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| Cardinal Timothy Dolan |
In the midst of all the celebrations this week I’d like to take a moment to recall that on the recent 10th anniversary of 9/11, new Cardinal Timothy Dolan chose not to honor Father Mychal Judge, the first recorded victim of that godforsaken 2001 attack, and a man that many now call the Saint of 9/11.
It was a glaring omission considering what he still means to the Irish American community, the city’s brave firefighters and to many other communities in New York.
I bring it up now because the deafening silence that marked the commemoration of the admired gay priest stands in sharp contrast to the international pomp and circumstance attending Cardinal Dolan's ascendancy this month.
People who knew and loved Father Mychal know he wasn't fond of publicity, preferring to do his good work under the radar and behind the scenes, but in contrast Cardinal Dolan is never far from our front pages.
Admirers and critics alike have called Dolan a longstanding company man who does not act in accordance with his own conscience, but rather out of obedience to the Pope. That's why he's wearing a red hat now, they claim. In conservative circles like the Catholic Church, toeing the line has always been more immediately rewarding than saying what you actually think.
Dolan's recent elevation also stands in sharp contrast to the increasing isolation of Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, who has consistently put his conscience before the company with predictable results.
Martin has said he felt isolated, which is clerical speak for ignored, over his alarm about the sex abuse crisis in Ireland. His awareness that he was being overlooked turned out to be correct.
In contrast to Dolan, Martin put his heart and soul into dealing with the clerical abuse issue in Ireland since coming to Dublin in 2003.
Had he been made a cardinal it would have been viewed as a ringing endorsement from Pope Benedict for his determination to put abuse victims before the church.
Of course, that didn't happen.
Martin has said there are groups in the Vatican and the Irish hierarchy that are still trying to undermine all child protection measures.
“What do you do,” asked Martin, “when you have got groups either in the Vatican or in Ireland who try to undermine what is being done or simply refuse to understand what is being done?"
So no red hat for Archbishop Martin, then. Speaking up gets you frozen out.
It’s hard to know what the ordinary Irish Mass-goer makes of this yet, but it’s a source of amazement to many that church authorities have consistently placed the institution over the individuals who were harmed by it.
Meanwhile, Dolan's admirers here know he has the credentials and the smarts to achieve the top post in the Vatican. And they want to see him elected Pope because those in the know within his inner circle believe that once he has to answer to no higher earthly authority, he will finally show his true colors.
Dolan is not the archconservative he appears to be, say his supporters. His elevation to the papacy could result in some extraordinarily positive changes for Catholic women and even for gay Catholics.
I have my doubts about all that. I really don’t doubt the sincerity of those within his inner circle, but to date Dolan has done nothing to suggest he’s anything other than a doctrinal conservative of the first order; it explains why he’s a cardinal now, after all.
In November 2011, while he was still an archbishop, Dolan sent a letter to President Obama threatening “a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions” if the administration took any steps to repeal the recently ruled unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act.
Those really don’t sound like the words of a secret conciliator to me. Those are fighting words.
Dolan continued, “We as bishops of the Catholic Church recognize the immeasurable personal dignity and equal worth of all individuals, including those with same-sex attraction, and we reject all hatred and unjust treatment against any person.”
But what is a call to deny same-sex couples the countless legal benefits received at the state and federal level, if not unjust treatment?
Being proficient at talking out both sides of his mouth has seen Dolan’s career blossom, but it makes for a conflicted moral code.
Sometimes to do the right thing is also to do the unpopular thing. It’s having the courage to stand on principal that marks the difference between yes men and no men.
22 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.paddyo | Oct 10, 2012, 05:51 PM EDT
Fr. Mychal Judge was gay, but he was celibate throughout his life.
SCVMalcolm | Sep 18, 2012, 03:27 PM EDT
Kilgara... Sheesh. You deny the factrs that other people cite and demand that yours be accepted? Re. O'Connor and his after midnight bedpan ministry, PROVE IT!! Did he slide one under you?
SCVMalcolm | Sep 18, 2012, 03:18 PM EDT
Oh Kilgara, you ARE a true Catholic! Your choice to ignore the reality of truth is manifested in your bigotry. Cahir DID honor Fr. Michael Judge, who was an openly gay man, and who was a helluva lot more Christian than you could ever hope to be. Methinks you are the one who should be considering a changeover: from being a hateful bigot to being more Christ-like!
kilgara | Sep 16, 2012, 11:24 PM EDT
O'Doherty, you display an abysmal ignorance of anything Roman Catholic. Of course, Cardinal Dolan toes the "company" line, he's required to be faithful to the magisterium of the Church . Since you are ignorant of such a basic fact, you have no business commenting about something of which you are an IGNORAMUS. How dare you slander Fr. Judge when he is not here to repute your filthy allegations. You really should consider a changeover to perhaps , manual labor.
KatieMurphy | Sep 16, 2012, 11:59 AM EDT
I cant think of anything worse then Dolan not honoring the gay priest of the 9-11 attacks....................Its positive proof that he is not just following church dogma but he or his boss hate gay people..... shame on hating for any reason. BTW in 2009 the German Pope UNexcommunicated bishop williamson - a holocaaust denier / minimizer. I doubt he has alts as that disease first shows as the inability to remember NEW things. Usually the victim does remember things way in the past. The issue it usually hits the hypothalmus which is our short term memory . ...........BTW i do know that gay people get wonderful treatment at cath mercy hospitals. thee nuns / sisters run them............Now the pope - former head of the former office of the Inquistion is Investigating them...........In the twists and turns of society, whether you do or dont support marriage eqUALITY under civil law, I've read on irish times on the web that 75% of the people in the most catholic country in the world - support changing the consittution so gay people can marry in ireland.................May God give the pope a long and healthy papacy - God works in strange ways his wonders to behold. BTW Wilaims was living in Argentina when he was UNexcommed. The argentinians threw him out of the oountry. that was in 2009 and in 2010 Argentina put in Latin Americas first marriage equality law.
kilgara | Mar 02, 2012, 12:14 AM EST
Hey holllabackgurl,You know not of what you speak. Cardinal O'Connor would often go alone , after midnight to St. Clares'hospital and minister to the AIDS patients{emptying bedpans hearing confessions etc.} Don't bother commenting about matters you are absolutely ignorant about.
eiriamach | Feb 29, 2012, 10:24 PM EST
I put the question to my pal Nicky Machiavelli, whether Cardinal Dolan is just faking his über-conservatism until his gets the ultimate job of pope. He said "No way!" No one would take Dolan seriously as a do-gooder, Machiavelli says, after all the harm he has knowingly done to gays and women with his very public letters to the Obama administration (which also show the world his poor thinking skills). He's a shallow ideologue, a catechism reader, in love with power, whether he believes the cr*p he writes or not. And being in love with power spells failure for anyone who intends to use power for the sake of principle.
MCCOLGAN1492 | Feb 29, 2012, 05:32 PM EST
Shows you how far the Church has gone from the teaching of Jesus. Makes you want to become a Baptist..
irishpjk | Feb 29, 2012, 04:10 PM EST
When I was a firefighter for FDNY I knew and liked Fr Judge. I am sure he would not like or appreciate his name being used to put another person in a bad light. If you don't like the Cardinal fine, but leave other good people out of it.
rainbowbrew | Feb 29, 2012, 02:53 PM EST
Stephen and the catholic sheeple defend it instead of requiring justice.
stephen1553 | Feb 29, 2012, 02:34 PM EST
and I shsould add below - the church talks about protcecting life while contributing to the induced suicide of our gay and lesbian children in this country. quite a smokescreen. And we see the hate and ignorance in another commentators comment about "abomination", etc. I am more and more learning that the only love of the catholic church is for its power.
badolan | Feb 29, 2012, 02:32 PM EST
Nice hat!!! Let's see. And who are the trouble makers? Right. That would be the Christians, Jews and Muslims. Imagine a world without them.
stephen1553 | Feb 29, 2012, 02:30 PM EST
Dolan was archbishop of milwaukee and scrambled the church books to prevent paying compenstation to the endless victims of the church of molestation.............His real new job so I've read is the same - to prevent the well deserved bankruptcy of the church re how it put its reputation ahead of the soul murder of in the USA a hundred thousand children raped by priests and kept quiet by the vatican.............You can find all this with google...............BTW when the church calls gays intrinsically disordered, intriniscally evil etc, we get to clean up the mess - the 1000-2000 gay kids who are driven to suicide every single year in a repeating 9-11. You be the judge , but every catholic should cut off all contributions to the church.
hollabackgurl | Feb 29, 2012, 02:15 PM EST
For years Father Mychal Judge ministered to gay men in New York who were Catholics and he did so clandestinely, sneaking out to give last rights, and against the express wishes of his hard hearted superiors, which you would know, if you knew how the Church reacted to the AIDS crisis in NYC. The Church condemned them as deserving of their fate. I'm surprised some gays didn't set St. Pat's on fire. I imagine Jesus would have been first in line with a match.
SingleDonald | Feb 29, 2012, 01:29 PM EST
kilgara, I remember the flagrant displays of lesbian activity (2 women passionately kissing) in St. Patrick's Cathedral. I also recall gay men receiving communion in their hands, and throwing the wafers to the floor! I thought Cardinal O'Connor was remiss in NOT throwing these morons out fast! This had nothing to do with homosexual & lesbian civil rights. It was blatent desecration of a church, and its sacraments!! Responsible gay people should see this, as well as straights. Defiling a Church & its sacraments is plain wrong!!
hybernia | Feb 29, 2012, 01:18 PM EST
Is it not better to be a good (gay) man than (straight?) men like this bunch. Some 200 Catholic priests suspected of sexual abuse are living undetected in communities across California, according to an attorney who represents hundreds of plaintiffs who sued the LA Archdiocese. Ray Boucher has mapped 60 locations where suspect priests live, in cities and towns from northern to southern California. “Many if not all these priests have admitted to sexual abuse,” Boucher said. “They live within a mile of 1,500 playgrounds, schools and daycare centers.” Since none of the priests has actually been convicted of sex abuse, none can be identified under Megan’s Law, or their whereabouts revealed in related public databases. “What the issue is here, is how you weigh the right of the people,” said Boucher, who is also one of the attorneys representing students in the Miramonte Elementary School sex abuse scandal. In 2007 the LA Archdiocese reached an unprecedented $660 million settlement with many of the plaintiffs without admitting any wrong-doing. It also agreed to let the courts decide which of the case-related church files should be made public, including those identifying alleged and admitted predators. But according to Boucher and court documents, the Catholic Church has since engaged in a cover-up. By Boucher’s account, church officials allowed priests suspected of sexually abusing children to retire, flee the country or hide in rehab clinics until the statute of limitations on prosecution ran out.
hybernia | Feb 29, 2012, 01:03 PM EST
Many knew he was gay, including New York City Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, who says Judge told him personally.
kilgara | Feb 29, 2012, 11:53 AM EST
Did Father Judge ever say he was gay? No, so why is this O'Doherty clown permitted to slander his good name when he is no longer here to defend himself?Gays hated Cardinal O'Connor and committed sacralige in our Cathedral because he was one of the very few who had the guts to tell them that what they do is an abomination and a grave sin.The church is NOT going to change and so these same clowns now hate and revile Cardinal Dolan.
SingleDonald | Feb 29, 2012, 10:20 AM EST
Interesting perspective! I, for one, couldn't blindly support matters which I knew to be wrong, then suddenly make an "about face" when I became the "top honcho". What about all the people who had been hurt, while I was in the lower level positions? How would I make up for their suffering, once I reached the top? Yes, it is true that being a "yes man", or "yes woman" often leads one to the top. That is why the notion of "insubordination" strikes fear into the hearts of not only subordinates (because of potential consequences), but bosses too. Superiors realize that their power is challenged by underlings not going along with their wishes. I'm not saying that proper job duties should not be carried out. However, in matters of extreme authoritarianism (such as a boss attempting to enforce a 'dating ban', among his employees, even after they leave his premises), people should be able to disregard this, without having their livlihoods jeopardized. In the Church, opposing views should not be regarded as "heresy", or "blasphemy". Those two terms, along with "insubordination" help the powers that be cling to their rule. To paraphrase the words of American Founding Father Patrick Henry, the time may come when underlings shout, "If this be "insubordination", "heresy", or "blasphemy", we intend to make the most of it!! Maybe then the autocratic rulers will "ease up" on their rigid stances!
Nicoletta | Feb 29, 2012, 10:18 AM EST
Wow, this plumbs new depths in the anti-Catholic Irish herald. Your last paragraph is absolutely priceless! LOL It's the Catholic church who are standing up for what is right and unpopular but you Mr Doherty are sadly, too blinded by your hatred and bigotry to see it.
borefield | Feb 29, 2012, 09:45 AM EST
Ah! My brave Cahir has a new target to critize and spread hate rhetoric What a waste this guy is.
PhlutiePhan | Feb 29, 2012, 09:33 AM EST
My impression somewhat dovetails the impressions of this article. The fact that the Reverend Mychal Judge was gay put a "hold" on the move toward sainthood. I visited St. Patrick's Cathedral just after Cardinal Dolan was elevated to the AB position. I got the distinct feeling that he is playing "possum" with the issues of women and gays in the Church. His newly released education policies as well as his staff changes at the Cathedral appeared to reflect that. He came from here in St. Louis and then went to Milwaukee. While here in St. Louis, he was assigned to meet and evaluate every priest who was accused of child abuse. He appeared to make a half-hearted investigation in every case even though the priests were required to live in the same rectory for his evaluation.