February 11, 2012
Archbishop Timothy Dolan
Archdiocese of New York
1011 First Ave
New York, N.Y. 10022
Dear Archbishop Dolan:
I write you as a fellow Christian ordained to preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
It has been with great disappoint that I have watched the battle the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched against the Obama Administration -- and the President personally -- over the recently released rules concerning contraception coverage and religious organizations. As always, I take concerns made by the conference seriously and consider them to be made in good faith even as many Christians, and often the majority of Roman Catholics polled, disagree with your positions. People of good faith can come to different conclusions on different moral and theological issues. In that spirit, I have always defended the right of Roman Catholics to freely argue their point even when I personally disagree with it.
However, President Obama has worked to reach a genuine accommodation and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has rejected that effort. Other Roman Catholics, including Catholic Charities and the Catholic Health Association, have voiced support for the president's efforts. Those organizations have been joined by leaders of my own United Church of Christ and a wide variety of Christian leaders. It is now clear that Roman Catholic leaders are divided, while the vast majority of Roman Catholic lay people support the president's efforts to expand health care opportunities for all women.
Several bishops have directly attacked the president during this period and encouraged the divisive and completely untrue notion that the President is attacking religious liberty or waging a war against religion. Frankly, the rhetoric used by some bishops resembles GOP presidential candidates.
At the same time you have launched this unprecedented attack against President Obama -- essentially calling him an opponent of the Christian faith, a false and malicious charge -- it is sad to note that you have remained silent as Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum (along with many Congressional leaders) have advanced political platforms directly at odds with Roman Catholic social teaching without a word of descent from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. On issues ranging from cutting aid to the poor, to eliminating foreign aid, to war and peace, these candidates promote an agenda that most Christian bodies oppose, but from your office there has been silence.
It seems obvious there is a double standard where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is concerned: you'll start a nuclear political war with a pro-choice Democrat but allow a pro-life Republican to get away with anything -- from starting real wars to supporting the death penalty to having an open marriage and repeatedly divorcing.
More and more the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sounds like the Catholic League, a right-wing political group. This is a terrible tragedy.
I have always enjoyed a strong relationship with local Roman Catholic leaders in my community and worked side-by-side on issues that promote the common good, such as fighting homelessness and poverty, even as my church has differed with the conference on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. But I fear that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a great and noble moral voice which Americans have looked to for wisdom for generations, is forgetting the essential tenants of our shared Christian faith and is allowing partisan politics to interfere with ministry.
Clearly, you have different rules for how you deal with Republicans and Democrats in your official roles as church leaders.
I urge you to listen to the wisdom of your laity and to enter into new dialogue not just with the Obama Administration but with fellow Christian communions so that we might learn from one another and together again advance the common good of this great nation.
Your brother in Christ,
The Rev. Chuck Currie
P.O. Box 18023
Portland, Oregon 97218
Follow Rev. Chuck Currie on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RevChuckCurrie
Bill Moyers: Freedom of and From Religion
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
According to Currie's letter it seems that the Bishops are leading the flock by fiat, and no one is following. The current debate over the sanctity of life is only an illustration of a fundamental shift in how the modern ecumenical church applys itself. It seems that so much of what Cardinal Ratzinger has to say about Liberation Theology is manifesting itself in this political debate:
http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/ratzinger/liberationtheol.htm
The 'redefining' of the Church seems to underlie John Paul II and Benedict XVI emphasis on the need to 'evangelize' the Church:
http://catholiconline.com/international/international_story.php?id=37155&page=2
If you are Catholic and feel this is wrong, then don't be Catholic. You already don't understand the most basic of Catholic doctrine -- the Authority of the Magisterium. To be a Catholic it must be all or nothing. There is no room in the Catholic Church for dissent with the Megisterium. If you don't agree with them, then find another church to join. Why be a part of a church you disagreed with anyway?
However, the author of this letter isn't even Catholic. He cannot, from a religious standpoint, say what the Church should and should not accept. If the Church does not accept this new mandate, then it doesn't. The Church of Christ churches can agree with it all they like, but they can't tell the Catholic Church what the Catholic Church should think about the mandate.
Retaining constitutional rights is absolutely not a "policy issue" in the traditional usage of the terms. Protecting our right of religious conscience in this situation is no more an attempt to impact others than demanding our right to freely speak our political opinions could be considered as trying to influence public policy. This specific religious conscience issue, just like free speech, is about the protecting rights, not how those rights are chosen to be used.
Besides, every one would still have the "right" to seek these contraceptive and abortion services - they are not be excluded from seeking them. This is not a contraception issue, it is a freedom issue. Please pray some more on this.
Almost every homily includes ominous Glenn Beck-ish kvetching about "forces of evil afoot in the highest levels of our govermnent." Also foreboding muttering about "enemies of Christ guiding national policy."
It has to come from higher up the food chain.
And they support Pres. Obama's proposed compromise.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference needs to learn to listen to its people and trust its theologians. They need to trust the heart of Catholicism. Otherwise they risk alienating themselves from the flock they are ordained to shepherd. A shepherd must LISTEN.
Our bishops are not listening.
The Rev. Robert G. Showers OFM Conv.
But, in the US where the separation of church and state is legislated, religious leaders feel free to meddle in government affairs. If the churches want to be part of the political process, they need to pay taxes on income and property to pay for the priviledge. Even priests and bishops should pay taxes on the non monetary benefits they receive.
Do you know something I don't?
“I don't know how you feel, but I'm pretty sick of church people. You know what they ought to do with churches? Tax them. If holy people are so interested in politics, government, and public policy, let them pay the price of admission like everybody else. The Catholic Church alone could wipe out the national debt if all you did was tax them on their real estate holdings.”
- George Carlin.
Still as true today as it ever was. Dolan certainly has never done anything to convince me otherwise.
The bishops very much care about the death penalty, income inequality, and the environment. Those statements by the bishops don't generate HP articles.