The Hypocrisy of Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin

McCamy Taylor

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Sun Nov-22-09 03:12 PM
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The Hypocrisy of Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin

Edited on Sun Nov-22-09 03:14 PM by McCamy Taylor

Pop quiz. Who said the following about what political issue?

"I recognize that the...issue is very complex and emotional, and I certainly don’t want to overlook or discount the strong feelings of those on the other side of the question. But, if it’s to be productive, the public debate has to be reasonable and civil."

Answer: Bishop Thomas Tobin. About immigration reform.

"Undocumented immigrants came to our country because a broken system enabled them, even sometimes enticed them, to do so. And now that they’re here, we’ve turned against them. As a result, undocumented immigrants find themselves in a real catch-22."

Bishop Thomas Tobin on immigration reform.

http://thericatholic.com/opinion/detail.html?sub_id=2445

The Roman Catholic bishop of Rhode Island said Sunday that he asked Rep. Patrick Kennedy in a 2007 letter to stop receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, because of the congressman's public stance on moral issues.
Bishop Thomas Tobin divulged details of his confidential exchange with Kennedy after the Democratic lawmaker told The Providence Journal in a story published Sunday that Tobin had instructed him not to receive Communion. The two men have clashed repeatedly in the past few weeks over abortion.

http://news.aol.com/article/patrick-kennedy-denied-communion-from/765365

So, a Roman Catholic Bishop has his panties in a twist, because a political leader, who also happens to be a Catholic, supports the law of the land. By law, I mean Roe v. Wade which affirms that every individual in the United States has the right to determine what health care is best for him or her, regardless of how that care might affect others. What does this mean? It means you can not be forced to donate bone marrow, blood or organs such as a kidney, even if the donation would save the life of another person. It means you can not be forced to accept a blood transfusion, even if it would save your life and prevent the state from having to support your orphaned children. You can not be required to spend a decade in a vegetative state with a feeding tube, even if some hospital or nursing home could make a lot of money billing your insurance for your care. And, it means that no woman can be forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy “for the sake of the child”.

In recent weeks, those opposed to abortion rights have attempted to hijack health reform in this country. They want a public option that covers obstetrical care but not termination. That will force poor women to have more children, increasing the poverty under which they and their children live. They want the government to tell private insurers that they have to stop covering terminations, too---

Is that all health care reform means to the Catholic Church? No abortions? I decided to see what the Church’s official policy was.

From the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops web page:

USCCB Position on Health Care Reform

• a truly universal health policy with respect for human life and dignity
• access for all with a special concern for the poor and inclusion of immigrants
• pursuing the common good and preserving pluralism including freedom of conscience and variety of options
• restraining costs and applying them equitably across the spectrum of payers

http://www.usccb.org/healthcare/

Wow. What a truly progressive platform the Church has! Who would have guessed that the Catholic Bishops are a bunch of godless communists. Just kidding. Take a look at that second one. Care for all even immigrants . Does not that make a whole lot of Republican members of Congress sinners in the eyes of the Catholic Church?

Consider the Catholic Senators who signed onto a letter protesting plans to legalize the status of undocumented immigrant workers, Jim Bunning (R- Kentucky) and David Vitter (R-/Louisiana).

http://hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=1292473f-1b78-be3e-e073-f96f05aacec2&Month=11&Year=2009

Keeping immigrant workers second class hardly gives them “access” to the care and services that other American workers take for granted. When you allow them to cross the border to work, as our country does, but do not offer them equal protection, you are, in effect, making them serfs. So, how many times have these guys been denied communion based upon their very un-Catholic behavior?

Back in 2005, every single Republican member of the House---and that includes a lot of Catholics---voted to prevent undocumented immigrants from getting driver’s licenses.

http://badgerherald.com/news/2005/02/15/anti-immigration_bil.php

In effect denying them access to the roads! I hope the nation’s Catholic Bishops made them stand in the corner until they saw the error of their ways.

Who else needs to be denied communion? Rep. John Boehner called a 2007 immigration bill a “piece of shit”

Boehner released a statement earlier Tuesday saying he had "significant concerns" about provisions in the Senate proposal that would "reward illegal immigrants who have consistently broken our laws."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,274994,00.html

There is probably a special corner of Catholic Hell reserved for pedophile former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Florida). He cosponsored the bill that would have stripped the citizenship from children born in the USA whose parents happened to be here illegally.

Rep. Foley was a cosponsor of H.J. Res 41, a proposal that would amend the Constitution of the United States so that no person born in the United States would be a United States citizen unless a parent is a United States citizen, is lawfully in the United States, or has a lawful immigration status at the time of the birth. Current U.S. policy of granting citizenship to the children born to illegal aliens in the U.S. results in about 200,000 additional citizens a year according to U.S. Census data. Not only do these births represent additional U.S. population growth, but because the babies of illegal aliens are U.S. citizens, they can then act as 'anchors' to eventually pull a large number of extended family members into the country legally.

http://profiles.numbersusa.com/improfile.php3?DistSend=FL&VIPID=194

Know how many Google hits I got when I searched “Thomas Tobin denies communion to Mark Foley”? Zero.

Now, consider for a moment the moral (not legal) difference between supporting abortion rights and stripping children born in the USA of their citizenship because their parents were here illegally. In the first situation, you snip a potential life in the bud. In the second, you doom a child to a lifetime of second class status through no fault of his own. And by second class status, I mean he can be deported at any moment to a country he does not know where the people speak a language he can not understand. He lives a life full of fear and uncertainty, never knowing when Big Brother may decide to make an example of him---

Funny that supporting the first is a mortal sin that can keep a man from receiving communion but the second is just a matter of “public debate.” Makes you wonder if Bishop Tobin cares more for the unborn than he does for our nation’s living, breathing children.