Matt C. Abbott
'Catholic distress signal'; The Earth Day column Our Sunday Visitor wouldn't run
By Matt C. Abbott
I received the following (edited) e-mail from Brother Andre Marie, M.I.C.M., of the Saint Benedict Center:
Kathy's thoughts on Earth Day can be read here.
© Matt C. Abbott
I received the following (edited) e-mail from Brother Andre Marie, M.I.C.M., of the Saint Benedict Center:
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'There is now afoot a very nasty concerted effort to destroy our traditional Catholic apostolate. Local detractors are teaming up with the Southern Poverty Law Center (which has already smeared us), to come out with an article that will profile us as a crazy cult trying to take over a quiet New England town.
'A vicious combination of letters to the editor, blogs, whispering campaigns, local political intrigue, mendacious letters to a state agency (NHDES), and, of course, the SPLC's $60-million-plus budget for demonizing people, are all coalescing to destroy our reputation, our finances (what is left of them!), and our hopes of even keeping our doors open. Believe it or not, all this began with a simple effort to build a new chapel / school building on our property. We are praying and trusting that our Blessed Lord and our Blessed Lady will not leave us abandoned. We also know that we have to fight the good fight.
'But we feel as if we cannot do that alone. We need help, especially in the areas of media coverage and legal assistance.
'Here is a summary of what is going on:
'For the last two years, we have appeared before our Town Planning Board to build a 10,300 chapel / school building. What began as a deplorable lack of cooperation has become a serious case of malfeasance (in my book), with about six public hearings on the project, draining our time, money, and other resources.
'Several residents who didn't like the new building, for whatever reason, teamed up against us, went to the local press, and started a smear campaign of lies, mostly very low-level — a sort of whispering campaign — which created and fostered a demonic mythology surrounding our priests, religious, and lay folk.
'In the midst of all this, the independent efforts of the SPLC produced a series of articles in its journal, The Intelligence Report, which maligned several traditional Catholic groups, including us. Our local enemies — including not only those in our town opposed to our building plan, but also liberal academics at Keene State College and Monadnock Regional High School — used this against us to portray us as a dangerous cult.
'The Keene Sentinel began a series of articles covering the local Planning Board controversy; then the paper did the very foolish thing of starting two blogs on its Web site to cover the issue. This allowed people with an agenda to attack us, even anonymously or under assumed names. The local mythology about us was spewed on the blogs. We were accused of lying and fostering hatred; we were called 'unbalanced,' 'dangerous,' and 'a cult'; and had monikers like 'pistol packing priests' thrown around about us. These were not the blogs of a fourteen-year-old kid or some other private individual. They had the respectability and high profile of the Keene Sentinel, which is the newspaper in this region. After much protest to the Sentinel, they finally pulled the worse of the two blogs down. The other still remains and is still causing damage.
'Finally, I found out for certain a few days ago that the SPLC is doing another story on us, this time a more in-depth piece written by a senior writer (not the hack who wrote the first one). This article will cover the local controversy. It is virtually guaranteed to portray us as Jonestown with rosaries.
'Besides our own faithful, there are local residents — two Jews, one agnostic, one Episcopalian, and others — who find this whole affair outrageous. They have tried to defend our reputation, but they are being drowned out by the screeching of the multiculturalist liberal fanatics who want us stopped. If unchecked, the SPLC piece will serve to embolden our local enemies and invite yet more media hack jobs on us. We are small, poor, and have few resources. In short, we are sitting ducks.
How can you help?
'We need fair media coverage, both local, and, if possible, national.
'We are organizing our own people to write letters to the editor to meet the enemy in the pages of the Sentinel, but it will take more than that to offset what these anti-Christian barbarians are doing to us. Any help you can give us will be much appreciated....'
Kathy's thoughts on Earth Day can be read here.
© Matt C. Abbott
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