Vatican Stance On Gay Unions Angers Critics

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue

The Catholic Church's chief doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a statement on March 15 making it clear that the Church does not approve of gay unions or gay marriage. This was done with the approval of Pope Francis.

This has not set well with those Catholics who have been at war with the Church's teachings on sexuality. The German bishops, in particular, are not happy with the document. They have steadily been moving toward a Protestant church for some time, and this may force them to decide whether they really belong in the Catholic Church.

On March 16, a group of dissident priests in Austria, the Parish Priest Initiative, pledged to bless gay unions—in open defiance of the Vatican—beckoning a showdown with Rome. In the U.S., so-called progressive Catholics are also angry with the Vatican's position, but then again they have been for decades.

It is important to remember that there is nothing fundamentally new about this statement: it reaffirms the Catholic Church's teaching on marriage. Nonetheless, it is being received in some quarters as very controversial, owing in large part to the welcoming approach that Pope Francis has exhibited to homosexuals. In fairness to the pope, it is not his fault that some interpret his friendly stance as signifying an interest in changing Church doctrine. That's their problem.

To put it differently, it is one thing to say all persons possess equal dignity in the eyes of God; it is quite another to say that whatever they do is acceptable to God. Human status and human behavior are not identical.

Also, this document applies equally to heterosexuals. According to Catholic sexual ethics, cohabiting men and women are involved in an illicit relationship, and this statement is very clear about their status. Yet the media have missed this point, so absorbed are they with gay rights. 

Many news stories on this Vatican statement are citing surveys that say a majority of Catholics approve of gay marriage. That may be true, especially of non-practicing Catholics, but it is nonetheless deceiving.

There is a difference between a preference and a demand. How many of those Catholics who are okay with gay marriage are incensed that the Church has not changed its teaching? Practically none.

What if the subject were corporal punishment in the schools? If a majority of Catholics favored it, should the bishops ratify their choice?

This begs the question: Should the Catholic Church align its teachings to mirror survey results, or should it align its teachings to mirror Scripture? In other words, should the Church make it a priority to follow what the public desires, or should it follow God's law?

The Vatican statement reaffirming the Church's opposition to gay unions and gay marriage concludes by noting, "the Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex."

To put it differently, the Church cannot change Scripture, and indeed has no interest in trying to do so. Its allegiance is to the pursuit of truth, not public opinion.

 

Back To The Classics… New York Governors And Scandal

By DEACON MIKE MANNO

(The Wanderer) – If you are a frequent, or even semi-frequent, reader of this column you know that I am a notorious history and political buff. Bring me a good story from history or politics and I’m an eager listener. That may be why I — like so many others — am intrigued by the stories surrounding that Emmy Award-winning governor of New York and bestselling author of American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, which is currently an Editors’ Pick as “best nonfiction” on Amazon, Andrew Cuomo.

It appears that all his greatness may be evaporating in the wake of a couple of, shall we say, missteps. Apparently, his fictional account of how he single-handedly battled the dreaded COVID wasn’t exactly his strength. But naturally big media and big tech weren’t really that concerned about the 23,000 plus who died as a result of his experimental “leadership.” That didn’t matter, but he did put on a good show, hence the Emmy.

But what seemed to get Mr. Cuomo into real trouble was his — how shall we say? — women’s issues, where he is accused of trying to kiss and not tell. But he’s not the first caught in this web, and who knows, he might be innocent of trespassing against women who said “no” which would allow his record as a hero of the COVID wars to stand as unblemished as Ted Kennedy’s heroics at the Battle of Chappaquiddick.

Anyway, this is not the first time a New York governor has acted in a way that besmirched his reputation. And, in fact, it is not even the most interesting. Not by a long shot.

You see, back in May of 1702, an English gent by the name of Edward Hyde arrived at Manhattan to assume his new duties as the 14th colonial governor of New York. Hyde, better known as Lord Cornbury, was appointed and served under his cousin Queen Anne. Apparently Cornbury had an exemplary record as a military commander of the Royal Dragoons and as a result was given a seat in Parliament.

In 1701 he was appointed to his New York post by King William III, who died before Cornbury took up his responsibilities. But William’s successor Anne ratified the appointment, thus Cornbury entered his office and served under a woman which has some relevance to this story, because, you see, Cornbury was a transvestite.
And, since he “represented” a woman, he found no difficulty in dressing like one, much to the dismay of the people he governed.

Now sometimes it’s hard to determine what actually happened in history since, as is often said, it is written by the winners. He did, however, create many enemies not only by his dress but by executive actions he took, such as confiscating a Presbyterian church for the Anglicans — the Church of England — to use. So, while reports of Cornbury’s actions may be tainted by his political enemies, the story, exaggerated or not, is simply too juicy to ignore.

The story might be best told by author and journalist Shelley Ross in her book of scandals, Fall from Grace: Sex, Scandal, and Corruption in Politics from 1702 to the Present.

Ross suggests that in addition to being a crossdresser, Cornbury was also a “thief, a bigot, a grafter, [and] a drunk.” She wrote:

“The combination of public and private wrongdoings was so outrageous that Lord Cornbury fanned the fires of revolution and later served as an inspiration for the articles of impeachment in the United States Constitution. Never again would anyone have to endure such a despicable or corrupt leader without a legal recourse for removal from office.”

Cornbury often supplemented his income by throwing grand balls, inviting the local aristocrats, and then charging them admission. His wife apparently went shopping in people’s homes and whatever she wanted she would send for the next day.

When His High Mightiness, as he preferred to be called, was honored at a banquet, he told his guests of the sensual beauty of his wife’s ears, then invited all in attendance to come forward and touch Lady Cornbury’s ears to see for themselves.

Opening the New York Assembly in 1702 he arrived, according to Ross, “in drag, clad in a hooped gown and elaborate headdress and carrying a fan, much in the style of the fashionable Queen Anne.” When questioned about his attire, he is said to have replied, “You are all very stupid people not to see the propriety of it all. In this place, and on this occasion, I represent a woman, and in all respects I ought to represent her as faithfully as I can.”

A watchman once told the story that one night he discovered what he thought was a drunken prostitute prowling on the grounds of Cornbury’s residence. When he stopped the woman, he shockingly found that it was His High Mightiness himself who giggled then pulled on the watchman’s ears.

But if it was only Cornbury’s strange behavior and fetishes, the people might have just accepted him as a colorful, but harmless character. But he was also corrupt, giving his friends large, illegal land grants for cash. One such grant was larger than Connecticut. Another he gave away to a group of friends, who returned the favor by naming the land Hyde Park, after His High Mightiness’ family. Two hundred years later the land was purchased by the family of the future president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, as a homestead, a place now very familiar to historians.

He persecuted Quakers and claimed to have “secret information” that the French were going to attack and asked the Assembly for funds to build protective forts. The Assembly passed Cornbury’s measure to tax the people for the fortifications. When the French attack did not materialize, His High Mightiness build a new house for himself with the funds.

When his wife died in 1707, he showed up at her funeral in drag. During his five years as governor only nine laws were passed and six were vetoed in England. Finally the queen acceded to calls to remove him. His replacement arrived in 1708 and Cornbury was arrested and placed under house arrest over

Lord Cornbury?

outstanding unpaid debts.

Shortly after his dismissal and imprisonment, his father died, and he inherited the title Earl of Clarendon, which allowed him to cancel his debts and to return to England. There he served briefly in a number of positions and was a member of the House of Lords until 1720. He died three years later inMarch of 1723.

Currently there is a painting in the New York Historical Society of a man dressed in formal drag. The artist is unknown, but it was painted between 1705 and 1750, which is thought by many to a posthumous portrait of Cornbury. There is a similar portrait in the Dallas Museum of Art.

In a couple of hundred years I wonder what Mr. Cuomo’s portrait will look like. On the other hand, I guess we’ll know since it’s bound to end up shortly in the Emmy Hall of Fame.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com, and listen to him every Thursday morning at 10 CT on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)

 

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Are Americans Getting Less Religious?

By DEACON MIKE MANNO

(The Wanderer) – The Pew Research Center is reporting that its latest surveys indicate that Americans attend religious services less often than previous estimates suggested. But it did issue a warning about the various methods used and the possible effect that the coronavirus may have had on the numbers.

In the report, Pew took the effort to explain that the method of conducting its polls has changed, making it a little more difficult to track changes of opinion. Prior polls had been conducted by in-person phone interviews; however, polls are now taken online with no personal involvement by a pollster; the respondent basically answers in isolation.

According to the report: “Survey respondents tend to indicate higher levels of religiosity when answering questions from a live interviewer than when filling out a survey by themselves (either on paper or online). This is because, when representing themselves to another person, some people may (consciously or subconsciously) project a more highly religious image of themselves than when they are filling out a survey alone and unobserved. This ‘mode effect’ reflects, in part, that being religious has long been considered a socially desirable attribute in America.”

Thus, to make comparisons to past in-person surveys with self-administered polls, Pew is using a weighting methodology to make the comparisons more relevant.

However, despite the differences in the survey mechanics, Pew finds that both methods of data gathering indicate that religious attendance is “far less common” than reflected in past surveys. The conclusion by Pew is that while the results from the differing survey methods cannot be directly compared, the results of the self-administered polls produce a more accurate result. But even comparing results obtained by differing methods Pew found “a modestly but significant higher percentage of respondents who identify as religious ‘nones’ and fewer Christians.”

Some of the adjusted results, including those adjusted for the effects of the COVID virus, are:

1. Participants report “far lower” levels of religious attendance with only 34 percent report attending religious services at least monthly and only 27 percent report attending at least once a week. Twenty-four percent report attending services “seldom,” and a whopping 26 percent say they never attend religious services. To understand the numbers a bit better, the question asked was to describe their typical attendance pattern in normal times, aside from the pandemic. It was, “Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services?”
2. Only 45 percent of respondents reported praying daily. Another 23 percent report praying either weekly or monthly, while 16 percent report praying seldom and 15 percent say they never pray. The report says that of the differing methods used by surveyors, all found that nearly two-thirds or more of U.S. adults say that religion is at least “somewhat” important in their lives.
3. The surveys show that the “nones” — those describing themselves as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular” are growing as a share of the adult population, and “Christians have been declining for quite some time.” The most current polling shows 65 percent of adults identify as Christian — 42 percent Protestant, 21 percent Catholic, 2 percent Mormon, and one percent Orthodox Christians. “Nones” make up 28 percent of the population which includes 4 percent atheists.
   In comparison, in 2009, 77 percent described themselves as Christian — that’s 12 percent higher than today. The nones, however, have increased from 17 percent to the current 28 percent, an 11 percent increase.

Other faiths that appeared in the survey amounted to six percent of the respondents. Jewish, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus each accounted for one percent or less.

In breaking down the numbers a bit further, Protestant respondents are broken down as: White evangelicals were 17 percent; non-evangelicals 12 percent, and Black Protestants 8 percent. Catholics were broken down as: White 12 percent, Hispanic 7 percent, all others 2 percent.

Much of the report was about the how the different methods of polling affected the results — inside baseball, so to speak. But it did make a couple of interesting findings about the polling methods. In the future it indicated that it will probably use more self-administered surveys and fewer telephone polls, finding that:

“Estimates of the frequency with which Americans attend religious services derived from self-administered surveys are clearly not comparable with those produced by phone surveys.” And even after adjustments to the sampling procedures the self-administered method “produces far lower estimates of the share of regular religious attenders” than other methods.

“This means future surveys conducted using self-administered modes cannot be compared with past surveys conducted over the phone to assess change over time in the share of Americans who regularly attend religious services.”

So now, what does all this mean besides Pew is reconstructing its polling methods to be more accurate and to better track changes in the religious attitudes of the American public over time?

First, of course, is that anything that produces more accurate results of the religiosity of the public is welcome, even if those results produce numbers that we don’t like. Unfortunately, this survey appeared to concentrate more on methods than producing a larger statistical profile of those who do and do not attend church weekly.

For example, I would have like to see more about church attendance among Catholics. It has been estimated by Gallup that our church attendance is on a steep decline. A 1955 Gallup survey reported weekly Mass attendance at 75 percent. Now it’s closer to 40 percent, if that high. Gallup also reported that Protestant youth are more likely — 36 percent to 25 — than Catholic youth to say that they’ve attended church during the week. And if you factor in the percentage of Catholics who regularly receive Reconciliation, the numbers will shock you.

The Center of Applied Research for the Apostolate, affiliated with Georgetown University, reports that only two percent of Catholics go regularly to Confession, and three-quarters either never go or go only once a year.

So why are these numbers going down? Why is Confession so unpopular when public confession, by way of daytime talk shows, is becoming more popular? I think we might want to take a look at that and try to answer the question to get more people back to the sacrament.

Another thing the Pew report mentions are the categories of White and Hispanic Catholics, listing all others at two percent. Sunday mornings were once described as the most segregated hours of the week — Whites went to their churches and Blacks to theirs. Now I realize there are societal and cultural differences involved here, but is there no outreach to our Black brothers?

And, finally, what are we doing about fallen-away Catholics? The survey puts the number of Catholics at 21 percent of the population. But if we follow the numbers from other surveys, there is not 21 percent of the U.S. population in Mass every Sunday. Part of the problem is that many Catholics wear their religion like an ethnic identity; once you are a Catholic you are one even if you fall away and never attend Mass again.

So where are we about reaching out to them? Many, I’m sure, might try to re-establish ties with the Church if given the chance, but might be too embarrassed to do so. How do we reach them? And what effect does a Catholic president who rejects many of the tenets of the faith have on the public?

The numbers from Pew are interesting, as well as its analysis of which of the methods of conducting surveys is the best for this purpose. But the more difficult questions can’t be answered by a poll; problems, however, can be spotted. Now the question is: What are we going to do about it?

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com, and listen to him every Thursday at 10 a.m. Central, on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)

 

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Podcast of today's Faith On Trial program.

 EPISODE NOTES

Guest #1: Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute 

Topic: California SB 380 which will require physicians who do not wish to participate in assisted suicide to find someone who will for their patients who request it. Emergency injunction from SCOTUS against Santa Clara County's public health orders which banned indoor church services. https://www.pacificjustice.org/ 

Guest #2: Alexandra Snyder, CEO of Life Legal Defense Foundation 

Topic: Can you be required by your employer to take the Covid vaccine? https://lifelegaldefensefoundation.org/ 

https://faith-on-trial.simplecast.com/episodes/episode-221-brad-dacus-alenandra-snyder-3-4-21-J_pyy6vX

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The Politics Of Branding Biden A Catholic

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue

Everyone knew that Sen. Joe Lieberman was proudly Jewish, so there was no need to persuade the public of his religious status. Similarly, it is widely recognized that Sen. Mitt Romney is a practicing Mormon, therefore making moot attempts to prove he is. President Biden is different. Not a day goes by without some commentators, usually left-wing Catholics, trying to convince the public that he is a model Catholic.

This is disingenuous. If Biden were a model Catholic, there would be no need to assure us that he is. Even his fans know he isn't, otherwise they wouldn't waste so much energy on this issue. What galvanizes them is their war with the bishops.

Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez is president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). When Biden was elected, he congratulated him. However, when Biden was inaugurated, Gomez expressed concerns about the president's positions on various issues, explicitly wondering whether he "will advance moral evils."

Most bishops agreed with Gomez, but a few did not. Among the laity, those on the left were furious. Immediately, a campaign against the USCCB was launched by the National Catholic Reporter, a rogue Catholic publication.

On January 28, the Reporter asked the Vatican to investigate the USCCB for its alleged "staunch Republican support." On February 5, Faithful America, a George Soros creation, started a petition online in support of the Reporter's efforts. It will have no effect—the Vatican won't even acknowledge their game—but their intent matters greatly.

What's driving the campaign against the bishops?

Those on the Catholic left have an ideological interest in selling Biden to the public as a loyal son of the Church. Their goal is to undermine the authority of the bishops by promoting the false idea that the bishops do not have the last word on what constitutes a Catholic in good standing. They seek to persuade the public, especially Catholics, that it is perfectly acceptable to reject the Church's teachings on life, marriage, and religious liberty—the way Biden does—and still be a model Catholic.

One of their favorite tactics is to contend that Biden is more similar to Pope Francis than are the bishops. David Gibson, who directs an institute at Fordham University, claims that Biden is "more in line with the pope than the American bishops." That would surely come as news to priests who have denied Biden Communion.

Paul Elie, a Georgetown professor, says the pope and Biden have much in common. "Their informality, the fact that they were elected late in life, the fact that they seem to take issues as they come, listening, discerning and then acting." He fails to note that the pope and Biden have nothing in common when it comes to their fidelity to the Church's moral teachings. But that evidently matters less than their "informality."

Elie is more accurate when he gets to the heart of why it is necessary for Catholics like him to rescue Biden from his critics. "The hope is that the Biden Administration will invigorate American Catholicism, and vice versa." Translated this means that Catholic dissidents want the Biden brand of Catholicism to prove triumphant.

It angers Catholic malcontents that some criticize Biden's Catholic credentials. Julia Maloney, who works at the University of Michigan, gets incensed when she hears someone say that Biden is "Catholic in name only." Mark Silk, who is not Catholic, wants us Catholics to know that the president's pro-abortion record "doesn't necessarily make Biden a bad Catholic."

Sister Simone Campbell, the Democrats' favorite nun, is bolder than Silk. The star of "nuns on the bus" tries to bail out Biden by saying his views on abortion are "very developed." By that she means "he will not force his religious beliefs on the whole nation." Not exactly reassuring considering his desire to force his anti-Catholic beliefs on the Little Sisters of the Poor (as well as everyone else).

Joe Sweeney of the University of California at Davis says it is "incredibly offensive and absurd" to call into question Biden's Catholicity simply because he has a "moderate approach to issues like abortion and same-sex marriage." One wonders what positions Biden must take for Sweeney to label him an extremist. After all, Biden supports infanticide—babies killed in partial-birth abortions are 80% born—and he has officiated at gay weddings.

Jamie Manson, who heads an anti-Catholic organization, Catholics for Choice, says the majority of American Catholics agree with Biden on abortion. They do not. Practicing Catholics, as a recent survey disclosed, are pro-life by a 2-1 margin, and even non-practicing Catholics do not support late-term abortions.

The Catholic left has an uphill battle. Most people know that someone who identifies as Catholic yet rejects the Church's teachings on abortion, gay marriage and the First Amendment cannot realistically be regarded as a loyal Catholic. The fact that these dissidents are working overtime to convince us that Biden is a Catholic in good standing is proof that he isn't.

Can you be forced to take the COVID vaccine? This week on Faith On Trial – March 4

This week on our program: Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute on a proposed California bill that would require physicians who refuse to participate in assisted suicide to furnish a doctor who will; and Alexandra Snyder, CEO of the Life Legal Defense Foundation will answer the question, “Can I be forced to take the COVID vaccine?”

 

All on Faith On Trial on Iowa Catholic Radio, 1150 AM; 88.5 or 94.5 FM; streaming on IowaCatholicRadio.com, or down load our free and convenient app.

Faith On Trial at 10 a.m. Central Time, with Deacon Mike Manno and Gina Noll.

Obsessing Over Biden's Religion

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue

The obsession with President Biden's religion is everywhere apparent, especially among Democrats, liberal pundits, reporters and activists. They are working overtime to convince the public that he is a good Catholic.

On Biden's first day in office, White House press secretary Jen Psaki addressed his religion at a press conference. "I will just take the opportunity to remind all of you that he is a devout Catholic, and somebody who attends church regularly." "Devout Catholic." A lexis-nexis search reveals that this descriptive term has been used by the press hundreds of times in the last three months.

The day after Biden was inaugurated, the New York Times gushed that he is "perhaps the most religiously observant commander in chief in half a century." Usually, this newspaper is apprehensive, if not alarmed, about "religiously observant" public officials (especially Catholic ones), yet for some reason they made an exception for Biden.

Sister Carol Keehan is the former head of the Catholic Health Association. She says Biden is a "man who clearly loves his faith." To get an idea of what she considers to be a model Catholic, she recently showered Xavier Becerra with praise when he was being grilled by a Senate committee over his nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. It does not bother her one iota that Becerra supports partial-birth abortions and is known for his never-ending crusades against the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Another Biden admirer is John Carr, co-director of a Catholic project at Georgetown University; he is a reliable liberal Catholic voice. He is impressed by the difference between Biden and his predecessor. "We're going from one of the least overtly religious presidents in modern times to one of the most overtly religious presidents in recent times."

If there is one thing that makes Biden "overtly religious," it is his habit of carrying a rosary. That puts a smile on the face of liberal Catholics like Father Tom Reese, a prominent Jesuit writer. "This is a guy who carries a rosary around in his pocket and talks about his faith." The media also love this story. This explains why there is so much chatter about Biden's rosary beads.

Let's concede that Biden is a rosary-carrying "devout Catholic." What does that have to do with his public policy decisions that are of interest to the Catholic Church?

Biden's lust for abortion rights, and his steadfast opposition to religious liberty legislation—as exemplified in his defense of the Equality Act—are uncontestable. In other words, if a "devout" Catholic doesn't connect the dots between his faith and his public policy decisions, how excited should Catholics be about him? And does this not explain why secularists adore this kind of Catholic?

At the individual level, Biden is the embodiment of what the privatization of religion means. In this view, religion is solely an interior exercise, having no public role to play. It must be said that there is nothing Catholic about such a position. Indeed, every pope in recent times, including Pope Francis, has spoken against this insular view. Catholicism, they contend, must have a robust presence in the public square.

Biden's privatized conception of religion is not a stunt—it is who he is. The first time he publicly mentioned his rosary beads was in 1995, twenty-two years after he became U.S. Senator from Delaware. What he said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on religious freedom was classic Biden.

"I am one of those guys who's never talked about my religion. I carry a thing called a rosary bead with me all the time—I say it all the time, I say it on the train—to me, it's a comforting thing. I don't suggest it to anybody else."

He did not explain why, if the rosary beads meant so much to him, he did not want to "suggest it to anybody else." Perhaps in his mind such a suggestion could be read as an imposition. But that wouldn't explain his support for forcing nuns to pay for abortion-inducing drugs in their healthcare plans. That was not a suggestion—it was a mandate. It was also one that violated Catholic moral teachings.

It seems a little strange for a "devout Catholic" to keep private his religion. After all, Biden is not a monk—he has been a public office holder for 47 years. This accounts, however, for the fact that when he was running for president, the majority of the public had no idea he was Catholic. In September 2020, Newsweek released a poll showing that 56% were unaware that Biden was Catholic. 

Biden's long-time secretive Catholic status is a secret no more. Indeed his fans are now touting his "devout Catholic" status whenever they can. Given the president's strong opposition to the life issues and religious liberty, they have little choice. It is precisely this kind of Catholic that the New York Times loves.