The slow whining death of Johann Hari's credibility...and that of attorney/theologian Daniel Shea

Catholic News Service is reporting that, "A high-profile federal lawsuit accusing Pope Benedict XVI of covering up sexual abuse has been withdrawn.


Lawyers for the plaintiff in John Doe 16 v. Holy See filed a notice of voluntary dismissal Feb. 10, bringing the case effectively to an end.

The lawsuit was filed in April 2010 in the U.S. District Court in Milwaukee by an unnamed Illinois man who claimed he had been molested by Father Lawrence Murphy during the latter's time on the staff of Milwaukee's St. John's School for the Deaf.

The lawsuit claimed that the Vatican "has known about the widespread problem of childhood sexual abuse committed by its clergy for centuries, but has covered up that abuse and thereby perpetuated the abuse."

The lawsuit also sought to prove that the Vatican is a global business empire, engaging in "commercial activity" in Wisconsin and across the United States, and holding "unqualified power" over each diocese, parish and follower.

Jeffrey S. Lena, an American attorney for the Holy See, welcomed the withdrawal of "fallacious allegations of Holy See responsibility and liability for John Doe 16's abuse."

"A case like this one against the Holy See, which was held together by no more than a mendacious web of allegations of international conspiracy, amounted to a misuse of judicial process and a waste of judicial resources," Lena said in a statement..." (Full article here).

A couple of years ago I challenged homosexual journalist and mental midget Johann Hari to back up his assertion that, "There is now overwhelming evidence that Joseph Ratzinger, the Pope, was involved for over twenty years in an international criminal conspiracy to cover up the rape of children by priests in his Church." See here for full article.

Mr. Hari never did provide us with his "overwhelming evidence."  Back in 2005, I challenged attorney Daniel Shea when he said essentially the same thing. Mr. Shea asserted that "Ratzinger and company" were engaged in an "international conspiracy to obstruct justice." And after seven years, attorney Shea, who has been described by one publication as a theologian, still hasn't produced the slightest shred of evidence to corroborate his reckless and irresponsible claims.  I still have an email written by this "theologian" falsely asserting that the Vatican's website doesn't even carry the documents of the Second Vatican Council.  Actually it does.  And when I replied to his email and told him where to find them he never responded.  It took me all of 30 seconds to look them up.

Facts are inconvenient to some.  Especially anti-Catholic conspiracy theorists.  But don't expect an apology from Johann Hari or attorney/theologian Daniel Shea.  One thing is certain.  We are witnessing the slow, whining death of their credibility.

Related reading here.

Johann Hari provides more evidence of his fanaticism

Protect the Pope is reporting that:

"Johann Hari, militant atheist and gay activist, writes in The Independent, that Catholics who celebrate the Pope’s visit in a week’s time will be ‘understood as endorsing his crimes and his cruelties.’ He concludes that the faith of such Catholics ‘distorts’ their ‘ moral faculties’.

Hari writes: ‘If you turn out to celebrate him, you will be understood as endorsing his crimes and his cruelties. If your faith pulls you towards him rather than his victims, shouldn’t that make you think again about your faith? Doesn’t it suggest that faith in fact distorts your moral faculties?’

In the rest of the piece in The Independent he churns up the usual lies and distortions about Pope Benedict’s handling of child abuse cases. He then makes the disgusting comment that Pope Benedict has ‘facilitated the rape of your children’

He goes on to make the outrageous claim that Jesus demands that Catholics not support the Holy Father’s visit.

‘You have a choice during this state visit: stand with Ratzinger, or stand with his Catholic victims. Which side, do you think, would be chosen by the Nazarene carpenter you find on your crucifixes? I suspect he would want Ratzinger to be greeted with an empty, repulsed silence, broken only by cries for justice – and the low approaching wail of a police siren.’

Protect the Pope comment: As if we needed more evidence, so amply provided by Terry Sanderson, this lurid, outrageous piece by Johann Hari proves that those protesting the Pope’s visit are ANTI- CATHOLIC. He mendaciously and wickedly portrays Pope Benedict as a facilitator of child abuse and then claims that if Catholics celebrate the Papal visit that they do not support the victims of child abuse. Here before our very eyes, Protest the Pope is revealed as Protest the Catholics."

Mr. Hari's anti-Catholic rant may be found here.

Mr. Hari has a history of engaging in falsehood against the Church. At this point he has forfeited what little credibility he may once have enjoyed. Make no mistake, Johann Hari is not a journalist interested in reporting facts. He is an anti-Catholic propagandist.

Johann Hari: Journalist Or Fanatical Propagandist?

Credibility Hari Kari?

Johann Hari, a homosexual columnist who writes a column for The Independent and whose credibility has been called into question on several occasions by others working in the field of journalism, has written an anti-Christian rant in which he asserts that, "There is now overwhelming evidence that Joseph Ratzinger, the Pope, was involved for over twenty years in an international criminal conspiracy to cover up the rape of children by priests in his Church." See here for full article.

And what is this "overwhelming evidence" Mr. Hari refers to? He doesn't say. Five years ago I challenged attorney Daniel Shea when he said essentially the same thing. Mr. Shea asserted that "Ratzinger and company" were engaged in an "international conspiracy to obstruct justice." And after five years, he still hasn't produced the slightest shred of evidence to corroborate his claims.

This is the mark of the fanatic. It was the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel, a man whose thought so greatly influenced my own, who said that, "Fanaticism is essentially opinion; opinion pushed to paroxysm; with everything that the notion of opinion may imply of blinded ignorance as to its own nature...whatever ends the fanatic is aiming at or thinks he is aiming at, even if he wishes to gather men together, he can only in fact separate them; but as his own interests cannot lie in effecting this separation, his is led...to wish to wipe his opponents out. And when he is thinking of these opponents, he takes care to form the most degrading images of them possible - they are 'lubricious vipers' or 'hyenas and jackals with typewriters' - and the ones that reduce them to most grossly material terms. In fact, he no longer thinks of these opponents except as material obstacles to be overturned or smashed down. Having abandoned the behaviour of a thinking being, he has lost even the feeblest notion of what a thinking being, outside himself, could be. It is understandable therefore that he should make very effort to deny in advance the rights and qualifications of those whom he wishes to eliminate; and that he should regard all means to this end as fair. We are back here again at the techniques of degradation...fanaticism is, of its very nature, incompatible with any regard for truth; and as truth itself is not really seperable from our regard for it, we need not hesitate to say that the fanatic is the enemy of truth..." (Man Against Mass Society, pp. 149-150).

I challenge Mr. Hari to produce his "evidence" of criminal conspiracy just as I challenged attorney Daniel Shea five years ago. I likewise challenge The Huffington Post to publish this "evidence." Failure to do so will be seen for what it is: an admission that no such "evidence" exists.

The credibility of The Independent*, The Huffington Post, and what little credibility Johann Hari might still enjoy, now hang in the balance.

* The Independent has published an article written by Johann Hari which asserted that, "It is now an indisputable fact that the Catholic Church systematically covered up the rape of children across the globe." See here.

Indisputable fact? Why then has this lawsuit been dropped.