Forbes is reporting on a plagarism controversy:

A well-known liberal theologian at the University of Notre Dame said Monday that the school is reviewing an article he wrote after a conservative Roman Catholic group questioned whether the piece was plagiarized.

The brouhaha centers around an article Father Richard P. McBrien wrote for The Tidings, about protests of Mayor Menino attending a Catholic fundraiser. McBrien is accused of lifting his story from an article by Eileen McNamara (he even stole her "Mc"!) on the same subject in the Globe.

You could just read the articles and decide for yourself, but we'll do it for you:

Father Richard P. McBrien:

A tiny group of ultra-conservative Catholics…

Eileen McNamara:

They are a tiny band of antiabortion zealots…

but 'lo, there's more -
Father Richard P. McBrien:

Regarding the president of Catholic Charities, Father J. Bryan Hehir, one of the most respected priests in the United States and a long-time staff member at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, she wrote: "That man is pure unadulterated evil. He literally sends shivers up my spine. If he and his cronies think we're going to tolerate he and the Archbishop's material cooperation in abortions — we'll chase them out of town faster than you can say Voice of the Faithful."

Eileen McNamara:

This is what she has to say about the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, the president of Catholic Charities who refused to capitulate to demands from McKinley and her pals that Menino's honor be rescinded because the mayor supports a woman's constitutional right to abortion and a gay couple's civil right to marry: ''That man is pure unadulterated evil. He literally sends shivers up my spine. . . If he and his cronies think we're going to tolerate he and the Archbishop's material cooperation in abortions — we'll chase them out of town faster than you can say Voice of the Faithful."

Ahh but that is mostly just a quote, and similar framing…

Father Richard P. McBrien:

The foundress of Faithful Voice, a counterpart to Voice of the Faithful, has said on her Web site that the Republican governor of Massachusetts, by urging all hospitals to obey a new state law mandating that emergency contraception be offered to rape victims, was in effect saying that Catholic hospitals "must be forced to kill children."

Eileen McNamara:

This is what Mom has to say on her website, Magisterial Fidelity, about Governor Mitt Romney's view that all hospitals are required to obey a new state law mandating that emergency contraception be offered to rape victims: ''Romney Now Says Catholic Hospitals Must Be Forced To Kill Children."

and it gets worse -

Father Richard P. McBrien:

These ultra-conservative activists, for whom abortion is the only moral and political issue that counts, not only miss the Latin Mass but also the former archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, who allowed Operation Rescue, a militant anti-abortion organization, to use Catholic churches as staging areas of illegal blockades of abortion clinics.

Eileen McNamara:

These folks do not just miss the Latin Mass; they miss Cardinal Bernard Law…
There's Bill Cotter, pining for the good old days when Law would allow Operation Rescue to use Catholic churches as staging areas for illegal blockades of abortion clinics.

We admit that it is suspicious that this article is critical of hard-line conservative Catholics and it's a hard-line conservative Catholic group questioning its legitimacy, but the proof is in the pudding.

McBrien had this to say in his defense:

"They use any ploy they can to attempt to discredit theologians whom they regard as unorthodox and universities which they regard as un-Catholic according to their ultraconservative perspective… Plagiarism is when you steal someone's ideas," he told the Herald. "I was using the (Globe's) facts (because) I'm not a reporter; I wasn't at Menino's talk."

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