Archbishop Dolan right to slam NY Times for anti-Catholic articles

As far as Dolan is concerned, the Ancient Order of Hibernians has used their affiliation with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese's "blessing" to exclude Irish Gays and Lesbians from participating in NYC's St. Patrick's Day Parade for years. This is NOT discrimination based upon bigotry? Cardinal O'Connor's "involvement" with AIDS/HIV patients (NOT "victims") were press presentations. He presided at the opening of the AIDS Clinics that were started by the Hospitals! He is represented as a condom because he saw condoms as birth control rather than as orphan prevention, especially in Africa! He showed no interst in the AIDS crisis until ACT UP held a protest during one of his sermons in St. Pat's. O'Connor is KNOWN for his open discrimination and harsh words for/about gay people, specifically the cessation of any and all types of ministry to Catholics who happen to be gay or lesbian from all Diocesan properties: Churches, schools, Convents, etc., costs of which were NOT borne by the Archdiocese. Mr. Farrel conveniently forgets that last year a Dutch Newspaper ran a cartoon about Muhammad, which resulted in death threats from Muslims worldwide on the cartoonist, who had to go into hiding. Truth is the Roman Catholic Church is one of the most anti-Christlike Churches on the Planet towards the role of lay women, towards Catholics who happen to be gay/lesbian/transgendered, towards victims of pedophile (heterosexual) priests, towards Women Religious, towards women/girls impregnated by rape/incest, towards spousal abusers... The truth hurts, Mr. Farrel...especially the victims of the Church.

A homosexual is someone who is sexually attracted to a person of the same sex of the same or older age. A pedophile is a person who has sex (or is turned on by) with minor children. 95% of pedophiles are heterosexual and 5% of those are women! The first time that the Vatican admitted there were gay priests was when they blamed the raping and sexual molestation of children on the gay Priests in the USA and not only protected the pedophile priests but protected the Bishops who relocated the pedophiles from Parish to Parish, and brought Cardinal Law from Boston to the Vatican to avoid prosecution for protecting the pedophile priests. The Roman catholic Church has evolved from being one of the most Christ-like Churches (during post Vatican II times to becoming allied with the most fundamentalist Churches in America (other than Liturgical beliefs and practices). The current Pope is the most homophobic Pope in history! What does HE have to be afraid of given his chastity and Pope-mobile? He is also so opposed to women! HE instigated an investigation of Women Religious Orders in the USA soon after his investigation of gays in the US Seminaries. Thank God, the Women Religious had more balls than the males who run the Seminaries and many refused to participate. All of this abuse of kids and adults in the name of God? I think not! In the name of male power!

Dennis Q. Go to Saudi Arabia and see if you can buy an Imams house for a Catholic center and see what religious tolerance is all about. The members of that parish had every right to express their displeasure with the sale. This is still America, at least for awhile. The Constitution doesn't trump Freedom of speech with political correctness for a good reason political correctness will kill a nation.

"out of bounds" is the politically correct way to avoid reality. When our freedom of expression is truncated to only include subjects politicos and moronic college professors want to allow, we are in deep kim chi...and we are right now. Politically correct is the moral equivalent of covering up any problem by calling it something else. In problem solving you cannot get the right answer if you can't use the correct and accurate terms in your algorithms. When will we wake up to the fact we are being conned by a bunch of snakes.

eiriamach, I agree with your sentiment that no particular group should bear the brunt of the Church pedophile scandal. Concerning celibacy, I have long questioned the sensibility of having this rule among heterosexuals. I guess nobody's "vow of celibacy" can truly be trusted, be they straight or gay. It just seems so draconian to attempt to enforce. BTW, does anybody really still believe that sexual fantasies, for say a Jennifer Aniston, are "mortal sins", worthy of eternal damnation, unless we beg God's forgiveness? Such a "god" would really be a tyrant, and an egomaniac control freak, not worthy of our respect.

Earlier this year, St. Margaret Mary parish in Staten Island agreed to sell its no longer used convent to the Muslim American Society. It was an excellent opportunity for the Archdiocese to take a stand for religious liberty, especially since opposition to the sale came mostly from Catholics. A word from Archbishop Dolan would have gone a long way towards promoting religious understanding.

Archbishop Dolan, however, couldn't be bothered. He allowed parishioners to blackmail the pastor by threatening to withhold support if the deal went through. The Archdiocese also failed to attend a meeting between Catholics and Muslims. It was a big disappointment to Muslims who'd hoped to buy the property to use as a place of worship.

Archbishop Dolan strikes me as a manipulative person, one who will defend Catholic values when it's easy to do so. But he refused to intervene on behalf of Muslims victimized by bigoted Catholics. Now he's looking for the greater community to defend Catholicism against accusations of hypocrisy. Good luck with that one, Your Eminence. He had a clear opportunity to assert Christian values himself, and let's call it what it is - he chickened out.

I am a German Lutheran and Italian Catholic. My ex-wife and daughter are Shia Ismaili Muslim. I compare them to Quakers as to their imperatives on community and charitable works and their devotion to pacifism. They are the opposite of the the fanatical elements of the religion so prominent now in the news. My point is that ALL RELIGIONS ARE UNDER ATTACK in the media. The popular media seems to be trashing anyone and anything that ascibes to a higher power. Not only has an emiricist mentally, but a downright atheist judgmentalism has has gripped this neo-selfrighteoussness. This self-righteousness, though seemingly an oxymoron, maintains that I am better than you because I don't believe in anything. Though I believe that in the kingdom of Heaven, there are many mansions, I implore you to continue to believe ... and the Just and True shall triumph Thank you for allowing me this opportunity. P S: In Islam, Muhammed (Peace be upon Him) is not the major Prophet, it is someone called Jesus (Esa/Isa) (Peace be upon Him). Peace and God's Blessings to all. I do believe one may judge and form opinion on past acts

Dolan has to walk the strait and narrow - be careful with his words to ensure he not be shunned by our worldwide Masters chaps.

Christians only know to turn the other cheek and take it.

The New York Times has insulted The Christian (Catholic) Values. They must apologize without any further loss of time. Depicting John Cardinal O'Connor as a condom and a review of a work called "The Divine Sister" which pokes fun at nuns.How shameful is this using such unprecedented language and portrait. Catholics and Christians must come forward and hit back NYT or anyone who dares speaking in any derogatory language against The Church. This is an attack on The Church. Thank you Archbishop Timothy Dolan!

The long practice of turning the other cheek and waiting heavenly rewards makes it difficult to live in the here and now with sharks all about. When this paradym is changed wherein a whine shame and blame approach is adopted - then when something like this is put into practice over time it may bear fruit. RCs must learn from the sharks who've been in practice for thousands of years. Not in our lifetime will any relief be possible.

“Show me when you do this to the Islamic community, to the Je$wish community, to the African American community" he said. If my aunt had b..... she'd be my uncle. The long practice of turning the other cheek and waiting heavenly rewards makes it difficult to live in the here and now with sharks all about. When this paradym is changed wherein a whine shame and blame approach is adopted - then when something like this is put into practice over time it may bear fruit. RCs must learn from the sharks who've been in practice for thousands of years. Not in our lifetime will any relief be possible.

“Show me when you do this to the Islamic community, to the Jewish community, to the African American community" he said. If my aunt had b..... she'd be my uncle. The long practice of turning the other cheek and waiting heavenly rewards makes it difficult to live in the here and now with sharks all about. When this paradym is changed wherein a whine shame and blame approach is adopted - then when something like this is put into practice over time it may bear fruit. RCs must learn from the sharks who've been in practice for thousands of years. Not in our lifetime will any relief be possible.

Anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice it seems to me in America. If the same comments that were made about Catholic religious figures were aimed at Rabbis, immams or Dali Lamas there would be widespread outrage. “Show me when you do this to the Islamic community, to the Jewish community, to the African American community" he said. If my aunt had b.... she'd be my uncle. Ask him who handles his Catholic Charities accounting - can't seem to

Clancey - yes, the media has played a big part in exposing the abuse scandal. One cannot fault them for that- however, the New York Times was hardly unbiased on that issue, nor entirely concerned with reporting the facts. It tried to pin the case of Fr Lawrence Murphy squarely at the doors of the Vatican, ignoring, very conveniently, the fact that Murphy's own bishops could have removed him from ministry decades before the Vatican was even informed of the case. Not to mention its complete ignorance of the reality of what the Church has ACTUALLY done to deal with the problem of abuse. As for your charge that Archbishop Dolan is attempting to put up a smokescreen, I don't think it's a runner really - the Archbishop has always taken a very hard line on abuse, and most certainly does not underestimate the gravity of the crimes which have been committed by some in the Church. And anyway, two wrongs don't make a right - yes, the abuse issue is a horrible chapter in the Church's history, but that still doesn't give the New York Times or any other section of the media the right to resort to disgusting and offensive prejudices. As for the charges that some are making that Dolan is being hypocritical in pointing out the NYTs bias, I wonder would any of you - presuming that all here have erred in some way at some stage - refuse to (for example) report a friend's car stolen? Using the reasoning that some are using to brand Dolan as hypocritical, surely to do so would be hypocritical, self-righteous and judgemental - I mean, this reasoning seems to suggest that only those who have never put a foot wrong can recognise wrongdoing, crime, bias, or revolting moral standards, which, of course, is rubbish.