What really worries the Boston Globe is that "no one really knows how many conservative activists there are." (Let's keep them guessing!)
This according to today's front-page article on C. J. Doyle and the conservative Catholic protest over the Catholic Charities dinner tonight honoring Mayor Menino ("Conservatives gain visibility on charity; Catholic Group targeted Menino").
The truth is that the conservatives HAVE been there all along (in large numbers), but the Globe has simply chosen not to cover their viewpoint. But the Internet has changed that. Various blogs and websites are spreading the word to the faithful and moving them to speak out. Why, there's even a MassResistance radio show on WTTT (Horrors!), which has proudly hosted C. J. Doyle and Bill Cotter of Operation Rescue in recent weeks!
The Globe quotes a dissenting Catholic who employs the usual ad hominem attacks:
James E. Post, president of Voice of the Faithful, said he was shocked when the conservative activists ''began whacking us as dissenters, but I came to understand that they have a very large political agenda" that is helpful to antireform church officials.
''Some of the bishops and cardinals find these people useful as pit bulls, attack dogs," Post said. ''Bishops won't do this, it's unseemly, but they don't mind having a C. J. Doyle or a Carol McKinley out there frothing at the mouth. The attacks on Mayor Menino and Father Hehir clearly are in this pattern."
And Larry DiCara (formerly on Boston City Council) stubbornly refuses to get the point that there are plenty of non-Catholic charities he can donate to ... but Catholic Charities should by definition adhere to Catholic belief. DiCara is attending the dinner just to send a message:
"I'd rather be home reading to my kids, but I think people have to show their faces on this one. The fundamental principles of the church are that those of us who have should help those who have not," DiCara said. ''C. J. Doyle and that crowd are taking food and shelter from the poor because of their political agenda."
That's the old liberal line: Conservatives are starving the children!
Meanwhile, the head of Catholic Charities, Fr. Hehir, is revealed to be a Harvard professor. (That may help explain Catholic Charities' recent direction.) He said that controversies don't affect him too much. Maybe a little talk with the Archbishop would?
