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From Under The Rubble
September 18, 2015

Was The Roanoke Killer A Racist?
A Catholic View

by Christopher Manion
fitzgerald griffin foundation

FRONT ROYAL, VA — We now know who inspired Vester Flanagan, the Roanoke assassin.

According to his suicide manifesto, Flanagan ‘“closely identified” with the terrorists behind the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Is that all?

Well, Flanagan flaunted an Obama campaign button while posing on-air as an unbiased journalist on Election Day 2012.

As a devoted Obama supporter, Flanagan’s hatred of whites was undoubtedly stoked by the lies of Oprah, Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Carter, and Eric Holder — all of whom insist that Obama’s critics are racists.

 

As a devoted Obama supporter, Flanagan’s hatred of whites was undoubtedly stoked by the lies of Oprah, Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Carter, and Eric Holder — all of whom insist that Obama’s critics are racists.

So does his hatred of whites mean that Flanagan was himself a racist?

Not according to America’s Catholic bishops.

What?

Consider: in 1979, the bishops published an official Pastoral Letter insisting that, while all whites are racists (whether they know it or not), nobody else is.

No, relax — these are the bishops, not the Catholic Church.

Holy Mother Church clearly teaches that a mortal sin must be “committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent” (CCC No. 1857).

The bishops’ brand of “racism” doesn’t qualify. As the Rubble has reported, the 1979 bishops insist that “each of us” (members of the “majority”) is guilty of this grave sin — a sin so “subtle” that most of us don’t even know that we’re sinning!

On reflection, did Catholic bishops later come to their senses and realize that their Pastoral Letter might be profoundly lacking in charity, defaming the majority of the American population?

And have they ever apologized?

Unfortunately, no. In fact, 25 years later, America’s next generation of bishops commemorated the Pastoral Letter without changing a word.

Since then, things haven’t improved. While our bishops condemn the “nativism,” “racism,” and “bigotry” of whites, I can find no record of any Catholic bishop raising his voice to condemn Oprah & Co. for their slander of Obama’s critics.

   

As the Rubble has reported, the 1979 bishops insist that “each of us” (members of the “majority”) is guilty of this grave sin — a sin so “subtle” that most of us don’t even know that we’re sinning!

Quite the contrary. After Obama’s reelection, the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Timothy Cardinal Dolan of New York, was careful to make sure that Obama knew our Catholic bishops want to be Obama’s “cheerleaders.”

“Cheerleaders”? Just like Vester Flanagan?

Definitely not. Killer Flanagan ignored our bishops’ constant, outspoken condemnation of violence.

Especially violence like the shootings of blacks by whites.

Two days after Dylann Roof gunned down nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Cardinal Dolan’s successor at the USCCB, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, issued a statement describing his “grief and deep sadness.”

That was two days after the Charleston killings. As of this writing, the USCCB press office has not responded to the Rubble’s repeated requests for any statement that Abp. Kurtz might have made regarding the Roanoke massacre.

Roanoke lies in Bishop Francis DiLorenzo’s Diocese of Richmond, but “unfortunately he does not have a statement at this time,” his spokeswoman told the Rubble.

However, Bp. DiLorenzo did issue a statement one day after the South Carolina shootings, calling for “prayer for the victims, their families, and the community.”

 

While our bishops condemn the “nativism,” “racism,” and “bigotry” of whites, I can find no record of any Catholic bishop raising his voice to condemn Oprah & Co. for their slander of Obama’s critics.

 

After the Charleston shootings, an immediate and sustained media chorus called for the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag – not only from statehouses, cemeteries, and memorials, but also from websites, stores, and even college windows and pickup trucks.

Clearly the Charleston killer was as devoted to that flag as Vester Flanagan was to Obama. But we have seen no similar nationally-coordinated outrage condemning Oprah or Obama after Roanoke.

From the media, that’s natural — but what’s the problem with our Catholic bishops?

Sixteen years ago, Bishop Robert J. Baker of Charleston (now of Birmingham) made himself clear: “Whatever symbolic meaning one may choose to attach to the Confederate battle flag, it is clear that the placement of the flag above the chambers of our State government will not unite us for good but will continue to foster division and cripple our future,” he wrote.

Well, that makes sense, if our bishops’ abiding assumption is true — asserting that only whites can be racists, and that most of them, in fact, are.

Here certain questions arise: First, is assumption that true? If so, does this authoritative condemnation not confer on Oprah, Holder, et al, the Church’s imprimatur — a Catholic “Seal of Approval” for their mendacious attacks?

And in turn, doesn’t the venom of those political hacks provide moral ammunition for the Vester Flanagans of the world, encouraging them to fester in their envy, hatred, and resentment of whites?

And should it then surprise us that some of them should act on those deeply-seated feelings?

Finally, in Bishop Baker’s words, does the bishops’ assertion that all whites are racists promise to “unite us for good,” or will it “continue to foster division and cripple our future?”

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From Under the Rubble is copyright © 2015 by Christopher Manion. All rights reserved.

Christopher Manion served as a staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for many years. He has taught in the departments of politics, religion, and international relations at Boston University, the Catholic University of America, and Christendom College.

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