How's that?
How's that?
For starters, Hesburgh was the organizer of the Land o' Lakes Conference of 1965 (I think that's the year), where academics and colleges from all over the country announced their complete independence of their bishops and of Catholic teaching. They (including and especially Hesburgh) turned their theology departments into Church-bashing seminars where giving the orthodox answer got you a bad grade. It persists to this day in most Catholic-in-Name Only colleges, which for the parents, pretend to be Catholic, while indulging the self-serving, anti-Catholic venom of the faculty. (If you want good theology, it's hiding in the philosophy department, if it's there.) In effect, suddenly each professor became his own pope, his own God.
The bishops' authority in their own dioceses was cut off at the knees. It's been described as the biggest theft of Church real estate since Henry VIII.
Hesburgh was the persistent opponent of the pro-life movement and coddler of pro-death "Catholic" politicians. And how do you think Cuomo Sr. got the invitation to give his "I'm personally opposed to killing babies, but I vote for it every time" speech in 1984? As Slate accurately said in Mario's obit, "Cuomo Made the Case for Catholics to be Pro-Choice." Well, Hesburgh made that possible, knowingly giving Cuomo the prime spot at the quintessentially Catholic American university to drop his neutron bomb on America's unborn. St. Peter may have a thing or two to say about this, should Fr. Ted knock at the gate.
I'm scratching the surface. Check his columns. There's no pro-death socialist politician Hesburgh didn't coddle; there's no bad bishop he play footsie with; there's no good Pope he didn't resist. And he did all his back-stabbing moves against the Church and God Himself clothing himself in the pretentious, "inclusive," smiley-face, woman-churching, Democratic Party dishonesty that covers their scheming in the name of socialism—which to them means that real unselfishness, charity, and holiness are for peons.
There's more, so much more. God have mercy on him.