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Loading ...New Archbishop to challenge gay marriage in NY
04.15.2009 3:34pm EDT
(New York City) New York Archbishop-designate Timothy Dolan said he will use the prominence of his new job to challenge gay marriage legislation in New York, an effort that has gained momentum thanks in part to Gov. David Paterson.
Hours before his installation Wednesday, Dolan said he will work with the state’s other Roman Catholic bishops to defeat legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage. Paterson, who is expected to attend Dolan’s installation Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, is set to introduce a gay marriage bill Thursday.“You’ll find I don’t shy away from those things. I wouldn’t sidestep them,” said Dolan, in a news conference. “You could expect me to articulate that with all the clarity … I can muster.”
Dolan, 59, the former Milwaukee archbishop, is known for defending Catholic orthodoxy with a friendly face. His warmth and wit were on display in the cathedral Tuesday night at the first of his two installation services.
He threw his arms around cheering priests and friends, thanked his mother repeatedly for her support, blew kisses to well-wishers and joked that the throne-like archbishop’s chair on the altar was “quite comfortable” when he sat in it for the first time during the ceremony.
At the news conference Wednesday, Dolan said he wanted to show the great happiness that can be found in serving and belonging to the church. He lamented the popularity of do-it-yourself spirituality in the United States, saying people “want to believe without belonging.”
“We’ve got to get the impression across that to commit oneself totally, exclusively in an undistracted way … is one of the most freeing, liberating, joyful styles of life you can lead,” he said.
Dolan noted that studies have found that priests are overwhelmingly happy with their work, despite a widespread impression that they’re demoralized by the clergy sex abuse crisis and overwork. The number of U.S. priests has been shrinking steadily for decades.
“Joy is contagious – is it ever,” Dolan said. “When parents see priests who are happy, who are free, who are focused who have a life of meaning … that’s going to work. That’s going to click – I’m hoping.”
The Archdiocese of New York is the nation’s second-largest diocese after Los Angeles, yet it is the most prominent seat in American Catholicism.
Dolan’s predecessors include Cardinal Francis Spellman, who was so influential that his residence was dubbed “the powerhouse.” Cardinal John O’Connor was the most forceful Catholic voice in the national debates of his era, especially on abortion.
Dolan succeeds New York Cardinal Edward Egan, 77, who is retiring after nine years.
The archdiocese covers a region with 2.5 million parishioners in about 400 churches and an annual budget estimated to be at least half a billion dollars.
Its vast Catholic service network includes 10 colleges and universities, hundreds of schools and aid agencies, and nine hospitals that treat about a million people annually.
Dolan faces challenges identical to those for bishops nationwide: strengthening the finances of Catholic schools and parishes as Catholics move from urban areas to the suburbs, boosting the low rate of Mass attendance, and serving a growing number of Latinos and other immigrants.
Dolan said the American church has always been a shelter for newcomers. But he said Catholicism has become a “settled, accepted religion.”
He said he wanted to revive “a sense of energetic solicitude for the Catholic people.”
Dolan is a St. Louis native and the oldest of five children. He holds a doctorate from The Catholic University of America and is former rector of the North American College in Rome, considered the West Point for U.S. priests.
If there is truly separation of church and state, how is this bigot among others allowed to meddle in and influence the outcome of legislation and is not that a violation of their tax-payer supported tax-exempt status? Why should we pay our fair share of taxes while they pay none and run rough-shod over us ad nauseum?
James…..a male priest molesting another male doesn’t necessarily mean that the priest is gay, its a lot more complex than that. Further, the molestation scandal included many heterosexual pedophiles. The reason why there was such a propensity of male victims is that they were the majority gender available to the abusers. In many cases, pedophiles don’t disciminate their victims’ gender. Assuming that all molesters of males plays into the Catholic League’s leader William Donohue’s convcition that pedophilia ia is an overwhelmingly gay phenomenon. It isn’t, never was, never will be.
The notion that gays can’t procreate is not so black and white. Nowadays, with invitro fertilization, surrogate mothers, gay men and women can reproduce and in some cases for those who are so inclined, procreate in the traditional manner. So that argument against marriage equality is totally flawed.
The archbishop’s chair (paragraph 5) was not ‘on the altar’ but in the sanctuary.
Well said James M. Martin — #1, there are several examples of same-sex couples in the Bible: Saul and Johathan (1 Samuel 18:1-4 & 2 Samuel 1:26), Ruth and Naomi (Ruth 1:16-17) and like you said, John the Apostle (Jesus’ most beloved)(just start reading the Gospel of John, it’s all there!) In addition, let’s not forget St. Sergius and St. Bacchus, even Severus, the Patriarch of Antioch (AD 512 – 518) said, “we should not separate in speech they [Sergius and Bacchus] who were joined in life”.
I think it’s ironic that an organization that performed same-sex unions through the middle-ages is now recanting such unions as “unnatural”; truely ironic indeed.
The Catholic Church needs to shut the f*** up. [***] Cults suck and are for weak minds. TAX the church – tax the church
[Edited for language. -JV]
As much as I agree with the sentiment expressed in many of the recent posts to this story, it is important that we keep our facts, uh, straight, if we want to have any hope of defeating homophobes in the Catholic Church or any other Church.
First, the separation of Church and State was intended to protect the freedom of the various Churches to practice their brand of religion as they saw fit. It is not freedom FROM religion but freedom of religion. The state may not inflict a “national religion” on the country, although individual politicians may say anything they want about their religious beliefs and opinions. In the same way, religious leaders have as much right as any other citizen to speak their opinion and to attempt to persuade people to their way of thinking. But in secular society, they speak only as individuals (who happen to hold high office in their Churches) and their opinions should not be given any extraordinary weight because of their rank or title.
Second, individual members of the hierarchy of any Church do in fact pay all the taxes you do. In the Catholic Church, all religious men and women (nuns, sisters, brothers), deacons, priests, bishops, etc., pay personal income tax, property tax if they personally own property, sales tax if they buy something for their personal use, etc., etc. The tax exemption applies only to things bought by the Church for religious or charitable purposes. Their property is exempt IF it is used for worship or charity: churches, parking lots, cemeteries, non-profit hospitals, schools, etc., are exempt. But Church property which is vacant, rented out, or used for housing IS TAXABLE. (Convents and Rectories are taxable.)
On the other hand, no Church may endorse a particular party or politician or they will lose their tax exemption. A Church can talk about issues all it wants — it just can’t endorse a particular person.
All of that having been said, I do agree with those who hold that if a Church enters into the political arena, its tax exemption should be called into question. For a Church, for example, to spend millions of dollars pushing its political agenda (as it did in California on Issue
and still claim tax exemption seems to me to be right on the cusp of legality. This is a thorny issue and will get the religionists and their deep pockets in an uproar — but I think it is worth exploring.
If he does, he better start wearing the SWASTIKA that the POPE does; theofascist!
Did you really expect the new Grand Wizard of New York to be any different that those that came before him, or those who push this agenda of hate in the Vatican?
He’ll have to show that marriage equality interferes with Catholics’ ability to be free to practice their religion. Or to present scientific evidence backing up his claims of “social harm.” Good luck with that, Archbishop!
No matter how much a person disagrees with another’s opinion, suggesting killing or violence, as evidenced in a couple of comments, is not the answer. Most newspapers rightfully will not publish such comments.
“Joy is contagious – is it ever,” Dolan said.
I’ve seen that maniac Fred Phelps wife smiling, using her reversed alimentary canal.
And I wonder how many people saw Hitler smiling at his works, which were certainly contagious to his people.