Media Personalities Archives - To Give a Defense

Archbishop Chaput calls Pope Francis a pig. Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome, Vol. XXX.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • October 23, 2021 • Media Personalities; Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome

Chaput, writing at First Things, is all wrought up by the thought that Pope Francis has surounded himself with toadies and therefore can’t handle constructive criticism from his loyal servant Raymond Arroyo. He would impress upon our minds a “little wisdom” from St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Bernard wrote: “The most grievous danger for any pope lies in the fact that, encompassed as he is by flatterers, he never hears the truth about his own person and ends by not wishing to hear it.” I suppose, though Chaput does not mention a little wisdom from St. Catherine of Siena.

Everything you need to know about Ben Shapiro, in one tweet.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • May 12, 2019 • Debates; Media Personalities

Ben Shapiro, as you will have heard, was “destroyed” in an interview with BBC journalist Andrew Neil. Even Mr. Shapiro admits to his destruction, upon which he cried: “I’m popular and no one’s ever heard of you!” and ran away. (Embrace the argumentum ad populum.) If you’ve not heard about this, the gist of it is that Shapiro was first triggered by Neil’s description of the Georgia abortion law as “barbaric” and a “return to the Dark Ages”; and then, he grew increasingly petulant as Neil confronted him with his own tweets.

Heresy in the defense of Milo.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 5, 2018 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Media Personalities

A debate has broken out following Patrick Coffin’s decision to invite Milo Yiannopoulos on his radio show. Coffin used to be at Catholic Answers; Milo is in a same-sex marriage but presents himself as a critic of Pope Francis and “homosexualist leaders” in the Church. There’s your irony for today. When he was Cardinal Bergoglio, Pope Francis said that same-sex marriage is a “machination of the father of lies.” Milo, who is in a same-sex marriage, says Pope Francis is not tough enough on homosexuality, and FaithfulCatholics™ swoon.

An open letter to Mr. Rush Limbaugh on Pope Francis.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • December 11, 2013 • Media Personalities; Pope Francis

Dear Mr. Limbaugh: No one is trying to make you the “villain” in a “soap opera” about the pope, as you claim. Okay, yes, there is a nutty left-wing group, promoted by Media Matters, who is out there gathering signatures for some dumb petition. But all that is street theater. They hardly speak for the many serious and orthodox Catholics who for good reasons object to your claim that the pope is a Marxist. I have not heard you mention them. Now don’t you think that’s odd? You may, for example, have read my own rebuttal; I sent it to you.

Killing Jesus: Could Christ have spoken from the cross?

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • October 6, 2013 • Apologetics; Blind Guides & False Prophets; Book Review; Exegesis; Media Personalities

The best that can be said is that “slow suffocation” is a debated and unsettled question even among medical experts. So why is Mr. O’Reilly certain enough on this point that he can deny Christ’s very words from the Cross? Does he have this revelation from the Holy Ghost? And why would the Holy Ghost inspire Mr. O’Reilly to contradict St. Luke? Did the Holy Ghost mislead Luke? Did Luke mishear the Holy Ghost? Has the Church been mistaken about the infallibility of Luke’s gospel for 2000 years? Should Martin Luther have taken that book out of the canon too?