Smoky Mountains Sunrise

Friday, August 23, 2013

Bishop Thomas Tobin: Why I Switched to the Republican Party

The shepherd of Providence, R.I., believes that his baptismal certificate is more important than partisan political loyalties.

Bishop Thomas Tobin
Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, R.I., sparked headlines after he told a local group of Young Republicans Aug. 13 that he had ended his long affiliation with the Democratic Party and had recently joined the Republican Party.

“The aha moment for me was the 2012 Democratic Party Convention. It was just awful,” Bishop Tobin told the GOP gathering, while noting that he had been a Democrat since 1969. “I just said that, 'I can’t be associated structurally with that group,' in terms of abortion and NARAL and Planned Parenthood and [the] same-sex 'marriage' agenda and cultural destruction I saw going on.”

In an Aug. 21 interview with Register senior editor Joan Frawley Desmond, Bishop Tobin discussed his decision to change his party affiliation, his belief that his baptismal certificate matters more than partisan loyalties and his past efforts to engage self-identified Catholic politicians like Patrick Kennedy.
 


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