Catholic Congressman Cancels Graduation Speech After Catholic Bishop Object

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBERD1IU8E.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Republican congressman who supports abortion rights decided not to speak at a college nursing graduation ceremony in Utica, N.Y., after learning that a Catholic bishop opposed his appearance.

New York Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, who is Catholic, canceled his planned speech to the 70 graduates of St. Elizabeth's College of Nursing, saying he did not want to draw attention from their ceremony.

College president Marianne Monahan said Tuesday that while the cancellation was the congressman's idea, she had been told by the office of Bishop James M. Moynihan in Syracuse that the bishop opposed Boehlert's speaking.

The ceremony is to take place this Saturday. By tradition, it is held at Our Lady of Lourdes, a church across the street from the college. Monahan said she was told that church policy barred politicians who vote for abortion rights from speaking at church facilities.

[gordianot]

1. Is this supposed to be an attempt at being fair and ballanced?

[Demit]

2. "the bishop opposed Boehlert's speaking"

Yeah, that's democracy all right.

[zipplewrath]

5. Catholicism is a theocracy

They make no bones about it and it is a fundamental difference they have with many of the protestant churches.

[Demit]

9. I wasn't referring to the Church, really. Was thinking more about the USA

I was thinking about the bishop's censorship of a US Congressman, and that Congressman's quiet acquiescence to it. The phrase just jumped out at me as saying something sad about the state of our country today.

And Catholicism isn't a theocracy, anyway. A theocracy is a form of government in which God is considered the civil ruler. Catholicism is a religion.

[shoelace414]

3. Jesus was a liberal

[yorgatron]

4. well,damn good thing a bishop can tell a politician what to do now.

i just want to know when will that bishop and his church start paying taxes?

[LetsGoMurphys]

6. My former Bishop would not attend Tweety's commencement

speech about 2 years ago at the University of Scranton (A Jesuit College) because of his pro-choice views.

[saskatoon]

15. i just want to know when will that bishop and his church start paying taxe

ME TOO. It is so damn ridiculous that the churches are getting away with blatantly speaking from the pulpit, espousing their political views and not paying a damn cent in taxes.

[jwcomer]

10. which jesus?

Would that be the jesus of Mathew, or the jesus of the other three gospels? Perhaps the jesus of Paul? Really hard to know what jesus thought. Certainly Paul's letters were written before the gospels. And Paul's jesus was certainly not a social liberal. Paul's jesus had some pretty damning things to say about sexuality. Of course, Paul never met jesus (and never read the gospels due to their not having yet been written.) And its pretty clear that Peter and Paul did not get along that well. And Mathew, well he adds a numbers of interesting tidbits to his gospel that show support for Peter over Paul (e.g. "peter is the rock.") But don't take solace in the more liberal jesus of Mathew, that jesus was only out to save the jews and was pretty specific about not being around to help the gentiles. Then again, maybe Mathew had an axe to grind. Who knows?

And that's where the confusion stems from. All of those sources manipulated the words and life of jesus, the man. Thus everyone gets their own personal jesus, conservative and liberals alike.

[KC21304]

11. And let's not even get into all the gospels thrown out

around 400 or so because they didn't quite please the hierarchy of the church at the time.

[Donailin]

12. Jesus said

"prostitutes and tax collectors will enter the kingdom of heaven before you!" to the radical right religious leaders of his day.

[jwcomer]

26. It isn't so clear.

I think you mean that it is written that, or it is said that, jesus said, ".....". We don't actually know anything the man said as he didn't write anything of his own and there exist no contemporary accounts. Also, you aren't going to find any of the characters from the new testament fitting neatly into 21st century left-wing right-wing politics. Far far from it. I suspect you would find jesus, the man, supporting a little of each. But, as it is next to impossible to identify the real jesus, we have no way of knowing.

[Donailin]

27. I think you've

missed the point entirely.

Welcome to DU!

[mitchtv]

7. from now on , these congress people should

start holding commencment alternatives if at all possible nearby.

[StuckinKS]

8. It's not that they don't have the right

to decide who will speak at their commencement, it's just that it seems so petty and judgmental.

It's not enough that a Catholic congressman was available to speak, he's just not Catholic enough! Perhaps only an Antonin Scalia will do.

[justjones]

13. Wonder how many of the nursing graduates support/oppose abortion.....

I would like to hear how the students feel about abortion, seeing that they are all nurses. I'm guessing most of them women, too, because of the nursing profession.

Sometimes the administrators of the schools and the students have totally different worldviews....but does this mean they were taught a curriculum that didn't include abortion as an alternative because it is a Catholic University, and if not, isn't that violating some kind of educational standard? Oh, that's right, aren't they trying to pass laws that say that conscientious objectors don't have to learn procedures they are "morally" opposed to?

[davidinalameda]

14. you would have thought that the school might have an inkling

that there might be a problem when they invited him

[ElectroPrincess]

16. This is just plain stupid. The Catholic Church is losing people ...

We're (practicing Catholics) a diverse group of mostly "good people." Unfortunately our American leadership (some Bishops) is profoundly misguided and inappropriately dogmatic. This is just sad ... all these men posturing just to prop up their sense of self-righteous indignation. To FORCE people to believe as Catholics.

Wake up American Bishops! There are many spiritual people in this country and us Catholic should respect THEIR beliefs as Monahan respects and represents her constituency.

Separation of Church and State!

[HockeyMom]

17. Exactly

Let them look around at Mass. See how many young people there are. See how many families there are. See how many young families with more than 1 or 2 kids are there. I go to Mass. I am in my mid 50s and most of the congregation is OLDER THAN ME.

They are losing it and with their new hard line attitude they will lose even more.

[sallyseven]

18. TAX, TAX, TAX THEM

I will not set foot in the Catholic Church ever again.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. They lost me

There are so many reasons but the clincher was the pedophile scandal. I advocate for kids. I cannot in my right mind and in good conscience support an institution that covers up and ignores children being sexually abused.

If any one issue is responsible for the demise of the Catholic church, this would most likely be it, IMO.

[CatholicEdHead]

21. Yep,

it is the same at my parish. It is still on the moderate side, while the pews have more people, the age group is titlted far up to the 50's -70's. Very few people in their 20's. The increase in attendence is only becuase of going from 4 to 3 weekend masses.

[Iowa]

23. Yep, most bishops are twits...

Many (maybe even most) practicing Catholics pay no attention to them. I know I don't. They're typically viewed as self-centered businessmen. Nobody I know listens to anything they say. Like any other large organization, those who rise to the top are usually the suck-ups who have no lofty agenda beyond their own advancement. My parents are in their 70s, and they have no time for these characters - nor do many of their peers.

Those who aren't Catholic may make the mistake of believing that Catholics hang on every word the bishops say, yet the typical Catholic hears very little from them, beyond an occasional headline in the secular press. And when we do hear from them, we usually think they're idiots just like everyone else. When was the last time I heard a bishop sound like anything but a mealymouthed politician or, God forbid, actually take a courageous stand? I can't recall.

Average Catholics are just focused on the faith. Bishops are nothing but an impediment to the faith.

[CatholicEdHead]

24. That is about correct for the US

Bishops, in that many will listen to what they say, but feel free to disagree with them at any time.

Bishops are the lowest level of management. The Vatican, like any other large business/corporation has institutional politics which do bring about quite a bit of backstabbing each other/trying to outdo each other to stand out as they try to climb the ladder of power towards the papacy.

That does not mean you cannot find reasonable Bishops, you have to take each one at a time, but the newer ones tend to be much more judgemental and highly critical of following the rules.

[LiberalFighter]

20. Solution: Prohibit elected officials from speaking at commencements

[CatholicEdHead]

22. All about the definiton of abortion

and "pro-choice = pro-abortion". The issue is extremly distorted from reality so we get these out of place reactions.

[designforce]

25. Church/State

It is here...

Are you ready?