Dolan gives the Times holy hell: Hits 'anti-church' op-ed

New York Post ^ | November 3, 2009 | DAN MANGAN

[SampleMan]

I do not hold anything against those who choose to stay Catholic...

Interesting statement, coming as it did, after four paragraphs of repudiating Catholic practices. Sadly you've mistaken practices and rituals for faith, while accusing others of the same, and human failings for doctrinal failings. Kneeling is a sign of reverence, yet it is among the things your seemingly reject. Do you actually think God dislikes kneeling?

And for the record, Priests witness and affirm absolution. To say that you don't need a priest to be forgiven is a straw man set up. Catholicism does not teach that a man alone on an island is condemned to hell for the inability to practice.

[leenie312]

Also, they know deep down inside that they’re wrong (as did Satan)....

um..Satan does not think he is wrong...which is the whole problem..He thinks he is right...he has no conscience that tells him he is wrong...he is full of self righteousness and pride, arrogance and haughtiness....he thinks he can do it all without God...that he himself is God and in no need of improvement or repentance. Just sayin....

[Mrs. Frogjerk]

I am sorry to hear about your experience with the Church.

I am a practicing Catholic,and believe it or not I too read the Bible. Imagine that!

I know what you mean when it comes to people being hypocrites in the Church. I don't let that muddy up the waters for me and affect my relationship with Christ.

I don't really blame you for being so distraught and let down by the personal incident that you went through. I do hope that you can forgive the Church for that one day.

I don't think that it helps that you were not catechized properly. If you really feel like the things that we do are just rituals and not a way to bring us even more closer to God, than you were not taught by the best. If you also feel like you were confessing to the priest and not to Christ, that is another red flag that your educators stunk! It's a huge red flag that your parish would allow such a heinous thing to happen to your sister and proceed to do nothing about it.

This is why we lose people. Some parish's just stink!

I hope that you stop using your broad brush and quit painting all of our parish's with it. I can tell you that my Church is awesome! If it were not for them I would probably be gone as well.

[leenie312]

I repudiated catholic practices...not Catholics who practice them. I have nothing against them whatsoever...They choose their own path...I have chosen mine.

I do not dislike kneeling...but what I do mind is someone telling me I have to kneel...I kneel before God when my heart and his Spirit move me to kneel...I stand and praise him...when his Spirit moves me to stand and praise...I fall prostrate before him in worship when my heart and his Spirit move me to. I do not need a program to tell me...okay...it is time to reverence God...so kneel. There is no freedom in that. It no longer is a spontaneous...”oh how I love you dear Jesus time”...it becomes a “well, this is the time to kneel because everyone else is doing it time”. To me that just doesn’t seem sincere and from the heart.

Jesus is the high Priest...there is no one on the planet that is between him and me...I do not need another to absolve me of sin or to witness my absolution. Christ’s blood did that for me at Calvary...it is all I need. He is the only priest I need. I can confess my sin to another person...but that does not remove the sin...(it may move that person to pray for me) but only the blood of Jesus can cleanse it. Why put someone between you and Him...when he tells us to come directly to him?

As for condemnation...you might want to speak to the sisters who taught me then...I even had one tell me when I was 7 that I was going to hell because she did not see me in church the past Sunday....a heavy pronouncement on a little girl...I was horrified. I walked in fear and condemnation for many, many years. I held onto that curse spoken over me until Jesus broke it off me. But thank God I found out that Perfect Love casts out all fear.

[leenie312]

I have known many God fearing Catholics... as well as many who are Catholics on Sunday and for the rest of the week live like hell...as for my parish and those who taught me..well I agree...they were lacking God’s grace for sure. I was taught form and not relationship..

Things have gotten worse there...I just found out that my home parish is sponsoring a Christmas program where beer and wine will be served. Imagine that?...getting drunk in Church!! The program will of course be held in the same place the weekly AA meetings are held...talk about hypocrisy. And the present priest installed there is a seriously “light in the loafers”...it is unbelievable. he did my father’s funeral...I was just floored at how effeminate he was....and I couldn’t help thinking, in the back of my head, about what was happening behind closed doors there. I shudder at the thought.

I am so glad you are doing well where you are and that you are happy. My point in answering the first post was that just because I left does not mean I am following satan.

[MSF BU]

The childless bitter liberal female; this has almost become an archetype in our society! What Maureen needs to act on and realize is that the Episcopal Church welcomes her and she needs to evacuate and move on!

[Mrs. Frogjerk]

Your former parish sounds like a real swell place. I don’t blame you for being disheartened!

[Tribune7]

He defended the man who did it...said he was old and not in his right mind...etc.

How old was he?

[leenie312]

I think he was in his late 60’s...seems I recall he was 68

[leenie312]

at the time he was ancient to me..( I was only 15)

[xzins]

Why...attack the church

In the Beatitudes, Jesus said that we should consider ourselves blessed when people persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Him. "Rejoice and be glad for great is your reward in heaven. In the same way they persecuted the prophets who preceded you."

Why? Because you bear testimony to Jesus.

[Alex Murphy]

Oh...and it wasn’t just one bad priest...it was a conspiracy of priests...who allowed a 14 year old girl to be sexually assaulted and told her to keep her mouth shut...so as to not give the church a “black-eye”...our parish priest’s exact phrase. He defended the man who did it...said he was old and not in his right mind...etc. My parents were counseled by him to not press charges against the guy..that he would take care of it...put him in a place where he wouldn’t do anymore damage..my parents bought that line of crap...but we found out later he was back in his own parish immediately and stayed there with his filthy hands handing out the Eucharist until he died 3 years later. My parents were counseled to never mention the incident again...and they didn’t ...so my sister was left with that pile of crap to deal with...without the help of anyone. And years later when my sister went back to our parish priest to seek his help in dealing with her pain...he told her “just forget about it...it was all in the past”....A priest...we were taught, was a representative of Christ here on earth....my sister still has a problem with God...can you blame her?

As I've stated elsewhere, the real scandal in the Catholic Church wasn't the sexual abuse, but that 66% of Catholic bishops covered for the 4% of sexual predators among Catholic clergy. Their actions negatively affected 95% of the dioceses in the United States. Their actions cost the Catholic Church over three billion dollars paid in settlements and awards to the victims. Two-thirds of the bishops. Roughly the same percentage that chose not to speak out when Notre Dame honored Obama last spring. Coincidence?

Related threads:
The Bishops Who Speak... And Those Who Don't
So how many bishops back Notre Dame now?
Kneeling Before the World [Catholic Caucus]
Immunity, Denied (Catholic Caucus)
Sixth Circuit: Vatican Can Be Sued for Sexual Abuse

[Faithful Departed author Philip] Lawler points out that while less than five percent of American priests have been accused of sexual abuse, some two-thirds of our bishops were apparently complicit in cover-ups. The real scandal isn't the sick excesses of a few dozen pedophiles, or even the hundreds of priests who had affairs with teenage boys -- the bulk of abuse cases. No, according to Lawler, it is the malfeasance of wealthy, powerful, and evidently worldly men who fill the thrones -- but not the shoes -- of the apostles. In case after case, we read in their correspondence, in the records of their soulless, bureaucratic responses to victims of psychic torture and spiritual betrayal, these bishops' prime concern was to save the infrastructure, the bricks and mortar and mortgages. Ironically, their lack of a supernatural concern for souls is precisely what cost them so much money in the end.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Which school did she go to as well? Some of them rarely or never reflect biblical truth. It’s more about the liberal feel good of the day.

[Alex Murphy]

I agree....I see some glimmers of hope..we have talked a lot about what happened...now that she is older and more open to it. I have witnessed to her about the power of God to heal...not just physically...but healing the whole man...emotions etc. I see it happening...but it can be a long road. She hid it for years...the pain is buried deep....But God can do ALL thing...nothing is impossible for him...even restoring the brokenhearted.

You reminded me of a series of devotionals that I'd posted many years ago. You and your sister may find some value in them.

These letters are taken from a collection of Francis Schaeffer's letters, published by Crossways Books shortly after his death. In my "formative" years as a new Christian, this book was a profound influence on my thinking, and my working through what it meant to be a Christian living in a fallen world. Schaeffer's words, more than once, proved an immense comfort when I was deep in despair. I thought these letters would make good devotional-style material for the Religion Forum.

Fortunately, instead of having to type book excerpts by hand, I discovered a website that has reprinted seventeen of the letters from his book. Earthly duties permitting, I plan to post one each day and hope that each of you will benefit from a brief glimpse into the mind and heart of Francis A. Schaeffer.

Letter One: The Reawakening of Spiritual Reality
Letter Two: Gradually My Thinking Has Changed
Letter Three: On Resting
Letter Four: A Root Planted in a Garden
Letter Five: On Sickness
Letter Six: The Art of Spiritual Growth
Letter Seven: No Perfect People, Physically or Psychologically
Letter Eight: Being Angry at God
Letter Nine: Something with Both Usefulness and Beauty
Letter Ten: On Knowing the Presence of God
Letter Eleven: Imperfection and the Continuing Work of Christ
Letter Twelve: Spiritual Battles Draw Real Blood
Letter Thirteen: Times of Strength and Times of Weakness
Letter Fourteen: Salvation, Works and Grace, Eternal Security, and the Sacraments
Letter Fifteen: Do Not Be Afraid of the Past
Letter Sixteen: Everything Is Spiritual Because God Made Everything
Letter Seventeen: Quiet In the Presence of God

[HiTech RedNeck]

Yes, if people are doing something serious with Jesus Christ in their lives, they are devil bait.

[rbmillerjr]

Your story is a very personal story.

I personally believe that Christ can speak to Christians in different ways. My story is just the opposite, of a myriad of protestant denominations leaving me feeling betrayed by those churches.

After marrying a Catholic, I converted about four years after our marriage, after praying and studying for years. I’m not a perfect Christian and not a perfect Catholic...and it’s that way for all of us. I strive to be stronger.

I’m grateful you have found Christ and that is most important. Some that have been through what your sister and family have been through have rejected God outright.

Prayers out for your sister and you, as well as your family. May your faith in Christ be strong.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I feel very distressed at your awful, painful experience of injustice at the hands of judas priests. God is just, and the fitst to be judged will be His Church.

"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God." 1 Peter 4:17

[Mrs. Don-o]

I remember about 5 years ago when "Donna," a devout Catholic friend, phoned and told me about the John Jay College's published conclusion that over 60% of the Catholic Bishops had quietly reassigned and/or paid some kind of hush money to shield abusive priests fom criminal prosecution. We cried together over the phone --- anger, shame, disgust --- and then e-mailed each other when more of the details came out, and cried again.

Thee is no way to "go on" in the face of such crimes except to remember that God, with his all-seeing eyes and perfect judgment, will judge His Church.

It calls to mind so many heart-rending episodes in the past. That at one point every Bishop in Catholic England --- every one of them --- abandoned the Catholic faith except for St. John Fisher. And that at one earlier point every Apostle betrayed, denied, or abandoned Our Lord --- except for St. John at the foot of the Cross.

[jmaroneps37]

The gray lifeless “lady” has just seen the opening of a nasty war they will lose. Dolan is NO ordinary go along to get along Catholic Bishop of New York. He was put in office by the Pope specifically to do what he has just done. Expect more of this not less if the smug bastards on 42nd street want to keep this shiite up.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"He singled out Dowd -- a poison-penned, Pulitzer winner and former Catholic-school girl -- for "the most combustible," "intemperate and scurrilous" "diatribe" she wrote on Oct. 25..."

What a surprise. A bishop with some backbone and chutzpah.
Nobody would have expected it...