Archbishop Gustavo is a disgusting anti-semite whose blood libel will not be forgotten. He never posts about hostages or shows concern for them. He only wants to enable Hamas.
Incidentally, this isn't the only topic that he is an extremist on. To describe him as a representative of a political party at prayer would be generous. He clearly cares more about politics than souls, and he has sold his soul to the far left.
This is way too extreme of a statement in my opinion. How could you possibly know that he is an anti-semite or that he desires to enable Hamas? Based on his social media posts?
However, Bp Gustavo, just like Bp Strickland, are demonstrating just how stupid it is for anybody, but especially people in authority, to express themselves on social media - especially Twitter! If they're going to use Twitter at all, it should point to other things that get people OUT of this stupid echo chamber
Mr. Karamazov, I've been following Archbishop Gustavo on Twitter for a year or so and seen hundreds, if not thousands, of his posts. He cites blood libel without a second thought, regularly calls for Israel to cede to Hamas' demands, and never calls for the release of Israeli hostages. If those aren't indicators of antisemitism, what would it take for you to say someone is antisemitic?
As this topic gets discussed, it seems opportune to remind The Pillar's readers of our comment policy: Christian chariity.
We at The Pillar believe that believers and people of good will can discuss difficult and controversial subjects with charity toward our interlocutors, and toward the subject of our conversation. We believe we can exceed one another in charity, even while expressing our views with candor.
Tim Berners Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web) -"I think, in general, it's clear that most bad things come from misunderstanding, and communication is generally the way to resolve misunderstandings — and the Web's a form of communications — so it generally should be good"
It is amazing that people who have demonstrated a complete inability to express themselves clearly on Twitter remain convinced that the world needs to read their next poorly worded missive. Brother Gustavo, put the phone down!
I guess it is American Spanish and American English at the same time, sort of like Taco Tuesday, but I think mottos generally look better in Latin, e.g. Tacōs fēriae tertiae
Who's letting these bishops on Twitter? Dioceses won't let bishops drive due to liabilities but they have no problem giving them unfettered access to their own social media accounts?
Agree. I have seen it with Priests too. But Bishops have an authority in their official capacity that is even more dangerous to conflate with their personal views. Social media is too "public" for an official to muse or exhort with his "personal" views. I say Bishops who have a pattern of causing confusion with personal "communications" on social media should be disciplined with a warning and then more severe consequences after that. Definition of "causing confusion": Diocese or Arch Diocese or Province has to "walk back" comments .
Dead on target. As I noted in a comment below, once a man is ordained he is set aside for the service of God. He is no longer Tom Brown. He is Father Tom Brown or Archbishop Tom Brown. He is an ambassador for the Church, 24/7, whether he likes it or not. Any bad behaviour or crass comments, on social media or just to the check out lady in the supermarket, are going to reflect badly on the Church. In many places he may be the only priest who most people meet. He may have only one chance to make a good impression.
I don't post on Twitter, but I have an account to view others' posts. His posts pop up on my feed from time to time and I feel like he's been approaching Stika levels of unhingededness for the last couple of years or so. He has made a lot of poorly thought out or poorly worded posts that make me question if he is really all there. Some of it I think is just his style or a generational thing but it definitely makes me wonder sometimes, and these recent posts are a prime example.
Archbishop García-Siller was making the rounds earlier this year because of the conflict between him and the Mission of Divine Mercy in New Braunfels. I was really surprised to see the Pillar failed to cover that.
They report on both analogous situations (ie Texas religious communities in tension with the local ordinary) and far more obscure stuff regularly lol. Just thought it would’ve registered on the radar given their coverage of García-Siller before, especially because of the Mission’s claims to prophetic messages etc. Seemed like a good chance for interesting investigative deep dive idk
Also, obscure to you maybe. The United States is not the centre of the universe, nor Catholicism. And I’m glad they have enough ‘obscure’ contacts to report on a Bishop being arrested in remote Broome, Australia as well as odd religious/bishop conflicts in the US and also state harassment of Central African Bishops.
Interesting that as I was coming out of Mass today a friend complained about that situation because the priest nephew of a local priest is involved in the Mission. Please, Pillar, give us more information on this situation, perhaps when Rome introduces its statement on visions, which is what she said was driving the group.
Seems like a good time for the Archbishop to decide to spend more time with his family, or whatever the euphemism is for priests quitting because they've put their foot in their mouth one too many times.
The Archbishop's comments on the Holocaust might finish him if Rome ever takes an interest in his case. Any secular politician outside Hamas would be seeking fresh employment after airing such opinions. But seeing that the late Bishop Daniel Ryan of Springfield Illinois clung to power even after allegations of picking up male prostitutes.....I would not hold my breath.
To be generous to the Archbishop, he seems to be infected with the disease of subtle anti-semitism that results from the Prejudice of Higher Expectations. Jews in general, and Israel particularly in warfare, are held to a higher standard of moral and ethical behaviors. When they fail to reach this impossibly high standard that no one else is expected to reach, they are excoriated. It's unfair, and often unrecognized by the perpetrator. But it is nonetheless antisemitism.
I'm not going to accuse Abp. Garcia-Siller of being anti-Semite because I don't know what's in the man's heart. However, it's utterly absurd to appeal to "Jewish brothers and sisters" to "stop killing Palestinians." There's no way to read those words any way other than an assertion that "Jewish brothers and sisters" are coterminous with the Israeli government and/or military. It'd be like saying, "Hey, Catholics, stop engaging in mass incarceration in El Salvador!" The response would be, "Huh, why on earth are you seemingly addressing Catholics in general over the activities of the Salvadoran government? Just because most of the officials of that government are likely nominal Catholics? That's ridiculous." Abp. Garcia-Siller's comments embarrass the Church and Catholics in general. He should resign his office.
I don't like how the Jewish people cannot be talked about in any way, shape or form without being labeled an "anti-Semite" by everyone.
Now these tweets referred to in this article are a bit odd and not something I would say. I'm not necessarily referring to them specifically, but I'm just saying no one person or group of people are exempt from criticism when it's warranted. People can have opinions, even if you disagree with them.
Side note- I always thought that Gustavo account was a bot troll and never a real Bishop lol
Yikes… even the most charitable reading is: how exactly is bleating out poorly constructed sentences going to help anyone? Let alone actual Palestinians caught between Israeli rockets and Hamas? No bishop *needs* a Twitter account to fulfil his mission. I would be strongly advising fewer of them to have one, especially a personal one.
Saves so much of his flock seeing idiotic things posted in the heat of the moment.
Social media has its limits. No social media platform is designed to allow for much complexity or nuance of thought or expression. This strikes me as particularly true of X. I don't believe the archbishop to be antisemitic just perhaps imprudent. Prudence governs all the virtues.
It amuses me to see these "hot-takes" in which the author thinks he is doing something bold, brave, and influential. But it usually just amounts creating more division on vexing issues that are already tearing the fabric of society. Slacktivism is easy and ineffective.
I also have to say that I found the diocesan spokesman's answer quite disingenuous not to mention ecclesiologically problematic.
Without wading too far into this current controversy, (one of the Archbishop’s making) his posts often reflect a serious lack of depth. His comments reflect the almost universal banality of the typical Sunday homily. Kyrie eleison.
The Charter for Priestly Formation, produced by the Bishops of England and Wales back in 2015, notes that a new priest must get used to being a public figure. The Bishops probably imagined circumstances such as an exhausted priest being unintentionally rude to the lady on the check out at the supermarket. He is no longer Tom Brown. He is Father Tom Brown, PP at the Sacred Heart.
Nowadays, if Father Tom is rude on any social media, he is rude to the whole planet. Even worse if he is Bishop or Archbishop Tom, who has real teaching authority. And worse still if he is contradicting USCCB policies. In which case he might effectively make the USCCB look two faced. The USCCB might have made clear policy statements on, eg, relations with the Jewish people or the Middle East. But it could be construed that Bishop Tom has effectively told the planet what we really think.
And he is like the King - on duty 24/7. No one is going to draw a line between the private bloke and the public prelate. Especially when he tweets about the Holocaust.
As for everyone forgetting about the Holocaust....you should have seen the non-stop multi-national procession of tour groups when I visited Auschwitz in 2014.
I take issue with how the good Archbishop takes unfair liberties with the English language. As a fellow Hispanic, I cringe when a leader of his caliber has trouble writing in complete sentences. It’s time that we stood up for English grammar and punctuation! Who will speak up for sentence structure?
Archbishop Gustavo is a disgusting anti-semite whose blood libel will not be forgotten. He never posts about hostages or shows concern for them. He only wants to enable Hamas.
Incidentally, this isn't the only topic that he is an extremist on. To describe him as a representative of a political party at prayer would be generous. He clearly cares more about politics than souls, and he has sold his soul to the far left.
This is way too extreme of a statement in my opinion. How could you possibly know that he is an anti-semite or that he desires to enable Hamas? Based on his social media posts?
However, Bp Gustavo, just like Bp Strickland, are demonstrating just how stupid it is for anybody, but especially people in authority, to express themselves on social media - especially Twitter! If they're going to use Twitter at all, it should point to other things that get people OUT of this stupid echo chamber
Mr. Karamazov, I've been following Archbishop Gustavo on Twitter for a year or so and seen hundreds, if not thousands, of his posts. He cites blood libel without a second thought, regularly calls for Israel to cede to Hamas' demands, and never calls for the release of Israeli hostages. If those aren't indicators of antisemitism, what would it take for you to say someone is antisemitic?
Hello,
As this topic gets discussed, it seems opportune to remind The Pillar's readers of our comment policy: Christian chariity.
We at The Pillar believe that believers and people of good will can discuss difficult and controversial subjects with charity toward our interlocutors, and toward the subject of our conversation. We believe we can exceed one another in charity, even while expressing our views with candor.
Thanks for being a part of that.
Tim Berners Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web) -"I think, in general, it's clear that most bad things come from misunderstanding, and communication is generally the way to resolve misunderstandings — and the Web's a form of communications — so it generally should be good"
Social Media - "Hold my beer and watch THIS!"
Too many "people talking without speaking; people hearing without listening"
Too many people talking without thinking, or talking when they don't know what they're talking about.
It is amazing that people who have demonstrated a complete inability to express themselves clearly on Twitter remain convinced that the world needs to read their next poorly worded missive. Brother Gustavo, put the phone down!
And talking of badly worded missives, I just looked +Gustavo up, his episcopal motto is an abomination. The guy is a danger to words.
"Ven Holy Spirit ven"?
Lord have misericordia.
Oy vey!
I guess it is American Spanish and American English at the same time, sort of like Taco Tuesday, but I think mottos generally look better in Latin, e.g. Tacōs fēriae tertiae
Who's letting these bishops on Twitter? Dioceses won't let bishops drive due to liabilities but they have no problem giving them unfettered access to their own social media accounts?
Agree. I have seen it with Priests too. But Bishops have an authority in their official capacity that is even more dangerous to conflate with their personal views. Social media is too "public" for an official to muse or exhort with his "personal" views. I say Bishops who have a pattern of causing confusion with personal "communications" on social media should be disciplined with a warning and then more severe consequences after that. Definition of "causing confusion": Diocese or Arch Diocese or Province has to "walk back" comments .
Yeah I always find it weird to see priests on Twitter dunking on people.
I wouldn't know because I don't go there.
Dead on target. As I noted in a comment below, once a man is ordained he is set aside for the service of God. He is no longer Tom Brown. He is Father Tom Brown or Archbishop Tom Brown. He is an ambassador for the Church, 24/7, whether he likes it or not. Any bad behaviour or crass comments, on social media or just to the check out lady in the supermarket, are going to reflect badly on the Church. In many places he may be the only priest who most people meet. He may have only one chance to make a good impression.
I don't post on Twitter, but I have an account to view others' posts. His posts pop up on my feed from time to time and I feel like he's been approaching Stika levels of unhingededness for the last couple of years or so. He has made a lot of poorly thought out or poorly worded posts that make me question if he is really all there. Some of it I think is just his style or a generational thing but it definitely makes me wonder sometimes, and these recent posts are a prime example.
Archbishop García-Siller was making the rounds earlier this year because of the conflict between him and the Mission of Divine Mercy in New Braunfels. I was really surprised to see the Pillar failed to cover that.
They can’t do everything!
They report on both analogous situations (ie Texas religious communities in tension with the local ordinary) and far more obscure stuff regularly lol. Just thought it would’ve registered on the radar given their coverage of García-Siller before, especially because of the Mission’s claims to prophetic messages etc. Seemed like a good chance for interesting investigative deep dive idk
Also, obscure to you maybe. The United States is not the centre of the universe, nor Catholicism. And I’m glad they have enough ‘obscure’ contacts to report on a Bishop being arrested in remote Broome, Australia as well as odd religious/bishop conflicts in the US and also state harassment of Central African Bishops.
I’m glad too!
Interesting that as I was coming out of Mass today a friend complained about that situation because the priest nephew of a local priest is involved in the Mission. Please, Pillar, give us more information on this situation, perhaps when Rome introduces its statement on visions, which is what she said was driving the group.
Seems like a good time for the Archbishop to decide to spend more time with his family, or whatever the euphemism is for priests quitting because they've put their foot in their mouth one too many times.
The Archbishop's comments on the Holocaust might finish him if Rome ever takes an interest in his case. Any secular politician outside Hamas would be seeking fresh employment after airing such opinions. But seeing that the late Bishop Daniel Ryan of Springfield Illinois clung to power even after allegations of picking up male prostitutes.....I would not hold my breath.
https://rcf.org/press/releases/1997FEB05RYANWITNESSES.htm
I think it's high time we unplug the internet, give it a minute and plug it back in
To be generous to the Archbishop, he seems to be infected with the disease of subtle anti-semitism that results from the Prejudice of Higher Expectations. Jews in general, and Israel particularly in warfare, are held to a higher standard of moral and ethical behaviors. When they fail to reach this impossibly high standard that no one else is expected to reach, they are excoriated. It's unfair, and often unrecognized by the perpetrator. But it is nonetheless antisemitism.
I'm not going to accuse Abp. Garcia-Siller of being anti-Semite because I don't know what's in the man's heart. However, it's utterly absurd to appeal to "Jewish brothers and sisters" to "stop killing Palestinians." There's no way to read those words any way other than an assertion that "Jewish brothers and sisters" are coterminous with the Israeli government and/or military. It'd be like saying, "Hey, Catholics, stop engaging in mass incarceration in El Salvador!" The response would be, "Huh, why on earth are you seemingly addressing Catholics in general over the activities of the Salvadoran government? Just because most of the officials of that government are likely nominal Catholics? That's ridiculous." Abp. Garcia-Siller's comments embarrass the Church and Catholics in general. He should resign his office.
I don't like how the Jewish people cannot be talked about in any way, shape or form without being labeled an "anti-Semite" by everyone.
Now these tweets referred to in this article are a bit odd and not something I would say. I'm not necessarily referring to them specifically, but I'm just saying no one person or group of people are exempt from criticism when it's warranted. People can have opinions, even if you disagree with them.
Side note- I always thought that Gustavo account was a bot troll and never a real Bishop lol
Yikes… even the most charitable reading is: how exactly is bleating out poorly constructed sentences going to help anyone? Let alone actual Palestinians caught between Israeli rockets and Hamas? No bishop *needs* a Twitter account to fulfil his mission. I would be strongly advising fewer of them to have one, especially a personal one.
Saves so much of his flock seeing idiotic things posted in the heat of the moment.
And makes him look bad, even if he's not.
Social media has its limits. No social media platform is designed to allow for much complexity or nuance of thought or expression. This strikes me as particularly true of X. I don't believe the archbishop to be antisemitic just perhaps imprudent. Prudence governs all the virtues.
It amuses me to see these "hot-takes" in which the author thinks he is doing something bold, brave, and influential. But it usually just amounts creating more division on vexing issues that are already tearing the fabric of society. Slacktivism is easy and ineffective.
I also have to say that I found the diocesan spokesman's answer quite disingenuous not to mention ecclesiologically problematic.
Without wading too far into this current controversy, (one of the Archbishop’s making) his posts often reflect a serious lack of depth. His comments reflect the almost universal banality of the typical Sunday homily. Kyrie eleison.
The Charter for Priestly Formation, produced by the Bishops of England and Wales back in 2015, notes that a new priest must get used to being a public figure. The Bishops probably imagined circumstances such as an exhausted priest being unintentionally rude to the lady on the check out at the supermarket. He is no longer Tom Brown. He is Father Tom Brown, PP at the Sacred Heart.
Nowadays, if Father Tom is rude on any social media, he is rude to the whole planet. Even worse if he is Bishop or Archbishop Tom, who has real teaching authority. And worse still if he is contradicting USCCB policies. In which case he might effectively make the USCCB look two faced. The USCCB might have made clear policy statements on, eg, relations with the Jewish people or the Middle East. But it could be construed that Bishop Tom has effectively told the planet what we really think.
And he is like the King - on duty 24/7. No one is going to draw a line between the private bloke and the public prelate. Especially when he tweets about the Holocaust.
As for everyone forgetting about the Holocaust....you should have seen the non-stop multi-national procession of tour groups when I visited Auschwitz in 2014.
I take issue with how the good Archbishop takes unfair liberties with the English language. As a fellow Hispanic, I cringe when a leader of his caliber has trouble writing in complete sentences. It’s time that we stood up for English grammar and punctuation! Who will speak up for sentence structure?
As a life-long English speaker who was subjected to learning all the parts of speech with sentence diagramming, I'm with you!
English-lovers unite!