“You called him a MORON. Is this Catholic behavior?”

A number of people complained about calling the heretic JC a moron (fool). All who complained about this are very mistaken. That particular heretic, who called in on a national radio program to level false accusations and scandalize millions, absolutely deserved to be called a moron – especially after accusing someone else of being a moron. Those who demonstrate a profound level of bad will or hypocrisy can certainly – and sometimes should – be denounced as fools. Both St. Peter Damian and St. Alphonsus call those who commit sins of impurity “fools.”

St. Alphonsus on the damnation of the impure: "Continue, O fool, says St. Peter Damian (speaking to the unchaste), continue to gratify the flesh; for the day will come in which thy impurities will become as pitch in thy entrails, to increase and aggravate the torments of the flame which will burn thee in hell: 'The day will come, yea rather the night, when thy lust shall be turned into pitch, to feed in thy bowels the everlasting fire." (Preparation for Death, abridged version, p. 117)

Our Lord also says call no man “Father,” but (as Catholics know) that doesn’t mean that we can never call someone “Father.” What Our Lord condemns in Matthew 5:22 is denouncing someone as a fool solely to insult his intelligence: For instance, someone who is trying to understand something and you denounce him as a fool. That is truly a despicable sin and a tremendous violation of charity. But a public heretic who demonstrates profound bad will and accuses others of being fools (morons), and who wants to attack the true religion in an outrageous fashion on national radio, has certainly become a fool (not because of some natural defect of intelligence on his part) but solely because of his ill will. Therefore, he needs to be told that “moron” is exactly what he is. [A “moron,” by the way, is precisely “a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment” (www.dictionary.com). I think we can agree that applies to JC.] This is why Sacred Scripture says that those who don’t believe in God (i.e. who demonstrate profound bad will) are fools:

Psalm 13:1- “The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God…”

This is why Sacred Scripture, speaking of the perverse, says:

Ecclesiastes 1:15- “The perverse are hard to be corrected, and the number of fools is infinite.”

That’s why the New Testament also refers to someone who demonstrates bad will in regard to his eternal salvation as a “fool.”

Luke 12:20- “But God said to him: Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?”

Calling someone a moron isn’t nearly as offensive or “insulting to his dignity” as calling someone “the first-born of Satan,” we think you would agree? Yet, the saints recognized that labeling certain heretics such things is not only permissible, but sometimes necessary.

St. Ireneaus, Against Heresies: “Once he [St. Polycarp] was met by Marcion, who said to him, ‘Do you recognize me?’ and Polycarp replied, ‘I recognize you as the firstborn of Satan!’” (Jurgens, Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. 1:212)

The public heretic JC is a moron and a fool because he is a bad willed heretic – and since he is going to publicly accuse others of being such he needs to be told that he is actually such. What we don’t need today are spiritual wimps, who cry out every time the full “dignity” of antichrist heretics is not respected. Such people accomplish nothing for God. We don’t need people who are more concerned with making sure evil men are respected than that evil men are denounced. We need those who love the Lord and therefore hate evil.

Psalm 96:10- "You that love the Lord, hate evil..."