"the Most Influential Catholic Layman in George W. Bush's Washington"

[donsu]

Deal Hudson

http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn081904.htm

The Real Deal:

How a Philosophy Professor With a Checkered Past
Became the Most Influential Catholic Layman in George W. Bush's Washington

Editor's note: Deal Hudson announced Aug. 18 that he would be giving up his position with the Republican National Committee in reaction to questions posed by "a liberal Catholic publication." In recent days, NCR has tried repeatedly to meet with Hudson to get his response to questions about his departure from Fordham University in 1994 following allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship with a freshman female student. The university said Hudson "surrendered" his tenure. He also paid a settlement of $30,000 to terminate a lawsuit that the student brought against him on the basis of these allegations.

This past March 17, having paid tribute to the saint who drove the snakes from Ireland, George W. Bush -- first lady to his left, Irish prime minister to his right -- bounded off the Roosevelt Room podium. As he began to work the crowd of Irish Americans and Gaelic-wannabees, the president noticed a familiar face, a fellow Texan, among those assembled at the annual St. Patrick's Day White House gathering.

"Immediately after George Bush spoke," recalled former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican Ray Flynn, "the first person he greeted was Deal Hudson."

Heady stuff, perhaps, to be the first among the gathered Catholic glitterati to be singled out by the most powerful man in the world. But by now Hudson -- publisher of the conservative Catholic monthly Crisis, Bush political operative, and one-time philosophy professor -- was accustomed to the treatment.

-snip-

"If you're going to play in the sandbox," Hudson told NCR, "then you have to take the consequences of your public utterances and your public actions." In a recent fundraising letter, Hudson pledged that Crisis would be taking "a close look at some of the bishops who are allowing their local politicians to get away with" the "deception" of calling themselves Catholic while voting for abortion rights.

"They are scared of him, afraid that he's going to attack them," says a leading Republican Catholic layman with close ties to the American hierarchy.

Hudson's rise to influence and his status as public arbiter of Catholic morals is all the more remarkable given that almost 10 years to the day of the 2004 St. Patrick's Day celebration, the then-Fordham University philosophy professor stood accused of breaching the bounds of the professor-student relationship. According to documents obtained by NCR, Hudson invited a vulnerable freshman undergraduate, Cara Poppas, to join a group of older students for a pre-Lenten "Fat Tuesday" night of partying at a Greenwich Village bar. The night concluded after midnight in Hudson's Fordham office, where he and the drunken 18-year-old exchanged sexual favors. The fallout would force his resignation from a tenured position at the Jesuit school, cost him $30,000, and derail a promising academic career.
-snip-
--------------------------------


just look what he said:

He summarized his relationship with the Bush administration in a Nov. 2003 letter to Crisis supporters: "I continue to lead an informal Catholic advisory group to the White House, as well as communicate with various White House personnel almost every day regarding appointments, policy, and events. These efforts have helped to place faithful, informed Catholics in positions of influence."



evangelicals and catholics all in love with smirk

does the Pope know?

[JohnKleeb]

1. Deal Hudson I read converted to Catholicism from Baptist

Catholics are actually quite democratic, even going for Gore last time, though it was close, it shows that they are ahead of protestants especially evangalical ones in their thoughts.

[Southsideirish]

2. These ex-Protestant ministers who found their own faiths

becoming too "lib'ral" came over to the "orthodox" (wing nut) crowd in the Catholic Church over the last 20 or so years. They were quickly embraced by the conservative hierarchy and rose to the top of the lay movement, touting their Protestant credentials to encourage more Protestants to come over. This is in accord with the Vatican's desire to proselytize to non-Catholics.

This guy is just one of them - they have been widely displayed on Mother Angelica's network which is funded by wealthy conservative Catholics dismayed with the liberal trends in the Church in the U.S. since Vatican II. It makes me sick to hear these new converts come over and turn the Church backwards - some of the recent diatribes sound like a return to the days of the Inquisition.

[Fenris]

3. Christ I thought this was going to be about Michael Novak.

Thank god it wasn't.

[Moderator]

4. donsu

Per DU copyright rules please
post only four paragraphs
from the copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator