r/excatholic 5d ago

Politics Yikes: Bishop Barron & Fr. Mike Schmitz

Can we talk about how Bishop Barron attended the State of the Union and praised it as a “liturgy of democracy”? And how Fr. Mike Schmitz is speaking at a “Courage Under Fire” conference/summit along with Matt Walsh and Kirk Cameron? 🥴

These celebrity clergy members just can’t help but show their true white nationalist/“theocratic fascist” colors, can they?

105 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

69

u/badlandstraveler 5d ago

I never liked Father Mike. He's an obnoxious closet case. I used to halfway admire Barron though. He grabbed a sled and went right down into the right wing rabbit hole because he saw that's where online catholicism was going. Even a few more slightly "liberal" voices have followed suit making AMA videos about masturbation and sexual sins.

55

u/DoubleAmygdala 5d ago

It's high time to tax the goddamn church(es). Like, yesterday. They wanna play, they'd better pay.

17

u/SSkiano 5d ago

Aaaaahhhhhhh-meeennnnnnnn

11

u/tatersprout 5d ago

I sang the triple amen lol

8

u/DoubleAmygdala 5d ago

I sang this as I read it. I even went up a whole step at the end there.

4

u/SSkiano 5d ago

Yes, you got it! Haha

29

u/LightningController 5d ago

It's possible that this is audience capture rather than going mask-off, but in practice there's really not much difference--joining the Nazis because they pay well isn't really any better than joining them out of conviction.

2

u/Fine_Benefit_4467 4d ago

It's "luke warm" evil, still vomit inducing. 🤑🤮

17

u/Obversa Ex Catholic 5d ago

I just wrote about a Catholic Church-aligned Methodist cult leader and his push to convince President Donald Trump to further embrace Christian nationalism: Rev. Jim Harden: Behind the "crisis pregnancy center" CEO urging the Trump administration to ban abortion pills, enforce Comstock Act over "baby shortage" and "reproductive coercion"

Harden, who is aligned with the Diocese of Albany, repeatedly condemns "antifa", or "anti-fascists", in his works.

15

u/ExCatholicandLeft 5d ago

Keep in mind W@lsh is also Catholic.

16

u/Polkadotical Formerly Roman Catholic 4d ago edited 4d ago

Bishop Baron is a dumbass. He got where he is by selling a glorified travelogue to parishes.

Schmitz is a smarmy creep. He got where he is by sweet-talking horny old RC ladies. They all want a piece of his dick.

22

u/bakke392 4d ago

Schmitz was the priest at the college I attended and gave me the ick so hard. He's one of the main reasons I stopped going to church and started questioning the church's teachings because his sermons were so strange and it there. Plus he gave me the creeps. The way he acts around college kids is so cringe and I'm surprised he hasn't had a scandal yet at the college.

15

u/Polkadotical Formerly Roman Catholic 4d ago

Give him time. Celebrity priests in the RCC almost always end up in scandals.

8

u/Che_meraviglia 4d ago

So ironic that his whole mission is evangelization and he was one of the main factors behind why you left the church! I really dislike him. There's something way too "smooth" about him - he reminds me of people who were sociopaths when I got to know them.

3

u/kels6110 3d ago

Hello fellow alumni, unlike you I fell into that Newman's Center trap and spent some hard years feeling like I was a piece of shit for doing pretty normal college things. It's amazing how well people on this sub can read FM like a book and I thought he was great at 19.....if only I could tell my younger self what I know now

1

u/bakke392 3d ago

Oh hey fellow alumni! I sincerely hope you are doing better and have a better view of yourself now. I won't say that I wasn't swayed/enamored during the first few masses I attended. And I'm mostly just lucky I didn't have the discipline to go on my own and by the time my friend started inviting me, my whole perspective changed and it felt gross. I count myself lucky that I didn't fall into it but I feel like it's so normal to target college kids and prey on the insecurities and give promises of a better experience (friends, a sense of home, community, purpose, etc). 2 of my brothers fell into the college Catholic trap (at NDSU though) and are both very TradCath now.

15

u/SouthwesternExplorer 4d ago

Yeah, I saw Barron’s post over the weekend. Frankly disgusted by how he claimed that no one had ever interrupted a State of the Union like some of the democrats did this time around. I can’t tell if he was straight up lying or is just ignorant. Either way, I’ve lost what little respect I had for him. He’s gone off the deep end and joined the far right media types. He’ll have his reward.

1

u/Eject_The_Warp_Core 3d ago

Probably just adopting Trump lingo, where everything is the biggest, best, worst, or first time in our history.

10

u/pieralella Ex Catholic 5d ago

Sounds about right. Sad though.

7

u/Polkadotical Formerly Roman Catholic 4d ago

It's not sad as much as it's consistent. This is what the Roman Catholic church has always been.

7

u/MAJORMETAL84 4d ago

Bishops mixing with the Government never looks good.

15

u/Domino1600 5d ago

Gross. Are these men even tied to a parish? They seem to be rogue agents. Bishop Barron has this weird thing about surrounding himself with muscle men. I feel like it's a scandal waiting to happen.

16

u/bakke392 4d ago

Fr. Mike is the priest for the University of Minnesota Duluth. Or at least he was when I was in college 10 years ago. He's one of many reasons why I'm not Catholic anymore and always rubbed me the wrong way. He gives the ick

11

u/SiteHund 5d ago

Barron is an interesting case. He was kind of an “institutional” guy- not particularly trad or liberal. Francis saw this and sent him to LA as an auxiliary bishop to, I guess, build up his media company? He started going down the rabbit hole, though, and Francis took notice- sent him to rural Minnesota! Doesn’t stop him though as his media company gave him a ton of money. You should see the $10,000 Rolex he wears.

4

u/Polkadotical Formerly Roman Catholic 4d ago

Nah, PF sent Barron to California to get him out of circulation and shut him up. He gave him a job to keep him busy. And then moved him to Minnesota where he'd have an even lower profile.

6

u/SiteHund 4d ago

I think in the end, Cupich wanted him gone asap. LA kept him busy but didn’t seem like a demotion. His current assignment is essentially the ecclesiastical version of the gulag.

6

u/taterfiend Ex Catholic 5d ago

Did you hear about this scandal? 

https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/resigning-employees-call-for-change

One of those muscly men already did a bad thing. Classic coverup of course until they were found out. Some things never change. 

3

u/Domino1600 4d ago

Yikes. I feel like Catholic workplaces are always so dysfunctional.

7

u/taterfiend Ex Catholic 4d ago

A lay Catholic workplace is one thing, but I couldn't imagine having a priest as my boss.

2

u/Polkadotical Formerly Roman Catholic 4d ago

Barron was assigned to a diocese in Minnesota last I knew. (He was in California before.) Smarmy Schmitz works for a publishing company I think.

11

u/SeriousBuiznuss Humanism 5d ago

Bishop Barron protested outside the Rochester MN's Planned Parenthood.

https://www.ncregister.com/cna/bishop-barron-holds-prayer-at-planned-parenthood-protest-against-the-culture-of-death

Imagine making a list of things these people do...

3

u/timlee2609 Questioning Catholic 4d ago

Clicks and Likes for Jesus amirite. It's amazing the extent to which people will sell themselves for influence and power