"We have an agency in Canada functioning called LifeSite. It purports itself to be a news service for the areas and issues of life. I will say very publicly to those listening - it is not credible, it does not speak for the Church, it is not ethical, it is not honest."
Rosica, who spoke of the need for "civility, charity, kindness and humanity" in the pro-life movement, at the same time said of LSN: "I encourage people to know that this is not an authentic instrument at the service of unity and at the service of the Church. It is causing division." He continued: "For the one-tenth of kernel of truth that they purport to uncover (and there is truth in what they do) nine-tenths is exaggeration. It is bombastic, it is derisive and it is divisive."
He concluded the assault on LSN saying: "I think we have to be very clear and say that part of the work of Satan is to divide - to pit people against each other and they are succeeding quite well." The Salt and Light CEO was reacting to LifeSiteNews' coverage of a post on his blog, in which Fr. Rosica expressed similar anger and frustration against North American pro-life leadership generally and by unmistakable implication, EWTN News Director Raymond Arroyo.
Writing on his blog in the aftermath of the Kennedy funeral and in reaction to the pro-life and Catholic leaders who criticized the grandiose funeral given to Kennedy, Rosica wrote that "Civility, charity, mercy and politeness seem to have dropped out of the pro-life lexicon."
Ironically, however, the language used by Rosica was less civil than anything issued from the pro-life leadership. The harshness of his denunciation is especially shocking given his prominence as the chief organizer for World Youth Day in Toronto, his role as a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and an advisor to the Canadian Bishops Conference.
"Many so-called lovers of life and activists in the pro-life movement, as well as well-known colleagues in Catholic television broadcasting and media in North America, have revealed themselves to be not agents of life, but of division, destruction, hatred, vitriol, judgment and violence," he wrote.
So Rosica calls it as he sees it. As I was observing in a different context to blogger A Regina Mom, those who abuse language, truth and the power of their position do not want to be challenged. They want others to submit to the imperative of their opinions.
They are bullies who will accuse their critics of the very actions that they are guilty of doing when their words and actions are deflected or reflected back at them. I think that a martial arts equivalent is when the target of a strike turns the energy behind action back at the assailant and the attacker goes down, a victim of their very own malfaisance. Rosica is naming Lies-Site's tactics; their response is to attack and discredit him.
And a big smoochy thanks to Support Bro' Big City Lib for the head's up.
