Anti-Catholicism takes many forms, but I admit that I didn’t see this one coming.
For those of you that don’t know, after a series of poor seasons Notre Dame just fired its football coach Charlie Weis.
Now there are several reasons for firing Charlie, but Time magazine found one that had not previously occurred to me, primarily, I suggest, because it is singularly stupid. Besides completely misunderstanding the situation at Notre Dame, Time’s analysis has the added defect of anti-Catholicism.
Notre Dame is 6-6 this season, and Weis, 54, didn’t do much better in his previous four seasons as coach. While the Fighting Irish have won 11 national championships in their storied history, the team has not won one for 21 years. And while some may point to the shortcomings of its coach or players, a more fundamental reason may lie in a crisis of the Catholic faith.
In Notre Dame’s glory days, Catholic secondary schools were prime recruiting centers. Priests and nuns would ask for prayers for “the boys” on Saturdays and would encourage their best athletes to attend Notre Dame. But many forces, including abuse by priests, have damaged American Catholicism and crippled the parochial school system.
Time magazine repulsively uses the occasion of the firing of a football coach as an excuse for blatant anti-Catholicism. The reason I say that this is anti-Catholicism is that Time’s contention that Notre Dame is losing because of its inability to recruit top talent due to the breakdown of the Catholic school system is exactly wrong.
As anyone who follows this sort of stuff can tell you, Charlie Weis is an incredible recruiter. During his five year tenure he brought some of the best talent in the country to Notre Dame. This is why he is being fired. He has some of the best talent in the country (Jimmy Clausen, Golden Tate, Michael Floyd, and more) and he is still losing.
The inclusion of priestly abuse as a reason for a losing football team is shoddy journalism and anti-Catholic.
If you still lose with the best talent around, you will get fired. The clever editors at Time have obviously avoided this type of Darwinian accountability by insuring that talent comes nowhere near the magazine. This way the blame for their continued losses (in circulation) can conveniently be placed elsewhere.
December 2, 2009 at 6:59 am
Actually, media-bias aside, the author has a point. Notre Dame has lost its legitimacy as a "Catholic" University (i.e. one which upholds and epitomizes Catholicism). Parochial schools are indeed in a shambles (I can attest to this first hand). You cannot argue with this statement: "But many forces, including abuse by priests, have damaged American Catholicism and crippled the parochial school system." Well, you CAN argue with it, but you'd lose, since the facts speak for themselves. But yes, I would agree that X + Y does not equal Z here. The one has nothing to do with the other. So, bringing up the state of the American Catholic church has nothing really to do with Notre Dame's coach being fired, and is a straw-man/jab at the church.
Still, the truth hurts. Let's just hope that the situation will be corrected in our lifetimes.
December 2, 2009 at 8:18 am
o.0
I'll admit that when I heard they lost to Navy I kinda wondered if it was a smite-down on a poetic scale for honoring a pro-abort guy, attacking pro-life folks, and all the background to that… but I dismissed it as a rather silly theory.
Maybe the author needs a similar internal voice.
December 2, 2009 at 8:45 am
Clearly it's all because of the abuse scandal. If not for that, Notre Dame would have *dozens* of top defensive back recruits lining up to get run over by Toby Gerhart.
December 2, 2009 at 8:49 am
Just in case anyone missed it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bav6LrgaG_o
I could watch that all day. Take THAT, Notre Shame.
December 2, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Hey, when I was growing up, the only school that was allowed to beat Notre Dame was Penn State (because God loved PA). If Notre Dame lost to any other school, it was clearly because they had lost Our Lady's favor do to impieties.
Clearly, once Jenkins goes on his knees to the Fort Wayne Cathedral in a blizzard, all will be well with the football program.
Come on, guys– Jenkins doesn't really care about the Church, souls, the unborn, or scandal, but if FOOTBALL is on the line, he may actually repent!
December 2, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I'm not a sports fan, so I can't comment on the football aspect, but I've gotta agree with Early Riser: there is a point here. In mainstream (OK, lamestream) American Catholicism, is there a lot of encouragement from parents for their kids to pursue Catholic education at a school that actually TEACHES Catholicism?
I think this issue of the downward spiral of Catholic schools parallels the vocation crisis: it's not a crisis of recruitment. It's a crisis of faith.
December 2, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Wow, I have seen Time pull a lot of nonsense out of you know where but this is really stretching it.
I totally agree on your points about having great talent and still losing but I have another view of it. I wonder if it does not have to do with the fact that they may have lost the Grace of God. How better to punish a Catholic college that has gone against the fundamentals of the Church than to have them lose money because of a weak football team who brings in a lot of money. Since some people have chosen prestige and money over principals, how better to wake them up then hit them where they have put their faith in their false gods. Think of the plagues.
December 2, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Can you say "grasping at straws"?
December 2, 2009 at 10:22 pm
If I had a son AND he was great at football, I would discourage his attendance at ND. Why? Because it NO LONGER represents Catholic Morals. God fearing, God loving students and faculity are far- far- far- more important than a so called liberal education. In addition, just where is the evidence that jenkins is, in fact, Catholic???
By their deeds thou shalt know them.
December 3, 2009 at 2:55 am
Anonymous that was my point as well. But that doesn't mean ND isn't getting high callibre players from recruiters, who hardly care if the player in question being recruited is Catholic (practicing or not).
December 3, 2009 at 7:11 pm
The author has some very valid points, but the church in this country has been in decline for decades. It happens to co-incide with around the time of Vatican II but is not caused by Vatican II. As those who belong to churches also belong to the society in which they live, much of the culture has weaseled its way into the practice or lack thereof of the faith. Catholic education isn;t what it once was because many parents don't see it as a sacrifice worth making (and paying for it is a sacrifice), catholic educators are not giving students anything really significantly different than their parochial couterparts(thus not justifying the added cost to parents), religious ed has largely become christianinzed narcissism (adding to the why bother mantality), all the while priests either ceding any responsibility, distancing themselves altogehter, or preying upon those they are called to protect and serve. Women's religous largely abandoned the schools because it wasn't fulfilling to them. Add to this how many aprents see their child's athletic development as more important than their educational (and most elementary and secondary catholic schools cannot compete financially with public schools), and a largely disposable view of religion fostered by two generations of this…well did we expect anything different? Why pay more for a private Catholic ediucation if you can get the very same thing for the most part cheaper at the public educatio system?
December 3, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Hey, none of my strapping lads and star athletes will be sent anywhere near that pit of dissent and effeminism. They can take their Laguna Beach morals and play on like the pack of girls they are. Fail.
December 5, 2009 at 10:56 am
What terrible remarks against a priest of the Church and a university where so much good is done each day.
The laughable link being made between the commencement event and a 6-6 record is just bad theology and an errant understanding of cause/effect divine intervention.
There was once a group of people who believed that having a disease meant the person had sin upon him/her. Our Lord said otherwise.
C'mon folks, be a bit more nuanced!
December 6, 2009 at 3:16 am
No you silly people. It's because of Vatican II!
http://arsorandi.blogspot.com/2009/11/notre-dame-football-ugly-custom.html
December 7, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Humor.
It is a difficult concept.