Cardinal Dolan says NY Cuomo leveled ‘insults’ against the Church

New York City, N.Y., Jan 29, 2019 / 03:48 pm (CNA).- The Archbishop of New York said Monday that New York’s governor has insulted the Church, flaunted publicly his dissent from Catholic doctrine, and celebrated the Jan. 22 signing of the  states “ghoulish radical abortion-expansion law.”

“Instead of admitting that abortion is always a tragic choice, and that life-giving alternatives should be more vigorously promoted, the governor and his ‘progressive’ supporters celebrated signing the bill. At the governor’s command, even the lights of the Freedom Tower sparkled with delight,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan wrote in a Jan. 28 op-ed in the New York Post.

The state’s recently passed Reproductive Health Act, Dolan said, “allows for an abortion right up to the moment of birth; drops all charges against an abortionist who allows an aborted baby, who somehow survives the scissors, scalpel, saline and dismemberment, to die before his eyes; mandates that, to make an abortion more convenient and easy, a physician need not perform it; and might even be used to suppress the conscience rights of health care professionals not to assist in the grisly procedures.”

“All this in a state that already had the most permissive abortion laws in the country,” the cardinal added.

“Those who once told us that abortion had to remain safe, legal and rare now have made it dangerous, imposed and frequent.”

Dolan said that Cuomo had also unfairly characterized the Catholic Church’s engagement with a state bill concerning statutes of limitations for sexual abuse cases.

The bill, the NY Child Victims Act, passed Jan. 28, met with some initial resistance from New York’s bishops, who had expressed concern about retroactive provisions in the bill. Once those provisions were amended, the state’s bishops dropped their concerns.

But Dolan said Cuomo had leveled “insults and caricatures” against the Church, while trying to “blame the church, and only the church, for blocking this bill.”

Dolan said that New York’s bishops “have long supported a reform of the inadequate laws around the sexual abuse of minors. Yes, we and many others expressed reservations about one element, the retroactive elimination of the civil statute of limitations, but urged dramatic reform that, in many ways, was tougher than what was being proposed by legislators. A month ago we renewed that stance, and even dropped our objections to the ‘look-back’ section if all victims would benefit. The governor was aware of all this.”

Dolan’s criticisms of Cuomo were direct: “Why would he publicly brag in a political address about his dissent from timeless and substantive church belief? Why would he quote Pope Francis out of context as an applause line to misrepresent us bishops here as being opposed to our Holy Father? Why did he reduce the sexual abuse of minors, a broad societal and cultural curse that afflicts every family, public school, religion and government program, to a ‘Catholic problem?’”

“I’m a pastor, not a politician, but I feel obliged to ask these questions, as daily do I hear them from my people, as well as colleagues from other creeds. I’ve been attacked in the past when I asked — sadly and reluctantly — if the party that my folks proudly claimed as their own, the Democrats, had chosen to alienate faithful Catholic voters. Now you know why I asked,” Dolan added.

Dolan said that while the state’s Democrats purport to be progressive, their recent abortion bill is anything but.

The Democrats for Life of America agreed.

In a Jan. 29 statement, the group said that “Abortion is big business in New York with unlimited public funding and an abortion rate twice the national average.  The Governor’s new law will not address the high abortion rate, nor will it help pregnant women who feel pressured or coerced into abortion. The law will help influential and financially flush abortion corporations increase their customer base and profit margin.” “One in three aborted children were African American and one in four were Hispanic. The new law further exploits women, particularly minority populations who are overrepresented in these numbers,” the group said.

“We call on New York legislators – particularly Democrats – to embark on a mission to make New York, the state, have the lowest abortion rate in the Nation. The estimated $18 million that would be spent yearly on abortion, could be put toward programs to prevent pregnancy including contraction and sex education, prenatal and postnatal healthcare, public housing, affordable child care, and paid maternity leave. Furthermore, we recommend outreach to minority communities to vastly bring down the perceived targeting of women and babies of color.”

“As Democrats, we advocate for progressive solutions to problems facing the weakest in society: the poor, minorities, women, and children—even if they are yet to be born. New York should repeal this anti-women law and no other state should replicate it.”

While Dolan has been outspoken in his opposition to the abortion law, and Cuomo’s support for it, some Catholics have called for him to excommunicate or impose some other canonical sanctions on the governor, but Dolan has recently indicated he is unlikely to do so. The cardinal’s office did not respond to a request from CNA for comments on that possibility.

 


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7 Comments

  1. Perhaps Cardinal Dolan needs to spend far more time in prayerful consideration of his duties as the “pastor” he claims to be. He is duty bound to issue the decree of anathema excommunication against Cumo and all the former catholic politicians who passed this bill.

      • From Fr. Rutler…….One theory is that some Church leaders have been reluctant to annoy Governor Andrew Cuomo in the midst of civil investigations of the Church, given the recriminatory personality of the man. But accommodation is a weak strategy. After the Munich agreement, Winston Churchill said, “And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigor, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.” Corroborating that warning, just three days after his “Reproductive Health Act,” on January 28, Andrew Cuomo “celebrated” the passage through the state senate of the “Child Victims Act” aimed at Catholic Institutions.

    • I signed the petition to have Cuomo, the Demon, and the other so-called “Catholic” Politicians Excommunicated from the Church. Just what is the Cardinal waiting for? To date, 60 million babies have been murdered this way, since 1973, in the U.S., alone. Every abortion Cruxifies Christ again, and again, as innocents are being murdered. Cuomo has spat on the Church of Christ with his Homosexual Marriage laws, and now the egregious Transgender Education of young children, and allowing child sex changes of those who could never make a decision on their own to do so. This is Child Abuse, of the highest, and most Outrageous order. It seems that the lunatics are now running the Asylum. It’s odd how the Church found no trouble in Excommunicating King Henry VIII, Martin Luther, John Knox, father of Presbyterianism, and John Calvin, who founded Puritanism. None of these men advocated the killing of babies, yet they were dealt with. So why the delay with Cuomo, and the others? Those that don’t defend life, particularly those who should know better within the Church, will answer for their actions, and inactions, before Christ on Judgment Day. I would not want to be them.

  2. A pastor of the flock, on behalf of the flock, would consider excommunication. A politician of the flock will just keep up the communication.

  3. The push back by Cardinal Dolan is a little late. He seeks popularity over truth, St Thomas Aquinas prayed for the intersession of the Blessed Mother that he not be named a bishop for fear of losing his soul.Perhaps Dolan should take heed.

  4. Why is it, that we laws to protect certain ‘animal species’ and here is a ‘CATHOLIC’ POLITICIAN who encourages the MURDER OF OUR SPECIES WITHOUT ANY RETRIBUTION FROM OUR CHURCH? We excommunicate people for divorcing and have a wonderful, long and happy 2nd marriage YET NOT EXCUMMINCATE MURDERS OF INNOCENT BABIES?

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