Bishop Martino's Resignation - 1 of 2

Bishop Martino’s Resignation – 1 of 2
In pursuit of the truth – www.cinopsbegone.com – Wednesday, October 7, 2009

There is a kind of anger and disgust when a Pope John Paul II kind of bishop is forced to resign. I remember Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton in the news during the presidential election campaign.

There is no doubt in my mind that the propaganda of “Catholics United” and “Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good” influenced the Catholic laity in the criticism of our pro-life hero, Bishop Martino. They probably also influenced the Bishops who know their theology but lack the mindset of Pope John Paul II.

(I am reading through the book by the useful Catholic idiots of the Obama presidential campaign Chris Korzen and Alexia Kelley, “A Nation for All.”)

Here is the editorial, verbatim in “The Catholic World Report,” October 2009. You decide with the above title; here is what follows:
What is and is not tolerated within the Church in America.


The news of August contained two revealing illustrations of Church politics in America: the early and unusual resignation of a bishop known for defending orthodoxy and an elaborate Catholic funeral in honor of a senator known for repudiating it.

Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton announced his resignation in August at the age of 63, citing “insomnia and crippling physical fatigue,” which at his departing press conference he attributed obliquely to his unpopular governance and orthodox stands: “For some time now there has not been a clear consensus among the clergy and people of the Diocese of Scranton regarding my pastoral initiatives or my way of governance.”

Martino had drawn sharp criticism for closing schools and parishes. But more fatal to the Martino’s ecclesiastical career was his frank orthodoxy, which many Church officials regarded as highly impolitic.

Polite heterodoxy, or impolitic heterodoxy for that matter, is tolerated, sometimes even rewarded. Impolitic orthodoxy isn’t. The Martinos go; the Mahonys stay.

Evidently in the eyes of many of his colleagues Martino had made the intolerable mistake of taking Church doctrine and discipline far too seriously and lacked the proper pastoral finesse of a modern bishop. In February, for example, after Misericordia University invited an open advocate for “gay rights” to speak, Martino said that the school “in this instance is seriously failing in maintaining its Catholic identity.”

BISHOPS IN OTHER DIOCESES HAVE KEPT SILENT DURING SIMILAR CONTROVERSIES OR SEEN IN THEM OCCASIONS FOR “DIALOGUE.” THOSE BISHOPS WILL NOT BE ASKED TO RETIRE EARLY. NO, THEY WILL STAY IN OFFICE UNTIL 75 AND WATCH PLACIDLY AS LOCAL CATHOLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES STUMBLE TOWARD THEIR SECULARIST TERMINUS…
George H. Kubeck