the man. At 2:46, after having filmed Sandmann and Phillips, the man starts shouting, “Don’t worry about it, I got him, man. I got him. I got him!” It’s unclear what he meant by this, but given the media furor over the incident, it seems that this individual was suggesting that he got the footage he desired.
Lie #3 – Phillips claimed that he approached the students because they were “in the process of attacking four black individuals.” In a statement to the Detroit Free Press, Phillips said:
They were in the process of attacking these four black individuals,” Phillip said. “I was there and I was witnessing all of this … As this kept on going on and escalating, it just got to a point where you do something or you walk away, you know? You see something that is wrong and you're faced with that choice of right or wrong.
However, a one-hour and forty-six-minute long video, produced by a group of Black Hebrew Israelites shows that this small group called the students “faggots,” “crackers,” “incest babies,” “bastards,” and other unrepeatable words.
At no point in any of this did any of the students issue any insults in return, they made no threatening gestures, and they did nothing to even intimidate this group at all. In fact, at the very end of the video, the Black Hebrew Israelites told a group of police officers at the 1 hour and 40-minute mark, “we wasn’t threatened by them. It was ok dialogue.”
Lie #4 – Phillips claimed that he was singing a prayer for peace. However, it turns out that what he was chanting was the American Indian Movement song of the 1960's, which was intended to radicalize young indians. In short, it is a fight song, not a song of peace.
Clearly, Nathan Phillips’ account of what happened was completely fabricated, and he cried on film in order to garner sympathy. And as a veteran activist and actor, this shouldn’t come as any surprise. In 2015, Phillips accused a group of Eastern Michigan students of racism because of a party they were having based upon their former sporting mascot, The Hurons.
Phillips was also active in the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
In 2012, Phillips was the principle actor in a music video portraying violence against police officers.
At one point in the video, Phillips is wielding a gun in a face-off with police officers.
Innocent lives turned upside down
The most important aspect of this terrible unfolding of events is that the lives of innocent high school boys have been turned upside down by a left-wing activist and a broad band of liberal media outlets who are eager to smear the reputation of pro-lifers and the pro-life movement.
The boys of Covington High School are to be commended for their spirit, their comportment, and their defense of Truth. They did nothing wrong, and yet were dogpiled by the media. They are completely innocent of the charges leveled against them, and yet they are now subject to serious threats.
There is a reason President Donald Trump called out the Fake News industry, and now what was deemed a joke by the leftists who are the subject of that moniker has become a dangerous situation.
The media owes these young men an apology. Homosexualist activist Fr. James Martin and his ally Fr. Daniel Horan owe them a sincere apology. And the Diocese of Covington and their own school owes them an apology.
And while the Diocese of Covington refuses to retract its condemnation of the students, even though the condemnation is based upon false pretenses, reports are now coming out that Covington Catholic high school has canceled classes out of fear for students' safety as Native Americans protest outside diocesan offices.
Click here to read all LifeSiteNews coverage of the Covington Catholic case.