A Catholic schism? Deal Hudson calls out National Review over Rubio story

Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
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In a hard-hitting post at Catholic Online, Deal Hudson writes that his support of immigration reform, “was motivated, in part, by the ridiculous attacks on Sen. Rubio, such as that of the venerable National Review, which was once the flagship of the conservative movement.”

Hudson, the president of the Pennsylvania Catholics Network and former publisher and editor of Crisis Magazine, was referencing a cover story, titled, “Rubio’s Folly.”

National Review, he added, “is now apparently trying to win back an audience by replacing the mellifluous voice of Bill Buckley with the screechiness of Glen (sic) Beck wannabes.”

(Buckley, of course, was the founder of NR — as well as a devout Catholic.)

Hudson goes on to note that he has been reading NR since he was 15. But he doesn’t mention another connection to the magazine. As the Washington Post reported in 2004,

“Hudson announced Wednesday in the online edition of National Review magazine that he was leaving his unpaid position in the Bush campaign because ‘a liberal Catholic newspaper’ was about to publish an investigation detailing ‘allegations from over a decade ago involving a female student at the college where I then taught.’

In any event, Hudson pulls no punches in his latest post. “Senator Rubio has taken the lead in the immigration debate by doing the right thing and deciding not to care about the whining right,” he avers.

This is clearly a shot across the bow at NR, a prominent conservative outlet that still features prominent Catholic conservative voices.

Now that NR and Hudson have spoken, it will be interesting to see how elected Catholics actually vote on this issue.

Matt K. Lewis