Posted on 01/24/2007 9:58:25 AM PST by jude24
A deacon upbraided Rep. Brian Higgins during Sunday morning Mass in St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church for voting in favor of embryonic stem cell research, prompting the congressman and his family to walk out during the sermon.
The Rev. Art Smith, pastor of the South Buffalo church, said he felt "horrible" about the Higgins family's departure on "Respect Life Sunday" and offered an apology from the pulpit after the congressman had left.
Bishop Edward U. Kmiec of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo later issued a statement also criticizing Deacon Tom McDonnell's action.
"I can't tell you how terrible I felt," Smith said Tuesday. "While we have to always uphold the church's teachings regarding life, I don't think it's ever fair to publicly criticize someone who serves our community and our parish so well."
Added Kmiec: "The pulpit is not the appropriate place for confronting a member of the congregation. It is my belief that in situations like this, we are more effective when we have substantive, one-on-one conversations with individuals outside the context of the Mass."
Higgins, who was baptized and married in that church, apologized for walking out with his wife, Mary Jane, and son John.
"I want to apologize to the good people of St. Thomas Aquinas Church," Higgins said. "They should not have been subjected to that, and they deserved much better."
Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, said the family was on hand primarily because the Mass was being said in memory of Shirley Higgins, the late wife of close friend and former Erie County Sheriff Thomas F. Higgins.
"People were there because of Tom and his family and his wife," Higgins said. "And to use this as a forum to ruin that remembrance Mass was very, very unfortunate. I apologized to his family."
The congressman was less conciliatory toward the deacon.
"What he was doing here was trying to drive a wedge, and it was a cheap shot," Higgins said. "But it's what I do. I take hits [as a politician], and I accept that."
McDonnell declined to comment on the incident.
Noreen Curr of South Buffalo was among the congregants who considered the criticism out of bounds.
"I thought what was said was inappropriate, because [Higgins] was there for other reasons," Curr said. "I felt bad that he left."
McDonnell's sermon called attention to a Jan. 11 vote in Congress, which Higgins supported, that would authorize research using embryonic stem cells. McDonnell noted that Higgins was in attendance and suggested that congregants could talk with him about his vote.
The bill would allow federal funding for research involving stem cell lines derived from surplus embryos created in fertility clinics, of which 400,000 are frozen and otherwise would be thrown away as medical waste, Higgins said. Instead, he said, they can be used to promote potentially lifesaving research.
Smith, pastor of the Abbott Road church, said that there have been several phone calls expressing "disappointment and embarrassment" over what happened.
Smith said he spoke with McDonnell and planned to talk with him again. "I'm hoping the deacon will somehow express his regret," Smith said. "He could have done the whole [sermon] without publicly embarrassing Brian."
However, the deacon also took a swipe at Higgins over the same stem cell vote the day before in a 4 p.m. Mass, with Smith in attendance.
Smith said he felt uncomfortable over the deacon's remarks then, too. But he said he didn't expect McDonnell to repeat his criticism with Higgins in attendance Sunday.
"This is not my way of doing things. It really isn't. I feel caught in the middle, because I want to be supportive of both [Higgins and McDonnell]. I just feel so bad that it happened."
At a reception in Thomas Higgins' house after Sunday Mass, Smith was turned away at the door. "What happened was atrocious," Thomas Higgins said. "It wouldn't have done any good for him to come into the house, because people's feelings were so hurt." Smith said he regrets that the congressman was not treated the way Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., was when she attended a Labor Day Mass in the church in 2001 and was warmly welcomed by Bishop Henry J. Mansell despite her pro-choice position on abortion.
"What happened is so painful, so hurtful," Smith said. ". . . I wish that [spirit] would have prevailed on Sunday."
If anyone needs an example of what's wrong with the Church in America, here it is. A whining, wishy-washy priest propped up by a bishop who "warmly welcomes" abortion-loving socialists.
Ping
I suspect McDonnell was more worried about the IRS than hurting Higgins' feelings.
Yes, there is an orderly step-by-step process for confronting congregants living in disobediedience to the gospel, and it doesn't start with calling them out by name from the pulpit (though it may properly eventually get to that point).
No apology should have been issued. If the congressman can't take the heat...
Suggesting that the Church should not have been used as a forum to discuss current events as they relate to the murder of children is, as usual, arrogant and selectively censorious of Higgins. This idiot would be the first to use the pulpit to campaign for office and denounce activities of his opposition, as do all the Democrats on a regular basis. His own medicine.
Yeah, right. Just as it's not clear that John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, et al. have been privately approached and instructed. I mean, maybe they don't really know that baby-killing isn't what Jesus liked. GIVE US A BREAK WITH THE PC CRAP!
The bishops and priests who gush over the death-dealers in Congress are the same people who would make Our Lord apologize to the scribes and pharisees for calling them names in public.
EXACTLY RIGHT.
I think I agree this was inappropriate. The pulpit is a fine place to denounce the use of embryos, and even to encourage people to speak out in defense of life.
But NOT to point out a member of the congregation and tell people to talk to them about what they did.
"We all need to give more. In that vein, I note with disdain that Max Keegler, a well-off congregant here who drives a BMW and lives in a large house, has been putting a relative pittance into the collection plate. Those among you who want to ask him why he isn't more generous should talk to him at the end of the service, he's sitting there in the 8th row on the left...."
Higgins' support for abortion is not a private matter at all. He boasts a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT rating on his Congressional votes from Planned Parenthood and NARAL. Moreover, the deacon decried Higgins' vote on stem cells in the sermon he gave during the Saturday vigil mass, when Higgins was not in attendance. It would have been cowardice to have dropped the reference just because the Congressman showed up at mass to get his photo made.
The schedule you reference would apply more properly to an established congregation (more or less like a synagogue or a Protestant group) and not to the eternal "missionary" establishment on which the RC church is presently modeled.
In any case, all of this is "private" in the sense of American custom.
No doubt this is embarrassing to the priest and bishop involved, but they should be embarrassed for their own behavior in not having gone to the Congress-critter and told him his behavior was wrong.
I agree essentially with what you say here, however, his vote must be publicly refuted in a different forum. It was not his personal actions which are in question, it was his public performance which must be answered, publicly.
Bravo Zulu to the Deacon.
This is supposed to be the 'rebuke'? He's making the congregants aware of how their representative voted. If he pointed out what the Church's teaching on the subject is, that is well within what he should be doing as a Deacon. If the Congressman doesn't like it, that's too dang bad. Maybe it will cause the Congressman enough discomfort that he'll reconsider his position.
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One man's "feelings" is nothing compared to the millions killed by the culture of death.
When will the men in our churches stand to do the right thing, rather than act like politicians like Higgins?
I agree. I would also say that any church that isn't starting that procedure, starting with taking these pols aside for a private talk, are negligent.
You're correct. This should not have been done from the pulpit unless Higgins had been confronted in private, and then confronted again by a group. That said, the Deacon's procedural misstep is nothing compared to the race by the pastor and bishop to kiss this pol's butt. Also, every church should begin the three step process with all the pro-choice pols, then boot them if their power matters more to them than God does.
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