Boston College Professor and author Peter Kreeft told a group of 500 at the Bishop O’Connor Center in Madison that pro-abortion Catholics have done more damage to the Church than the sex abuse scandal, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
Kreeft’s speech was focused on whether Catholics could be liberals and quickly turned to the issue of abortion where he said, “A Catholic cannot be today what is called a liberal about abortion. That’s obvious. That’s a ‘duh.’”
During the Q&A, an audience member brought up the Kennedy political dynasty and how a group of leading theologians and Catholic college professors had met with Kennedy family members in the mid-1960s and came up with a way for Catholic politicians to support a pro-abortion rights platform with clear consciences.
Kreeft said these Catholic advisers “told the Kennedys how they could get away with murder.” Kreeft then made one of his boldest comments of the evening, suggesting the theologians who first convinced Democratic politicians they could support abortion rights and remain Catholic did more damage to the Catholic Church than pedophile priests.
“These were wicked people. These were dishonest people. These were people who, frankly, loved power more than they loved God,” Kreeft said. “Sorry, that’s just the way it is. In fact, I’d say these were even worse than the child molesters — though the immediate damage they did was not as obvious — because they did it deliberately, it wasn’t a sin of weakness. Sins of power are worse than sins of weakness. Cold, calculating sins — that’s straight from the devil.”
A few minutes later, the talk over, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.
Adam Wilson
CNS Staff
Matthew Archbold
Charlotte Hays
25 Comments
I am still amazed the so called educated people can support abortion ! Science has proved that “LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION”. To end the life of a totally defenseless and innocent life is murder. These so called Catholic educators should be excommunicated for their public remarks.
AMEN! Brother
Bravo Peter Kreeft! May God bless him for his courage. Not much more to say!
Unbeleiveable how these Theologians thought they could “come up with a way” to cirrcumvent the laws of God. Sounds more like their a bunch of lawyers trying to catch God up in a legal manuver. Probably not a winning side to be on. Dumb move, very dumb move.
(Rev) Robert Drinan RIP thought up the comment “I am personally opposed to abortion but I cannot impose my morality on anyone” So, Robert Drinan imposed his immorality on everybody.
Thank you for using your position for The Good.
May God give you the Grace to persevere in prayer and humility so as to do His Will in the future as well.
“Sins of power are worse than sins of weakness.” If Peter wasn’t quoting someone else here he has officially become quotable.
Joy,
I don’t know if Dr. Kreeft coined the phrase, but I wouldn’t be surprised. He reminds me very much of G.K. Chesterton in his ability to turn a phrase, to create paradoxes in the most clever way.
Someone (Dr. Kreeft, are you reading?) could create a wonderful book pulling together a “Quotable Kreeft” book.
It’s a Theological and Philosophical maxim:
Order evil is more evil than Chaotic evil; that is, a serial killer who plans out a half-dozen murders is more evil than an average Joe who walks into the Donut Shop spraying bullets because he is gone mad.
There is a hierarchy of Grace and there is a lower-archy of Evil.
In the same way, chaotic good is not as grace-filled as planned good. For instance, God wasn’t just randomly sitting around a campfire when He said, “You know what Son, You need to get down there and get Incarnated and crucified.” It was a Divine Plan all along.
Yes, and they are still around today, they still haven’t given up.
We have reached the point where the Obama admin and the democrat party can no longer be supported by Catholics in good conscience. The decline in the morality of our society is putting the very existence of this country in jeopardy – all this at the hands of a leadership of senators and members of the House that claim to be “catholic” – not to mention the damage done in our classrooms with this same PC anti-Christian nonsense taught by teachers who were brought up as Catholic. Yet they apparently do not see the damage being done.
Truth! Standing O, Prof.
Thank you Mr. Kreeft for your honesty and courage. God bless you.
“A few minutes later, the talk over, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.”
Bravo, Mr. Kreeft! Bravo!
Indeed.
I beleive Father Theodore Hesburg, President of Notre Dame, gave the same advice to President Carter.
I attended this talk and hadn’t realized there was an article covering it in the State Journal–I am pleasantly surprised by the article. Kreeft’s talk was basically a very accurate and evaluation of the truth, and entirely fair minded about positive senses of the word “liberal”. The kind of liberal he said is not compatible with being Catholic are the contemporary political liberals who are always pro-abortion, with extremely few exceptions, solely at the most local level.
The topic (“Can a Catholic Be a Liberal?”) was given to Kreeft by the organization that invited him (the Knights of Divine Mercy) so it was not a canned talk but a topic he had not spoken about before specifically. He developed his thought for us based on philosophical reasoning, particularly Thomism, which was my assumption about the source of the principle that “sins of power are worse than sins of weakness”, he did not seem to be quoting anyone. He was entirely firm in what he said about that.
C.S. Lewis says similar things about sins of weakness vs. power in Mere Christianity. A great book for anyone who hasn’t read it yet. Kreeft is a fan of Lewis.
My questions are
1. Who were they?
2. What did they say or what was there way?
how a group of leading theologians and Catholic college professors had met with Kennedy family members in the mid-1960s and came up with a way for Catholic politicians to support a pro-abortion rights platform with clear consciences.
Just curious how someone that is so smart can do such evil and sleep.
Check out article at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123086375678148323.html
The Catholic theologians that had a hand in this are (from article):
“In some cases, church leaders actually started providing “cover” for Catholic pro-choice politicians who wanted to vote in favor of abortion rights. At a meeting at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Mass., on a hot summer day in 1964, the Kennedy family and its advisers and allies were coached by leading theologians and Catholic college professors on how to accept and promote abortion with a “clear conscience.”
The former Jesuit priest Albert Jonsen, emeritus professor of ethics at the University of Washington, recalls the meeting in his book “The Birth of Bioethics” (Oxford, 2003). He writes about how he joined with the Rev. Joseph Fuchs, a Catholic moral theologian; the Rev. Robert Drinan, then dean of Boston College Law School; and three academic theologians, the Revs. Giles Milhaven, Richard McCormick and Charles Curran, to enable the Kennedy family to redefine support for abortion.”
This sounds like it was a great talk. Was it recorded? Can I get a copy of it somewhere?
As a student of Prof. Kreeft at BC, he asked us to try to contribute the following to discussions in which he is mentioned. He told us that the normal test of a philosopher is the question he is most often asked. In Kreeft’s case, unfortunately, the question is, “How DO you pronounce your last name?”
For the record, directly from him, it is pronounced “KRAYFT”. The two “E”s make an “AY” sound, like in “Beethoven”.
It’s not really germane to his presentation. I just wanted to throw that in there.
I know a lot of Catholics who have turned away from the Church- in fact almost all the Catholics I once knew have departed and think I’m nuts for not leaving too. When I ask why they left, (which I do) every one cites the pedophilia scandal, usually with a mix of horror and disgust and utter disbelief (pardon the pun). Not one (and I’ve asked many) has ever mentioned pro-abortion church leaders (in fact I’ve never met a pro-abortion person at all, but a few pro-choice). So, from my corner of the world, the damage to the Church is:
pedophile scandal- 30
pro-abortion priests- 0
I’d like to know where Dr. Kreeft gets his data. Sounds pretty dubious to me.
Love it!
My theology professor in my Sacred Scriptures course assigns Kreeft’s “You Can Understand the Bible.” It goes through the Bible book by book, it’s very easy to read, and it’s pretty funny some of the time.
We need champions. We need heroes. We need more people like Dr. Kreeft to speak out. It doesn’t have to be clever or persuasive or nuanced. It just has to be the truth – which is what Dr. Kreeft has spoken, in simplicity and candor.
Thank God for converts like Pete Kreft.
I sent all of my four children to Catholic Colleges at great sacrifice. The colleges did not teach Catholic Doctrine or Truth. However, they survived the liberal indoctrination and are still practicing Catholics today.
Many of our friends children are not.
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