Questions Answered # 2 by Cardinal Timothy Dolan

Questions Answered # 2 by Cardinal Timothy Dolan
In pursuit of the truth - www.cinopsbegoneblogspot.com - Friday, April 13, 2012

“A People of Hope, …Dolan in Conversation with John L. Allen, Jr.” Image Books, N. Y. 2012

1.) Why do you think abortion has become the litmus test for Catholic fidelity in the United States in a way it hasn’t in other parts of the world?

I don’t know but I’m glad it has. I don’t think that on most political issues I’m simplistic, but this one does seem pretty black-and-white. We’re talking about human life, an innocent fragile baby, who deserves the full protection of the law. It’s to the credit of the Church that we’ve made this the dominant social justice issue, the number one human rights issue, of the day.

As much as enlightened society would like to say that this issue is going away and it’s not longer considered a major concern, it still is. We all know that. It’s the issue that just will not go away.

Why isn’t this true elsewhere? I don’t know. Is it the case that Europe gave up years ago on thinking that morality should have anything to do with politics? Perhaps we
American Catholics, funny enough, have imbibed some of the Calvinist or Puritanical cast to things. America at its origin reflected a Calvinistic undercurrent, that in some way Geneva should reflect the Heavenly Kingdom, and that politics should reflect what is most moral and ethical.

That may not be what you might call the most Catholic way of putting things, but it would be part of what scholars “American exceptionalism,” the American Puritanical-Calvinistic ethos, which in some ways dovetails with the Catholic approach to the pro-life cause. What do you think? 85-86. [Obama does not believe in American exceptionalism.]

2.) Question … some observers would say you’ve become the new voice of the religious Right. Is that accurate?

I don’t think so but if the point is that our message has become sharply focused, I would agree, and I think it’s because of the towering nature of the abortion issue… Historically, I think it’s entirely valid to make a comparison between the pro-life issue and the slavery issue.

Today we look back at the American bishops on slavery and we blush, because we were far from prophetic. With one or two exceptions, there were no American bishops in the 19th century who stood up and said, “This is intrinsically evil and we must put an end to it now.” Most bishops believed the issue to be too controversial, so we’re not going to talk about it. We have to save the internal unity and cohesion of the house.

At one point the bishops actually wrote, “We have this issue up to worldlings.” Like we’re on Mars or something! We look back with embarrassment on that sort of thing, and rightly so, but we won’t on the abortion issue. 84-85

3.) When the bishops, when the Church take a position against abortion or same-sex marriage, one frequent accusation is that you’re trying to turn this into a confessional state. How, do your respond?

Is it true that the Catholic Church is against same-sex marriage? Yes. Is it true that that the Catholic Church’s against abortion? Yes. But that’s not the reason that we are trying to be so forceful here. We’re also saying that these are issues of human rights these are issues of natural law. In other words, this isn’t about trying to impose specifically religious convictions on the entire country…
We are speaking of issues here that are at the core of what we are as a republic.

One does not have to be a person of faith, whether that faith be Catholic. Jews or Baptist, to hold these views. We’re more speaking as Americans, as people of faith certainly, but we’re making the argument on the basis of fundamental American values. I think we can probably a little better about making that clear. 91-92
George H. Kubeck - Trust Dolan; Do not trust Sibelius!