Deal Hudson Forced to Resign

I recently wrote about Deal Hudson, a conservative Catholic who had made a big deal about the immorality of Catholic politicians who support legal abortion but who had to resign from the Bush campaign because of some very vile behavior in the past. Now he is resigning from the magazine he runs.

The Washington Times, propaganda arm for the Unification Church, reports:

[C]olumnists, who include some of the nation's best-known Catholic scholars, told the board in a letter that they would leave the magazine unless the board ejected Mr. Hudson, 54. According to two scholars familiar with the letter, the columnists were angry about an Aug. 19 National Catholic Reporter (NCR) expose on Mr. Hudson's sexual liaison with an 18-year-old student in 1994, an action that cost him his tenured professorship at Fordham University and a $30,000 settlement.

Details of the "liaison" make it clear that it is better described as a sort of assault and, perhaps, as a form of rape. I can't accuse Deal Hudson of rape, but I think that most reasonable people who read the woman's description could reach just such a conclusion.

In addition, specific accusations of more recent sexual misconduct had come to the board's attention, one scholar said. "This was not about one incident 10 years ago," he said. "It's surprising it was held down as long as it was. I haven't gone out of my way to track Deal Hudson's improprieties — I could be doing nothing else. But you began to wonder after a while if they are true."

There are so many accusations that tracking them down could become a full time job? I understand that a person who sexually abuses one person is likely to go one to do the same with others, but Deal Hudson may be in a class by himself if the above scholar's statement is at all true.

Evidently Crisis magazine has been having trouble because of Hudson. Several prominent Catholics had informed the board that it wouldn't survive if Hudson remained. A recent fund-raiser saw many empty seats as people boycotted it. They also had to go through several people before they could find someone willing to accept an annual award from them. That's pretty bad!

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