Character Assassination – Catholic Style

MINNESOTA
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Refusing to address a single one of the facts whistle blower Jennifer Haselberger has revealed in her deposition, in her interviews, and in the abundant documentary evidence that supports Haseblberger’s claims about the scandal in St. Paul, Catholic Defense League’s Bill Donohue instead goes after Haselberger personally.

And why not? This is a tactic demagogues of all shapes and sizes have used throughout history. Avoid the evidence, don’t engage on the issues, instead use personal attacks to discredit your opponents. It may not be the most Catholic or Christian thing to do – but hey, it’s us vs. them, so anything goes, right?

Now if Donohue wanted to come after me or pretty much any other Catholic I know, and if he did his digging, he could find a ton of embarrassing and incriminating details that would make it hard for any of us to show our faces in public again. I have yet to meet a perfect Catholic, and I am far from one myself. Should my insignificant blog posts pop up on Bill Donohue’s radar, he could find enough dirt to destroy me in spades if he put his mind to it.

But what’s the best he can come up with to smear the character of this woman, a woman who so loved the Church and was so upset at the cavalier disregard for children and other innocent victims in St. Paul that she sacrificed her own career to speak up about it? What’s the best he can come up with?

The best he can come up with is this.

* As a young woman she quit going to church, but then when she got older she started going again.
* One of her instructors at a very liberal feminist Catholic college in St. Paul happened to be, herself, a liberal feminist.
* A fringe church group has used one of Haselberger’s quotes (from a paper she wrote) in their promotional material.

That’s it.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.