Wednesday, September 28, 2011

New York's Archbishop Dolan Threatens Obama Over DOMA


The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States have uniformly emphasized the notion that a marriage must always and only involve one man and one woman. They claim that same-sex marriage is an attack on traditional marriage, and on the traditional family God intended. On the local level and with each bishop in his own diocese, they reliably express horror whenever same-sex marriage is proposed in their backyards, delivering words that echo the sentiments of their boss, Pope Benedict XVI.

Their opposition to same-sex marriage took a significant and startling turn on September 20th with the issuance of a letter from New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to President Obama in which Dolan urges the President to end his Administration’s “campaign against DOMA, the institution of marriage it protects, and religious freedom.”

In the course of the letter, Dolan emphasizes that he is not alone in his disappointment with the President. He writes, “The content of this letter reflects the strong sentiment expressed at a recent meeting by more than thirty of my brother Bishops who serve on the Administrative Committee of our episcopal conference. I know they are joined by hundreds of additional Catholic bishops throughout our nation.” His implication is that if the President does not reverse his stance regarding DOMA, he can expect the bishops to campaign against him when he is up for re-election. There are 430 bishops who lead 195 dioceses, or districts, in the US.


With 70 million registered members, the Roman Catholic Church is the largest single religious denomination in the United States, representing 22% of the US population. The number of Roman Catholics who actually practice their religion is much smaller, with recent surveys indicating that Roman Catholics hold beliefs about same-sex marriage that match those of the general US population rather than those of their bishops.

The USCCB letter reached the President with an attached internally prepared legal analysis that Dolan hopes will show the President the extreme gravity of the situation and the huge consequences if the President does not bow to the bishops’ pressure. He writes, “The Administrations failure to change course on this matter will, as the attached analysis indicates, precipitate a national conflict between Church and State of enormous proportions and to the detriment of both institutions.”

The analysis begins with a condemnation of the anti-DOMA actions of the Administration’s Justice Department. “This new, more aggressive position poses a threat reaching well beyond the elimination of the federal DOMA. [snip] Also at risk would be any other federal or state policy that applies unique incentives for households where children are raised by a father and a mother who are legally married to each other.
The Justice Departments position also denigrates the considered judgment of the American people. [snip] It falsely imputes the same supposed bigotry and hostility to the substantial, bi-partisan majorities in Congress—and to President Clinton—who were responsible for the passage of DOMA only fifteen years ago.”

At the end of its legal analysis, the USCCB finally makes clear that its overriding concern about the repeal of DOMA, about the repeal of DADT and about the Administration’s support for gay adoption rights is a diminished revenue stream. “We will face an additional layer of government punishments, such as the cessation of long-standing and successful contracts for the provision of social services, and other forms of withdrawn government cooperation.”

In the context of this letter, the suddenly thunderous saber-rattling of the US Catholic bishops appears to be rooted in the prospect of lost funding rather than in the imaginary moral outrage of its flock.

To read the entire letter and analysis, follow the link at the end of my post at 10thousand couples.com.

7 comments:

  1. TAX the Church!! If they want to play in politics, want special righst to deny OUR rights, I say TAX them! Also, they have NO moral leg to stand on! Molest children and then say you are HOLY and have any right to tell ME what is right?? I don't think so!

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  2. All they need to do is to relinquish the legal part of holy matrimony in a church. People would need to do the legal, 'civil marriage' part with a JOP, then the churches could choose who has the superstitious part on their own, private premises. There is a catch, though. Charitable status would have to go.
    Here in the UK, we've had Civil Partnerships for 6 years. The UK government is going to 'extend' civil marriage to same sex couples in the next 2 years. Some of the churches are up in arms (the church of Scotland seems poised to accept and perform same-sex weddings when it happens)
    It will be interesting to see how this pans out. The UK government is not minded, so far, to give an exemption to churches. So the Catholic church in the UK may actually have to stop performing the legal part of weddings for all couples.

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  3. Dear Scotsyank, exactly! Let the issuance of the license be the moment of civil marriage and let the churches do whatever "sacraments" they please with holy water, incense or chicken bones.

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  4. BTW Dolan ran milwaukee for a decade. Last Jan the chief of molesters had to declare bankruptcy due to court awards.

    And the same crap came up in IL. The church freaked because they couldnt take state money and discriminate against gay couples. Of course they conveniently forgot to tell their brainwashed people they could continue to discriminate but only with their own money.

    It sounds like the whole rotten thing is all about money - them taking taxpayers money to discriminte.

    To hell with them all.

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  5. And of course its about money. Money is the root of all evil.

    As well as the church claiming it is the victim when in truth it is the victimzer. Hypocrite scumbags.

    And the church is broke from paying off the victims of the endless hidden molestation of chidlren.

    just Google """(country name)- catholic church molestation""" and be horrified

    And when you recover, go to http://nobeliefs.com/nazi.htm

    To see why hitler, a catholic born and baptised such in autria in 1888 has never been excommunicated dead or alive. Some of the pix are verified btw by the holocaust museum.

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  6. The Catholic church, and Archbishop Donut in particular, should stop protecting pedophiles and stop telling everyone else what to do.

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  7. Dear PatO, Yours is the resounding sentiment among Catholics who don't dare raise their voices against the bishops but feel what you feel in the silence of their hearts.

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