PopeWatch: John Stowe

The caliber of the men that Pope Francis is elevating to be bishops is typified by Bishop John Stowe who bashed the Covington students:

A Kentucky bishop known for pro-homosexual advocacy has published a commentary criticizing the high school boys who marched against abortion in Washington, D.C. for wearing Make America Great Again (MAGA) hats.  

“I am ashamed that the actions of Kentucky Catholic high school students have become a contradiction of the very reverence for human life that the march is supposed to manifest,” wrote Lexington Bishop John Stowe in an op-ed for the Lexington Herald Leader.  

Bishop Stowe’s expression of shame comes at an odd moment, days after the boys have been vindicated by extensive video footage showing the minors were targeted by radical, foul-mouthed, aggressive activists.

In Stowe’s opinion piece, the students are once again targeted.

In a thinly veiled way, Bishop Stowe’s article drips with contempt for President Trump, his border protection policies, and his supporters. While implying that pro-life Catholics have become separated from the “basic truth of the dignity of each human person,” he fails to respect the human dignity of the Covington Catholic High School boys at the center of this story.

Bishop Stowe’s opinion piece is far more political and brazenly partisan than the message the boys’ hats – souvenirs of their trip to the nation’s capital – might ever hope to convey.

The Lexington, Kentucky Bishop suggests that the boys were delivering a racist message simply by wearing the hats, and uses that to launch an attempt to decouple the pro-life movement from its roots, hoping to recast it as a progressive cause within the Church.  

Stowe sees the hats as hypocritical in light of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) recent pastoral letter on racism, which “speaks of the structural kind of racism that has worked itself into the fabric of our nation.”  

Nowhere in his commentary does Bishop Stowe condemn the vitriol and threats of murderous violence against the boys. Instead, he uses their misfortune to advance his own political agenda.

Bishop Stowe’s article also failed to mention the many pro-life gains made under the Trump administration, such as the reinstatement and expansion of the Mexico City Policy (now called Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance) banning U.S. tax dollars from funding and promoting abortion overseas; defunding the United Nations Population Fund over its participation in China’s forced abortion regime; signing a law letting states defund abortion providers; appointing a record number of federal judges; protecting religious liberty and siding with Catholic groups that don’t want to be forced to fund abortion and contraception; disqualifying abortion facilities from family planning subsidies; and championing a ban on abortions at 20 weeks, at which point preborn babies can feel pain.

The prelate’s commentary also neglects the fact that Trump and members of his administration have played key roles in the March for Life since the Republican took office. In 2017, Vice President Mike Pence became the first sitting vice president to address the March for Life. White House advisor Kellyanne Conway also spoke at that March.

Go here to Lifesite News to read the rest. Recall that Stowe wrote this piece of tripe after the additional videos came out and all sane people knew that the students did nothing wrong, and instead had been subject to a steady rain of abuse that day.  Only bitter partisan malice can explain his assault on a group of Catholic teenagers he knew to be unjustly maligned. Stowe is a Left wing activist masquerading as a Bishop.  I hope one of the Dads of the Covington students has a private chat with him.  Recall this breakdown of the strategy of the Left by Iowahawk:

1. Target a respected institution.

2. Kill & clean it.

3. Wear it as a skin suit, while demanding respect.

That is a good summation of this Pontificate.

Dale Price has the best take on Stowe:

When the chips are down and the flock is being attacked, Rev. Stowe does what we all expect every 21st century American bishop to do–he flails the flock while ignoring those who attack them. Because there’s no way *he’s* going to be seen criticizing a person of color under any circumstances whatsoever. Even when they’re flinging anti-gay slurs that would make him detonate at his next reception by New Ways Ministries.

He was triggered by a hat, and he wants you to know that hatcrime is the worst possible hate crime. Worse than anti-gay slurs, in fact.

What’s the difference between a radical progressive and a moderate one?

The radical one attacks you and the moderate tells you why you deserve it.

John Stowe is a moderate wants you to know that Catholic kids are fair game. Note the complete lack of concern about the non-stop death threats which have followed.

But given the revelations about how well Catholic bishops have protected the children of their flock, I suppose you have to give him points for consistency. Here, they have to be sacrificed for the greater good of the USCCB’s pastoral letters.

Go here to read the rest.