65 Comments

• Pittsburghkid | Mar 06, 2012, 06:29 PM EST

  Concerning the pols that 98% of the Catholic Woman use birth control, these pols do not translate into votes. Obama is pandering to American Woman. Birth Control is an issue from the 50's. My life long experence with woman is that they do not like being pandered. Free birth control might seem like a bad trade off when Obama thinks $5. a gal for gas is fair. Obama has to realise that the American standard of living has been on a steady decline, which Obama wants to manage rather then turn around.

• stanJames | Mar 06, 2012, 02:49 AM EST

  I might add that per pols I've seen over the last couple years, 94 to 98% of catholic women use birth control devices. the church is digging its own grave. Glory be to God that the patriarchial church is headed for oblivion.

• stanJames | Mar 06, 2012, 02:45 AM EST

  CARdinal Dolan, formerly arch bishop of Milwaukee - guess what this criminal was sitting on top of, twisiting the books etc etc to avoid paying compensation to thousands of victims of the church's unmarried priests.............. Just google "8000 molestation victims - milwaukee" this criminal should be put in jail for his part in covering up the soul murder of thousands of children by his unmarried priests.

• GLENBEIGHNATIVE | Mar 06, 2012, 12:00 AM EST

  obama hates "religion" that's why he called sarah..he's worried about re-election..she thinks a catholic university should pay for her leftist belief...if you want sex..it's still free.sarah is a poster child for the left religion hating society..meanwhile the iranians want to blast us & ISRAEL off the map....maybe sarah should drive a volt ...and get a charge out of life...and where do you pay $3,000 a year for pills??? liar, liar pants on fire.... may God have mercy on her soul. I applaud Cardinal Dolan forhis standing up against the OUTRAGE against Christian churches by the president and his leftist czars and croneys.finally sarah could go to planned parenthood for free pills....or better yet ...go to confession

• merefalow | Mar 05, 2012, 05:09 PM EST

  the days of fat irish bishops over,that would be nice.no sense of rhythm bish.

• ciaradexy | Mar 05, 2012, 01:06 PM EST

  Falcon, your imaginary friend Jesus came to me in a dream last night. He said to tell you that youre a muppet.

• McNamara31 | Mar 05, 2012, 10:27 AM EST

  falconflash Simply untrue.

• ciarajoyce | Mar 05, 2012, 09:59 AM EST

  How many children does the Cardinal support out of his paycheck? And how many unwanted children has he personally adopted? When his answers to those questions tell me he actually cares about children, maybe I'll listen to him. I was an unwanted child, but not given up for adoption. I thought everyone's parents hated them once the doors closed at dinner time. I was 16 before I learned some parents actually like their children, even the ones who live at home.

• jamieLM | Mar 05, 2012, 08:47 AM EST

  @Morninghours @faberm1 - both excellent posts and very well said. Kudos to both of you.

• Pepper | Mar 05, 2012, 08:42 AM EST

  Only the bishops think they are the authoritative voice. The position on contraception was originally church politics at its worst. Now it is being foisted on the U.S--nothing more than Vatican politics of the 60's. And of course it is women that will bear the brunt of this policy---nothing new there from the Catholic Church

• IrelandNorth | Mar 05, 2012, 05:34 AM EST

  "... got the Irish up in me"? Is that not correlating Irishness with a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) racist stereotying of the Irish as temperamental and antagonistic. Cardinal Dolan will have a hard time suing the "American Government" since such does not exist. One assumes he means the U.S Govt. Whilst I disagree with all Christian orthodoxy, and the oxymoronism of celibate males dic[k]tating a theoretical sexual morality to sexual praxisists, I actually agree with immaculate con[tra]ception espoused by his church, i.e. the Billing's Method of coitus interruptus. After all, you can't put rubber between yourself and life. The purest form of immaculate contraceptiuon is sexual continence, whether sexually active or not.

• Morninghours | Mar 05, 2012, 01:17 AM EST

  Cardinal Dolan: Perhaps you and the bishops should spend less time worrying about what women do with their own bodies and spend more time worrying about what some of your priests are doing with little children's bodies.

• faberm1 | Mar 04, 2012, 11:15 PM EST

  Let's get the facts straight. The Bible does not prohibit any sort of birth control. This is a whimsical rule made by man and man-made institutions. The Bible does however prohibit the abuse and sexual use of children and innocents. Where is the cardinal's outrage of that?

• FairWeatherGuy | Mar 04, 2012, 10:51 PM EST

  If the bishops would file a lawsuit to allow Catholic employers to avoid provision of contraceptives to women, under the insurance coverage provided to their employees, maybe the bishops would win... ... of the nine justices, six are Catholic... the other three justices are Jewish... maybe five justices would vote with the bishops... I think precedence might be against that happening... I think the bishops' argument is that "freedom of religion" should trump "freedom from religion"... In any event, if this controversy were occurring back prior to the US Constitution, none of the current nine justices could be serving on a court in many/most of the then separate states, because Catholics, Jews, Baptists, and members of some other religions were prohibited from holding public office in many/most of the states at that time... In those states, persons who were members of those religions could not serve in any capacity, at any level... not as a judge, not as a mayor, not as a legislator, not as a governor... I think it is the "freedom from religion" phrase of the first amendment that brought an end to that practice... that is why members of those religions could serve in public office, once those prejudicial laws were retracted, which did finally occur by the 1830's If I am correct... and if, today, "freedom of religion" would trump "freedom from religion", in this instance, by a vote of five justices from among the six Catholic and three Jewish supreme court justices, I can't help but think how ironic that win by the bishops would be...!

• alimah | Mar 04, 2012, 10:07 PM EST

  @Irishpjk... Here's to addressing your ignorant understanding of health coverage on the matter of B/C. It is not an illness, BUT contraceptives are not only prescribed to prevent unwanted pregnancies (and abortions), but for other medical reasons such as lessening the affects of endometriosis and to control excessive bleeding during menstruation. Insurance Co's gladly provide low cost contraceptives to eliminate the high cost of covering pre-natal care over a 9 month period, costs associated with delivery, and hospital stays for mother & baby in unwanted pregnancies. Your insinuation that men are discriminated against is the height of ignorance... have you forgotten that Viagra, etc. is prescribed to men cost free and vasectomies (not an illness) are performed for men?? As far as your remarks regarding President Obama... it's obvious you're a "racist" and there is no greater "ignorance".

• tmg1 | Mar 04, 2012, 10:01 PM EST

  I can only agree with a previous commenter who pointed out that the sexual abuse of children never seemed to "get his Irish up". Cardinal Dolan is a disgrace to Irish-Americans.

• badolan | Mar 04, 2012, 09:18 PM EST

  The issue is that the Church in America is operating a business but wants to inject its religious dogma on the public. Since it is a business, it should provide services without any kind of discrimination like all other businesses have to do. If the church doesn't want to abide by laws that other business do, then they should stick to doing church work and not provide heath care at an enormous profit. When the church isn't molesting little kids, it's trying to get in bed with everyone else.

• AOH11 | Mar 04, 2012, 08:52 PM EST

  I am insulted! This is not what was said at the meeting on March 3rd. It is not even a derivative of what was said. There are only two (2) quotes that are accurate. Was "PATRICK COUNIHAN,IrishCentral.com Staff Writer" even there? And reporting what a rag like" The New York Daily News reports that Dolan has vowed" Makes the Irish Central.com a rag sheet as well.

• irishpjk | Mar 04, 2012, 08:28 PM EST

  Just a few thoughts on the so called health bill, my understanding of health coverage is if you are ill you see a doctor and you are covered. So when did birth control become an illness? Is it just for women? If so then it discriminates against men. As far as the Cardinal is concerned the church teaches birth control is wrong as is sex before marriage. It’s the Cardinals job to follow and teach catholic law and rules, not to worry about what other Catholics want to believe. They know the laws and rules of the religion, if not they need to learn them so they can obey them or live in sin, that choice is theirs to make not the Cardinals.

• irishpjk | Mar 04, 2012, 08:27 PM EST

  I want to change my comment to bad Obamas mother was not on his health care, that seed could have been caught in a condom

• PolinDeB | Mar 04, 2012, 08:12 PM EST

  If only they would care as much about the children that are born and then abused by the Church as they do about the unborn.. perhaps this is the issue, with less unwanted vulnerable children in the world, there will be less children for the priests to abuse... If he wants to see Irish tempers.... no matter the government is trying to back track.. the Irish people are still mad as hell at the church...

• cillowen | Mar 04, 2012, 07:48 PM EST

  the sulphur that we can't afford will be elected again. sick is in - who pays - we do . Our best friends DOGS will need coverage in time. This sickness has its origin with a people who are expert - they sic their trained servant politicial dogs on us.

• Nicoletta | Mar 04, 2012, 07:16 PM EST

  Good for the Cardinal. He is standing up for the teaching of the Church.

• McNamara31 | Mar 04, 2012, 06:48 PM EST

  Dolan states “I suppose there might be a doctor who would say to a man who’s suffering some type of sexual dysfunction, ‘You ought to visit a prostitute to help you.'Sounds like something from the GOP debates not from a man of God.

• lokionline | Mar 04, 2012, 05:22 PM EST

  Institutions,, especially religious ones, should never be granted "human rights". Only individuals within institutions qualify as "human".
  
  If Dolan thinks he and the rest of the bishops speak for individual Catholics they are simply delusional. They sure don't speak for me.

• alimah | Mar 04, 2012, 04:59 PM EST

  Let's get the facts straight... The church is NOT offering contraceptives, an independent insurance provider is. The Church is NOT paying for contraceptives, the insurance provider is. Access to contraceptives is a Healthcare issue, NOT a religious issue, and the choice to use contraceptives is the employee's, NOT the Church's (employer). Religion should be kept out of insurance coverage and out of governmental policies. Whenever you EXCLUDE anyone from the option of health coverage that is available to others, you are discriminating. This is upheld by the EEOC (Employee Equal Opportunity Commission) in a ruling in 2000 that states that when an employer provides prescription coverage that doesn't include contraceptives, it's treating men and women unequally (remember, Viagra is covered at no cost) and is a violation of the Civil Rights Act. And the Church has known this for years. So why all the sudden is this an unprecedented threat to religious freedom?? Trying to politicize an issue that is so universally accepted is very risky.

• CelticQueenUSA | Mar 04, 2012, 04:24 PM EST

  Well I hope Dolan blows a gasket!! What an unmittigated foolish tirade. Agree with leahforce and fladman's comments and add that a clergy allowed to marry with no birth control would cause a glut of additiona catholics which the church would have to support. The $$$$ is always behind everything they preach. Fed up with catholicity!

• buffaloirishman | Mar 04, 2012, 03:44 PM EST

  Other things that got Bishop Dolan's "Irish up": 1) Protecting priests who take advantage of children in two dioceses (notice the difference between Bishop Dolan and Archbishop Martin of Dublin - also notice who gets rewarded by the Vatican) and 2) hiding over 50 million dollars in Milwaukee during bankruptcy. This is a partisan action. For many years now these laws have been put in place with no complaints from anyone. In New York State a republican governor and republican controlled senate ans assembly passed the legislation. This has become an issue now because the Republicans have no chance on the usual issues driving a presidential race. So they elicit their friends (very rich people and the Catholic Bishops)to distract us from the real issues of the day. Bishop Dolan - HYPOCRITE

• CitizenWhy | Mar 04, 2012, 03:13 PM EST

  Cardinal Dolan has pledged himself to civil disobedience in the Manhattan Declaration. Let's see what's next.

• CitizenWhy | Mar 04, 2012, 03:11 PM EST

  I think Cardinal Dolan should apologize for his slur against the Irish.

• Brnmar1 | Mar 04, 2012, 02:53 PM EST

  The religious groups in the USA want the government to fight their moral battles for them. They are not able to stop people from committing fornication, adultery and the killing of unborn babies with their weak and confusing teaching about G-D and religion. If the message that was taught in churches weekly was the real message from G-D, then they wouldn't have to try and force a secular government to pass laws to make the people follow their religious views.

• MCCOLGAN1492 | Mar 04, 2012, 02:50 PM EST

  When the Church grabs an oar and starts pulling by paying taxes on Billion's of Dollars of Property in NY and the USA, I would welcome their political opinion. Until then, shut up and enjoy the free ride. As for Dolan, the Red Hat Club has gone to his Big head and mouth. He should worry a little more about the "creeps" in his camp, what has he done to purge them?

• Brnmar1 | Mar 04, 2012, 02:43 PM EST

  The religious groups in the USA want the government to fight their moral battles for them. They are not able to stop people from committing fornication, adultery and the killing of unborn babies with their weak and confusing teaching about G-D and religion. If the message that was taught in churches weekly was the real message from G-D, then they wouldn't have to try and force a secular government to pass laws to make the people follow their religious views.

• edmundburke | Mar 04, 2012, 02:17 PM EST

  Hurrah for Cardinal Dolan -- he continues the tradition of strong Irish Catholic bishops in NYC speaking up forcefully for the Catholic Church in America. I must comment on my fellow commenters here. Referring to the child sex abuse scandals is evading the question. Dr. McHugh is obsessed with the subject as any quick Google search will reveal. The Obama regulation compels Church organizations to pay for and enforce a regime (the provision of birth control and abortifacients) that is contrary to its doctrine, i.e. its learned interpretation of the Word of God. Thus the Obama revised regulation was nothing more than a fig leaf thrown to the Church by the White House so that both the Church and the White House could have it "both ways". The Church is obliged to adhere to the Truth and cannot agree to engage in this hypocrisy of political semantics. This is not a politically-staged, election year fight. The Church had been lobbying on this particular regulation for almost two years. The timing lies at the feet of HHS and the White House, not the Church, which has been placed on the defensive on this issue from the beginning. Keep on fighting, Your Eminence!

• rugbyplayer | Mar 04, 2012, 01:59 PM EST

  Big Mouth Timothy Dolan and Rick Santorum are two of a kind--venomous Catholic theocrats threatening anyone with fire and brimstone who differs from their archaic and narrow-minded views. Dolan should remember that the days of episcopal power and might in the Archdiocese of New York died with Cardinal Spellman.

• BippyBellito | Mar 04, 2012, 01:49 PM EST

  Obama, in spite of trying to pass himself off as Irish, is the enemy of all things Catholic and Irish. He is an Evil Man, worthy of the title "Anti Christ". More Irish Americans need to speak up against this man's policies. The Catholic Church has much to repent; keeping silent on Obama should not be one of them. I, for one, am delighted to see The Church re engage in world affairs. in 2012 in America it is now Anybody But Obama!

• jamthecat | Mar 04, 2012, 01:29 PM EST

  The Catholic Church lost the right to lecture anyone on what is moral and correct the first time it helped one of its priests get away with raping a little boy or girl. Period. And they have done damn near nothing to change that perception, so far as I'm concerned. If the Catholic Church wants to get involved in US politics, then it should lose its tax-exempt status. If the Catholic Church wants to accept taxpayer money for its medical services (via Medicare and Medicade) it should abide by the law. But these people want to have it both ways -- keep giving them taxpayer dollars but don't make them abide by taxpayer rules. If providing contraception is so abhorrent to them, they should pass on getting money from the state. That Obama gave in to them on this only proves, once again, how much of a wuss he is and how non-progressive his actions have consistently been.

• markday | Mar 04, 2012, 01:00 PM EST

  This is really bad journalism, bad reporting, given the sad state of affairs in the Vatican, and the fact that Dolan is a yes man for its policies. For a reporter to write such an unmitigated puff piece is disgraceful. If Counihan wrote this garbage in Ireland today-- with the Irish people's feelings about sex coverups and Vatican corruption, he'd have to hire a security guard 24/7 at your house. Everything is just the opposite of what Dolan says--it's the U.S. Catholic Church hierarchy that wants to fles its muscoles and dive head first into the U.S. elections -- to reiterate the Vatican's failed teaching on contraception--(98% of Catholic women practice it). Let's hope that bishops get their behinds whipped on this one. Jack Kennedy put it best to the clergy in Houston when he said his church wojld not tell him what to do. The separation of church and state works fine in this country. Let's keep it that way. And journalists should at least give both sides to this controversy and not serve as lackeys to one side as Counihan has done. Ironically, the old fears of the Ian Paisley's seem justified -- papish Rome dictating polcies across the pond to the U.S. government. He's probably smiling at all this and saying, "I told you so." By the way, i met a Catholic woman in Clare who worked as a waitress in the British parliament. She said that Ian always had a kind word for her and tipped her heavily--not like those cheap Irish Catholic bastards or other MP's." I love it!

• ciaradexy | Mar 04, 2012, 12:56 PM EST

  Mikehoulihan, how can it be catholic bashing by IC if its an article taken directly from another source? Some people are so paranoid.

• leahforce | Mar 04, 2012, 12:48 PM EST

  Exemplifies the patrician tradition of maintaining control over women and children. On what grounds does ANY man, least of all a 'celibate' childless one have in deciding how women's reproductive rights be governed and controlled. The stance of the Catholic church is not bound in morality, it demonstrated that quite clearly in it's complicity with the Rape of thousands of children. No, the stance of the Catholic Church is based on one of economics. The more Catholics reproduce the more 'servants' guaranteed the church.

• flrodman | Mar 04, 2012, 12:40 PM EST

  Is is this type of theocratic bluster that has encouraged me to change from "former Catholic" to an "anti-Catholic". It makes the church's recent TV ads suggesting that their lost sheep return to Mother church all the more ironic.

• Niall O'Dowd | Mar 04, 2012, 12:39 PM EST

  Mike Houihan interpreting this article as Catholic bashing is really a stretch.. we are carrying Cardinal Dolan's own words .. maybe you need to read before making such an inane comment ..

• bunkerisland | Mar 04, 2012, 12:12 PM EST

  The new cardinal has quickly asserted his authority, although few will listen. No woman should be deprived of birth control by her health insurance/service provider. The government is not intruding in peoples lives but rather saying women should have a choice and no church can block that. The pompous cardinal ought to sit beside Rush rather than near an alter. Bold, stocky, old and suffering from dementia. He'll have his reign of terror for a spell and attendance will continue to diminish.

• mikehoulihan | Mar 04, 2012, 11:51 AM EST

  More Catholic bashing from Irish Central.

• joan1954 | Mar 04, 2012, 11:40 AM EST

  I don't think it is so much the issue of contraception although that is what is being touted, it is an unwarranted intrusion into people's private lives. In essence the federal government has no business getting into this issue. This goes way beyond the separation of church and state.

• DrMcHugh | Mar 04, 2012, 11:27 AM EST

  Cardinal Dolan is quoted as saying: “If you want an authoritative voice, go to the bishops.” As a Catholic physician and as a woman, I wonder if Cardinal Dolan would be willing to work with President Obama to resolve the issue, so that religious liberty can be respected for both the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church and for women? Both rights need to be respected. If Cardinal Dolan is just using his bully pulpit to try to prevent President Obama from being re-elected. I hope and pray that the Cardinal fails. Where is the shame of the Pope and of Cardinal Dolan in the continuing clergy sexual abuse of innocent children? Why are the American bishops re-victimizing the victims of priest and bishop sexual abuse in court? I pray that the Pope and Cardinal Dolan and others who have been complicit in this cover-up, will be made accountable by civil law. Catholic professionals have been manipulated by the bishops to do their bidding even when crimes have been committed. This must stop. The focus of the bishops needs to be on the protection of children and not on denying women's health needs. Sincerely, Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh, Chicago, Illinois

• PhlutiePhan | Mar 04, 2012, 11:26 AM EST

  I support the comments of Cardinal Dolan. This will be my fifth year in a row of attending the St. Patrick's Day Parade and visiting St. Patrick's Cathedral from St. Louis. It was the obligation of Maewyn Succat with the nickname of Patricus to preach the Gospel as a former slave. Dolan was never a slave but still it is his obligation to preach the Gospel.

• AoifeNicSeáin | Mar 04, 2012, 10:58 AM EST

  Bad enough he's a puppet of Rome - but trying to sell that as "Irishness" is only sickening. The Church/community of St. Patrick had quite different views from post-medieval Rome.

• mayoman | Mar 04, 2012, 10:48 AM EST

  The Catholic Church is always fond of saying that the Church is the people. And that the Catholic Church is a community of faith. Yet what are we to make of a community where the men at the top always dictate to all the women in that Church? Indeed it has been widely reported that most Catholic women have used, or will most likely use, contraceptives sometime during their lives. So most Catholics are not opposed to contraception after all. And most husbands and fathers of Catholic women are not opposed to their wives or daughters using contraceptives either. Yet their Church is adamantly opposed to its use, even though the Church knows that contraception prevents unwanted pregnancies, and thus reduces the need for abortions. And the Church additionally knows that contraceptives are used to regulate hormomal cycles, particularly in young women, and thus safeguards their health. This was the message that the Georgetown Law School student, Sandra Fluke related in her recent Congressional testimony, when she told the sad story of her friend who suffers from polycystic ovarian syndrome and was not provided, nor could afford, the contraceptive meds needed to treat her disease. Why are supposedly celibate men, with little or no experience dealing with women's health issues, attempting to rally sexually active women to join them in this campaign to champion the Church's First Amendement rights? Why would any women want to join in any effort to fight for the Church's supposed right to limit her access to the medical care she needs, and should by right, be granted without reservation? Why does the Catholic Church have such little concern for the health of the women in their congregations? If the Catholic Church wants to go political on this and other public issues they should really do the right thing and immediately surrender their tax-exempt status.

• arx75400 | Mar 04, 2012, 10:43 AM EST

  Increasingly angry that the Catholic Church gets tax-exempt status in the US. "Political organizations" are not entitled to such status. In 2008, I understand Irish priests--at the pulpit-- were telling parishioners not to vote for Obama. Were even suggesting it was a "sin". COMPLETELY over the line for any tax-exempt org. You want to talk politics? Fine. Just pay taxes like every other political org in the US is required to do. Stuns me that the Catholic Church would act with such hypocrisy... (Wink).

• arx75400 | Mar 04, 2012, 10:37 AM EST

  Dolan's quote above: "...I hate to tell you, the days of fat, balding Irish bishops are over.” If only....

• pilib04 | Mar 04, 2012, 10:34 AM EST

  Dolan probably believes ALL women are sluts.

• pilib04 | Mar 04, 2012, 10:33 AM EST

  Dolan gets my Irish up because he is spending all his time on something that means nothing to 95% of practicing Catholics, but fails to route out the pedophile priests and bishops.

• frrichardsf | Mar 04, 2012, 10:33 AM EST

  The Cardinal gets my Irish up. He demeans women and women's rights to health. Wouldn't it be great if he could get "his Irish up" for issues concerning hunger, poverty, war. Seems that's what Jesus did.

• pilib04 | Mar 04, 2012, 10:31 AM EST

  Cardinal Dolan's statement objectively racist. He suggests through his statement that he is Irish but our first Black President could not possibly be Irish!

• jflanagan | Mar 04, 2012, 10:26 AM EST

  Look up the "Act of Supremacy" passed under King Henry VIII and see why having a King of Religion was important enough to ban in the the First Amendment. No where in that Amendment does it say: unless the majority think something should overrule free practice of religion.

• hollabackgurl | Mar 04, 2012, 10:14 AM EST

  It gets my Irish up to hear old fat Bishops and Cardinals who dodged criminal lawsuits and massive payouts to people who were sexually abused put themselves forward as moral paragons.

• hollabackgurl | Mar 04, 2012, 10:12 AM EST

  We know Cardinal Dolan shares Rush Limbaugh's view that the only women who use contraception are 'sluts' and 'prostitutes.'Never mind that contraception is used to treat a host of medical conditions alongside its primary purpose, under no circumstance must women be allowed any choice concerning their reproductive health. That was the message in AD 100 and that's the message in AD 2012.

• hermitTalker | Mar 04, 2012, 10:12 AM EST

  Amazing how finucath can twist the topic to get back at the Catholic Church with your CBS 60 Minutes programme tonight there in the USA. Have you taken on the worst child abuse which Irish-American-African Mr Obama wants to spread worldwide - abortion. The HHS mandate is not about contraceptionm it is about interfering with personal and institutional consciences. The mandate requires sterilisation and abortifacient chemicals, the good old simple 1960's pills are long gone. "Contraception" is the greatest resource you say- ask the teens and college students about the epidemic of disease, abortions, infertility and STD's arising from the condom on the banana Pl P'hood and Leftist agenda. Then .. Then and the human factor of getting "hormonally challenged " and too hot to stop and use.

• Linzoid | Mar 04, 2012, 10:08 AM EST

  When I consider the horror, betrayals, and viciousness wreaked upon the Irish people by the local cell a Vatican-based international child sex ring, I can't think of anything more disgusting than hearing a Catholic Bishop claim his Irish-ness when it comes to sexual morés. Leave the abused Irish people out of it, Dolan. You take your orders from Joseph Ratzinger.

• DannyBoyG | Mar 04, 2012, 09:58 AM EST

  The New York Times reports that Cardinal Dolan also claimed that, in an era when the church is fighting the government on several fronts, they need to make their voices heard in the political sphere. President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Dolan said: “We are called to be very active, very informed and very involved in politics.” THEN PAY TAXES LIKE EVERYONE ELSE AND YOU CAN BE AS INVOLVED AS YOU WANT. Dolan told the crowd at Holy Trinity Diocesan High School that the government sought to make the church do something "we find unconscionable." WHICH CHURCH AND WHO?? YOU SUPPOSED OLD CELIBATE OUT OF TOUCH 70 AND 80 YEAR OLD SOMETHINGS?? OR THE 98 PERCENT OF YOUR FLOCK THAT IGNORE YOU AND USE CONTRACEPTION. CARDINAL DOLAN THE GIG IS UP AND THE ALARLM BELLS ARE RINGING. YOU JUST DON'T WANT TO ADMIT IT!

• ljhelland | Mar 04, 2012, 09:56 AM EST

  i hope the cardinal keeps talking; it will only speed the demise of the antediluvian views of the mysogynistic church and abort the paternalistic control of women that so many men embrace.

• finucath | Mar 04, 2012, 09:42 AM EST

  When will they realize that contraception is their greatest resource when it come to the abortion debate. For too long now they have been out of touch with reality. I hope he will watch 60 minutes tonight and share the same sense of outrage against the sins of the church.

• milfordmama | Mar 04, 2012, 09:40 AM EST

  I love this Cardinal and hope his strength and Irish spirit and courage will inspire other Catholic leaders and parishioners to follow his lead. Hopefully he will show them that speaking up and not being silent in fear of "ruffling" their liberal friends' views is the right thing to do though maybe not the easiest.

• Gearoid4 | Mar 04, 2012, 08:22 AM EST

  The Archbishop is living up to the "Fighting Irish" compliment that has been reserved for such famous Irish-American Institutions as the Notre Dame football team or the legendary 69th NY regiment. The gloves are coming off but this state of affairs could have been avoided if Obama and his cohorts had observed the First Amendment stipulation that the State should never interfere in the business of Religious organizations. A showdown is not far away.