BishopAccountability.org
	Catholic Church Chasing Away Members Bishop Crosses the Line with Entry into American Political Debate By Joel Connelly Seattle Post-Intelligencer November 24, 2009 http://www.seattlepi.com/connelly/412625_joel25.html When he should get time to reflect after his father's recent death, and to appreciate the life of his assassinated uncle, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., is being told -- in effect -- to get out of his church. The Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, Bishop of Providence, has accused Kennedy of "false advertising" for describing himself a Catholic, adding: "If you freely choose to be a Catholic, it means you believe certain things, you do certain things." "If you cannot do all that in conscience, then you should perhaps feel free to go somewhere else." Millions of American Catholics have gone somewhere else -- in my case, long ago, to the Episcopal Church -- or chosen to stay home, because of the actions and pronouncements of prelates like Bishop Tobin. In recent years, the Vatican has seen fit to install bishops who show no respect for conscience, or for a U.S. Constitution that wisely separates Caesar from Peter. They give orders, demand unquestioned obedience, and treat Communion wafers as political weapons. It's not like that everywhere. The Catholic Church in Western Washington has long stood for peace, and for racial and social justice. It has taken a strong stand against the death penalty. Archbishop Alex Brunett declared in a 2007 Lenten letter that his archdiocese would neither take nor cooperate with punitive action against illegal immigrants. Yet, the behavior of hard-line prelates elsewhere has stoked the fires of anti-religious and anti-Catholic prejudice. Just read certain "liberal" Seattle blog sites and in the printed word. The bishops have made it difficult to begin a necessary dialogue on prevention of unwanted pregnancies. They've made it immeasurably tougher the job of articulating legitimate ethical objections to assisted suicide. Nor have the faithful taken political counsel from purple hats. Barack Obama, the pro-choice presidential nominee, captured a majority of votes from American Catholics in the 2008 election. Thomas Keefe, a Spokane lawyer (and expatriate Seattlite), Catholic University law grad and former nominee for Congress, reacted to the latest brouhaha by sending off a blistering letter to the Diocese of Providence. "It should come as little wonder why the Catholic Church continues to lose appeal in our society when a fool like Bishop Tobin passes for a church leader," Keefe wrote. Patrick Kennedy's original sin -- pardon the pun -- was his support for abortion rights. The bishop asked him two years ago to "refrain" from receiving communion because of his "consistent actions." Recently, Kennedy committed the high heresy of criticizing Catholic bishops for threats to oppose health care reform unless legislation was amended to render restrictions on abortion more absolute. How, asked Kennedy, could "the Catholic Church be against the biggest social justice issue of our time?" Life has become tense for Catholic officeholders who refuse to toe the party line. Gov. Christine Gregoire, and other pro-choice Catholic Democrats, have found themselves at odds with their pastor in Olympia. A group of demonstrators prayed the rosary outside the Seattle Sheraton earlier this year, when Gregoire spoke to a luncheon that honored the retiring director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius dared veto a law slapping new restrictions on abortion providers. The governor was told by Archbishop Joseph Neumann to a) stop taking communion until b) she confesses, and c) issues a public apology, and d) promises to undo damage done by her "scandalous behavior that has misled people into dangerous behavior." Sebelius is now Secretary of Health and Human Services. Archbishop Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican supreme court, used a question about Vice President Joseph Biden (a Catholic who is pro-choice) to attack the bishops of Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Va. "I would encourage the faithful when they are scandalized by the giving of Holy Communion to persons (who) are publicly and obstinately in sin, that they go to their pastors, whether it's their parish priest or to their bishop, to insist that this scandal stop," said Burke. (He later apologized.) Such condemnations show a selectivity that takes the breath away. Why not start with the Ten Commandments? Shouldn't U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia be excluded from Communion for affirming, advocating and serving as cheerleader for imposition of the death penalty? What about Chief Justice John Roberts? And forgiveness is selective. Cardinal Bernard Law, whose Boston archdiocese shuffled pedophile clerics from parish to parish, was forced to quit. He received a cushy sinecure in Rome. Some American Catholics are speaking out. "It's been disheartening for millions of (Catholics) across the country to see one of our own be banished," Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., a pro-choice Catholic, said of his colleague from Rhode Island. Patrick Kennedy can be headstrong. It would behoove him to e-mail Bishop Tobin candidate John F. Kennedy's famous 1960 speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association. And underline this passage: "I do not speak for my church on public matters; and the church does not speak for me. Whatever issue may come before me as President, if I should be elected, on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject, I will make my decision in accordance with these views -- in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be in the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressure or dictates. "And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise." Amen!
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