Your Emminence,
Yesterday on National television you made two statements that, taken together, signal disaster for the Catholic Church in America. In the first statement you said:
We bishops aren’t fighters. We’re pastors, and we want to stand on principle. We just want to do our work as effectively as we can.
In the second statement you said that your response to an overture from the president on backing down from the HHS mandate would be:
I would say… The religious exemption is very choking and very tight. There’s a restriction there that we can’t live with. Simply in the best American principles of freedom of religion, simply give a much more dramatically wide latitude to that religious exemption and protection of conscience and religious freedom, and you’re not gonna hear from us any more.
How in the world could you have said that to this president, of all people, at this moment in history? That was a disastrous full-blown retreat in the name of every bishop in the land. Today, we have Obama’s answer.
A thinly veiled semantic recasting of the exact same policy, by the wolf in sheep’s clothing.
You lamented to Charlie Rose that this president has repeatedly given his word; at Notre Dame, to the Catholic Health Association, and to all of the bishops through you, and then he broke faith. Honestly, Emminence, what did you expect? Didn’t Jesus tell us that poison trees yield poison fruit? Your response was to tell this demagogue to just throw us a bone, an election year sop, and that he would never hear from the bishops again.
What is frightening, Emminence, is that I’m beginning to believe you.
What about abortion, euthanasia, the aggressive eugenics seizing medicine, the ever-widening definition of “death” to accommodate the organ transplant business? Will you hold your tongue on those issues as well?
In the 23rd Psalm, the psalmist writes:
The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
The rod and staff in this context are not metaphors for discipline, but the understanding that as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we know that the Good Shepherd will use his staff to beat away the wild beasts, which is precisely what Jesus meant when He said that He is the good shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep.
As we both know, at night the shepherds create pens for the sheep and the good one’s then lie down at the opening to the pen so that the wolves will have to take on the shepherds before they can get to the sheep. That’s a far cry from your statement of the bishops not being fighters. It was always my understanding that the staff carried by a bishop not only symbolized his benign control over the flock, but is a symbolic projection of power to the wolves.
That was very absent in your commentary yesterday with Charlie Rose.
What we don’t need any more of is polite, diplomatic meetings with the architects of the Culture of Death. We had that here in New York with Gay Marriage. We’ve now had that with the HHS mandate.
It’s beyond painful to see our bishops, health care leaders, and Catholic academicians repeatedly being played for fools by this man. Enough! What we need now are shepherds who will wield those staffs against the wolves who have been tearing the flock to pieces for decades. You can’t do business with the most rabidly proabortion politician in American history. He can only be defeated.
And it isn’t just the unborn or the elderly who need your protection. It’s good Catholic laypeople who are business owners and who don’t want to be forced to participate in this mandate. Even if you secure an accommodation for the Church, what about them?
Even if Obama capitulates on the HHS mandate, should he be reelected, he will sign an executive order the next day reinstating the mandate. Then what?
No, Emminence, we need a Cardinal like your illustrious predecessor, John Cardinal O’Connor. We need to confront the Nancy Pelosi’s and Kennedy’s, the Biden’s and Sebeliuses from within and force the issue regarding their Catholicity. They must recant their support of the Culture of Death or be prohibited from receiving communion. We need a Cardinal who will denounce such atrocities as the HHS mandate and not simply voice his “consternation” and “disappointment”.
You cannot afford to be played for the fool ever again. Your staff isn’t large enough to corral the entire flock when they lose faith in the shepherd. Should that occur, Emminence, it will be Obama’s most enduring legacy.
UPDATE: Please see correction here.
Coming Home 
Excellent!
I agree with Christine. Excellent words my brother. Keep up the great work that you do.
Thank you for being SOLID for us! Teaching and informing us.
Loved Dan’s willingness to give of his heart. Perhaps he can find another location to purchase his coffees?
Starbucks has some associations with the recent passed homosexual marriage that our own Queen Christine (Gov. Gregoir) will sign on Valentine’s Day. (makes my stomach erk!) She too, needs church discipline from
the LORD’s table.
Are we Catholics or are we cowards??? Bottom Line!
God bless Archbishop Dolan by giving him the courage to confront the Culture of Death and its prime ambassador, our President, with the kind of righteous anger and aggressiveness the situation requires. Absence that, let us hope that God raises up another champion who will do so. There is no goodwill, no truth in Obama’s policy toward the Church. He represents a tradition that has warred against Christ since the dawn of the modern age. The hour is late and the circumstances are dire. This truly is a question of life vs. death.
Wonder-filled and honest words to the cardinal-to-be. Would that he changes his words…Patricia in St. Louis, MO
Cardinal Dolan we need to hear fighting words from you. Our children will be left to the wolves of this administration if you don’t hold your ground. Be of good courage! This administration is nothing less than evil. Don’t leave us as prey to their teeth. Do some Jesus style table turning, I don’t know whose feelings you’re trying to spare by being so mild in dealing with this same evil only with a different face, but please don’t back down. We are praying for you! Our Blessed Mother has your back!
I too was a little taken aback by that statement, “we are not fighters”. I understand his context, that he doesn’t want to be confrontational. I think you can fight without being confrontational and rude. The language cannot be ambiguous.
A.M.D.G.
The bishops are to be praised for opposing the HHS mandate. However, Catholic charities, schools and hospitals already have to offer contraception coverage by state law in New York and elsewhere. Why hasn’t the Church opted out of prescription drug coverage in New York? The law has been in effect since 2002.
So glad you mentioned my hero, John Cardinal O’Connor. I prayed for his intercession (before I heard of Archbishop Dolan’s response) to intercede and pray for Archbishop Dolan to express his outrage, etc.
There is another Catholic institution that needs protection from Obamacare: The Catholic family. If anybody from the hierarchy of the Church is listening out there–throw us a lifeline! Do not accept the cynical manipulation floated by the most proabortion president in history because it may seem to offer relief to a few large institutions. Millions of families and businesses headed by Catholics NEED the Bishops to STAND STRONG.
Priests need to speak up in their parishes. Bishops and Cardinals may have lost their courage. We must not give into the evils of this world and the evil mandates of our governmental leaders. Pray that our President gets wisdom from the Holy Spirit to follow God and not the devil.
Fr. Larry Snyder of Catholic Charities USA appreciates Obama’s compromise. I wonder whether he is the one shaping Dolan’s timid respose.
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/page.aspx?pid=2539
Sr Keenan is smiling again too.
Take the cardinal’s overall attitude. He is elected head of the USCCB. Watch him on EWTN.and know his heart and mind Take the 170 – so far- bishops’ statements to their flock read at all last Sunday Masses. Then take the cardinal-elect’s words at the March for Life. The bishops are pastors and pastors sometimes teach, sometimes have to punish and they also have to take account of the actual political reality. Give the teasing out process time, Give the Court cases time to be heard and decided. I am absolutely disapointed Dr. N that you attack this very dedicated eloquent Shepherd. Do you have any understanding that there are many weapons in the Lord’s hands with which He can guide His Church.? His bishops have the Grace of office. I would not for a moment underestimate what Cdl Dolan and the USCCB members and their legal and advisory committees are suggesting. Wise as owls, cunning as the snakes they are up against to change a Gospel verse from Jesus.
Goodness and righteousness cannot be “forced”. That is why Jesus came as the lowly son of a carpenter, rather than choosing to be born into the world as son of an Emperor – Jesus became an inspiration, rather than a legislator. The Catholic Church needs to do the same.
It is inappropriate in the extreme to chastise a bishop like this. I say this NOT because I disagree with your opinion. But whenever I read a letter like this, I start out looking for the sentence, even a word, that says ‘we’re praying for you.’ The TRUTH is, the flock has abandoned the shepherd when he is forced to ‘go it alone’ against the wolves and has nobody supporting him. He is only human. Christ Himself had very little support, but he said in recent private revelations that the future zeal of those faithful followers gave Him much consolation during His Passion and death, and helped Him to go through to the end. Rather than scolding Archbishop Dolan, you should ALWAYS praise him for what he does SO well, then assure him that you are with him in PRAYER (and then DO IT – on your KNEES), and then and ONLY THEN, humbly ask your request.
Diane K., I agree with you.
Your Eminence, with all due respect, how can you say that bishops– or indeed any priest or Catholic layperson– is not meant to be a fighter? Are we not all members of the Church Militant at war with sin for our souls? To assume that pastoring and fighting are mutually exclusive is a false dichotomy, and our priests, perhaps especially those who share in the fullness of the priesthood are meant to be warriors.
Boy, do we all need to read Scott Hahn’s Many Are Called: Discovering the Joy of the Priesthood at times like these. And I’ve noticed that the term “Church Militant” has fallen out of fashion and into disfavor in general. Well, I guess it’s time to bring it back, eh?
This was an embarassing performance by Cardinal Dolan, but no more embarassing than the behavior and stance of the American Catholic bishops since the Bernardin era. It’s very simple, Your Eminence, you cannot get the govenment out of the Church until you get the Church out of the government. The illusion of “cooperation in medicine, education, and charity is just as great as the illusion of many Catholic and Protestant prelates with the Nazis. As a Baptist wrote, you lie down with dogs, you get fleas. Cardinal Dolan needs a weekend with the Desert Fathers.
Dr. Ken Craven
We need a John Hughes or John Cardinal O’Connor to fight this fight.
Is there anyway you can get signatures on this letter so he can know how many it has reached?
I for one would like to sign my agreement to this letter.
Urgent Memo
To: U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops
From: American Catholics
Re: Sister Nancy Keehan
Why is Sister Keehan allowed to sow confusion and division among those looking to your authority following the events of the past two weeks with her statement accepting the so-called compromise? Does she really speak for Catholic health organizations? Do you not see the harm this is doing?
After the last Mass today I saw the president’s chief of staff being interviewed on Fox News Sunday by Chris Wallace. Mr. Lew repeatedly made reference to the Catholic Healthcare Association and to Catholic Charities USA whose heads, Sr. Carol Keehan and Fr. Larry Snyder, expressed their satisfaction with the president’s “accommodation” for us. The end-run done by Keehan and Snyder around Cdl. Dolan and the bishops must be addressed, and addressed publicly. Otherwise, the administration will have successfully driven yet another dividing wedge between the Church’s institutions and her bishops.
How I pray that we are not about to see an ecclesiastical version of Neville Chamberlain proclaiming that we have achieved “peace in our time!”
We need to pray for Our Bishops…everyday. Fighting the vessels of Satan can be daunting and tiring….let us pray…Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host –
by the Divine Power of God –
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
The only way to stop Obama is in the voting booth. We are not lawyers or lobbyists or bishops. If Obama is re-elected and more than 20% (54% last time) of Catholics voted for him, I’m going to stop all financial support for my parish and diocese (NY). No more of my money will go to the institutional Church. Bad enough too much goes to taxes to fund abortions, pills and soon-enough euthenasia. I promise only to give my dollars to Faithful uncompromised charities, especially those dedicated to protecting the innocent.
A good priest once told me that “comparisons tend to be odious,” but I’m comparing the cardinal-designate to Cardinal O’Connor, and I’m not liking it, and I’m not odious. Cardinal O’Connor would have been far more direct and would have thrown down the gauntlet by this point.
You must do better than this, Archbishop Dolan. Obama is no friend to Catholics or the Church. Nor is he a friend to the Constitution. He is a raging egomaniac who is now trying to get the whole country to believe that abortion and contraception are good things.
Mary, we have to disregard that 54%. No “authentic Catholic” voted for Obama; that would be impossible. So the number of “baptized in the Catholic faith” who vote for him this time around will probably still be high.
Fred, All I want is for the message to be delivered. 38 Sundays left. Plenty of time to offer the truth even if it is “hard.”. It’s time we hear about the first. Commandment and strange gods and obedience to God’s law. Has not our God once again made pharaoh stubborn for us?
Mary, I hope for the same, but don’t expect any improvement here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
We have to look back no further than April, 2011 when 8 N.Y. State bishops met with Gov. Andrew Cuomo to discuss State support for parochial schools. Do you think the pending “same-sex marriage vote” was discussed at that meeting? Dolan admitted it wasn’t. Two months later, the bill became law.
When the baseball season begins again, Cdl. Dolan will have his Yankee cap atop his red cardinal’s hat along with a beer and a hot dog in his hands.
I am very grateful that Prof. Robert George has cultivated Charles Colson and Evangelical MEN to do do the heavy lifting for the effeminates who constitute the Princes(?) of the Church.
Bravo to you, Dr. Nadal. May God continue to give you strength!
One wonders in the absence of a clear, unambiguous, and unanimous statement from the Bishops if there is a true sense of the moment. The Church and its enemies are looking at you for what you will say or do next…the faithful for your spiritual direction, your enemies to lay snares. We now have people like Mike Huckabee, himself an ordained protestant minister, at a speech at the CPAC, and Glen Beck on his radio program both saying in solidarity with the Church at this crucial moment that “We are all Catholics”. This is huge…can anyone north of 60 imagine anything like this coming together of protestants and Catholics happening in our youth? And to add to the attention given this matter even the Republican candidates have taken up the issue of religious freedom. This matter is not going away any time soon and people of all faiths and of good will are depending on you for solid, unyielding leadership.
The cabal which you mitoenn deserves no credit for their display of backbone, as you term it. It’s called pandering to those who have the power to promote them. When they take the Romans on, then you’ll have an argument.