Christianity Today

National Catholic Reporter article on Crisis editor Deal Hudson lands quietly

"Why is the resignation of the Bush's chief Catholic advisor—a position of much greater power than the governorship of New Jersey—getting so little attention?" asks The Revealer's Jeff Sharlet. The Washington Post today runs a 700-word summary on page A-6. Yesterday's The New York Times also treated it as a minor blip on the campaign trail. Sharlet says the story should be bigger, since no one can counter The National Catholic Reporter's point that Deal Hudson controlled Catholic access to the White House. "Even leaving aside the undisputed charges of profound sexual misconduct," his resignation should warrant more attention than the resignation of the Democratic Party's religious-outreach director, who had yet done little for the Kerry campaign.

The story made a splash on some Catholic blogs—discussion is still going strong on Amy Welborn's Open Book, and Amy is doing her best to keep the conversation healthy and on-topic—but other conservative Catholic blogs you'd expect to hear from are silent. Carl Olson is ostensibly on vacation but still posting on other matters. Nothing on the Envoy site, either. RatzingerFanClub has a bit, but almost all of St. Blog's is quiet. And it's not just the Catholics. So far, nothing on Andrew Sullivan, GetReligion, WorldMagBlog, or most other religion & politics blogs. National Review Online's The Corner hasn't said anything, and that publication ran Hudson's pre-emptive strike! (Catholics for a Free Choice, on the other hand, has a call for "the Republican National Committee and the White House [to additionally] distance themselves from Hudson and other conservative Catholics who have been ...

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