Archbishop John Myers of Newark speaks at the U.S. bishops annual fall meeting in Baltimore last year. (CNS/Nancy Phelan Wiechec) |
Monday, September 23, 2013
Newark To Get Coadjutor Archbishop
Monday, April 20, 2009
"Fr. Jenkins Will Probably Lose His Job": Nine More Bishops Make 42 against ND Scandal
By Kathleen Gilbert
Nine more bishops have publicly acknowledged their disapproval of the University of Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama to speak and receive an honorary law degree at the school's commencement exercises May 17.
Bishop Paul Coakley of the diocese of Salina, KS, told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) today that he has written a personal letter to Father Jenkins expressing his "deep disappointment" at the invitation.
Citing his grave concern over the President's support for anti-life policies, Bishop Coakley told LSN that he reminded University president Fr. John Jenkins of the USCCB directive that forbids Catholic schools from honoring those whose positions contradict the teachings of the Church.
"The University's invitation undermines the Catholic identity and mission of the institution," said Coakley.
When LSN requested comment on the Obama invitation from Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, OR, the bishop responded simply: "This is just one more sign of the failure of Catholic Institutions to stand up for and support a higher ethical standard."
The Orlando Diocese, where Thomas G. Wenski is bishop, has announced a Mass of reparation for "the many shortcomings and transgressions committed against the dignity and sacredness of human life in our world," specifically for Notre Dame's decision to honor pro-abortion President Obama at commencement. The Mass is taking place at the Cathedral of St. James on May 3, 2009.
In a column on the Orlando Diocese website, Bishop Wenski writes, "Notre-Dame (at least in its Administration and Board) has forgotten what it means to be Catholic."
"Last year, in Washington, D.C., Pope Benedict XVI addressed Catholic educators, including university presidents," wrote the bishop. "He said 'to justify positions that contradict the faith and teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university's identity and mission.'
"Father Jenkins, Notre-Dame's president, must have nodded off during the Pope's speech," he concluded.
Archdiocese of Cincinnati spokesman Dan Andriacco has confirmed to CNS that Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk "supports the strong comments of Bishop D'Arcy of South Bend, in whose diocese Notre Dame is located." Archbishop D'Arcy, who is boycotting Notre Dame's commencement, has said that Notre Dame must ask itself whether by this decision it has chosen prestige over truth.
Mr. Andriacco also said the archbishop stands by the editorial 'Prestige over Truth', appearing in The Catholic Telegraph, on April 3, which is critical of Notre Dame's decision to honor Obama.
On Saturday, Bishop Robert Finn of the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., addressed the scandal in the course of his keynote address for the 2009 Gospel of Life Convention at St. Thomas Aquinas High School.
"It doesn't take another Bishops' Conference statement to know this is wrong: scandalous, discouraging and confusing to many Catholics," said Finn of the Obama invitation. "God knows what all motivates such a decision.
"I suspect that, since Notre Dame will need a scapegoat for this debacle, and Fr. Jenkins will probably lose his job, at this point perhaps he ought to determine to lose it for doing something right instead of something wrong."
Finn suggested that Jenkins disinvite the President, and instead give the honorary degree to Notre Dame's Bishop John D'Arcy, "who has supported and tried to guide the University, despite their too frequent waywardness, faithfully for 25 years."
In a column in the April 17 issue of the Catholic Times, Bishop George Lucas of Springfield, Ill., said that he was prompted to address the scandal after individuals expressed to him their disturbance at the invitation. "I am disturbed, too, at this decision by Notre Dame to sow confusion where there is clarity in Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life and the evil of abortion," wrote the bishop.
"For some this may be one political issue among many," the bishop continued. "For Catholics it is a matter of worshiping God by the proclamation of the truth. Many students and faculty at Notre Dame know this. The university's administration thinks it knows better.
"It is hard to imagine the university honoring someone, no matter his office, who had consistently spoken against the value of football," wrote Bishop Lucas. "We are not being unreasonable when we expect the value of human life to be a central focus of a Catholic university."
Bishop Leonard Blair recently stated on Toledo's diocesan website that, while dialogue with politicians on the protection of innocent life remains a "priority at every level" for the Catholic Church, the University's decision to honor Obama was not justified.
Paraphrasing the U.S. Bishops Conference 2004 directive, Blair said: "It is not appropriate for Catholic institutions to give awards, honors or platforms to those who promote an abortion agenda. Doing so suggests that Catholics are not really serious about what the Church teaches regarding grave and immoral offenses against the life of the unborn."
Blair called for Catholics to respect the office of the President, and pray for Mr. Obama's conversion, but added: "An invitation to speak and an honorary doctorate from a Catholic University go beyond the bounds of respect, and can only be a source of dismay."
On Friday, Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger of the Evansville, Ind. diocese said that President Obama "has pandered himself to the pro-choice movement," and thus by inviting him Notre Dame and its president "are by affinity also pandering to the pro-choice movement." The bishop agreed with Bishop D'Arcy, who criticized the school for apparently having "chosen prestige over truth."
The Evansville bishop called it ironic that Obama would be given an honorary law degree, as he said, "Clearly that degree will not include the moral law."
"If so, then the honor is shallow - indeed empty - as God is the source from which all law is derived," he continued.
"God is truth. God is the author and guardian of all human life. God does not allow for selective obedience. Do Father Jenkins and the Board of Trustees by their decision see any disconnect of themselves from the Infinite Truth?"
In a preview of his letter to Fr. Jenkins given to the Daily Journal, Bishop Joseph Latino of Jackson, Miss., wrote that he feels the university has sacrificed the church's teaching concerning the sacredness of life for the distinction of having the nation's first African-American president speak at its commencement.
The Notre Dame alumni watchdog group Project Sycamore is circulating a petition against the invitation which states in part: "The ineradicable facts that will stamp this occasion are the University's decision to inscribe in the University roll of honorees the name of the most pro-abortion President in the nation's history and its choice of him as the person to speak to the 2009 graduates about the values they should hold dear." (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/oppose_obama/) (For more information on Project Sycamore, go to: http://www.sycamoretrust.org./)
Another petition, circulated by the Cardinal Newman Society, has been signed by over 320,000 individuals. (See: www.notredamescandal.com)
The bishops who have so far expressed disapproval of Notre Dame's invitation to Obama (in alphabetical order) are:
1. Bishop John D'Arcy - Fort Wayne-South Bend, IN
2. Bishop Samuel Aquila - Fargo, ND
3. Bishop Gregory Aymond - Austin, TX
4. Bishop Gerald Barbarito - Palm Beach, FL
5. Bishop Leonard Blair - Toledo, OH
6. Archbishop Daniel Buechlein - Indianapolis, IN
7. Bishop Robert Baker - Birmingham, AL
8. Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz - Lincoln, NE
9. Archbishop Eusebius Beltran - Oklahoma City, OK
10. Auxiliary Bishop Oscar CantĂș - San Antonio, TX
11. Bishop Paul Coakley - Salina, KS
12. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo - Houston, TX
13. Archbishop Timothy Dolan - New York, NY
14. Bishop Thomas Doran - Rockford, IL
15. Auxiliary Bishop John Dougherty - Scranton, PA
16. Bishop Robert Finn - Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO
17. Cardinal Francis George - Chicago, IL; President, USCCB
18. Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger - Evansville, IN
19. Archbishop José Gomez - San Antonio, TX
20. Bishop William Higi - Lafayette, IN
21. Archbishop Alfred Hughs - New Orleans, LA
22. Bishop Joseph Latino - Jackson, MS
23. Bishop Jerome Listecki - La Crosse, WI
24. Bishop William E. Lori - Bridgeport, CT
25. Bishop George Lucas - Springfield, IL
26. Bishop Robert Lynch - St. Petersburg, FL
27. Bishop Joseph Martino - Scranton, PA
28. Bishop Charles Morlino - Madison, WI
29. Bishop George Murry - Youngstown, OH
30. Archbishop John J. Myers - Newark, NJ
31. Bishop R. Walker Nickless - Sioux City, IA
32. Archbishop John C. Nienstedt - St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN
33. Archbishop Edwin O'Brien - Baltimore, MD
34. Bishop Thomas Olmsted - Phoenix, AZ
35. Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk - Cincinnati, OH
36. Bishop Kevin Rhoades - Harrisburg, PA
37. Bishop Alexander Sample - Marquette, MI
38. Bishop Edward J. Slattery - Tulsa, OK
39. Bishop Richard Stika - Knoxville, TN
40. Bishop Anthony Taylor - Little Rock, AR
41. Bishop Robert Vasa - Baker, OR
42. Bishop Thomas Wenski - Orlando, FL
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Catholic U’s New President: Law School Dean Who Awarded Honorary Degree to Abortion Proponent
From Catholic World NewsJohn H. Garvey, the dean of Boston College Law School, has been named president of Catholic University of America. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Harvard Law School, Mr. Garvey served as assistant to the Solicitor General during the Reagan administration. He has written numerous articles on legal issues, concentrating on the First Amendment.
Commenting on academic freedom and Catholic identity in a 2002 letter, Mr. Garvey wrote:
On several occasions I have heard people express concern that the Catholic identity of Boston College and the Law School will require a certain orthodoxy, or suppress unorthodox opinions, among its faculty and students. No school that regulates ideas can justly call itself a university. Indeed, it is precisely because we are committed to the search for truth in an atmosphere of academic freedom that the Law School can render a useful service to the Church and the cause of justice. It is natural that we should have a particular interest in the intersection of law and religion. (Though this is not our only focus.) But when people address that subject here they do not speak for (or against) the church hierarchy. They follow where their inquiries lead them.In 2007, Mr. Garvey was criticized by the Cardinal Newman Society when the law school awarded an honorary degree to Rep. Edward J. Markey, an abortion proponent with a 100% 'pro-choice' voting record. “Congressman Ed Markey is one of the most distinguished graduates of Boston College Law School, whose career of public service reflects the very best values and traditions of the School,” said Mr. Garvey. “I don't believe Boston College has ever had a better friend in the United States Congress than Ed Markey.”
In awarding an honorary degree to Rep. Markey, Boston College Law School failed to heed the 2004 US bishops’ document “Catholics in Political Life,” which stated, “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”
“I'm very grateful that he's an accomplished scholar, and I think he brings from his legal scholarship a lot of wisdom about the Church's place in contemporary society,” said Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit, who led the search for the new president of the university, which was founded by, and is sponsored by, the bishops of the United States. “He's a very thoughtful man, very measured. He tries to bring light and insight to matters about which there's a lot of argument.”
In a 2002 Commonweal essay, Mr. Garvey said that he assented to Catholic teaching on the immorality of divorce but disagreed with Pope John Paul’s statement that “professionals in the field of civil law should avoid being personally involved in anything that might imply a cooperation with divorce.” However, by the conclusion of his article, in which he quoted additional papal remarks, Mr. Garvey appeared to be in agreement with the Pope.
In a 2000 essay on Mario Cuomo-- the New York governor who supported legalized abortion-- Mr. Garvey concluded, “The point is that most of us, not just Catholics, see nothing wrong with relying on authority to decide moral questions. And if that is so, there is no reason to disqualify religious authorities.”
According to federal election records, Mr. Garvey made three donations to Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, whose support for abortion led 14 bishops to state during the 2004 presidential campaign that they would deny him Holy Communion. In June 2002, Mr. Garvey donated $250 to the Kerry Committee; in March 2003, he donated $1,000 to John Kerry for President, Inc.; and in April 2004, he donated $500 to John Kerry for President, Inc.
Mr. Garvey succeeds Vincentian Father David O’Connell, who has been named coadjutor bishop of Trenton.
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
- Catholic University's next president: Boston law school dean (Washington Post)
- John H. Garvey (Boston College)
- John H. Garvey, “The Pope’s Submarine,” in Law and Religion: A Critical Anthology
- John H. Garvey: Divorce, the death penalty & the pope (Commonweal)
- Federal Election Commission
- Letter From The Dean (Boston College Law School)
- Another Catholic College--Boston Law School--to Showcase Pro-Abortion Speaker (LifeSiteNews.com)
- Catholics in Political Life (USCCB)
- 2007 Commencement Speaker: Congressman Edward Markey (Boston College Law School)
Monday, March 24, 2008
Catholic Schools: Essential Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow
By Daniel J. Cassidy
The Catholic school system in the
When the first Council of Baltimore met in 1829, it is estimated that in a nation of 12 million, there were 500,000 Catholics. By the time of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884, the number of Catholics had grown to more than 8 million. Despite enormous obstacles, the bishops of the
The foremost historian of Catholic schooling in the
Today, many Catholic parents would be grateful for a Christian culture, Protestant or otherwise, in public schools. Instead, their tax dollars provide, and (unless they can afford private alternatives) law compels them to send their children to schools imbued with secular relativism, where immoral lifestyles are upheld, premarital sex is accepted as long as it is practiced “safely,” and where Christian history and culture, if it is taught at all, is often mocked and condemned.
Heroically dedicated parents often provide antidotes to a culture in the government schools that is deadly to both the body and the soul. Unfortunately, most of today’s parents are themselves victims of government schools and have little or no formation in the faith.
Numerous studies have affirmed the academic superiority of Catholic schools. In
However, in the face of virulent secularism and moral breakdown in America and throughout the West, today’s bishops seem more concerned with managing a profitable corporate enterprise than with the saving of souls. According to the Hoover Institution the Catholic population has grown from 45 million in 1965, to almost 77 million today. But the Hoover Institution also points out:Catholic school enrollment has plummeted, from 5.2 million students in nearly 13,000 schools in 1960 to 2.5 million in 9,000 schools in 1990. After a promising increase in the late 1990s, enrollment had by 2006 dropped to 2.3 million students in 7,500 schools. And the steep decline would have been even steeper if these sectarian schools had to rely on their own flock for enrollment: almost 14 percent of Catholic school enrollment is now non-Catholic, up from less than 3 percent in 1970. When Catholic schools educated 12 percent of all schoolchildren in the country in 1965, the proportion of Catholics in the general population was 24 percent. Catholics still make up about one-quarter of the American population, but their schools enroll less than 5 percent of all students.
A system that at one time educated 1 out of every 8 American children is being closed at the very time it is needed most.
Is the Church in
In contrast to what is happening in most American dioceses, two
In the week following Easter, the National Catholic Educational Association holds its annual meeting. Attendees are, for the most part, the principals and teachers that work for bishops. Their meetings are usually characterized by “happy talk” slogans that suggest, despite their decimated numbers, they are completely oblivious to the collapse of their once great school system. Let us hope and pray that in this late hour they recognize the urgent need for orthodox and distinctively Catholic schools. May they read the
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
New Jersey Legislators Demand Archbishop's Resignation; Call Myers' Behavior "Sickening"
"And see if there are any vacant basilicas in Rome where I can hideout like Cardinal Law" |
Monday, July 2, 2012
Catholicism in the South: Once a Strange Religion, Now Forging Ahead With Evangelical Fervor
Newark Archbishop John J. Myers |
It is not proud Archbishops who are renewing the Church in America, but rather holy priests and faith-filled Catholic communities in unlikely places like Arlington, Greenville and Charlotte.
A group of nuns stop at a gas station and ask for directions. A local woman asks for prayers. This scene would have been unimaginable 50 years ago.
The day after a newspaper in the small town of Shelby, N.C., reported that the Te Deum Foundation had acquired nearby land for a new Catholic seminary and monastery, a group of nuns in habits stopped at a local service station.Fifty years ago — 10 years ago and, to some extent, even today — many Southerners regarded Catholics as unsaved and Catholicism as a non-Christian mystery religion.But that day, everyone at the station greeted and welcomed the sisters. One woman even asked the nuns to pray for her injured nephew.This acceptance marks a sea change in the Southern Baptist and evangelical Protestant-dominated South, where Catholics make up less than 10% of the population, compared with double-digit percentages in most northern states.
Friday, November 25, 2011
A Humble Friar and Proud Potentates
Archbishop John J. Myers |
From The Detroit NewsBy Louis Aguilar
Brother Al Mascia has much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and so does his flock.
After losing the brick-and-mortar headquarters for his Detroit-based charitable operations earlier this month, the brown-robed Franciscan friar has kept serving the homeless, the elderly and others in Detroit.
Mascia anticipated the closing of the building more than a year ago and raised $4,000 to buy two specially designed tricycles with vendor carts in front and storage trailers in the back so he wouldn't miss a beat in serving his clientele.
"St. Francis went beyond the walls of the medieval city to serve the exiled," said Mascia, referring to St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Catholic religious order to which Mascia belongs. "Now, I have no walls between me and the people I serve."
Mascia's Canticle Café and St. Al's Community Center used to be housed in a large aging building on Washington Boulevard that cost $200,000 a year in utilities and maintenance. The building's owner, the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, sold it to a private firm that now owns the entire side of the street.
An archdiocese official said it cannot find an affordable new space for the community center because many building owners in a rebounding downtown don't want a tenant that serves the poor and homeless.
But the development didn't stop Mascia. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, in sun, sleet and snow, he pedals into the outdoor waiting area of the Rosa Parks Transit Center on the tricycle — a practice he started last year.'Working for the people'
On Tuesday last week, dozens quickly lined up — the homeless Army veteran with two children, the recovering crack addict, the elderly woman who said she comes mainly to stave off loneliness. Mascia and three volunteers gave away all they had within 45 minutes.
"Brother Al is always working for the people," said Leona Palazzolo of Detroit, who says she has relied on the friar's services for seven years. "He's always got time to listen to you, and he doesn't ever talk down to you. He's just real nice to be around."
The change in operations might be a blessing in disguise, Mascia said.
"There is more opportunity here than the brick-and-mortar center," he said. "I see more families here on the streets, more of the mentally ill. We are about serving people."
The tricycle-based Canticle Café provides service six times a week at the public bus terminal on Cass Avenue just north of Michigan Avenue. Father Tod Laverty from St. Aloysius Catholic Church on Washington Boulevard and other volunteers operate the mobile help center on the days when Mascia is out raising money. He has already found a benefactor to buy another tricycle.Can-do spirit
The brick-and-mortar Canticle Café would not have lasted as long as it did without Mascia's fundraising and venture into retailing. In 2008, the recession led to a decline of more than a third in corporate donations, and donations kept shrinking, the friar said. The community center served about 300 daily. It offered breakfast, groceries and clothing, Internet access and general education diploma and literacy classes, as well as medical help from a nurse practitioner.
"Even someone like me knew that this wasn't a temporary setback. We had to act," Mascia said.
First, he began to sell shade-grown, fair-trade coffee from Chiapas, Mexico, by partnering with a local coffee vendor. The Canticle Cafe blend helps the Detroit poor and the indigenous growers in Mexico.
The venture raised thousands of dollars for the Detroit center. The cafe expanded into selling candles called Friar Lights, T-shirts and dog biscuits. The retail line still survives despite the shutting of the shelter.
Mascia is also a musician who writes songs inspired by the seniors and homeless people he meets on the job.
About two years ago, he decided to take his guitar and amplifier on the road — along with a specially made pushcart full of coffee, Friar Lights, T-shirts and CDs — mainly to suburban parishes, where he hopes his concerts will move people to help the downtown friars continue their good works.Concert planned
Mascia has a concert scheduled for 3 p.m. Dec. 18 at Prince of Peace Church in West Bloomfield Township.
Mascia says he's eager to expand the services. He is forging more partnerships with private businesses, such as the one with Ypsilanti-based Perk and Brew Inc.'s Brenda Moore, as well as churches of other denominations and other Catholic churches, to keep growing. What he now mainly lacks, he said, is more volunteers to help him in the winter months.
"When we get the new vehicle, I hope to go into the alleys and other areas where people with no home may be seeking shelter," Mascia said. "We want them to know that someone is thinking about them."
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Opposition Mounts to Half Million Dollar Expansion of Bishop of Bling's Retirement Home
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Rudy's Don't Ask/Don't Tell Policy on Religion
Giuliani is in a bind. He can’t talk about his religion – and he can’t not talk about it.
For most voters, it doesn’t matter if it’s their religion. In 2004, Catholics were slightly more likely to vote for Methodist Bush than for the first major-party Catholic (I use the term loosely) nominee since John F. Kennedy, who – in the midst of the campaign – suddenly recalled that he’d once been an altar boy.
Americans are comforted by the thought that they are electing a man to lead the nation who believes in God and the 10 Commandments, attends religious services (not as a campaign photo-op), and at least publicly adheres to the tenets of his faith.
Rudy is none of the above. That’s why, if asked about his Catholicism, he’ll respond with the equivalent of “no comment.”
The mayor needs to maintain the fiction that he’s a Catholic. At the same time, he needs to keep the discussion as far away as possible from his actual relationship with the Catholic Church. This is getting harder and harder.
On the Iowa campaign trail, Hizzoner was asked whether he considered himself “a traditional, practicing Roman Catholic,” and to discuss the role his faith played in helping him make decisions on issues like abortion.
Rudy responded, “My religious affiliation, my religious practices and the degree to which I am a good or not so good Catholic, I prefer to leave to priests.”
The mayor cautioned that there should not be a “religious test for public office.” Silly me, I thought that when Article VI of the Constitution says “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States,” that meant an individual couldn’t be disqualified based on his religion, not that we’re not allowed to inquire about Rudy’s relationship to the faith he professes.
When asked to reconcile his pro-choice advocacy with his alleged Catholicism, Rudy has replied: “Issues like that are for me and my confessor.” (And who would that be, Father Guido Sarducci?) Also, ”I’m a Catholic, and that’s the way I resolve those issues, personally and privately” – otherwise known as Rudy’s Catholic code of silence. Instead of consulting Church teachings, as a Catholic would do, Rudy believes questions of theology can be resolved personally and privately.
Still, Rudy claims he’s devout, in his own private/don’t-ask-me-to-explain way. “Religion is very important to me. It’s a very important part of my life.” The foregoing is to be taken at face value, without a request for elaboration.
Unfortunately for Giuliani, the Catholic Church has rules.
In a June 26 Village Voice article (“No Wafer for Rudy”), Wayne Barrett notes the mayor “can’t have a confessor. He can’t receive the sacraments of penance, the Eucharist, or marriage.” That’s because Giuliani divorced Donna Hanover, his wife of 18 years, without obtaining an annulment (for which he would not have qualified), and married his third wife, Judith Nathan, outside the Church.
His first marriage of 14 years to his second cousin, Regina Peruggi, was annulled. While he was still married to wife #2, the mother of his two children, he carried on openly with Nathan, who he paid $10,000-a-month as his “speech writer” and marched with in New York’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, a walk mayors traditionally take with their wives, not their mistresses.
On Rudy’s campaign website, wives #1 and #2 are non-persons, like fallen members of the old Soviet Politburo airbrushed out of photographs. The site notes that he married Judith S. Nathan in May of 2003. There is no mention of any other marriages or of his children.
But this is typical of Rudy’s tendency to re-write history. Today, the mayor says “I hate abortion…. I would encourage someone not to take that option.” He’s also opposed to late-term abortions and Medicaid funding of abortion.
Still, unlike Mitt Romney, Giuliani isn’t doing a 180-degree pirouette here, probably because he’s seen the drubbing the former governor has taken for flip-flopping. Thus, while tacking right on the issue, the mayor still favors a woman’s right to choose, with qualifications.
The decision on whether or not to kill her unborn child “ultimately, a woman should make that (choice) with her conscience and ultimately with her doctor,” Giuliani explains. If this was the 1850s, Rudy would say that on the question of slavery, “Ultimately a plantation owner should make that decision in consultation with his conscience, and ultimately with his overseer.”
· When asked why the far-left New York State Liberal Party endorsed Rudy’s 1989 mayoral campaign, the party chairman replied: “He agreed with the Liberal Party’s views of affirmative action, gay rights, gun control, school prayer and tuition tax credits. As mayor, Rudy Giuliani would uphold the Constitutional and legal rights to abortion.”
· Based on his answers to a candidate questionnaire, and/or his performance in office, Rudy received a 100% rating from the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) in his 1993, 1997 and 2000 campaigns.
· Gloria Feldt, the former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), recalls an appearance the mayor made before the group’s New York chapter, where: “He spoke very eloquently about family planning (abortion). It’s hard to be that eloquent if you’re saying something you don’t believe.”
· He re-appointed PPFA President Pam Maraldo to the City’s Board of Health, which oversees 11 municipal hospitals where an average of 6,500 abortions a year were performed during Rudy’s tenure as mayor.
· Over the years, the Giuliani administration awarded a total of $2 million to Planned Parenthood’s New York branch.
· One of Rudy’s human-resources commissioners notes her ex-boss continued Ed Koch’s policy of allowing the city to pay for abortions, whether or not they met Medicaid’s “medically necessary” requirement, and even if the woman’s earnings were more than 85% above the limit for Medicaid eligibility. She describes Mayor Giuliani as “gung-ho abortion.”
· The fact that, on social issues, they are identical twins separated by party, may explain Rudy’s endorsement of Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo, the icon of New York liberals, when the latter ran for re-election. (“Our future, our destiny is not a matter of chance. It’s a matter of choice. My choice is Mario Cuomo.”) It’s hard to say which choice is more tragic – abortion or endorsing Cuomo.
· According to a former aide, it took Mayor Giuliani exactly 15 minutes to decide that he supported partial-birth abortions (“I’m fine with that!”), as he headed into a meeting with NARAL leaders. Now he opposes the procedure -- described by the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan (who represented New York in the U.S. Senate from 1983 to 2001) as “fourth-fifths infanticide” – another conversion of convenience. He also supports parental notification, which he formerly opposed. Flip. Flop.
In a wink-and-nod to pro-lifers, Rudy says he would appoint “strict constructionists” to the federal bench, including the Supreme Court.
As mayor, he appointed or re-appointed 127 municipal judges – none could reasonably be mistaken for Antonin Scalia.
One had been executive director of the homosexual Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. Another ruled that city funds could be used for sex-change operations for indigents. And a third allowed a lesbian to adopt her partner’s child. The judge, Paula Hepner, later married another woman in a Canadian ceremony.
In fairness to Da Mayor, abortion isn’t the only issue where Rudy is trying to re-invent himself. There’s nothing about gay rights on his website – such reticence from a man who marched in every gay-pride parade as mayor, and welcomed the Gay Olympics to New York City.
He does, however, firmly assert his belief (arrived at in consultation with his conscience, his confessor and his pollster) that marriage should be between a man and a woman – or, perhaps, several women.
As America’s mayor, he pushed a domestic-partnership bill (described as “as far-reaching as San Francisco’s”) through the city council and supported similar legislation before the New York State legislature. The Archdiocese of New York blasted the former as “contrary to moral natural law.” Wonder what Rudy’s confessor thought about that one.
During the 2004 campaign, at least a dozen Catholic bishops announced that John Kerry could not receive communion in their dioceses, because of the Democratic nominee’s position on abortion. On those rare occasions when he attends Catholic services, Rudy tries to avoid embarrassment. According to a June 25 New York Times story, “Communion may be a moot point for Mr. Giuliani, who was seen leaving Mass at a church in Washington before the Eucharist.”
Still, for those Catholic prelates who’ve spoken out, the question of whether Rudy is a “good or not so good Catholic,” has been settled.
Newark Archbishop John Myers says the mayor is “being illogical” with his I’m-personally-opposed-but-can’t-impose-my-morality stand on abortion. “To violate human life is always and everywhere wrong,” the Archbishop declares.
Providence, R.I. Bishop Thomas J. Tobin is even more outspoken: “Rudy’s public proclamations on abortion are pathetic and confusing. Even worse, they’re hypocritical.” Tobin asks “if any politician could get away with the same pathetic (personally opposed but) cop-out” on any other moral question – say racism, sexual abuse, incest, prostitution or polygamy?
In May, speaking of Mexican legislators who voted to legalize abortion, Pope Benedict XVI said they had, in effect, excommunicated themselves.
The worst hypocrisy would be for Rudy Giuliani to receive the nomination of the party that’s been proudly and officially pro-life since 1980, the party that has won the presidency in five of seven elections since 1976 with the fervent support of the pro-life movement. According to the National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru, George W. Bush’s pro-life position netted him 2.4 million votes in ’04.
Rudy Giuliani doesn’t even do a passable impersonation of a Catholic. His Church understands it. Practicing Catholics understand it.