Last updated 6/18/09



Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Our man Martino

Coverage at AmP, LifeSiteNews.com, and CNA

Bishop Martino of Scranton, P.A. has released a statement through a letter penned by Auxiliary Bishop Dougherty to three Irish-American organizations, asserting that if any pro-abortion politicians are honored at the upcoming St. Patrick's Day celebration, that he will close St. Peter's Cathedral and any other Dioscesan churches if necessary.

While there is some debate over the necessity and relevance of his statement (there were no prior reports that any of the groups were considering honoring such politicians), I think this was a brave and commendable move. Even if none of the groups were going to to invite pro-abortion politicians, this publicity is good. Bishop Martino realizes that the battle to end abortion is not only a passive, reactive endeavor, but one that must be actively fought. By making this statement, he is keeping the issue at the forefront and reminding Catholics that pro-abortion politicians should not be honored or supported, but brought to task.

I pray that God may grant Bishop Martino and all of our bishops continued and increased courage and wisdom in this fight to defend life. 

And yes, this is the same Bishop Martino who has said he doesn't want Joe Biden coming to Scranton to talk about his "Catholic" values. Like Bishop Burke and Archbishop Chaput, he has asserted that pro-abortion politicians should not present themselves for Holy Communion.

It would get to complicated if I gave each bishop his own score, so I'm going to aggregate them. Bishops +1.

4 comments:

Katherine said...

While there is some debate over the necessity and relevance of his statement (there were no prior reports that any of the groups were considering honoring such politicians), I think this was a brave and commendable move

Even though there are no reports of it, I am going to issue a public statement that I will not contribute to the Diocese of Scranton if Bishop Martino were found to have a mistress on the diocese's payroll.

Blue Shoe said...

Come now...

If bishops or clergy taking up mistresses were a current pressing issue, I might say that your statement would serve a purpose - calling attention to the problem.

Martino is keeping attention on an important topic.

Katherine said...

...current and pressing problem...

Blue Shoe,

You have a point. The first draft of my post had "altar boy". I guess I should have left it that way.

Blue Shoe said...

You know Katherine, if you have something constructive to say, I appreciate your comments. Inflammatory comments are unwelcome.