Archbishop Dolan defends Donohue and the Never Ending Culture War
When I first read Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s comments in defense of Bill Donohue, I thought the archbishop was making a joke. He wasn’t.
In his latest blog post, Archbishop Dolan goes to great lengths to explain how Bill Donohue’s work is of great value to the church. In case you haven’t been watching Fox News, Bill Donohue is that loud and obnoxious commentator who’s perpetually engaged in some aspect of a manufactured "culture war." Most recently, he raised high-holy-hell over an art exhibit at the Smithsonian. The artwork at the center of Donohue’s attack was a video installation created by David Wojnarowicz, a gay artist who died of AIDS in 1992. A small portion of the video in question portrays a crucifix with ants on it – apparently as a way to describe the artist’s pain and suffering. With the help of the GOP echo chamber, Donohue successfully bullied the museum into removing the artwork.
I had hoped that this story was over and done with; now Dolan has resurrected it.
In order to understand why Dolan’s comments are so unfortunate, one should consider why Donohue is simply bad for Catholicism. Donohue personifies that white older male constantly at odds with the changing world around him. He’s like the Catholic version of Archie Bunker, only with fax machine and a $350,000 salary. But the worst part of Donohue’s shtick is that his message has no semblance to the teachings of Jesus Christ, who spent his time forgiving sinners and healing lepers, not complaining about art.
Enter Timothy Dolan, the newly elected president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Dolan was elected to lead the bishops in an age of the New Evangelization, an effort to rekindle Catholicism in an increasingly secular world. By defending Donohue’s latest charade, Dolan is showing us what his preferred method of evangelization looks like. And that doesn’t portend well for the next four years of his leadership of the conference.
Our nation is in the worst economic recession of my lifetime. More than nine percent of our workforce is unemployed. Millions of households are dealing with foreclosure or underwater mortgages. And in this Advent season, we have families that can’t afford a full tank of gas, let alone gifts for the Christmas tree.
This is why Dolan’s attitude is so disappointing. By defending a manufactured controversy during a time of great suffering, he trivializes the meaning of Jesus’ birth: to bring good news to the poor. And the worst consequence of this behavior is that it is driving young Catholics away from the church. So as Dolan and the bishops get to work on their evangelization strategy, I suggest they spend less time following in the footsteps of Bill Donohue and focus more on Jesus.
Join Catholics United members in asking Archbishop Dolan to retract his comments at http://www.catholics-united.org/email-archbishop-dolan.
Comments
Personal approach to Archbishop Dolan?
In the spirit of Matthew 18:15-17, it would be best for someone who knows Archbishop Dolan to approach him personally and make sure he knows the facts about the direction in which the Catholic League has gone under Bill Donohue. Just an idea - if you know anyone that knows Archbishop Dolan - ask them to approach him in private to discuss this.
Catholic League founder must be spinning in his grave
I knew the founder of the CATHOLIC LEAGUE FOR RELIGIOUS AND CIVIL RIGHTS, Virgil Blum, S.J. He chose me to develop the Minnesota Chapter of the League, which was active until his death. Bill Donahue does a disservice to the memory of Fr. Blum, who was a passionate and uncompromising defender of the First Amendment, applicable to all people and all religions. Donahue's misappropriation of the League's original message and mission is an abomination.
The problem
The problem, as I see it, is not really Donahue's style, it's the content of what he says. He has a blatant partisan bias, for one thing, but claims to speak for all Catholics. The Reasons and Opinions blog is one of the best sources documenting Donahue's objectionable statements.
Tim, thanks for the link
Catholics United will have more to share about this subject in the days ahead. There are a number of reasons why Donohue is a diservice to the faith and his transparent partisian agenda is clearly one of them.
I want to ask Donohue what he has to say to the families of the 12 million americans who would have benefited from the DREAM act. What does he have to say to the the children of these families who desire a more decent life in this country by attending college or serving in the military.
We don't know what Donohue thinks about subjects like this because he's too concerned with the fundraising apparatus of his manufactured culture war.
Traditional news sources on Donahue?
I'd like to update the Wikipedia site on Donahue to give a more neutral perspective on his work (since it is currently a huge list of his so-called "accomplishments" without much information on his obvious biases and the controversy surrounding his work within the Catholic community), but I am unable to find many traditional news sources to use as references. Presumably, this is because he is a marginal figure that only Fox viewers have heard of, but if prominent leaders like Archbishop Dolan intend to promote him, we need to take him more seriously.
Does anyone know of a good profile of him, or anything like that? William and other bloggers have led the way in exposing the damage he does, but maybe someone needs to try writing something for a print source to promote wider awareness of the nature of his work.
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