Another Pennsylvania Catholic bishop is weighing in against pro-Obama Catholics. This time it is the other side of the Keystone state from Scranton’s Bishop Martino. In the Diocese of Greensburg, Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt has issued a statement decrying the invitation extended by Seton Hill University to Douglas Kmiec, to speak on campus about faith and politics. Kmiec is a prominent pro-life supporter of Barack Obama, and his reasoning for that support appears to be at the heart of the bishop’s complaint:
“As the teacher of authentic Catholic doctrine in the Diocese of Greensburg, I feel compelled to state in view of this situation that Mr. Kmiec distorts Catholic teaching by making it synonymous with his own personal views. There is no “other” Catholic position except the one which appears in authentic Church documents. His misrepresentations of Catholic doctrine do a grave disservice to the Catholic community and far beyond.
I seriously question the good judgment of the University administration in allowing him a platform on campus. [snip]
Is it any wonder then that not only the demonstrators at the event, but many others as well, consider his presentation an offensive trivialization of the institution’s declared Catholic identity!”
The bishops says he has tried “in vain” to reach the university’s president, so I don’t know the disposition of the case, or what influence/authority he has here. In any case, these episodes seem to represent a broadening of the definition of who is to be barred from Catholic property. Here is the diocesan website. The hyperlink to the statement is on the right-hand side under the “What’s New” banner.
posted October 23, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Kmiec is not in communion with the Catholic Church. He is a dissident. No authentic Catholic college or university would give him a platform. He is pimping pro-abortion Obama to Catholic voters in return for his 30 pieces of silver (political appointment). “Disservice”? Kmiec is disgraceful!!!
posted October 23, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Please consider posting this video and passing it along, it’s amazing. It’s great at showing the distinction between MaCain and Obama in regards to the abortion issue. Please pass this along to everyone you know. We have to get McCain elected… E
http://americaschoicenow.com/
“Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.”
Ronald Reagan
posted October 26, 2008 at 5:32 am
We really need to be clear about Martino. His speech included:
“No USCCB document (Faithful Citizenship)is relevant in this diocese. The USCCB doesn’t speak for me. The only relevant document . . . is my letter”
If you could have seen the expressions on his face as he spoke, you would have seen the expression of pure hate.
A bishop speaking hate. THAT is disgusting. A Bishop saying his way is the only way, everyone else is wrong ….. does that sound familiar? THAT is disgusting. The most disgusting aspect of this campaign are the Bishops who support the MCCAIN WAY OF HATE. That is disgusting.
posted October 26, 2008 at 7:09 pm
“Your Name”:
Please take a deep breath. An angry bishop does not make a hateful bishop. I fail to see the hate in his words, and I fail to see how you can logically conclude that this supports the “McCain way of hate” (whatever that means). Rather, I think he expressed angrily that the USCCB document does not usurp his teaching authority, and canonically, he is correct. Having said that, I think Bishop Martino took the wrong approach and he has certainly lost from the PR perspective. But the successors to the Apostles aren’t supposed to be PR managers (and how we’ve realized the fallacy of that from the sex abuse scandal). They’re supposed to speak the truth in all seasons. Read some of St. Paul- sometimes his anger is clear. Even our sinless Lord was angry at the money changers in His Father’s temple, and one can imagine there was anger in his eyes as well.
One last thing, please refrain from the all caps. I realize you’re trying to make a point, but it only detracts from it.
posted October 28, 2008 at 5:00 pm
This sad excuse of a bishop is guilty of the same problem as are so many of his fellow bishops. They are neither persuasive nor compelling (primarily because of their attitudes, arrogance and super-inflated egos), so they resort to clericalism.
“By clericalism I mean an elitist mindset, together with structures and patterns of behavior corresponding to it, which takes it for ¬granted that clerics—in the Catholic context, mainly ¬bishops and priests—are intrinsically superior to the other members of the Church and deserve automatic -deference. Passivity and dependence are the laity’s lot. By no means is clericalism confined to clerics themselves. The clericalist mindset is widely shared by Catholic lay people.”
Russell Shaw, “To Hunt, to Shoot, to Entertain: Clericalism and the Catholic Laity” (1993)
posted May 5, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Elitist?
The Catholic Church is a heirarchy, handed down from Jesus to Peter and to each leader in the church thereafter. When you accuse the good bishop of being an elitist, you are basically accusing him of self appointment. He did not put himself in charge of the church, he was put in charge of the church.
What part of ‘authority’ don’t you understand?