Timothy Dolan, Cardinal Archbishop of New York and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, returned in glory to his former see of Milwaukee yesterday. A priest of the archdiocese was unimpressed:
Cardinal Falstaff came back for a victory lap in Wisconsin. He chose the Carmelite-run shrine of Our Lady Help of Christians, aka Holy Hill as the backdrop for his new scarlet apparel. Among his few accomplishments in this part of the world, he had the place designated a basilica.
I watched the thing on live-stream and it had many of the schmaltzy Dolan touches which endeared him to many. But the political sub-text was clear--this was a pr boost for Scott Walker (who got tremendous applause from the thousand plus crowd there--and a reference to his mother's cookies by the food-crazy Dolan). Walker used to visit Dolan secretly during their respective terms in Milwaukee. Walker has a penchant for secret doors and he always skulked in through a back entrance, down darkened hall-ways for his tete-a-tetes with Dolan.
But the low point was Dolan's public embrace of Paul Ryan--"my friend"--whose Ayn Rand inspired budget has set off an internal debate about Catholic social teaching. Dolan is a Republican and it is clearer than ever that his faction of the episcopal conference intends to deliver as many votes to the Republicans as they can in the fall. If people pay attention to all this, here is about as clear a proof as any that this "religious liberty" stuff is really partisan politics. It is a velvet hammer on the head of Catholic social teaching.
Listecki warmed up the crowd with a cheer-inducing reference to "religious liberty" and they also used the prayer of the faithful to also invoke the Almighty's blessing on their politics.
It was in the end a Republican Catholic rally in a swing-state--pouring holy water on some of the worst partisans in today's GOP. Walker would never have attended if he wasn't assured that it would not turn into a PR disaster. Ryan's smarmy appropriation of the Catholic "brand" must derive from his contact with the hard-right in the Catholic church. I wonder who the "some bishops" are who quietly encourage him? I wonder who feeds him lines about "subsidiarity" which he uses in the same way as the bishops use "religious liberty"--a brand name, devoid of true content or genuine understanding of its meaning. Ryan is not educable and debating words like "subsidiarity" with him is a waste of time. This is only a Trojan horse to further silence Catholic social teaching.
coltakashi | Apr 29, 2012 | 3:07pm
I am not a Catholic, but a person claiming that “religioys liberty” has no meaning but “Catholic social teaching” does is an interesting way of saying that he feels no need to strike a balance between the two principles. I don’t have any specific investment in Catholuc social teachings, but I have a direct interest in religious liberty, the First Amendment freedom to exercise teligion, and all that, so I will cast my lot with Dolan against this anonymous critic.
fathercarldiederichs@gmail.com | Apr 30, 2012 | 8:32am
I will cast my lot with the truth-teller!
gilhow | Apr 30, 2012 | 1:43pm
There is no doubt that you need to know more about history, especially Catholic history, your Constitution, religious liberty, Benedict, and Timothy Dolan. Religious liberty to Benedict and Dolan only means that the government of the U.S. check with them before taking any action about anything to assure that all action has their imprimatur before it is even considered, much less implemented. Neither Benedict nor Dolan have any notion of the separation of religion and church from politics and our state. Benedict thinks he can iron-fist his way through Dolan into all business of the U.S. government. No so-called Catholic charities could exist if it weren’t for U.S. funding and that should be stopped. They are not “Catholic” charities, they are religiously distorted, Catholic versions of U.S. charities, and that is unconstitutional.