Bizarre Jim Bakker/Mr. Rogers Priest Fr. Larry Richards Does a Jussie Smollett Against Church Militant, Then Tries to Weasel Out

Another 'celebrity priest' lying through his teeth to discredit Faithful Catholics. I wonder if and he and Tommy-Boy compare lies?

From Mahound's Paradise

I like Mr. Rogers. But when I say "Mr Rogers priest", I think you know what I mean.

Celebrity priest Fr. Larry Richards ("Fr. Larry"), founder and head of the The Reason for Our Hope Foundation, looks and sounds like a slightly more plump combination of disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker and Mr. Rogers.

In his podcast homilies and YouTube videos he often goes into a sort of shriek/whine denouncing "ang-guuur" and "hate-tred"  

Weirdly, he may be most well-known for his "Be a Man!" book and DVD set.

Speaking of weird. Why are our priests like this? I mean, to be frank, even though he comes off as a bit girlish, for all I know he's straight as an arrow. And as far as I can tell, he's orthodox, at least by the standards of 2019. Yet why are our priests like this?

Now, maybe he can't help the way he looks and sounds. But here's the thing:

Real men don't make up hoax stories against their perceived enemies just to get sympathy or make a point.

Mr. Rogers wouldn't do that.

Not only did Fr. Larry do a Jussie Smollett against Church Militant, but when called out on it, he tried to weasel out.

Here's what Richards said in a January lecture to the Legatus Summit.

You know, a couple months ago I said something about Church Militant and they threatened to kill me. Literally. I got death threats from a good Catholic organization that wants me dead in God's name.

When Michael Voris and Christina Niles of Church Militant were alerted to this, as part of a story by Dorothy Cummings McLean of LifeSite News, published yesterday, they not unexpectedly strongly denied it.

Voris held out the possibility of legal action while stating that the celebrity priest appears to be "suffering from some condition" or "suffering from some disorder."

Late last night, Fr. Richards responded, as is often done these days, with a tweet:

I was wrong in what I said about Church Militant - it was NO ONE in their LEADERSHIP who threatened me - it was one of their FOLLOWERS who called me on the phone and threatened me. I should have made that clear. We need to stop demonizing each other, I will stop first. Peace

I understand that it's difficult for people, especially quasi-famous people with a following, to explicitly admit to telling a whopping lie. But still.

"I should have been more clear."

He was clear - "I got death threats from a good Catholic organization that wants me dead in God's name" - that's the problem.

And, of course, I'd love to hear the recording of that death threat. The one where someone threatened to kill him. Literally. One would save that, right? Though there is no indication that he ever notified the police. Perhaps he didn't want to give in to fear.

Richards has been quite clear on other occasions about what he thinks of Church Militant and two other Catholic sites (from a homily on 9 September, 2018):

First of all, we cannot stoke the fear, right? And we stoke the fear by listening to things that just keeps piling on that fear. Like again, I've told people before, three websites you should not be paying attention to any of these websites right now, is LifeSite - it's not of God, it's filled with anger, it's filled with hate and it's filled with mistrust [I mean] mistruth. Church Militant - you should not be watching that. It's filled with anger, hatred. This is not of God. OnePeterFive. These are three websites that a lot of Catholics are going to now, and that's where they're getting their information. And what this information is doing is causing you more fear, more anger, more hatred. That is not of God.

LifeSite News broke the hoax story. I guess they're not completely filled with mistruth.

In his career, Fr. Richards has steered a sort of middle course, working with orthodox or "conservative" publishers and media such as Ignatius Press and EWTN, while at the same time defending the likes of Fr. James Martin against the stokers (I guess) of anger, fear and hatred.

That he was chosen to host the Legatus Summit was apparently somewhat controversial among its members.

His Jim Bakkeresque quasi-apology seems to be going down okay with his Twitter followers - "Its great to see FrRichards keeping it classy!!" said one, who also admitted to listening to Church Militant.

Well, I jumped around for a few minutes on his homilies and videos and I have to say I see no reason to spend any more time with Fr. Larry. I think I already get the message about the anger and fear thing. And to the extent that I sometime need a bit of help being a man, there are other sources. Church Militant, LifeSite News and OnePeterFive come to mind.

But when Fr. Larry claims that Mahound's Paradise dumped bleach on him in the rectory, then I'll know I've made it.