Who Else Wants To Be Cardinal?
Earlier this week, Representative Patrick Kennedy (D, RI) wondered out loud about the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church in threatening to pull its support of health care reform (and lobby for its defeat) unless wording that further restricted a woman’s right to reproductive health was included. Archbishop Timothy Dolan had already spoken openly of the effort to lobby Congress so it was someone else’s turn to confront Kennedy. The lucky straw fell to Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence.
Bishop Tobin, of course, raised the penalty of withholding communion since Kennedy supports a woman’s right to choose. But he upped the anti.
Tobin said, “if you freely choose to be a Catholic, it means you believe in certain things, do do certain things. If you cannot do all that in conscience, then you perhaps feel free to go somewhere else.”
Unbelievable. The Bishop is talking about outlawing abortion, not just for Catholic women, but for woman of every religion and those with no beliefs. Where should they feel free to go?
This should be a huge wake up call for Catholics. They should recognize that the Catholic Church does not condone contraception and believes sex is only for the purpose of child bearing. If you are one of the 11% of Americans who are born homosexual, you are in deep shit too. You are destined to never be allowed to love another whom you are attracted to. Does this sound like the 21st Century?
It is clear that both Archbishop Dolan and Bishop Tobin are in the hunt for the next Cardinal opening. Since that position is filled from Rome, their campaign language is suited best for the ears of a conservative old man’s club. I wonder whether there will be anyone left in the American Catholic Church when they get their red hat.
This entry was posted on November 14, 2009 at 10:56 am and is filed under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Politics, Republican Party. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: abortion, archbishop timothy dolan, bishop thomas tobin, catholic church, choice, health care, health care reform, Religion, same sex marriage
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November 22, 2009 at 2:54 pm
In the escalating fight between Thomas Tobin and Patrick Kennedy, it strikes me that a conflict of interest is involved in one of the parties being the umpire or mediator. It also strikes me that both parties are in a position to abuse their position to further the fight…under the rubric of a higher purpose. I recommend the following post: http://deligentia.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/so-the-last-will-be-first-and-the-first-will-be-last/
November 22, 2009 at 3:49 pm
stillhere4u, thanks for commenting… and the web site you suggest is quite to the point… Bishop Tobin’s first interest is in maintaining the Catholic Church (or he would not be in his current position, nor have a chance for a red hat). It is a shame that humanity isn’t understood in a global sense where Tobin and other catholic clergy tend to “their” flock and stay out of the way of others.