Doug Kmiec's New Shtick: He's a Martyr.

Yet not everyone in America is cheered by this triumph. Indeed, within certain embittered precincts, the penalty for having supported Obama can be stiff. As the author of a book whose title asked Can a Catholic Support Him?-and whose contents answered with an enthusiastic “Yes, we can!”-I have felt the animosity of those with an insatiable desire for political payback.

He can hardly contain the love for himself. When some Catholics struggle financially, they grope for an excuse to elect an administration who will exploit poor women and extinguish the lives of children in exchange for a promise for prosperity. Kmiec contorted the teachings of the Church to exploit women and children and now, he is a martyr.

That's his new meme.

He and his book alone are responsible for Obama's election, and now all the "right-wing" Catholics are calling him naughty names. Children will be misled by the "strength of appointment" and the "steadiness of the demeanor" of Obama's Secretary of Education whose moral compass is just waiting in the wings to demoralize them, they are reaching out to poor women to bait them into abortions - and Kmiec is being subjected to vilification and naughty names. All the price of martyrdom.

He is a gentleman, he is, and some people just oppose harmony. What's with folks who won't be distracted to engage in civilized discourse with him while the administration lobbies for FOCA.

Oh, what a cruel world.

I acknowledge the wisdom of Sr. Pius’s eighth-grade counsel: “Douglas, just offer it up!” That was good advice.

Maximilian Kolbe, he is, and intelligent, kindly and well-mannered, he will suffer through his tormenters. FOCA is not a threat. While lobbying to pass FOCA, Obama kneels in front of the cross because cares about the poor and average family and the environment.

The drivel is painful.

If it's one thing I loathe it is the use of a Crucifix as a prop to lead the flock into temptation. While the massacres are going on behind his curtain, he stands on a podium and berates courageous people who are wiling to protect the innocent and tell the flock not to follow him on the road to perdition.

Kmiec's self-righteous screed is really just another chapter of delusion in the sad contortion of an animus.

I am “an embarrassing shill,” “hysterical,” and “pathetic”; also “a fool,” “an Obama shill of such mystifying obtuseness that one suspects a head injury,” “a slimeball,” “an unfaithful, cowardly betrayer”; just “another so-called Christian who flashes a Bible and looks righteous to the pagans,” and so on. “I hear,” wrote one Catholic blogger, cutely summoning the gospel, “that Sen. Obama will be FedExing thirty pieces of silver to Doug Kmiec.”

Once, he says, he was on his way to mislead Catholic students at Seton Hill in South Carolina and he found out Bishop barred his presence to prevent the contortions of those minds. On the plane, he called the Chancery and told the Bishop what a sincere gentleman he was, and the Bishop removed the ban.

What good things happen when two gentleman can work things out in this cruel world.

Ladies and gentlemen can hold Planned Parenthood conferences at Catholic schools, vulgar women have Vagina Monologues and Doug Kmiec can twist up the teachings of the Church - and on and on it goes.

Of course, by then the letter was already beginning to circulate virally, spread by the venomous right-wing blogs. To be remade by a hateful blogosphere has its price, I’ve learned. I worry that such invitations to speak at Catholic colleges, and the fruitful exchanges these invitations make possible, will be fewer.

Oh, the hateful people are gumming things up are just insufferable.

One member of the U.S. hierarchy whom I greatly admire has renounced our past association, writing, “We are not friends, professor,” and answering my invocation of Christian brotherhood with a curt retort: “I do see you as a brother in Christ-a brother who is serving an evil end.”

May God and His Angels protect our good and brave shepherds willing to stand up and be counted. We object. We object to the twisting of the Church's teachings to mislead and confuse and lead into temptation.

The vituperation propagated in the Catholic blogging world is remarkable for its reach and speed. When a writer for America recently speculated that the Obama administration might name me as ambassador to the Holy See, I was flattered. And while I would never want my presidential endorsement months earlier to be understood as anything other than what it always was-freely given without expectation of quid pro quo-the writer’s suggestion did prompt me to seek God’s will through prayer. Might this be an invitation to be of greater service to the church? Neither God nor the president-elect had an opportunity to answer before the blogs were recycling their various calumnies, and adding now an anonymous voice allegedly saying “it would never happen.”

The calumnious, venomous, hateful, false, lying, uncharitable, right-wing and ugly people can put the kibosh on his aspirations.

But, he can rise above calling people names because this editorial is about his ability to turn the other cheek.

Wormwood, eat your heart out.

***UPDATE: Jay Anderson at Pro Ecclesia posted Kmiec's editorial on Neuhaus which twists Father's death into a "Tasteless. Unbecoming. Insensitive. Not to mention utterly false and nonsensical" infomercial for Kmiec and Obama.

Jay links to Catholic online where he and others have posted their distaste. Jay's two contributions:

Leave it to Prof. Kmiec to eulogize Fr. Neuhaus in a way that is really all about Prof. Kmiec and just another lame defense of his decision to vote for Obama. Fr. Neuhaus, may he rest in peace, deserves better.

In fact, the most impressive thing about Prof. Kmiec's "eulogy" of Fr. Neuhaus is that he didn't use it as yet another opportunity to share with us about how he was denied Communion.

Former student of Kmiec, Gunner Gunderson's:

Does it really honor Fr. Neuhaus to equate his approach to abortion with Obama's FOCA approach? Was it really non-partisan to allow Professor Kmiec to mislead the readers of www.catholic.org that Obama wants to help women not choose abortion when his minions are preparing to use federal dollars to fund them? Did it really help in understanding Fr. Neuhaus's legacy by describing his contributions to Catholic theology and moral thought in this country to "political discourse" and benefiting only the "conservative side of the ledger?"

Moreover, the article was an invitation to despair that we will never overturn the unjust laws against abortion! Despair is from the Devil. If Professor Kmiec really believes that Fr. Neuhaus is in heaven with God then he should know that it is more likely than ever that a pro-life victory is at hand for now we have more help from the Church Triumphant in Fr. Neuhaus's prayers in heaven.

Jay wrap up of the Kmiec's hijack:

I'm a big fan of Deacon Fournier, but I am disappointed that he has chosen at this time to give a forum to this dreadful "eulogy" of such a great man as Fr. Neuhaus. It is past the time that respectable orthodox Catholic publications and organizations should be giving a platform for Prof. Kmiec to spew his dissenting nonsense.

But to allow it under the guise of eulogizing Fr. Neuhaus is beyond the pale.

I second that motion.

Jay also posts Joseph Bottom's response:

UPDATE (12 January)
Joseph Bottum posts his response to Kmiec at First Things:

... Finally, there is Douglas Kmiec’s odd obituary. I’m tempted to say a reasonable response can be found here, but some readers may not appreciate the profanity. Anyway, Kmiec’s attempt to pose himself as a friend and dialogue partner of Fr. Neuhaus may be the saddest and most pathetic of all the responses to this recent death. “It absolutely delighted Father John that the Holy Father gave American Catholics credit for resisting the secular trends of Western Europe,” Kmiec writes—to which the only response is: Who the hell ever called Richard by the name “Father John”? Only people who didn’t actually know him and want, after his death, to pretend that they did...

Oh my. The post to which Bottum links is a bit jarring, especially juxtaposed below a photo of the Blessed Sacrament; but I'd be lying if I said the same thought hadn't crossed my mind once or twice over the past year.

I think we all have?

I think it's noteworthy to post the link to which Joseph Bottom refers:

I usually find the screeds posted on other Catholic blogs to be exaggerations or misreadings, or overly sensitive readings. However, I too found Doug Kmiec's eulogy for Fr. Neuhaus to be both about himself, and a pro-Obama puff piece, with Fr. Neuhaus as ancillary to the subject. That, I believe, is not how a good eulogy is done.

And so, for the first and last time here, I'm going to put the matter as colorfully and bluntly as possible.

Go **** yourself, Doug Kmiec.

That is all.

I'll take this opportunity to offer an apology to the Holy Trinity...and Fr. Neuhaus. Ora pro nobis.

H/T American Catholic.

P.S: Be sure to check out Joseph Bottom's right-on-target description of Rod Dreher.