Posted on 01/23/2019 9:12:46 AM PST by ebb tide
n 2006, Covington Bishop Roger Foys banned the pro-life group Northern Kentucky Right to Life (NKRTL) from all churches and diocesan facilities and prohibited them from handing out literature on diocesan property.
Bishop Foys was installed as Bishop of Covington in 2002 and continues to serve in that position, He recently came under fire for condemning the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students in their encounter with other protest groups after participating in the March for Life in Washington D.C.
It should be noted that Northern Kentucky Right to Life has been called a "maverick" group by some and has in at least one case found itself at odds with other pro-life groups operating in Kentucky regarding political endorsements.
The following 2006 article from a local news source quotes Foys as implying that his actions had something to do with the "tactics" of NKRTL, but his precise reasoning or justification were not explicitly given.
I do not know whether his "ban" was ever lifted.
Northern Kentucky Right to Life continues to operate and apparently thrive. Its "45th Annual Celebration For Life" occurred on September 30, 2018 and featured the governor of Kentucky Matt Bevin as the guest speaker along with 750 attendees.
Diocese Bars Area Right To Life Group From Churches
October 25, 2006 at 3:58 PM EST - Updated July 26 at 1:21 PM
(NEWPORT, Ky.) -- A northern Kentucky Catholic diocese has barred an anti-abortion group from its churches and forbidden its priests from handing out the literature from the organization.
Bishop Roger Foys of the Diocese of Covington, Ky., issued a note to priests last week saying priests should have "no involvement" with Northern Kentucky Right to Life and to remove all of the group's materials from diocese facilities and churches.
"There are many good people involved in NKRTL who are being misled," Foys wrote, without giving specifics. "We cannot give any semblance that the Diocese approves of the tactics of some of the leadership of NKRTL."
The move has angered and confused the leadership of Northern Kentucky Right to Life. Fred Summe, a Newport attorney who is the group's vice president, said Foys has not spoken to the group about what tactics the church finds objectionable nor about how he feels people are being misled.
"If we're doing something wrong, why doesn't he approach us," Summe said. "That's just Christian charity."
The unusual split among longtime associates in the Cincinnati suburbs comes just days after the diocese hosted its annual "Pro-Life Mass," which included representatives from Northern Kentucky Right to Life. Northern Kentucky Right to Life distributed its literature at the Cathedral Basilica of The Assumption and at a reception following the services, along with other anti-abortion groups.
Chester Gillis, chairman of the Department of Theology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., who has studied the Catholic Church, said the Catholic Church wouldn't normally ban a group like Northern Kentucky Right to Life, mainly because they have the same goals. In the past, the church has stopped groups from meeting in its facilities or posting fliers on cars during Mass, Gillis said.
"Usually, with people with contrarian views, the church will bar them," Gillis said. "There must be something offensive about this group."
The diocese and the politically active anti-abortion group have had run-ins before. The group has been known for its harsh criticisms of candidates who do not meet the organization's standards in opposing abortion, stem-cell research and emergency contraception. Northern Kentucky Right to Life puts out annually a questionnaire to Kentucky candidates and makes endorsements partially based on the answers.
In 1990, then-Bishop William A. Hughes created the diocesan "Pro-Life Commission," which is still in existence, and issued a statement saying Northern Kentucky Right to Life isn't sponsored by the diocese and "...does not speak for the Catholic Church." Foys' note to the priests used similar language and noted "confusion" about the relationship between the two.
"His message was meant to clarify," said Tim Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the Diocese of Covington, which covers 14 counties and 89,000 people in northern Kentucky.
No one is saying exactly what caused the split. Fitzgerald declined to make Foys available for an interview. Fitzgerald said the note to priests was not meant to be public.
Fitzgerald said there were some concerns about Northern Kentucky Right to Life's "tactics" and methods, including "inaccuracies" in the groups' newsletters and talks with the group couldn't resolve the differences. When asked for specifics about the tactics or inaccurate statements, Fitzgerald declined comment.
"Northern Kentucky Right to Life has been more adamant, more reluctant to engage in dialogues," Fitzgerald said. "Northern Kentucky Right to Life has not taken advantage of this opportunity to collaborate."
Summe said the move -- just weeks before the Nov. 7 elections -- is hurting both the organization and the cause they both believe in.
"We're out doing what the Holy Father tells us to do, educate the public on the ultimate issue," Summe said. "You'd think the diocese would encourage us. They need to be specific in what they think we're doing wrong."
Gillis said it's likely the reason for the dispute will eventually be made public.
"You probably haven't heard the last of this," Gillis said.
Enemy of babies; enemy of the Church.
Many decades of Neo-marxist “long march through the institutions,” all supported by massive government funded by printed money and massive debt, have changed nearly all of American government and civil institutions into progressive-left political factions.
Why should we expect the Catholic Church to be any different?
FOYS must be either Gay or a HUGE LEFTY....or both. He is definitely NOT a good Catholic Leader!
I no longer keep lists, but it looks like another bishop who has got to go.
This may serve as a partial explanation of why the diocese continues its institutional false witness against the Covington boys.
The flock needs a new shepherd
You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.
You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.
So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals.
My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock,
therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:
This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
Ezekiel 34: 2-10
Teach children how they should live, and they will remember it all their lives.
Proverbs 22:6
It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
Luke 17:2
And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
"If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!
Matt 18:5-7
Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
Colossians 3:21
I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
1 John 2:13-14
The Pope should have exercised his authority and shoved him back in line.
The surprising thing is that it was not Francis.
I will be completely unsurprised if this Bishop turns out to be an LGBT advocate.
This bishop needs to be FReeped.
It should be remembered that only prayer, repentance, and faith in the Lord will fix this problem in the Church and in the culture.
As noted throughout Scripture, when the people abuse God's gifts and turn their backs on the Lord, he visits chastisements upon them in hope of getting their attention.
As the people persist in their sinful ways, the chastisements progress to destruction.
About 25 years ago I heard from someone in a position to know about corruption in a state pro-life group, kickbacks for endorsements. It got ugly with backbiting and division. Bp. Foys might have good reason. It’s sad but possible.
I don't think you can draw that conclusion from what is here. If the Right to Life group is overtly partisan, then the diocese (and by extension each of the parishes) can't allow them to speak/distribute literature. Doing so would potentially jeopardize 501(c)(3) status.
In my own diocese, the local Right to Life group has been told not to put partisan voter guides on cars; likewise, when they do (because they don't listen) the pastors make a disclosure that the voter guide is not endorsed by parish or diocese. But in general, the diocese has a good relationship with pro-lifers and actively supports pro-life causes.
This is the same trick that Cupich pulled in Spokane.
The pro-Life organization is more Catholic, more ethical, than the bishop, Cupich and Frank combined.
This link shows political endorsements. GCC Catholic may be onto something.
Do you have a problem with endorsing pro-lifers?
Read GCC Catholic’s post again and then you’ll understand my post better. This isn’t about what I would do. It’s about why this diocese may have reacted to this pro-life group the way that it did.
I’ve read his post and I have never agreed to the separation of Church and State.
Do you?
Or are you just taking pot shots?
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