Cardinal Dolan, Please Stop the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Scandal!

Update Feb. 18, 2015: LifeSiteNews has learned that an application by a pro-life group to also march in the parade has been rejected. Read that story here.

Background:

On September 3, 2014, the organizers of the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade announced that, for this first time in the parade’s lengthy history, a gay activist group will be permitted to march in the 2015 parade under their own banner.

Previous attempts to allow such a gay activist group to march in past years had been thwarted by organizers, and the strong opposition of the late Cardinal John J. O’Connor.

Catholics quickly responded to the about-face, condemning the attempt to impose the homosexualist agenda on a parade intended to honor a beloved Catholic saint. Many called for Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who as the Archbishop of New York traditionally serves as the grand marshall of the parade, to oppose the decision, and, if necessary, to step down as marshall.

However, to the surprise of many, Cardinal Dolan expressed his support for the organizers’ decision. “I have no trouble with the decision at all,” Cardinal Dolan said at an evening news conference announcing his appointment as grand marshal. “I think the decision is a wise one.”

After receiving numerous complaints from Catholics, Cardinal Dolan doubled down, arguing in an article that OUT@NBCUniversal, "is not promoting an agenda contrary to Church teaching, but simply identifying themselves as 'Gay people of Irish ancestry.'"

However, the group is, in fact, involved in a variety of initiatives that legitimize the homosexual lifestyle, including: “celebrating” Harvey Milk, a famously homosexual politician who biographers say enjoyed sexual relationships with underage boys; advocating homosexual “marriage” and anti-Christian “non-discrimination” legislation; and participating in “pride” parades.

With the parade not taking place until March 17, there is still time for organizers to change their minds, and for Cardinal Dolan to step up and defend the St. Patrick’s Parade. Please sign this petition to Cardinal Dolan, and share it with your family and friends.

 Sign the Petition here

Could an American be the Next Pope?

Perhaps the archbishop of New York. Or that of Boston. In the footsteps of Benedict XVI, moreover with the lash against mismanagement in hand. But the curia is resisting and counterattacking, bringing forward a Brazilian cardinal in its trust

By Sandro Magister

Timothy Cardinal Dolan

ROME, March 7, 2013 – The easiest bet is that the next pope will not be Italian. But not European, African, or Asian ether. For the first time in the bimillennial history of the Church, the successor of Peter could come from the Americas. Or to hazard a more targeted prediction: from the Big Apple.

Timothy Michael Dolan, archbishop of New York, 63, is a larger-than-life man from the Midwest with a radiant smile and overflowing vigor, precisely that “vigor of both body and mind” which Joseph Ratzinger recognized he had lost and defined as necessary for his successor, for the sake of properly “governing the barque of Peter and proclaiming the Gospel.”

In Benedict XVI's act of resignation there was found already the title of the program of the future pope. And many cardinals were quickly reminded of the visionary vivacity with which Dolan developed precisely this theme, with his “primordial” Italian, his words, but scintillating, at the consistory one year ago, when he himself, the archbishop of New York, was preparing to receive the scarlet:

Read more at Chiesa News >>

Cardinal Dolan Discusses the Ideal Papal Candidate

Cardinal Dolan: US Bishops Won't Comply with Obama Rule on Birth Control Coverage in Insurance

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks at the conference's annual fall meeting in Baltimore, Monday, Nov. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

A top American bishop said Tuesday the Roman Catholic church will not comply with the Obama administration requirement that most employers provide health insurance covering birth control.

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said church leaders are open to working toward a resolution with federal officials, but will meanwhile press ahead with challenges to the mandate in legislatures and in court.

"The only thing we're certainly not prepared to do is give in. We're not violating our consciences," Dolan told reporters at a national bishops' meeting. "I would say no door is closed except for the door to capitulation."

Read the rest of this entry at The Republic >> 

 

Dolan in the No Spin Zone

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, American Catholicism's most prominent  clerical leader, took the battle for religious liberty to America's number one rated cable news program last night.  Whether or not the Constitution endures will probably be decided in the courts and the Congress, but in head to head combat, we know that Obama will prove to be no match for the affable and brilliant Dolan.

Cardinal Dolan: AMDG - For the Greater Glory of God

This is a daunting hour in our nation's history.  With a Marxist in the White House eager to persecute the Church, with our nation facing bankruptcy, massive unemployment and cultural collapse, and with emboldened enemies throughout the world gaining nuclear weapons, many are inclined to despair.  But it is in just such an hour that a faithful and loving God raises up great leaders -- in the political realm and in the Church.  This past weekend, New Yorkers got a glimpse of God's unfailing love in their new Cardinal Archbishop.

   

In Depth Analysis: The Bishops' Tougher Response to the Obama 'Compromise' Mandate

From CatholicCulture.org

By Phil Lawler

After an initial muted reaction to President Obama’s proposed “accommodation,” the leaders of the US bishops’ conference have released a second, stronger statement, declaring that the mandate for contraceptive coverage in health-care programs remains “unacceptable and must be corrected.” 

On Friday evening, February 10—several hours after President Obama unveiled his “compromise” proposal—the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released an official statement signed by five leading prelates. The bishops said that the revised plan “continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions.” 

Leading Catholics Denounce Obama Administration's Disregard for Conscience Rights

Obama and his "Catholic" Quislings

Leading American Catholics, including Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, Robert George and Michael Sean Winters, respond to the Obama administration running roughshod over religious liberty and conscience rights in its requirement that all health plans cover contraceptives free of charge.

US Catholic Bishops Establish Religious Liberty Committee

Several weeks ago, in response to the Obama administration mandating that Catholic institutions include coverage of contraception (including abortifacients) and sterilization in all private health insurance plans, Archbishop Timothy Dolan threatened "a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions."

Bishop William Lori

Today Archbishop Dolan announced that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is forming an Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.  Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut will chair the new committee.  

We are underwhelmed.  If another committee at the corrupt, staff-run, inept United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is to be the bishops' response to immoral and tyrannical actions by the Obama administration, we are doomed.  Do they think they can bore their adversaries into surrender with another staff document?

We hope this is just window dressing prior to the real "national conflict."  For the battle itself, we would suggest that it be commanded by someone who knows what he is doing in public policy and the political sphere and is untouched by scandal -- Governor Frank Keating or Father Frank Pavone come to mind.

It's a shame the 300 old men represented by the USCCB have squandered their moral authority, not on the great moral issues of our time, but on details of public policy better left to the laity, and on which Catholics have every right to disagree.  That a majority of bishops protected perpetrators rather than victims in the sexual abuse of young people, further erodes their ability to counter the Obama administration's assault on Catholic institutions.

Archbishop Dolan Warns Obama to Cease Attacks on Marriage, Threatens "National Conflict Between Church and State of Enormous Proportions"

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York has written as President of the US Bishops' Conference to Barack Obama, telling the US President that he risks creating “a national conflict between Church and State of enormous proportions” if he undermines traditional marriage.

Dear Mr. President:

I write with a growing sense of urgency about recent actions taken by your Administration that both escalate the threat to marriage and imperil the religious freedom of those who promote and defend marriage. This past spring the Justice Department announced that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court, a decision strongly opposed by the Catholic Bishops of the United States and many others. Now the Justice Department has shifted from not defending DOMA—which is problem enough, given the duty of the executive branch to enforce even laws it disfavors—to actively attacking DOMA‟s constitutionality. My predecessor, Cardinal Francis George, OMI, and I have expressed to you in the past our strong disappointment about the direction your Administration has been moving regarding DOMA. Unfortunately the only response to date has been the intensification of efforts to undermine DOMA and the institution of marriage.

Another Apology Is in Order, Archbishop Dolan

By Julie Collorafi

Archbishop Dolan and Governor Cuomo: Fraternal Correction or Affirmation?

Last week on his blog the Archbishop of New York gamely offered his post-game analysis of the momentous struggle in Albany over the same-sex marriage bill.

Among the noteworthy points Archbishop Dolan made was a handsome acknowledgement of the efforts of the "millions" of many faiths who went to the state capitol or made and sent hundreds of thousands of phone calls and emails in those tumultuous two weeks.

However, it’s difficult to understand why the prestigious prelate, almost in the same breath, found it necessary to extend a lengthy apology to the members of the gay community offended by his "strenuous defense of marriage."

Many Catholics like myself are thankful for the public statements Archbishop Dolan made opposing the bill in the final days before its passage, especially in the conspicuous absence of similar statements from his brother bishops in the New York Catholic Bishops Conference. The affable Metropolitan was far more visible in the thick of the fight than the other New York bishops, but, really, one can hardly describe a radio interview, a blog post and one Sunday morning sermon at St. Patrick’s Cathedral as a "strenuous defense of marriage," especially when hundreds of ministers of other faiths traveled to Albany, lobbied lawmakers in person for days, and demonstrated on the streets at pro-traditional marriage rallies across the state.

New York Catholics remember well that their bishops spared no effort or expense last year to organize the laity in opposing a bill to suspend the statute of limitations in clerical abuse cases. Urgent messages appeared for weeks in parish bulletins and busloads of clergy and laypeople journeyed to Albany where the bill was successfully halted, so a similar campaign against same-sex marriage was expected this time around.

Inexplicably, however, the New York bishops barely responded to the far more pressing situation last month. Many traditional marriage supporters in Albany were dismayed by the absence of Catholic priests and bishops at the state capitol and were stunned to discover in the first critical week of negotiations that Archbishop Dolan and the entire New York Catholic Bishops’ Conference had quietly skipped town to attend a USCCB meeting in Seattle.

Even the New York Times commented on the anemic, lack-lustre response of the New York Catholic bishops, a response that was mystifying given the far-reaching and disastrous effects experts agree this new law will have on religious liberty and the relationship between church and state in New York.

Despite Archbishop Dolan’s inspiring allusions in his post to St. John the Baptist and St. Thomas More who both lost their heads for opposing the degradation of marriage, the fact remains that, unlike the example of these two valiant and prophetic men, the New York Catholic Bishops’ participation in the campaign against same-sex marriage was amazingly flaccid and inept.

Most observers will agree that a certain former NFL football player exhibited far more courage than most Catholic bishops when he ventured into public to deliver his own resounding message against the marriage equality bill. (In my opinion, David Tyree delivered a far more articulate and theologically sound defense of traditional marriage in his brave video interview than clerics with miles of credentials and an abundance of doctrinal and pastoral expertise.)

If the Archbishop insists on apologizing to gays for his mild statements opposing same-sex marriage, then he also owes an apology to all the faithful Catholics who spent weeks in the trenches protesting our Democrat governor's vigorous and concerted attack on traditional marriage.

Much more than the gay community, we deserve our bishops’ sincere regrets for not supporting our efforts and for failing to explain tirelessly in a clear, compassionate and rational way Catholic doctrine on marriage and sexual morality.

Julie Collorafi is a graduate of Christendom College who currently homeschools her children, writes educational textbooks and is an organist in the Diocese of Brooklyn. 

New York Clerk Resigns over Gay ‘Marriage’: Gov. Cuomo Responds, ‘The Law is the Law’

A few days ago we wrote about an effort undertaken by a group of concerned New Yorkers who are asking that Archbishop Timothy Dolan enforce Canon Law Code 915, and refuse Holy Communion to Governor Andrew Cuomo and other Catholic politicians supporting same-sex "marriage" until they have publicly repented of their actions.

Governor Cuomo has now provided the Archbishop with the justification and response to anyone opposing the enforcement of Code 915: "the law is the law," the Governor says.  Indeed, Cuomo believes that "if you can’t enforce the law, then you shouldn’t be in that position."  It seems to us that should also apply to those responsible for enforcing the Church's laws.

The ball is in your court, Your Excellency.

From LifeSiteNews
By Patrick B. Craine 

Laura Fotusky

Reacting to the news that the first New York State town clerk has resigned rather than sign her name on a same-sex “marriage” license, Gov. Andrew Cuomo insisted Tuesday that “the law is the law.”

“When you enforce the laws of the state, you don’t get to pick and choose which laws,” he said, according to the NY Daily News. “You don’t get to say, ‘I like this law and I’ll enforce this law, or I don’t like this law and I won’t enforce this law’ - you can’t do that.”

“So if you can’t enforce the law, then you shouldn’t be in that position,” he added.

Laura Fotusky, a clerk in the town of Barker, announced her resignation Monday on the website of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms. “I cannot put my signature on something that is against God,” she wrote in her resignation letter. “The Bible clearly teaches that God created marriage between male and female as a divine gift that preserves families and cultures.”

Charity Requires Bold and Clear Teaching in New York; Enforce Canon 915

Archbishop Dolan

We were pleased to learn that a group of concerned New York State Catholics are petitioning New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, urging him to enforce Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law and deny Holy Communion to Catholic politicians who worked for the passage of the homosexual "marriage" law in that state, especially Governor Andrew Cuomo.  Those wishing to sign the petition may do so here.

In a recent editorial for The Anchor, the official newspaper for the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, Father Roger Landry writes:

The Church exists as a hospital for the spiritually sick to bring them the Divine Physician’s healing, to help them become well, and ultimately to minister them the medicine of Christ in such a way that they may live forever. When the Church fails to do this, it fails in its mission. If doctors and nurses at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute were aware that a patient was chain smoking cigars and out of a desire not to displease him said nothing, they would be guilty of unconscionable neglect. If the patient was flaunting his cigar-smoking and attempting to persuade others that, rather than harmful, cigar-smoking was a great practice deserving of celebration instead of censure, the destructive consequences of their reticence would be magnified. 

When the Church ignores the apostasy of prominent Catholic politicians, it sends mixed signals and falls short of its charitable obligation to provide, in the clearest possible terms, teachings that will assist all the faithful in realizing the salvation offered to them by Jesus Christ.

When Governor Cuomo receives Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament he is compounding sin by publicly stating he is in communion with and believes what the Church proclaims on the sanctity of marriage and the moral life.  He clearly does not.

We believe that Archbishop Dolan will act as a good shepherd of souls must.  Please sign the petition and encourage him to protect the Blessed Sacrament from sacrilege.  For the sake of all souls entrusted to his care, ask that he proclaim the Church's teaching without equivocation.

Archbishop Dolan: 'God, Not Albany, Has Settled the Definition of Marriage a Long Time Ago'

The stampede is on. Our elected senators who have stood courageous in their refusal to capitulate on the state’s presumption to redefine marriage are reporting unrelenting pressure to cave-in.

The media, mainly sympathetic to this rush to tamper with a definition as old as human reason and ordered good, reports annoyance on the part of some senators that those in defense of traditional marriage just don’t see the light, as we persist in opposing this enlightened, progressive, cause.

But, really, shouldn’t we be more upset – and worried – about this perilous presumption of the state to re-invent the very definition of an undeniable truth – one man, one woman, united in lifelong love and fidelity, hoping for children – that has served as the very cornerstone of civilization and culture from the start?

Archbishop Dolan on 'Unpleasant Truths'

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York has taken on the controversy over pro-life billboards in that city with civility, clarity and truth.  His most recent column is a reminder that speaking the truth, however objectionable some people may find it, is always an act of charity. The billboard he defends may have saved lives, and growing support for the pro-life cause is proof that witnesses to truth are changing hearts and saving souls.

I’ve known for a long time that I should lose some weight. So, last week, I visited my doctor, and he showed me a gross, disgusting, dripping ball of yellow wax. “This,” he said to me, “is what ten pounds of fat looks like. This is what you’re carrying around in your body.” Was it upsetting? Unnerving? Sobering? You bet it was. It was also true, and it was effective, as it strengthened my resolve to get my weight under control.

Being confronted by the truth can often be unpleasant. That’s why those who fight so hard to eradicate world hunger will show us what hunger does, with a picture of a starving child, covered with flies and sores. Does it disturb us to face that truth, an image we’d rather not see or think about? It should, even as it spurs us to action.

It’s the same with smoking. I’m sure you’ve seen those television commercials that graphically portray the effects of smoking. It’s unpleasant to look at open heart surgery, or a pair of diseased lungs, or to see a person who has lost fingers, toes, or the esophagus, all due to smoking. The ads are nauseating, even hideous, to see. But the New York State Department of Health, among many others, sponsors these kinds of ads because they know that they can help to save lives.

Another ad has been generating some fierce reactions. Here in New York, a billboard was recently displayed, that simply stated “The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb.” This message was accompanied by a photograph of a young, African-American girl.

Is that message unpleasant? Is it upsetting? Does it get our attention?

Yes!

Because the message is somberly true. The City of New York’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recently released its vital statistics from a year ago which showed that 59.8% of African-American pregnancies in New York City ended in abortion. That’s even higher than the chilling city-wide average of 41% of pregnancies ending in abortion. (I joined other community leaders from a diversity of religious and ethnic backgrounds at a press conference sponsored by the Chiaroscuro Foundation about this a few weeks ago.)

So why has the billboard suddenly been taken down? What was it that moved many of our elected officials to condemn this ad and call for the gag order. Are they claiming that free speech is a right enjoyed only by those who favor abortion or their pet causes? Do they believe that unpleasant and disturbing truths should not be spoken? Or are they afraid that when people are finally confronted with the reality of the horror of abortion, and with the toll that it is taking in our city, particularly in our African-American community, that they will be moved to defend innocent, unborn, human life?

Perhaps I’m more saddened by this intolerance right now because on Monday I will be celebrating the funeral mass for Doctor Bernard Nathanson, that giant of the pro-life movement, who died earlier this week. If you don’t know Dr. Nathanson’s story, you should. At one time, he fought hard to promote and expand abortion on demand in this state and in our country. He was one of the founders of the National Abortion Rights Action League. He ran what he called the “largest abortion clinic in the Western world,” and bragged about personally performing thousands of abortions. But, when Dr. Nathanson was confronted with the undeniable truth, when he could see the unborn baby in the womb through the use of ultrasound technology, he abandoned his support for abortion and became a crusader for the protection of the life of the baby in the womb.

His courage and bravery should be an inspiration to us, especially when we have to face unpleasant and sobering truths.

Archbishop Dolan Wins Upset Election as Head of Bishops' Conference

The American Catholic bishops avoided a public relations disaster by passing up "the next in line" and electing in his stead one of the best and brightest of their number. This, added to their decision to freeze at last year's level the budget for the liberal, staff-run US Conference of Catholic Bishops, is a hopeful sign that Pope Benedict's episcopal appointments are having an effect.

From LifeSiteNews
By Patrick B. Craine

In a surprise vote that was described as a “seismic shift” by one prominent Catholic commentator, the strongly pro-life Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York today beat out controversial sitting Vice President Bishop Gerald Kicanas to become the next president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Archbishop Dolan’s election is only the second time in history that the U.S. Bishops broke from their tradition of elevating the sitting vice president of the conference. Bishop Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona had been expected to take the role, but was the subject of criticism in the lead-up to the election over his connection to a Chicago priest convicted of child molestation, as well as his heavily liberal reputation on issues such as abortion and homosexuality.

Archbishop Dolan won on the third round of ballots with 128 votes to Bishop Kicanas’ 111. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver came in at third in each round.

“No one runs for this office. As bishops, we’re concerned with what’s going on in our own dioceses,” said Archbishop Dolan, according to the National Catholic Register. “No one seeks this office. My brother bishops elected me.”

Archbishop Dolan has a solid reputation as an outspoken pro-life leader. He has insisted that Catholics should never honor anyone taking a pro-abortion position, and he was a strong opponent of Notre Dame's decision to honour President Obama at their 2009 commencement. This fall, he joined the bishops of New York in calling on Catholics to make the right to life their primary concern at the ballot box.

Numerous Catholic commentators had warned that Bishop Kicanas, on the other hand, is made in the mold of his mentor Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who is known for his support of liberal movements in the Church. This week, Bishop Kicanas won an endorsement from the Rainbow Sash Movement, a militant ‘Catholic’ homosexualist group.

For vice president of the conference, the bishops chose Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky. He received 147 votes to Archbishop Chaput’s 91.

Archbishop Kurtz has led the bishops’ effort to defend true marriage, and has called that battle “one of the premier social justice issues of our time.”

He warned at the bishops’ meeting yesterday that if the courts are allowed to overturn Proposition 8 – which established true marriage in California – the impact will be “akin to Roe v. Wade.” “In a sense, today is like 1970 for marriage,” he told the bishops, according to Catholic News Agency. “If, in 1970, you knew that Roe v. Wade were coming in two or three years, what would you have done differently?”

Archbishop Dolan on the Bigotry of the New York Times

New York's valiant new Archbishop, Timothy Dolan, has had enough of the virulent anti-Catholicism served up daily by the New York Times. Many Catholics have come to accept that anti-Catholicism is the one socially acceptable bigotry in the United States, particularly among those who fancy themselves "intellectuals" and part of the "elite." But enough is enough. In his personal blog, Archbishop Dolan has called ignorance and hatred by their proper names. The Archbishop's column follows:

More from the Times

I know, I should drop it. “You just have to get used to it,” so many of you have counselled me. “It’s been that way forever, and it’s so ingrained they don’t even know they’re doing it. So, let it go.”

I’m talking about the common, casual way The New York Times offends Catholic sensitivity, something they would never think of doing — rightly so — to the Jewish, Black, Islamic, or gay communities.

Two simple yet telling examples from one edition, last Friday, October 15.

First there’s the insulting photograph of the nun on page C20, this for yet another tiresome production making fun of Catholic consecrated women. This “gleeful” tale is described as “fresh and funny” in the caption beneath the quarter-page photo (not an advertisement). Granted, prurient curiosity about the lives of Catholic sisters has been part of the nativist, “know-nothing” agenda since mobs burned the Ursuline convent in Boston in the 1840’s, and since the huckster Rebecca Reed’s Awful Disclosures made the rounds in the 19^th century. But still now cheap laughs at the expense of a bigoted view of the most noble women around?

Maybe I’m especially sensitive since I just came from the excellent exhibit on the contributions of Catholic nuns now out on Ellis Island. These are the women who tended to the homeless immigrants and refugees, who died nursing the abandoned in the cholera epidemic, who ran hospitals and universities decades before women did so in the non-Catholic sphere, who marched in Selma and today teach our poorest in our inner-city schools. These are the nuns mocked and held-up for snickering in our city’s newspaper.

Now turn to C29. This glowingly reviewed not-to-be missed “art” exhibit comes to us from Harvard, and is a display of posters from ACT UP. Remember them? They invaded of St. Patrick’s Cathedral to disrupt prayer, trampled on the Holy Eucharist, insulted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger when he was here for a conference, and yelled four letter words while exposing themselves to families and children leaving Mass at the Cathedral. The man they most detested was Cardinal John O’Connor, who, by the way, spent many evenings caring quietly for AIDS patients, and, when everyone else ran from them, opened units for them at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center and St. Clare’s Hospital. Too bad for him. One of the posters in this “must see” exhibit is of Cardinal O’Connor, in the form of a condom, referred to as a “scumbag,” the “art” there in full view in the photograph above the gushing review in our city’s daily.

Thanks for your patience with me. I guess I’m still new enough here in New York City that the insults of The New York Times against the Church still bother me. I know I should get over it. As we say in Missouri, it’s like “spitting into a tornado.”

A Great New Archbishop for New York

Archbishop Timothy Dolan has arrived in New York in preparation for his installation as the tenth Archbishop of New York. That installation may be seen via live streaming here beginning at 1:30 pm, EDT, on Wednesday, April 15.

The Archbishop of New York traditionally wields enormous influence within the Church in the United States and beyond. In every case, he eventually becomes a Cardinal, presiding over 2.5 million Catholics in nearly 400 parishes. He also oversees 10 colleges and universities, 9 hospitals, and a vast network of schools and social welfare agencies. But I predict that the influence of Archbishop Timothy Dolan will exceed that of most of his predecessors because he combines strong, orthodox conviction with a huge heart and very winning personality. He gave New Yorkers a foretaste in this impromptu press conference yesterday on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The Holy Father has made a superb choice and given New York a great gift.

Newly Appointed Archbishop of New York on Notre Dame Scandal: "They Made a Big Mistake"

From LifeSiteNews

The bishop recently appointed to head up the archdiocese of New York - one of the most influential positions in the U.S. Catholic Church - said in an interview yesterday that Notre Dame "made a big mistake" by inviting President Obama to receive an honorary degree and give the commencement address at the school on May 17.

"They made a big mistake ... in an issue that is very close to the heart of Catholic world view, namely, the protection of innocent life in the womb, [Obama] has unfortunately taken a position very much at odds with the Church," Archbishop Timothy Dolan told host Charlie Sykes on the "Sunday Insight" program of Milwaukee station TMJ4.

Dolan is the fifth bishop to condemn the university's decision since the March 20 announcement that Obama had accepted the invitation, and announcement sparked a wave of protest from the American Catholic community.

Last Friday, the Texas Catholic Herald published Houston Cardinal Nicholas DiNardo's "Shepherd's Message" in which the Cardinal said the "very disappointing" invite "requires charitable but vigorous critique."

"Though I can understand the desire by a university to have the prestige of a commencement address by the President of the United States, the fundamental moral issue of the inestimable worth of the human person from conception to natural death is a principle that soaks all our lives as Catholics, and all our efforts at formation, especially education at Catholic places of higher learning," wrote DiNardo.

Notre Dame's own Bishop John D'Arcy responded soon after the scandal broke with a statement condemning the invitation and announcing his decision to boycott the graduation ceremony.

An online petition sponsored by the Cardinal Newman Society has gathered over 212,000 signatures as of Monday morning. (http://www.notredamescandal.com)

For a list of contact information regarding the Notre Dame scandal, go to: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032706.html

Pope Names Dolan Archbishop of New York

Time will tell, but it appears that Pope Benedict has made an excellent choice in naming Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan as the new Archbishop of New York. Like Cardinal Egan, he is politically and theologically orthodox, but unlike Egan, he is first and foremost a spiritual shepherd of souls.

The New York Archdiocese, with 2.5 million Catholics, is second to Los Angeles in size. Its territory includes Manhattan, Staten Island, Bronx, and seven counties stretching up the Hudson River to within twenty miles of Albany. However, the Archbishop of New York, presiding over a world cultural, financial and media center, has traditionally wielded national and international influence. Former Archbishops of New York, such as Cardinals Spellman, Cooke and O'Connor, have been the public face of American Catholicism, tangling with the nation's leaders when necessary, and providing spiritual counsel. They have typically been large personalities, seen by New Yorkers of all faiths as fathers of the city.

Unfortunately the incumbent, Cardinal Egan, has seen his role as very much a business manager. Aloof from his priests and people, he has been zealous in closing schools and parishes, streamlining Archdiocesan operations, and restoring financial stability to a system that was tottering after the O'Connor years.

Many New Yorkers will never forget that weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Cardinal Egan left town for a month to preside over a meeting of bishops in Rome. Given that many of the dead police and fire personnel were Catholic, it would be hard to imagine Cardinal O'Connor, or most of New York's previous Archbishops ignoring their pastoral obligations in the aftermath of such a crisis.

The Church in America is confronted as never before with radical national leadership, promoting perverted science, perverted lifestyles, abortion and assaults on faith and the freedom and dignity of the individual. American Catholics need a man who is both grounded in truth and a shepherd of souls, who will boldly teach and sanctify and, when necessary, speak truth to power. If Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a man like himself, America will have a great, new Catholic leader at a time when leadership is sorely needed.