New York Democrats have a serious anti-Catholic problem, according to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York.
It’s not just a little thing, something like a low-level Democratic official making an offhand remark, he argued this week in a New York Post op-ed. Rather, the bigotry is loud, direct, and widespread among the so-called progressive wing of the state’s ruling political body.
“It’s been a rough time for faithful Catholics recently in our state government’s frantic rush for ‘progressive’ ideas,” Dolan writes.
He adds in reference to New York’s recently passed law allowing for up-to-the-moment-of-birth abortions: “I’m thinking first of the ghoulish radical abortion-expansion law, which allows for an abortion right up to the moment of birth; drops all charges against an abortionist who allows an aborted baby, who somehow survives the scissors, scalpel, saline and dismemberment, to die before his eyes; mandates that, to make an abortion more convenient and easy, a physician need not perform it; and might even be used to suppress the conscience rights of health care professionals not to assist in the grisly procedures.”
This is not a mischaracterization. The bill is every bit as grotesque and barbarous as Dolan describes. Almost as bad as the law is the fact that its passage was accompanied last week by a standing ovation from the state’s lawmakers. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo even ordered for the One World Trade Center’s spire to be illuminated that evening in honor of the bill, transforming the peak of “Freedom Tower” into a pink, 408-foot-tall abortion spear.
“Those who once told us that abortion had to remain safe, legal and rare now have made it dangerous, imposed and frequent,” Dolan writes.
Cuomo says One World Trade Center’s 408-foot spire, the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the Kosciuszko Bridge and the Alfred E. Smith Building in Albany will be lit in pink tonight to celebrate passage of Reproductive Health Act https://t.co/TmDEmj18Vy pic.twitter.com/XYdgxPNaoC
— Joseph Spector (@GannettAlbany) January 23, 2019
New York Democrats are jubilant. Some are so happy, in fact, that they’re taking victory laps against those who opposed the bill, including leaders of the Roman Catholic Church. Cuomo, for example, used an interview Monday as an opportunity to rub salt in the Church’s clergy sex abuse wound.
“Tell the truth. Jesus Christ teaches about truth and justice — social justice — and that’s not what the church did here,” the governor said in reference to the New York State Catholic Conference’s initial opposition to the Child Victims Act, which seeks to expand the statute of limitations for reporting sexual abuse and filing lawsuits.
The bill, as originally written, was clearly targeted at the Church — it expanded the statute of limitations in school abuse cases only in private and religious schools. The version of the bill that passed — the one that the conference had no qualms with — allows for lawsuits to be filed for allegations of abuse in both private and public schools. The governor is not wrong when he says the church has a serious problem. But characterizing the exploitation of minors as something unique to the church is a common lie, and it’s one Cuomo was peddling. It’s also obvious that his comments are part of a broader strategy to kneecap a group that opposes his agenda. Remove the moral authority, remove the influence.
“I don’t think I’m against the Catholic Church,” the governor said. “I think the bishops may have a different position than the pope, and I’m with the pope.”
Wait until the governor hears about what Pope Francis has to say about abortion.
The attacks from Cuomo and his allies have not gone unnoticed by Dolan.
“I’ve been attacked in the past when I asked — sadly and reluctantly — if the party that my folks proudly claimed as their own, the Democrats, had chosen to alienate faithful Catholic voters. Now you know why I asked. As an American historian, I am very aware of our state’s past record of scorn and sneers at Catholics. It used to be called ‘know-nothings.’ Now it’s touted as ‘progressivism,'” the archbishop said.
Dolan went out on a limb in March 2018 when he claimed Democrats had abandoned Catholics. He’s not wrong, but I’d say this was obvious long before 2018. And judging by where we are today, I’d say we’re well past mere, passive abandonment.
After the last couple of news cycles, it’s probably safe to safe we’re knee-deep in the actively-hounding-Catholics-from-the-public-square phase (e.g. the persecution of the Little Sisters of the Poor, the various media attacks on Catholic hospitals, the “dogma lives loudly within you,” the smear campaign against the Covington Catholic teens, the smear campaign against the Knights of Columbus, etc., etc.).
