A Catholic priest said Friday on Fox News that he is very disappointed Hillary Clinton didn’t apologize for her campaign staff’s anti-Catholic remarks during her appearance at the Al Smith dinner. The annual Al Smith roast-style fundraiser for Catholic charities was held Thursday night in Manhattan, and featured both candidates for president.
Father Gerald Murray, the pastor of Holy Family Church in New York City, was also incensed that Clinton suggested that Pope Francis was endorsing her one day after she defended partial birth abortion at the debate.
WikiLeaks released emails last week (as part of the “Podesta emails” cache) that revealed the stunning amount of contempt several arrogant members of the Clinton campaign have toward traditional Catholics.
In one email chain, Clinton campaign communications director Jen Palmieri and Center for American Progress fellow John Halpin insulted “conservative Catholicism,” calling it “backwards.”
Another email chain featured an insulting discussion between Clinton’s current campaign chairman John Podesta and a left-wing activist about a possible “revolution” in the Catholic Church. The activist’s vision for revolution in the Church included what he called a “Catholic Spring,” after the “Arab Spring.”
Father Murray said: “Given what her staff said about the Catholic faith, about an attempt to subvert it, there should have been a statement right at the start saying, ‘I disown everything that was written in those emails and I’m not going to try to defend them.’ We should not let anti-Catholicism in any form enter into the political campaigns of either candidate.”
He said he hopes Clinton “will make clear that she cannot accept anti-Catholic bigotry in her campaign.”
“The fact that someone baptized their their child a Catholic becomes a subject of discussion in a campaign? I find this horrendous,” Murray said.
He was particularly offended that Clinton had the nerve to bring up Pope Francis during her remarks about “ecology and the like” at the Al Smith dinner — just one day after she defended partial birth abortion at the debate Wednesday night.
“She told us that it’s completely between a doctor and a women. Wait a minute. What about the baby?” Murray asked incredulously. He noted that Pope Francis defends the right to life, so Clinton shouldn’t “pretend that the pope is endorsing her in some way by quoting him selectively.”
“It’s not good,” he added. “Partial birth abortion is a horrendous crime. It should end. Most Americans are in favor of that and her defense of it two nights ago really upset me.”
Father Murray noted that he’s heard Clinton’s line about everything being “for the children.”
But what about children in the process of being born? “It is not part of any medical treatment to kill them,” he said. “She defended that last night.”
Fr. Murray said Catholics are heartened by Donald Trump’s pro-life position on abortion and wishes Clinton would change her position on that.
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