Left-Leaning Catholic Site Suspends Comments After "Appalling" Messages

The left-leaning National Catholic Reporter, whose even-handed articles on LGBT issues have been excerpted here on JMG over the years, has suspended all commenting on its site.

We ordered our Web editor to suspend the commenting feature and to hide all previously posted comments because of the malicious, abusive nature of the comments that have bombarded our site in recent days. Comments will be suspended indefinitely. NCR editors will explore options that will allow commenting to return in a way that respects our writers, the subjects of our stories, and our readers. Unfortunately, we have reached a point where the good that an open discussion can do is being outpaced by the damage it can cause when commenters do not respect civil discourse. Comments that have appeared on the website in recent days have been vile and demeaning. We could no longer support hosting a Web feature that allows such despicable comments to appear, and that is why we ordered the suspension of that feature. We apologize to anyone who was offended by these appalling comments.

Free Republic regularly sics its readers on the site and today their commenters are celebrating.

Post topics particularly at issue were about the Boy Scouts' policy on homosexuality, an LGBT minor offered at a Catholic university, and the death of a priest who promoted homosexual marriage. Perhaps it was the recent Duck Dynasty story that gave voice to the previously silent posters, calling attention to the acts of sodomy that homosexuals adopt as their identity and which attention homosexuals would rather not be mentioned. Whatever the case, the comments weren't so much derogatory as they were sexually graphic in nature, and that is what, ironically, the editorial staff apparently found disgusting and vile.