Posted on 03/04/2012 5:11:38 AM PST by NYer
Timothy Cardinal Dolan ramped up the rhetoric in his battle with the White House over contraception policy yesterday — and promised some political payback.
“Don’t impose your teaching upon us and make us do as a church what we find unconscionable to do!” the freshly minted prince of the church told a roaring crowd of 1,000 at Holy Trinity Diocesan HS in Hicksville, LI, referring to a government plan to mandate that religious institutions provide free contraception to workers.
“The Health and Human Services fight is a freedom-of-religion battle. It is not about contraception. It is not about women’s health,” Dolan said.
“No, we are talking about an unwarranted, unprecedented, radical intrusion into the interior life of, integrity of a church’s ability to teach, serve and sanctify on its own.”
In a blistering attack interlaced with humor, Dolan never mentioned President Obama by name — only his policies. And the cardinal promised to put the political muscle of 78 million American Catholics to work against the enemies of free religion.
“President Johnson said, as an American, I look to the church — I look to religion as a beehive. If you leave them alone, they’re going to give you tons of their honey. But if you stick your head in there, you’re going to get stung bad.”
The cardinal, dressed in black and wearing his priestly collar, warned that the sting may come in the voting booth.
“I’d recommend starting voter-registration drives at our parishes. Not only is it going to help churches, it is going to help our American republic. More voters the better.”
And he said he’s confident he’s not alone in the fight.
“We look up and see people who share our values and our vision,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I am not sure where you get this perspective because EVERYWHERE that I have been on the front lines of the abortion fight, the Catholic Church and its laity is in the center of all of it.
The great majority are young people. We have an army, if we can get them out to vote.
They have.
Didn’t zero claim to have moved the onus to provide birth control and etcetra to the insurance companies? News which the LSM covered with great fanfare?
Didn’t that “law” get added to the federal register that following Friday night without change and without the LSM fanfare?
So the LSM must be ignoring all that Cardinal Dolan is saying rather than admit that zero lied.
My opinion is that I have observed far too many fake but accurate Catholics saying one thing and doing another.
That makes it tough for the dozen or so Catholics who actually follow the teachings.
I sincerely hope that Timothy Cardinal Dolan has at least a modicum of personal security assistants. I wouldn’t put anything past the thugs and goons of the anti-Christian 0bama regime.
They have.
LOL! Sure they have!
He does. I work near his residence. In fact, in the past several weeks, there are now two cops posted outside. Never saw that before. I think there have been credible threats made against him.
Thank you, Eminence ping!
“My only question is whether the Cardinal can truly raise 78 million faithful in the Catholic faith.”
It would be nice if he could, but he can't. However, he doesn't need to.
A modest majority of self-identified Catholics voted for the anti-Christ in 2008. The typical number stated is 54%. If the hierarchy of the Church is able to highlight the anti-Christ’s campaign against the Catholic Church to motivate a 10% shift, a rather more modest result, the anti-Christ would only get 44% of the self-identified Catholic vote. Folks don't generally win the presidency without a majority, or at least a rough tie, in the Catholic vote.
Since 1956, Catholics have given a majority to the popular election loser of the presidential race twice, in 1968 and in 1988. In 1988, the margin was 52%-48% for Dukakis. Al Gore took 50% to 47% in 2000, but he was considered to have won the popular vote.
The cardinal's task is relatively modest - influence half the swing vote of the Catholic electorate to vote Republican in 2012.
sitetest
It’s up to the repubs to frame this issue as a Constitutional not women’s rights issue.
So far they have failed. So what else is new??
Go on the offensive, for a change.
I knew when I watched Cardinal Dolans installation as Arch Bishop that he was going to be a man to be reckoned with. I love Cardinal Dolan and wish him God speed in this battle. I am behind him 100%.
Lord, be with Cardinal Dolan and give him the strength to do your will always.
Saint Michael, be steadfast at his side. Raise your sword to call all warriors of the Lord to your side and lead us with Cardinal Dolan to victory. Gods will be done.
At least he’s trying to get an oar in the water. Too bad too many other churches are sitting on their collective thumbs.
Perhaps that question should be directed to those in the church with the authority to do so.
Techinically under canon law, they already are excommunicated for pushing these sins upon the people.
Which raises an ever more interesting question...if we are forced to pay for such procedures through our insurances at work ...are we not also excommunicated?
Democrats really do not understand about unchanging fundamental beliefs. They would do almost anything to get and hold onto power. Somehow they thing that with enough coercion anyone will wilt under the pressure. Maybe parts of the Church play the political game way to much but the Demonrats have finally pushed the Church into a corner they cannot back out of.
So time to come out fighting.
Give him a punch in the nether regions for me Cardinal Dolan.
Mel
“I am as they say a 'fallen away Catholic', due in part because of the Churches lack of emphasis on defending the unborn.”
With over 70 million Catholics in the United States, and over 1 billion worldwide, the Church is a heterogeneous place. But the Church has taken the charge in some places in mobilizing Catholics to defend the unborn through political action.
In the last few election cycles, all the Catholic parishes in the Archdioceses of Washington and Baltimore have been strongly urged to conduct voter registration drives around the pro-life theme, and in one or two cases, letter-writing campaigns to the Maryland legislature on behalf of pro-life issues.
For parishes that haven't been too keen on the idea, the bishops went to the Knights of Columbus in the state of Maryland and asked them to put some muscle and manpower behind the efforts. The state council did so, and pushed voter registration teams and letter-writing campaign teams hard in every single parish in both archdioceses. The goal was to have active teams in every single parish within the state of Maryland in both archdioceses, and they came darned near to 100% of that goal.
I don't remember all the results of these campaigns, but I do remember that with one of the letter-writing campaigns, we generated more letters to the state legislature on a single issue than anyone had ever seen on any issue ever in the state of Maryland. By an order of magnitude. We generated literally tens of thousands of pieces of mail on the issue.
It didn't help much. Maryland is a fascist one-party state, and moving the Catholic electorate five or ten points toward the Republican side doesn't mean a lot. It means the POS (Party of Satan) wins 64 - 36 instead of 66 - 34, or some similar sort of result.
But nationwide, that sort of movement would be devastating to the anti-Christ and to the POS. It remains to be seen whether Cardinal Dolan and the rest of the hierarchy will do what is needed to do to accomplish that relatively modest goal.
sitetest
Very good analysis and of course you are right about this. Here's a link to a thread of one recent religious liberty homily that specifically intended to influence this 'swing vote of the Catholic electorate'. I pray for more. Sebelius and 0bama have awoken a sleeping giant.
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