Michael Coren is something else

Michael Coren has given an interview with the National Post. I am posting it because of certain points he has made, otherwise I would just leave him to himself.

Before I highlight the points let us be clear.

Four years ago, this man wrote a book Why Catholics Are Right. He made money from groups and then betrayed those same people and groups. He comments now in public that he was worshipping as an "anglican " for a year and he still took their money. He says he cannot be a "hypocrite," well, he has been something else. He has taken the money of the Interim, Catholic Insight, the Catholic Register, Legatus, the Toronto Traditional Mass Society, Una Voce Hamilton and dozens of others whilst not believing what he was saying.

Michael Coren, you made your choice. Go and worship God in a false church founded upon adultery and murder.

"An obsession on contraception and on life that Jesus never mentioned" said he.

I feel sorry for you and I feel sorry for you wife.

May you find your way home. Quietly and humbly.

"Right-wing Catholic bloggers" made your departure from the Church an issue.

Now, I am done with you.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/religion/i-felt-a-hypocrite-author-michael-coren-on-why-he-left-the-catholic-church-for-anglicanism?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Q: Some people see you as a Catholic champion against an amoral, secular world. How have they reacted?

A: It’s brought out the worst in the Catholic right. If you look at some of the comments, there’s a little tinge of anti-Semitism there (Coren’s father was Jewish), a lot of very sectarian hatred. The Catholic right is very frightened and very aggressive right now, because they have a pope who they no longer think is one of theirs, and so they’re feeling very defensive.

Vox: What is this "Catholic right" Coren speaks about? He no doubt means people such as me. He has referred to this blog as a "right-wing blog" and and "extreme" one at that on the now defunct SUN News and in the National Post. What does "right wing Catholic" mean? One who accepts the teaching of the Church? I have seen no anti-Semitism in any comments. The rest of his commentary is ignorant, pedantic and juvenile.

Q: Even as Pope Francis is welcomed with unprecedented vigour by the popular culture?

A: That’s one of the main reasons they can’t stand it. They don’t want to be accepted.

Vox: "Can't stand it?" What? that the Pope is admired by the UN enviro-fascist movement? That NARAL has used his careless words to their advantage? That homosexualists have also used his words to beat the Truth of the faith? If the world loves the Pope something is indeed wrong. So, I'll give Coren this, but he fails in what he is not saying.

Q: You left the Catholic Church for three years in the 1990s, worshiping in various evangelical and Anglican churches. Why did you leave?

A: Not really for particularly good reasons. I had written a piece about (the late) Cardinal (Aloysius) Ambrozic for Toronto Life, and that’s a very long story, and I still don’t really think I did anything wrong, but it was a very difficult time. I was being sort of personally attacked by the Cardinal and his people. I quoted him saying things that were not very Christ-like, I suppose. He had called someone a name. He was a very harsh man. … I just thought I needed a closer relationship with Christ at that time. I just wanted something simpler, a relationship rather than a religion.

Vox: Speak well of the dead, Michael. You did not know Cardinal Ambrozic or what his own issues may have been. You did not seem to understand the problems that this woman whom he called "that bitch" now a former Anglican/, then Catholic Nun, then married Catholic woman, then divorced Catholic woman and now a lesbian Anglican priestess caused. Really Michael, I've heard you say worse over coffee in your living room! You said much that day and on numerous phone calls to me over a few years; I'll keep all of that to myself.

Q: What brought you back?

A: It was really the pull of the Eucharist. It really was that. That is a centrepiece of worship for me.

Q: It is not exclusive to the Catholic Church. The same sacrament is given elsewhere.

A: That’s why I’m now in the Anglican Church.

Vox: Really Michael? There is no Eucharist in the Anglican communion unless it is from a priest ordained through an Old Catholic line and then, it is illicit. You are receiving a piece of bread and you know it. 

Q: You say you could no longer worship with integrity as a Catholic. Why not?

A: I could not remain in a church that effectively excluded gay people. That’s only one of the reasons, but for someone who had taken the Catholic position on same-sex marriage for so long, I’d never been comfortable with that even though I suppose I was regarded as being a stalwart in that position. But I’d moved on, and I felt a hypocrite. I felt a hypocrite being part of a church that described homosexual relations as being disordered and sinful. I just couldn’t be part of it anymore. I could not do that. I couldn’t look people in the eye and make the argument that is still so central to the Catholic Church, that same-sex attraction is acceptable but to act on it is sinful. I felt that the circle of love had to be broadened, not reduced.

Vox: Michael Coren, you are wrong and you have publicly misrepresented the teaching of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church does not exclude "gay people." You know this as you have had a Brother Knight (until you left our Council) on your program. You know him from the parish. You know well that he was never mocked and always welcomed. 

Michael, you may not want to be a hypocrite but you are something else.