Before emerging as a key fighter against Barack Obama’s mandate that insurers provide no-cost birth control, Cardinal Dolan skirted the issue for years.
But while Dolan has lately emerged as a vehement foe of both the initial and revised versions of the White House’s plan, his voice was rarely heard before this year, even as laws in New York and Wisconsin compelled Catholic institutions under his spiritual direction to provide employees with health-insurance plans that cover prescription birth-control medication.
Dolan kept a similarly low profile on the issue of mandated coverage when he was Archbishop of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009. In June of 2009, Wisconsin became one of the now 28 states that require health insurers to cover birth control without a co-pay. Dolan, who had been reassigned to New York that February, wasn’t very involved with the mandate either before or after leaving the state, said John Huebscher, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference—who added that the measure was a little-discussed eleventh-hour addition to the state’s budget.
At Marquette, a Catholic university in Milwaukee, the university’s plan has covered contraceptives, but not emergency contraceptives, since before 1990, according to spokesman Brian Dorrington.whole article at The Daily Beast
The article goes on to almost imply that Huebscher was saying it was Dolan's fault that the Wisconsin contraception/abortifacient mandate was not addressed by the Wisconsin Catholic Conference(the conference remained neutral although Listecki and Morlino broke from the WCC opinion). That could be I guess.
Also goes on to explain how vicious Democrats and NARAL were to Catholic institutions in Wisconsin, I hope union supporters consider this with the upcoming election. Unfortunately in this state, you cannot have both union rights and the Catholic religion, so you have to pick between the two. Which is most important?
From a commenter on an old post:
Then there was then Ab. Burke – still of La Crosse – ‘incident’. Ab. Burke had made some strong comments about pro-abortion Catholic politicians still presenting themselves for Holy Communion. Dolan was asked to comment and instead of supporting Burke made the dismissive remark: “Well that’s just Ray…” No one took much notice of it at the time, but it struck me forcefully and I felt it said a lot about Dolan.Photo
4 comments:
This brings to light some very legitimate concerns that a significant number of faithful Catholics in Milwaukee have about Cardinal Dolan's leadership. A lot of Archbishop Weakland's loyal subjects were, inexplicably, left in prominent middle management positions in the curia, when a thorough house-cleaning was in order. Their influence remains to this day. I respectfully suggest that on a lot of the issues, then-Archbishop Dolan was not particularly vocal in the way that we see Bishop Morlino or Cardinal Burke fearlessly speaking out. One example: Dolan rejected the petition of Old Saint Anthony Parish on the South Side to have the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, while doing very little to curb liturgical abuses at so many (if not most) of Milwaukee's parishes. (Can you see the Pope or Cardinal Burke doing this?) The reason for the rejection? Because Saint Stanislaus, under the Institute, is right down the street, so just go there. But Saint Stanislaus isn't my parish...
If I were to say "No" to a parish, I'd say it to the countless loopy, soft-sofa parishes committing any number of egregious liturgical abuses week after week. I'm not going to say "No" to one of the few faithful parishes in the city that simply wants to have the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. Anyone who digs a little into the record, rather than just accepting conventional wisdom, will find some interesting things that went on during Dolan's tenure in Milwaukee.
Thank you for sharing. What a gift Summorum Pontificum is!
Agreed, Anon. While I like Cardinal Dolan in many respects, I continue to have reservations about his approach. It often seems that he puts too much faith in the force of his personality. A kind of: “If we can just sit down and talk about it over a beer we can fix it.” That was my impression of his interaction with Obama. He states that he was ‘disappointed’ with him afterwards - apparently thinking that after their discussions everything would be okay. Not exactly the “wise as serpents” part of that admonition of Our Lord’s…
Maybe he is too trusting – in his own skills and in other people’s seeming honesty and openness. But he would not be the first, or only, person to be taken in by Obama’s rhetoric.
Certainly, he is different. Who but Dolan would have introduced humor in his address to the Holy Father and assembled Cardinals before the Consistory (asking if he could be exempted from the “shedding of blood” part in the oath all Cardinals take…)?
And, as Fr. Z noted, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, given his mother’s reply to the Holy Father when he remarked that she looked too young to be the mother of a Cardinal: “Holy Father, is that an infallible statement?”
For my money I would prefer the directness of a Cardinal Burke or an Archbishop Chaput. But perhaps we need both types in the hierarchy – as long as they’re all singing from the same hymnal…
We are all able to look at the Crucifix.
There is God-man.
He knows all our sins and He died for them.
What does take up your cross and follow Me mean?
We know some of our sins and some of the sins of others and we are to die for them.
That is Love.
No other God-Way to Love.
Popes, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated, laity-Scripture says we are all sinners, otherwise liars.
We can all love Saints.
But the pagans love other pagans.
So we, Christians, must be different, and we must love other sinners.
And do good to them.
And pray for them.
And bless them.
Everytime we talk about a sinner, we are commanded to pray for them, etc.
We admonish sinners, yes, and we must do the rest also.
Post a Comment