It’s been obvious for a long time, but now it is official: the National Catholic Reporterrejects the teachings of the Catholic Church on sexuality. In an editorial titled, “NCREndorses Call for a New Sexual Ethic,” it supports retired Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson’s plea for the Church to change its teachings on sexuality.

Bishop Robinson wrote a book a few years ago called Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church. Here is what the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said about it in 2010: “Catholics believe that the Church, founded by Christ, is endowed by him with a teaching office which endures through time. This is why the Church’s Magisterium teaches the truth authoritatively in the name of Christ. The book casts doubt upon these teachings. This leads in turn to the questioning of Catholic teaching on, among other things, the nature of Tradition, the inspiration of the Holy Scripture, the infallibility of the Councils and the Pope, the authority of the Creeds, the nature of the ministerial priesthood and central elements of the Church’s moral teachings.”
 
No wonder Robinson is NCR’s hero. Ten years ago, I said on “Hardball” that neitherNCR writer Tom Roberts (he is now the editor-at-large of NCR), nor the weekly newspaper, “believe in anything the Catholic Church says on sexuality” (Roberts was on the show with me). When I continued to talk, Mike Barnicle, who was sitting in for Chris Matthews, jumped in and said, “Wait, Bill, please. Tom, take it up. I mean, you just got whacked across the face.” Roberts replied, “I’m not going to take that up.” But how could he? In short, nothing has changed in the last decade save for NCR making it formal: the Church is wrong on sexuality.
 
Need any further proof? On p. 21 of the March 30-April 12 edition of NCR it has a full-page ad by the pro-abortion and anti-Catholic group, Catholics for Choice (CFC). It wouldn’t accept a dime from a racist group (nor should it), but it has no problem cashing a check from CFC. It’s time the newspaper changed its name to the National Reporter.